After reviewing Air Afrique's alarming financial difficulties, Air France executives are offering to devise and implement an all-new rescue plan. With debt estimated at $270 million and still growing, the Ivory Coast-based multinational carrier urgently needs a long-overdue restructuring and strategic reorientation to avert bankruptcy (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 42).
Lockheed Martin bested Raytheon and Northrop Grumman by winning the U.S. Air Force competition for an Advanced Targeting Pod that is expected to replace the Lantirn system. The $843-million contract calls for delivery of up to 522 pods for USAF F-16s and F-15Es. Lockheed Martin's Sniper Extended Range pod will first go on F-16CJs Harm-shooters and Air National Guard F-16 Block 30, with F-16 Block 40s and F-15Es to follow. First deliveries are slated for January 2003. Production is estimated to last seven years.
Northrop Grumman is continuing its full-court press to persuade the Pentagon to buy more B-2s. Company officials are sanguine. They say the Defense Dept. is soon going to sign up to purchase at least eight B-2Cs, the name given the updated bomber that Northrop Grumman says it could produce for less than $1 billion a copy. Not so fast, say Air Force officials, there is no money for a bomber buy. Besides, they add, any funds would be better spent on upgrading the existing fleet. The wild card in this standoff is Defense Secretary Donald H.
Cargo operators are coping with an economic downturn and a huge decline of shipments while the entire industry sector is in the throes of massive change. Analysts foresee a shakeout of the air cargo industry if trends continue even as Boeing and other forecasters predict in the long-term a bright horizon for the marketplace. The problems besetting heavy-lift operator Emery Worldwide, the bankruptcy of Kitty Hawk Cargo and the acquisition of Polar Air Cargo by Atlas Air Inc. may be rumblings of a larger upheaval.
Passenger self-service appears the key to reducing ground delays, at least those of the airport check-in kind. The do-it-yourself method enables an e-ticketed passenger to step up to a special kiosk and swipe a major credit/frequent-flier card to gain system access. The passenger, pressing a touch screen, selects a seat and obtains a boarding pass. Tags for luggage print out behind the counter where customer service employees process the bags. American's One-Stop Self-Service will be available at more than 30 airports within a few months.
Air France and British Airways expect to resume Concorde operations in the next few weeks, ending year-long speculation regarding the supersonic operations' future.
Art Rosales (see photos) has been appointed vice president-commercial programs and John Konrad vice president-commercial marketing and sales for Boeing Satellite Services of Los Angeles. Rosales was vice president/general manager and Konrad director of the Americas for the Fixed Satellite Systems and Broadcast Satellite Systems programs.
For the first time since Washington Group International Inc. (WGI) earlier this year abandoned two power plant construction projects guaranteed by Raytheon Co., the aerospace/defense company has provided a definitive cost estimate to complete the work. The figure, $633 million--net of cash receipts--is well within the $450-700 million previously announced. As a result, Raytheon increased its second-quarter pretax charge to $308 million from $125 million.
If they can't beat it, they should endorse it, the six-airline China Sky Aviation Enterprises Group Alliance (CSAEG) has told the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
After deliberating for three weeks, a Florida jury recently decided that Cessna Aircraft Co. must pay $80 million in compensatory, and $400 million in punitive, damages to three people seriously injured in a 1989 Cessna 185 landing accident in Myrtle Grove. Though the NTSB found the probable cause to be an ``inadvertent'' stall by the pilot during a balked landing, other evidence pointed to a failure of the pilot's seat latching system--a problem that was supposedly fixed through an earlier airworthiness directive.
Otto Goetz, former chief engineer of the Space Shuttle Main Engine Project, is one of six new members of the NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. The others are: Sid Guttierrez, former astronaut and now manager of the Physical Sciences Dept. at the Sandia National Laboratories; Shirley McCarty, former principal director of software engineering at The Aerospace Corp.; USN Adm. (ret.) Paul Reason, former commander-in-chief of the U.S.
Outsourcing of maintenance work by air cargo carriers is accelerating as they seek ``one-stop shops'' to streamline operations while urging MRO providers to prepare for coping with a myriad of aging aircraft issues that lie ahead.
The MiG Russian Aircraft Corp. is proposing to lease MiG-AT trainers to the Russian air force in the hope of enticing the service to acquire a trainer years earlier than is currently foreseen. The unusual financing scheme marks the latest step in MiG's aggressive marketing efforts for the aircraft. It underscores the importance the company attributes to the success of the project.
