The European Space Agency has awarded Alenia Aerospazio a 20-million euro ($23-million) contract to build two cupolas for the International Space Station. The cupolas, to be launched in 2003, will serve as an observation tower from which the station crew can observe and control movement of the robotic arm and other external station activities. ESA also named Umberto Guidoni as the first European astronaut to visit the station.
America West Holdings Corp. said on Feb. 22 it is no longer considering offers for the acquisition of America West Airlines. ``The board of directors unanimously concluded that'' the preferred course is to make the airline ``a growing, profitable and independent company,'' said Bill Franke, chairman and chief executive officer. United Airlines was weighing a bid for the carrier.
Heads are rolling in the wake of government investigations detailing last July's disastrous opening of Hong Kong's $9-billion international airport at Chek Lap Kok (CLK). During the recent Chinese New Year, the Hong Kong Airport Authority fired both its airport management director, Chern Heed, and its head of information technology, Kiron Chatterjee. The authority said it also had instructed airport consultant Richard Siegel, Hong Kong's former director of civil aviation, to oversee airport contingency plans.
Despite an 11% decline in inbound traffic to major Australian destinations as a result of the Asian recession, Qantas and Ansett have reported strong profits for the first half of the current fiscal year. Qantas posted a record 6-month operating profit of $226.6 million, up 30.5% from the previous year. Revenues were up 2.5% to $2.75 billion. Ansett posted a $72-million profit, 69% higher than last year, on sales of $1.06 billion. But Ansett's international operations lost money, although the losses were cut to $4.32 million from $17 million last year.
British Airways' low-cost subsidiary Go is planning to add four new routes to Spain and Portugal starting this month, bringing its network to 12 destinations, and plans to add another four by year-end. The no-frills carrier will start flying from its London Stansted base to Faro, Portugal, on Mar. 28; Malaga, Spain, on Mar. 29; Bilbao, Spain, on May 20, and Madrid on July 1.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems is developing the next in a planned series of major upgrades for modular mission computers (MMCs) in F-16s flown by U.S. and European air forces that will provide commonality of smart weapon systems and advanced air-to-air missiles.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) officials have begun meetings with creditors in Washington, London, Manila and Hong Kong as they prepare to submit a revised plan to Philippine regulators on Mar. 15 to save the airline from liquidation. An internal letter to the staff says the airline owes $2.1 billion. Part of the recovery strategy suggests moving domestic and international operations to Manila's new Terminal 2 to avoid terminal transfer problems that have been driving passengers to other carriers.
Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries has delivered its first licensed production General Electric F110-129 engine to the Japanese Defense Agency for the Mitsubishi/Lockheed Martin F-2 close air support fighter. The four F-2s currently in flight tests are using imported F110s. In another Japanese engine development, Mitsubishi has delivered the first two production TS-1 turboshaft engines to the JDA for the first production Kawasaki OH-1 light helicopter.
Turkey's long-waited short list, issued last week for its $3.5-billion attack helicopter procurement, surprisingly included all five competitors. Contrary to expectations that the field would be narrowed to two or three bidders, the Defense Industry Executive Committee's list included the Boeing AH-64 Apache, the Bell-Textron King Cobra, the Agusta A129, the Eurocopter Tiger and the Kamov Ka50/2 equipped with Israeli electronics. A winner-take-all decision is now expected by the end of the year for the 145 attack helicopter order.
FlightSafety will provide flight simulator training for American Eagle pilots for the next 15 years. The contract, which covers training in excess of that which can be provided by the feeder airline's internal capacity, covers the ATR 42/72, Saab 340, Canadair RJ and Embraer ERJ-145/135 commuter transports. Four simulators for these aircraft types will be installed at a new Dallas training center. Eagle pilots also will be able to use simulators at existing FlightSafety training centers nationwide and more may be added at Eagle operational hubs.
Philip J. Duke has been appointed vice president/chief financial officer of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. He was vice president-finance. Duke succeeds Marcus C. Bennett, who has retired but will remain a director.
