In the face of increasing competition from U.S. and Russian rivals and technical problems that grounded its flagship Ariane 5 heavy launcher for four months, Arianespace has decided to shake up its management team. The company will replace Chief Operating Officer Jacques Rossignol with Jean-Yves Le Gall, the boss of its Soyuz operating affiliate Starsem, and add Sales Director Philippe Berterottiere to its executive committee.
Techspace Aero of Belgium and Burgmann Dichtungswerke of Germany have concluded an agreement to develop products to reduce air leaks and oil consumption in turbofan bearing chambers.
A technological fix that would--by itself--overcome persistent bad-weather delays at San Francisco International Airport without building replacement runways that intrude into the city's famous bay is unlikely, according to a trio of experts.
Virginia's political establishment has backed the Aviation World's Fair scheduled for April 2003 in Newport News, Va., according to the state's senior senator, Republican John Warner. ``But Washington has yet to take that leap,'' he told a crowd at the groundbreaking for facilities for the fair. The AWF is angling to be the primary event to celebrate the 100th anniversary of manned, controlled, sustained powered flight. Warner said the Virginia congressional delegation will attempt to get the White House, Pentagon and Commerce Dept.
Manufacturers may start building GPS receivers capable of utilizing the Wide-Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and of integrated operation with inertial navigation systems, now that an RTCA committee has agreed on technical standards. RTCA committees draw participants from across the user and manufacturing communities. The FAA, which would have to bless the RTCA work, should begin its approval process in November. WAAS will increase the availability and integrity of GPS signals--key to allowing airplanes to make GPS instrument approaches.
Russia's NPO Energomash has started testing its new RD-191 rocket engine, the latest version of the venerable RD-170. Intended for use on Khrunichev's planned Angara launch vehicle, the liquid oxygen-kerosene staged combustion engine is a one-chamber version of the four-chamber RD-170 and RD-171 used on the Zenit launcher. Another variant, the two-chamber RD-180, powers Lockheed Martin's Atlas III and Atlas V vehicles. Set for first flight in 2003, the Angara is designed to put a 4,400-lb. payload into low-Earth orbit at 62.7-deg. inclination.
Japan Air Commuter Co. Ltd. (JAC) has selected the Bombardier Q400 airliner for its YS-11 turboprop fleet replacement program. Altogether, JAC placed firm orders for five of the aircraft, plus one option. They are valued at $105 million, and deliveries are scheduled to begin in the fourth quarter of 2002.
The Royal Australian Air Force has developed a high-standard training regimen that ensures its F/A-18 pilots consistently fare very well during simulated air combat engagements against their allied counterparts. As a result, the RAAF's reputation for fielding excellent fighter pilots has sparked a recurring question among humbled mock opponents for years: What are the Australians doing differently?
SG Cowen last week initiated coverage of Rockwell Collins, with a ``buy'' rating and a 6-12-month price target of 26. If analyst Cai von Rumohr's projection turns out to be accurate, that would represent about a 33% upside from where the stock was trading last Wednesday. It closed at 19.38, down 0.12.
Michael Howse has been appointed a director of engineering and technology of Rolls-Royce plc, effective Oct. 18. He will succeed Philip Ruffles, who plans to retire at the end of October. Howse has been deputy director. Leslie Wilder has been named senior manager of corporate communications for Rolls-Royce North America Inc., Chantilly, Va. She was communications manager for the Boeing 747, 767 and 777 programs in Seattle.
CAE has won contracts worth a total of $16.2 million from Iberia Airlines. CAE will supply an Airbus A340-300 Full Flight Simulator (FFS) and upgrade for an MD-87/88 FFS. The new simulator is scheduled to be installed in the airlines' Madrid training facility next summer.
Fuel starvation of the second engine on Air Transat Flight 236 about 13 min. after failure of the first engine is puzzling because it implies the ``good'' tank had been emptied of fuel as well as the ``bad'' tank--something that should not have happened if the left and right tanks had remained isolated. Airbus procedures for fuel imbalance and fuel leaks call for the crossfeed valve to remain closed if a leak is suspected.
Michael C. Mulitz has been named a corporate finance partner of the New York law firm Kaye Scholer. He headed the Equipment Financing and Leasing Group as a partner with Schulte Roth&Zabel.
EMS Technologies Inc.'s Satcom Div. has received a contract valued at $2.5 million from the Thailand Aviation Dept. for ground-based equipment to support search-and-rescue operations over the Cospas-Sarsat satellite system.
Teledesic LLC has selected two companies with experience building low-Earth-orbit communications satellites as finalists in the competition to supply the spacecraft for its proposed ``Internet in the Sky'' broadband LEO satellite network. Italy's Alenia Spazio and Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems will vie for the contract with Bellevue, Wash.-based Teledesic, which vows to continue its plans for a LEO system ``despite the current financial markets'' and to pick a winner this fall.
FedEx operations under its U.S. Postal Service contract, which reached full rate on Aug. 28, more than double the company's daytime flight tempo at Memphis International Airport and reflect scheduling collaboration with Northwest Airlines that would be illegal if FedEx were a passenger carrier.
Until a foolproof way is found to predict who will be a good fighter pilot, the Royal Australian Air Force's ability to train more F/A-18 crews may be limited. Currently, about 40% of pilot candidates are eliminated or drop out of F/A-18 training, consuming RAAF resources and contributing to a now-chronic shortage of qualified line pilots.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes has extended its MyBoeingFleet.com Web portal for maintenance, repair and overhaul activities in commercial aircraft to include warranty claims. The intent is to eliminate the need for airline MRO shops to use the phone, fax, mail or e-mail to submit claims. The process covers only Boeing-designed items, not products supplied by vendors.
To ``remain competitive'' with other major North American airlines, Air Canada has drastically slashed travel agent commission caps. For tickets purchased in the U.S. to all destinations in Canada, the maximum commission, effective Aug. 28, is $20 for round-trip travel and $10 for one-way travel. They had been $50 and $25, respectively. For tickets purchased in Canada to all destinations in the U.S. and Canada, the maximum commission, effective Sept. 24, is C$28 ($18) for round-trip travel and C$14 for one-way travel.
NASA's Ames Research Center has begun testing design modifications on a 26%-scale model of a Boeing 777 in its 40 X 80-ft. subsonic wind tunnel (shown). The tests, which run through September, are aimed at reducing noise generated by deployment of the aircraft's landing gear, wing flaps and slats during takeoffs and landings. Ames and NASA's Langley Research Center have been working for eight years on individual design modifications for these airframe components.
Runway incursions spawned by air traffic controllers' blunders are increasing. The trend hasn't escaped FAA Administrator Jane Garvey's notice. ``We absolutely must get the numbers down,'' she proclaimed. Speaking to FAA, military and airline industry officials gathered to discuss air traffic issues unique to the mid-Atlantic and New England regions, Garvey called on controllers to become ``very, very'' involved in finding solutions to the incursion problem, especially at the local level.
