China Southern Airlines will operate Embraer 190s in Xinjiang, the western territory of China that rival Comac sees as a natural, hot-and-high operations market for its ARJ21 regional jet. The leasing arm of China Development Bank will buy 10 E-190s to be operated by China Southern Airlines, with deliveries beginning in the second half of this year, Embraer and the lessor say in a joint statement.
Heavy rains that will spur growth in underbrush are likely to set the stage for massive wildfires late next summer when California’s mountain ranges are hot and dry. Understandably, firefighters will be concerned that they face an arduous fire season.
Astrium fears that government budget woes could undermine some of its leading space activities, putting pressure on growth and profitability despite a strong showing in 2010.
Southwest Airlines on March 1 will implement a long-awaited major overhaul of its frequent-flier program that has been years in the making, creating a new system that effectively awards customers with never-expiring “currency” they can cash in for any available seat on any domestic flight at any time.
USAF Brig. Gen. Scott A. Bethel has been named vice commander of the U.S. Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency/deputy chief of staff for ISR, Ft. Meade, Md. Brig. Gen. Scott P. Goodwin has been appointed commander of the 21st Expeditionary Mobility Task Force of Air Mobility Command, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. He has been deputy director of operations of Operations Team One of the Joint Staff’s National Military Command Center at the Pentagon.
Amy Butler (Amarillo, Hurst and Fort Worth, Texas)
A decade after first flight, the U.S. Marine Corps’ AH-1Z attack helicopter finally graduated from a turbulent operational evaluation and is being readied for its first shipboard deployment. The service plans to field the AH-1Z Vipers, commonly known as Zulus, with a Marine Expeditionary Unit in November. It will operate alongside its sister aircraft, the UH-1Y Venom, dubbed the Yankee, which achieved initial operational capability in 2008.
Leithen Francis (Singapore), Robert Wall (London )
Transpacific competition is set to heat up with Asiana Airlines’ decision to order six Airbus A380s for delivery in 2014-17. The move puts particular pressure on American carriers to improve their service offerings on these routes. The U.S. airlines are using much older equipment and face a similar competitive handicap on transatlantic routes.
The recent F-35 production contract reflects progress toward decreasing the high per-unit price of the stealthy aircraft, but prime contractor Lockheed Martin must still restore confidence in its ability to deliver an affordable jet on time.
Last year was a bonanza for the long-suffering airline industry, with profits expected to top $15 billion, after more than a year of near-catastrophic losses. But as the world’s economies continue to recover, the price of oil is climbing. The burning question is whether rising oil prices will spoil the airline industry’s party.
Michael Mecham (San Francisco), Robert Wall (London)
Airbus and Boeing were near the 1,000 mark on deliveries last year and are on track to produce slightly more this year as they continue to benefit from a triple-digit, pre-recession order boom that bequeathed them a combined backlog of nearly 7,000 aircraft.
As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates puts the ailing F-35B short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft on life support and proposes another delay to the single-engine stealthy fighter’s testing, he is also pushing forward a broad savings agenda that will enhance several major aerospace programs.
Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. will provide a short-wave infrared spectrometer, designed to measure carbon monoxide and methane, for the Tropical Monitoring Instrument (Tropomi) on the Sentinel 5 Precursor. The Precursor, set for launch in 2014, will help define a sensor on Eumetsat’s EPS-SG polar-orbiting weather satellites that will provide operational atmospheric chemistry data necessary to monitor air quality and climate change. The first spacecraft is to be orbited in 2020 (AW&ST Dec. 20/27, 2010, p. 71).
George Trivino has become Latin America sales manager for StandardAero Business Aviation . He was a field service engineer at Honeywell for business and general aviation Dale Hawkins has been named airframe sales manager.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will make a point this year to work with foreign agencies to bolster cargo-screening standards across the globe, deploy “state-of-the-art” technologies and—with the departments of State and Defense—expand and coordinate technical assistance and training to allies in an effort to strengthen the global supply chain, Secretary Janet Napolitano says. DHS will work with groups across the U.S. where certain chemicals are common (such as hospitals, labs and beauty supply companies) to prevent their use in improvised explosives.
Greg Bartlett has been named general manager of Vulcan Flex Circuit Corp ., a division of Maine-based Vulcan Electric Co. Bartlett, who will work in the company’s Londonderry, N.H., facility, was director of engineering and quality at Teledyne Printed Circuit Technology.
The point in the “Trust But Verify” article that particularly caught my eye was the plight of the X-51 Scramjet Engine Demonstrator Program (AW&ST Nov. 22, 2010, p. 45). Of all technology development programs, the scramjet ought to be near the head of the list of “must dos.” Many more people will be traveling in coming decades, so designers will either need to pursue bigger—beyond the Airbus A380—or faster, options. If the little Waverider indeed works, it could be the forerunner of much bigger engines for a hypersonic transport.
The FAA was unusually busy in 2010 when it came to meting out proposed civil penalties, particularly for maintenance-related issues. By our calculations, FAA proposed at least $39.4 million in maintenance-related civil penalties, and what likely is a record $50 million overall. FAA usually issues press releases about penalties of at least $50,000. In 2010, there were more than 30 such announcements involving dozens of airlines and other operators, as well as a handful of maintenance, repair and overhaul operators and flight schools.
Benoit Gosset, previously deputy to Safran Group ’s executive vice president in charge of the Aerospace Propulsion branch, will take the helm of the newly created Group Management and Top Executives Department.
Michael Rogers has become vice president-customer service at JetFlite International , Long Beach, Calif. He comes to JetFlite after a 20-year career in aviation and customer service. In 2000, he founded Long Beach-based Los Angeles Helicopters, a charter operator, maintenance station, aircraft dealership and flight training company.
The U.S. Marine Corps’ new AH-1Z “Viper” flies at Camp Pendleton in California. The attack helicopter will provide a substantial performance improvement over today’s AH-1W Super Cobra, including additional weapons stations and a nose-mounted targeting sight system. The new aircraft, dubbed the Zulu, is set to deploy at sea late this year. Bell Helicopter photo by Kalee Appelton.
Arianespace appears set to gain a capital injection and a new dollop of public price support, although the exact amounts remain to be decided. The measures are badly needed to counter competition from lower-cost launch providers and to help defray the extra burden of operating two new launch vehicles—the Soyuz 2.1 medium-lifter and Vega light booster—from the company’s Kourou, French Guiana spaceport.
