With the first round of orders for the new-generation wide body aircraft concluded, Boeing and Airbus are positioning themselves for what comes next. Airbus Senior Vice President-Commercial John Leahy said the European consortium continues its search for a third-party, risk-sharing partner for the A3XX, the ``540ish-seat'' long-range wide-body aircraft designed to take on Boeing's proposed 747-500/600 models head on.
AERMACCHI WILL ACQUIRE VALMET AVIATION'S L-90TP Redigo turboprop primary trainer program. The Italian company wants the Redigo to complement its existing range of turbojet military trainers, including the upgraded MB-339FD (Fully Digital), which is expected to make its first flight in the next few weeks. Production of the single-engine, 2-4-seat L-90TP will be transferred to Italy in the next few months and renamed the M-290TP Redigo. The trainer is currently in service in Finland, Mexico and Eritrea.
NASA is finally ready for the first acid test of its new strategy of doing more with less. The agency is poised to launch a spacecraft developed in the era of ever-tightening budgets and send it far beyond Earth to orbit an asteroid.
British and French aviation authorities have proved in principle British Airways' plan to operate the Concorde well into the next century. The Anglo/French supersonic transport, built by British Aerospace and Aerospatiale, celebrated 20 years in service last month. British Airways' seven Concordes have logged 42,000 flights with more than 120,000 hr. since the inaugural flight from London to Bahrain on Jan. 21, 1976.
NEW B-2s WILL RECEIVE no funding in the President's Fiscal 1997 budget, the White House announced late last week. After a new national security council review, President Bill Clinton said no additional B-2s are required and confirmed that $493 million added by Congress in the Fiscal 1996 budget would be spent on procurement of B-2 components, upgrades and modifications only for the first 20 bombers. The current program will spend about $7 billion over the next five years to build and upgrade the fleet to Block 30 configuration.
The French government is pondering closer links--or a merger agreement--between Aerospatiale and Dassault Aviation. Such an initiative would pave the way for a stronger, more diversified industrial group and eliminate duplication in research and development. The two companies' top executives declined to comment on the matter; however, Dassault Aviation Chairman/CEO Serge Dassault, referring to the government's envisioned initiative, recently said: ``Come closer to Aerospatiale? What for?''
THE INTENDED ``FRANGIBILITY'' OF THE FAA'S new runway visual range (RVR) sensor was demonstrated recently when one at Detroit International Airport was struck by a Falcon corporate jet in a freak accident (AW&ST Jan. 22, p. 39). The aircraft was unable to lower its right landing gear, causing it to skid off the runway. The aircraft's wing struck and broke the fiberglass RVR mounting pole, with no serious injury to any of the Falcon's eight occupants. The RVR sensor continued to function and reported the same 6,500 ft.
UNITED AIRLINES' FIRST CONTRACT negotiation under employee ownership has resulted in a tentative agreement with the Assn. of Flight Attendants. The proposal offers a compromise solution to the foreign domicile issue, which has divided the airline and its cabin crews (AW&ST Nov. 20, 1995, p. 52). Under the agreement, United would cap the number of overseas domiciles at the current six. No U.S.-based flight attendant would lose his or her slot, and a certain percentage of U.S.-based attendants would be required on overseas flights.
Fokker has been approached by roughly 30 interested parties, but will confine the first stage of its search for a partner to the six or seven interested in the entire company or the majority of the company, according to Fokker board chairman Ben J.A. van Schaik.
BMW ROLLS-ROYCE SAID a BR710 engine being developed for the Gulfstream 5 and Canadair Regional Jet suffered a fan blade tip loss while undergoing bird-strike tests. The fan tip separated after four 1.5-lb. birds were ingested. The engine operated at maximum takeoff thrust for 2 min. and was within half a minute of completing a 9-min. operation at 75% thrust when it lost the blade tip. The engine's FADEC fuel control system shut the engine down automatically.
International aviation officials are marshalling forces to determine the cause of a Boeing 757's 7,000-ft. plunge into the waters north of the Dominican Republic. Officials from the Dominican Republic, the United States, Germany and Turkey are examining the victims, wreckage and records of the Dominican carrier Alas Nacionales' Flight 301 that crashed into the Atlantic at about 5 min. after takeoff on Feb. 6. The aircraft departed Gen. Gregorio Luperon International Airport in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, at 11:43 p.m. local time.
