Fairchild Dornier is believed to be considering filing this week for Chapter 11-like bankruptcy protection from creditors. The troubled German manufacturer has failed so far to find an additional investor to provide urgently needed funding. Its monthly cash drain reportedly totals $50 million, and company debt is about $800 million. Negotiations with potential partners, including Boeing, have not been fruitful, but a group of German aerospace companies is now considering submitting a joint proposal to participate in a rescue plan.
Britain's privatized defense labs, now known as Qinetiq, is looking to move into the U.S. market by setting up a subsidiary in Arlington, Va., under the banner of Qinetiq Inc. A number of partnering agreements are under discussion with U.S. defense companies. The U.K. integrated about 75% of what was then called the Defense Evaluation and Research Agency into the private sector to Qinetiq. The remainder, renamed the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory, is retained by the state.
NASA has chosen two companies for $5-million studies of how they might use commercially available remote-sensing data to continue the observations provided by the Landsat satellites during the past 30 years. Resource21 of Englewood, Colo., and DigitalGlobe of Longmont, Colo., will have nine months to refine their proposals, including business plans detailing how they would sell their data to other customers to help defray the cost to the government.
India's unmanned aerial vehicle, Lakshya, has been flown with a new engine developed by the country's Defense Research and Development Organization. The aircraft, which has a range of 310 mi., entered service with the air force in 2000 but was not seen by the public until January during a parade in Delhi. The UAV is to be operated as a target drone for fighter pilots, gun and missile crews.
Detection by the Odyssey spacecraft's Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) instrument suite of what could be substantial amounts of water ice just under the surface of Mars should help determine the planet's water cycle, according to project scientists. William Boynton, principal investigator for the GRS instruments at the University of Arizona, said the GRS team is trying to quantify the amount of ice detected in the planet's southern hemisphere.
A full-scale mockup of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was on display at the Indian DefExpo 2002. The 5,500-lb. missile is being developed by Brahmaputra and Moscow Rivers. Range for the Mach 2.8 missile is given as 157 naut. mi. BrahMos is a modified derivative of the Russian NPO Mashinostroenia Onix ramjet-powered antiship missile. The developers say the missile can be launched from a submarine, surface ship, heavy vehicle or aircraft.
Thomas J. Kelly, who led Grumman's development of the NASA Apollo lunar module (LM) in the race for the Moon, died Mar. 23 of pulmonary fibrosis at home in Cutchogue, N.Y. He was 72.
The accident rate of U.S. scheduled carriers in 2001 was down compared with 2000, although the year's 531 fatalities were the highest since 1977, when 579 people were killed in the on-ground collision of KLM and Pan Am Boeing 747s at Tenerife, Canary Islands. According to the National Transportation Safety Board's 2001 Aviation Accident Statistics released last week, scheduled U.S. air carriers operating under FAR Part 121 had 36 accidents in 2001, resulting in an accident rate of 0.317 per 100,000 departures.
The blowdown method of limiting rudder travel is more naturally in tune with structural loads than a variable stop, because blowdown in effect senses loads and restricts motions accordingly. Blowdown refers to rudder airloads being stronger than the actuator force, preventing full deflection at high speeds while allowing it at low speeds. Notably, blowdown is sensitive to sideslip angle, and the variable stop is not.
Alcatel Space has landed a French government contract to design ground segment architecture for observation satellite systems used by the country's military. The segment will cover France's Helios optical imaging system as well as the planned network of Franco-Italian radar and optical sensors, Cosmo-Skymed/Pleiades, and Germany's SARLupe radar surveillance satellites. Alcatel won a pair of Helios upgrade contracts earlier this year (AW&ST Feb. 18, p. 58).
New Jersey-based Heimann Systems has received a $7-million order from the FAA to deliver threat image projection-equipped X-ray systems for carry-on baggage screening.
With an eye on Earth's oceans, ice and clouds, NASA is ready to begin the second of three satellite missions it has planned to lead a 15-year effort to build a more comprehensive database for studying global environmental change.