David J. Gorney (see photo) has been promoted to corporate chief architect-engineer from principal director of the Meteorological Satellite Systems Directorate of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif.
Singapore has ordered 12 more AH-64D Apache Longbows. The buy adds to eight of the Boeing-made attack helicopters Singapore bought previously. The deal is estimated to be worth in excess of $600 million. It would include spare T700-GE-701C engines, Hellfire II launchers and missiles, and other gear.
U.S. Air Force officials hope they will be able to build more than the 295 F-22s the Pentagon has initially authorized by beating new cost estimates previously agreed to between the service and an independent estimating group.
While there is doubt now about the Sonic Cruiser being used to haul loads of large cargo pallets as a conventional freighter, Boeing is beginning to explore whether such a high-speed aircraft could play a role as a dedicated express package carrier. John Roundhill, vice president of marketing for the new aircraft at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said some observers believe that once a freighter aircraft hauling conventional cargo has taken off, it really doesn't matter if it can arrive 20% sooner than other freighters.
The World Trade Organization ruled Aug. 20 that a U.S. tax incentive to encourage exports violates WTO rules. The U.S. program, which gives tax breaks to exporters that establish offshore units to handle foreign sales, is a boon to companies like Boeing. Failure to make the ``wholesale changes'' in the program the WTO called for could result in multibillion-dollar sanctions being imposed on the U.S. by the European Union. The Brussels-based WTO was acting on a complaint brought by the EU and endorsed by Japan, Canada and several other nations. Washington has until Oct.
Aer Lingus Chairman Bernie Cahill died Aug. 17 in an apparent boating accident in County Cork, Ireland. He was 71. Authorities concluded that Cahill slipped and fell off a pier in the harbor of Schull, near his home, as he tried to secure his vessel. Cahill was appointed chairman in August 1991. Aer Lingus' acting CEO, John O'Donovan, said that during the 1990s, Cahill achieved ``record results through some of the most difficult times in the company's history.'' Cahill also was prominent in the Irish food industry.
If you figured that the big transatlantic antitrust-immunity applications at the Transportation Dept. were too big for the executive branch alone, you were right. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) and ranking Republican John McCain (Ariz.) have asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to assess the impact on competition of the American Airlines/British Airways, Delta/AirFrance/Alitalia/CSA Czech, and United/British Midland alliance plans.
A helicopter drops water on a fire flare-up along Icicle Ridge near Leavenworth, Wash., last week. More than 80 helicopters supported firefighting crews in the Western U.S. last week fighting 28 large blazes covering 295,000 acres. Some 40-50 fixed-wing tankers are also under contract to be used in fighting the blazes as well as eight Air National Guard and USAF Reserve C-130s fitted with a modular airborne fire fighting system (MAFFS). Two battalions of U.S. military troops are being trained to reinforce the 26,600 civilian firefighters already on the fire lines.
A malfunctioning pressure control valve in the second-stage liquid oxygen tank prompted Japan's National Space Development Agency to postpone the Aug. 25 launch of the first prototype H-IIA medium-lift launch vehicle to no earlier than Aug. 28. The situation was complicated by a typhoon that threatened NASDA's Tanegashima launch facility and prompted a delay in removal and inspection of the suspect valve.
Space Systems/Loral has authorization to proceed with MBSAT from Mobile Broadcasting Corp. of Japan, a standard FS 1300 configured for digital broadband services including audio, MPEG-4 video and data for mobile users. A 2003 launch is anticipated, with service to begin in 2004. A launcher has not been selected, but SS/L has standing reservations on Japan's H-IIA and that vehicle would be a candidate. Transmissions will be in S-band.
Tenzing Communications Inc. has completed installation of its first inflight e-mail and Internet access system in a Cathay Pacific Airways' Airbus A330-300. Tenzing's previous installations in Singapore Airlines and Air Canada's fleets have involved servers that use the aircraft's on-board telephone system as a local area network (LAN). Cathay uses General Dynamics (Primex Aerospace) server and distribution technology, which goes to all first class and business class seats as well as subsets in economy class.
The U.S. Army is initiating the competitive design of a new ballistic missile defense target needed to support the Pentagon's expanded missile-shield development plans. The Enhanced Target Delivery System is supposed to allow launches from land, ships and aircraft. The Army hopes to demonstrate ``a reliable, highly flexible'' system by mid-2003. Initially, the Army plans to award 3-4 study contracts worth about $300,000 each. Following the four-month design work, it will pick a competitor to develop and build the target.