Robust profits at most major U.S. aerospace/defense companies are causing them to resist or postpone fundamental change in their approach to business, even though such change is key to their survival. That's how Booz-Allen&Hamilton Inc. sizes up the industry in a current assessment entitled ``Beyond MilSpec--The Case for Radical Transformation.''
The last protest in the joint U.S. Air Force/ Navy primary trainer competition, worth $4-7 billion, has been rejected by the government, and Raytheon finally has signed a contract to build the first of as many as 711 turboprop-powered Beech Mk. 2s. Officials from Cessna, one of the losing competitors, said they disagree with the General Accounting Office's decision on the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) award, will consider their options, ``and take whatever further action we determine to be in Cessna's best interest.''
BRITISH AEROSPACE'S BID OF A DERIVATIVE of Matra's Apache for the U.K.'s Conventionally Armed Stand-Off Missile (CASOM) competition is being sweetened by France's offer of access to Spot satellite imagery for targeting. BAe, which is teamed with Matra on CASOM, recently submitted a revised bid at the request of the U.K. Ministry of Defense, showing the cost savings of combining CASOM and France's Apache EG program.
UNITED SPACE ALLIANCE (USA), the Rockwell/Lockheed Martin venture selected by NASA to consolidate space shuttle operations, has no intention of strong-arming the space agency during contract negotiations, according to Kent Black, USA's CEO. ``There's a fear that because we're in a noncompetitive situation we're going to come in with a big number that [NASA] can't live with,'' he said. ``But there's no point in our doing that. We know they're not going to be able to go back to Congress to get more money.'' USA received NASA's request for proposal on Jan.
Russia says it intends to sell China the production rights for its Su-27 Flanker fighter for about $2.5 billion. The agreement follows on the heels of another deal to sell 150-200 radars for upgrading two other Chinese fighter programs, according to U.S. government officials.
The U.S. Defense Dept., in partnership with other government agencies, industry and academia, is formulating comprehensive plans for guiding investments in research and technologies that will be integrated into future aircraft and space vehicles.
PRATT&WHITNEY HAS AGREED to buy the Nordam Group's Propulsion Systems Div., and hopes to complete the acquisition by the end of the first quarter. The Nordam business unit is based in Springdale, Ark., and repairs engine cases, frames and other components for gas turbines and APUs.
For those who truly believe in the commercialization and privatization of space, Spacehab Inc.--currently the only ``pure play'' pursuing that quest--may prove to be one of the more interesting companies to follow. Its success, or struggle, could yield clues to the potential rewards and risks awaiting follow-on startups plying a similar track.
NINETEEN NINETY-FIVE WAS a dismal year for the launch business, according to an updated launch log compiled by the Teal Group. The Fairfax, Va.-based analysts found that only 112 payloads were orbited, the lowest amount since 1964. In addition, last year's seven launch vehicle failures--out of 83 total flights--were the worst since 1969. Things should get better: Teal predicted ``marked increases'' in launches in 1996-97.
The talk at the Singapore air show was about the ``poker game'' being played between the Chinese and Koreans over development of the AE-100 ``Asian Express'' regional jet. The betting is that China has the winning hand, but what other manufacturers want to know is how to earn their own seat at the table.
MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES WILL HOST BOMBARDIER when it brings its CL-415 water bomber to Japan for demonstrations following an appearance at the Singapore air show. The fires that followed the Kobe earthquake in January, 1995, focused new attention on the need for an aerial fire-fighting capability in Japan. ShinMaywa Industries has proposed upgrading its US-1A rescue amphibian, but the cost is expected to be $38-40 million per aircraft.
ITALY IS TAKING A SERIOUS LOOK AT ESTABLISHING an independent aviation accident investigation agency, somewhat patterned after the U.S.' National Transportation Safety Board. The agency could be formed as early as this year. The independent agency should make accident investigation less political and better defined in a country where the judicial system takes precedence over the authority of the transportation agency in aircraft accidents.