Globalstar has awarded a contract for satellite pay phones to Schlumberger, a supplier of smart-card based pay phones and services. The company will supply Globalstar and its service providers with indoor and outdoor satellite pay phones and services for their installation and support. The phones--which could be located in remote villages currently without phone lines--would be installed inside stores or outdoor phone booths equipped with roof-mounted antennas and powered by batteries, solar cells or standard electrical sources.
The CNES French space agency is preparing a revised 4-year plan that is expected to stress the need for lower mission costs and a more deeply integrated European space strategy. ``We must boost innovation, competitiveness and implement an integrated European strategy. In addition, more partnerships with other research organizations, as well as the industry, are required,'' CNES Chairman Alain Bensoussan said. He also believes the European Union should become more involved in space programs, in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA).
A China Southwest Airlines Russian-built Tupolev Tu-154 carrying 50 passengers and 11 crew crashed into a farm field in clear weather and exploded on impact Feb. 24. There were no survivors. The three-engine aircraft, a 727 look-alike, was en route from the southwestern city of Chengdu and was an estimated 10 naut. mi. short of its destination airport at Wenzhou, some 250 mi. south of Shanghai. An official at the Wenzhou airport was quoted as saying that the tower received its last radio contact with the aircraft at 3,300 ft. and lost contact with it at 2,300 ft.
Under a new contract, IBM is to deliver an integrated suite of information management systems--based on its AOMIS (Airport Operations and Management Information System) central database--to BAA Plc, owner and operator of seven U.K. airports. In the first phase of the multiyear, ``multimillion-pound'' agreement, the specific amount of which is undisclosed, London Heathrow Airport is to receive gate allocation and staff/baggage information systems.
BWIA International is to launch its new short-haul regional carrier BWee Express this week with two new 50-seat de Havilland Dash 8-Q300s. The subsidiary will link destinations in the southern and eastern Caribbean to BWIA's international routes to New York and Miami. BWee Express will initially operate between St. Lucia and Barbados and between Grenada and Trinidad. St. Vincent will be added following delivery of a third Dash 8 at the end of the second quarter of 1999.
Vincent Corso has been appointed vice president-airline sales of AAR Cooper Aviation, Wood Dale, Ill. He was manager of the AAR Allen Aircraft Logistics Center at Hamilton Standard, Windsor, Conn. Robert Botticelli has been named vice president-sales and marketing of AAR Component Services-New York. He was vice president-commercial and regional airlines of AAR Cooper Aviation.
Countering skeptics who doubt that two families of U.S. Air Force Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) boosters can be developed for approximately $1.5 billion each, USAF and contractor officials claim the program is on-schedule and will not require additional government money.
Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., former director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, is scheduled to receive the 1999 Rotary National Award for Space Achievement--The National Space Trophy. Kraft will be cited for being a key architect of the U.S. space program, specifically the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and shuttle programs.
The U.K. will combine Royal Navy Sea Harrier FA2s and Royal Air Force Harrier GR7s into a single, joint force capable of rapid reaction missions starting in 2003. The ultimate aim is for the new Joint Force 2000 to operate a single aircraft type from land and sea beginning in 2012, the planned in-service date for a Future Carrier Borne Aircraft (FCBA) to equip the two new aircraft carriers the U.K. plans to acquire (AW&ST Feb. 1, p. 63). FCBA will replace both RAF and Royal Navy Harriers, with four front-line squadrons of 12 aircraft each planned.
The Defense Dept.'s highest ranking space officer says the intelligence community does not have sufficient capability to track the growing threat to U.S. satellites.
Massive retaliation should be the mainspring of American deterrence policy against terrorist use of weapons of mass destruction, a new analysis recommends. Titled The Ultimate Terrorists and written by a former Clinton Administration official, it says the U.S. might even have recourse to nuclear weapons in certain circumstances, but that the counterpunch arms the U.S. would use to retaliate against a terrorist WMD attack should be kept secret to maximize their deterrent effect.
Ryukyu Air Commuter of Naha, Okinawa, will convert one of its two remaining options on 39-seat de Havilland Dash 8Q Series 100 aircraft into a firm order and take delivery in December.