The first production Tiger attack helicopter of the type intended for the German and French armies has been rolled out by Eurocopter. The unit presented on Mar. 22 is the UHT combat support version ordered by the German army. The multirole UHT can be equipped with Trigat or HOT antitank missiles, Stinger air-air missiles, rockets and a gun pod. The MTR 390-powered rotorcraft features mast- and nose-mounted Flir sensors and low IR/radar signature and noise levels.
Whatever happened to the explosive growth predicted a decade ago for satellite remote sensing? Even bearish analysts thought the commercial market for imagery and data would reach $2 billion per year by now. The bulls said, heck no, make it $20 billion! A new Rand study, commissioned by the Commerce Dept., says the worldwide appetite for satellite remote sensing products might crawl as high as $420 million in 2005. What went wrong? A decade ago, nearly every kind of risk--technical, market, international and policy--was underestimated, according to the think tank.
UAL Corp.'s recent decision to fold its Avolar subsidiary should not be interpreted as a sign that the fractional aircraft-ownership market is waning, according to business aviation officials and various industry observers. Rather, Avolar's failure before it even took delivery of its first aircraft is more of a commentary on the extraordinary challenge of raising large sums of capital to fund a startup--and, quite possibly, a gross miscalculation by UAL on just how much money would have been required to make the operation viable.
Competitors for the U.S. Navy's Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA), the prospective P-3 and EP-3 replacement, are worried. Although the Navy released its request for proposals for the 200-plus-aircraft program late in March, there is growing anxiety about whether the service will have enough money to buy everything it wants. The signals intelligence version may be the most vulnerable because of the small fleet size, several industry officials believe. But even the maritime patrol and targeting aircraft may not be affordable.
The U.S. Air Force has authorized Boeing Space and Communications to move forward with long-lead plans involved in the production of spacecraft for the Global Positioning System IIF modernization program (see rendering). The new model will be compatible with the U.S. Air Force's evolved expendable launch vehicle (EELV) program. Boeing received the GPS upgrade contract in April of 1996.
Lufthansa Cargo has concluded an agreement to use DHL's freighter fleet for intra-European overnight shipment of its td.flash express products. The shipments, currently made on Lufthansa Boeing 737 quick-change aircraft, will be transferred to new 757 freighters being integrated into the DHL fleet and then carried on a blocked space basis. The agreement will cover 13 destinations in this summer's schedule and is to be expanded substantially next year, officials said. Lufthansa and Deutsche Post own a majority of DHL.
Swiss, an outgrowth of regional carrier Crossair, obtained an air operator certificate on Mar. 27. This week, it begins to operate from Zurich and Basel to 126 destinations in 59 countries with a 128-aircraft fleet and about 10,000 employees. The emergence of Switzerland's new flag carrier, rising from Swissair's ashes, is widely ranked as ``a national undertaking.'' Swiss expects to regain solid market shares in Europe and on long-haul routes despite the ongoing economic downturn, the airline industry's excess capacity and heightened competition.
Phyllis J. Campbell has been appointed to the board of directors of the Alaska Air Group Inc. She is a former president of U.S. Bank of Washington and is chair of its community board.
With a final go-ahead for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system at last assured, European and U.S. experts are now turning in earnest to the matter of interoperability with the U.S.' Global Positioning System, and the potential impact on mutual security and economic interests.
It's a long shot, but the Transportation Security Administration faces the potential of getting squeezed between politics and public apathy late this year, participants at a Mar. 26 Massachusetts Institute of Technology-Boeing aviation conference speculate. The TSA tasted controversy Jan. 18, the deadline for screening all baggage, which it finessed by exempting bags passing through hubs. Based on this experience, there's plenty of opportunity for finger-pointing on Nov. 19, when all screeners are to be federal personnel, and Dec.
BAE Systems Aircraft Services Group has received a mandate from a bank consortium to sell four Airbus A319s and a A321 previously operated by Sabena Belgian World Airlines.
