The timing couldn’t be much worse: Airbus is getting ready to birth a new generation of freighter aircraft just as the industry is seeing near-unprecedented declines in demand. But the European aircraft maker is looking beyond the near- and potentially mid-term crisis, and is making a long-term bet on creating a stable of freighter offerings. In the process, it is also trying to once more wrestle marketshare away from its main rival, Boeing, which has long dominated the freighter market.
Alexander M. Cutler TITLE: Chairman/CEO, Eaton Corp. AGE: 57 BIRTHPLACE: Milwaukee EDUCATION: Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and Master of Business Administration from Dartmouth College CAREER: Began in 1975 as a financial analyst for Cutler-Hammer, which was acquired by Eaton in 1979. Named Eaton CEO in 1995 and chairman in 2000.
NASA moved its Kepler observatory to Pad 17 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb. 19, although high winds prevented immediate stacking, in preparation for a Mar. 5 liftoff on a United Launch Alliance Delta II at 10:48 p.m. Built by Ball Aerospace, Kepler will be launched into a solar orbit trailing Earth by about 9 million mi. From there, it will use a 1.4-meter (4.6-ft.) telescope and a 93-megapixel camera to search for planets in a survey of more than 100,000 Sun-like stars in the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way.
Royal Navy Harrier GR9s have dropped 12 of the new Paveway 4 GPS/laser-guided bombs in anger in Afghanistan, with all weapons delivered successfully, according to a Navy officer. Not all the bombs struck their targets, though. In two cases, after weapons release, women and children were spotted in the target area so aircrew shifted the laser spot used to guide the weapon to deliberately miss and have the weapon impact in a unpopulated area. It’s not just in laser-mode that aircraft were adapting weapons employment on the fly.
Japan Airlines will merge its four aircraft maintenance subsidiaries as a single company to be called JAL Engineering Co. Ltd., to improve productivity. The merged company will also take on some of the business of the group’s main airline operating company.
First flight of the A330-200F is planned for this year, as Airbus enters the final phase of the aircraft’s production process. Parts for the first A330-200F are now starting to come together. The center wingbox has been built and the nose landing gear bay have been completed. The critical components are due soon at the production site for integration in Saint-Nazaire, France, before going to Toulouse, where the aircraft will be completed.
The U.S. airline industry’s top priority was passed over in the $787-billion economic stimulus package passed by Congress. The gargantuan spending bill contains just $150 million in NextGen air traffic management funding—through NASA—far short of the $4 billion lobbied for by the Air Transport Assn. (ATA). The measure did include $1.1 billion in Airport Improvement Program funding and $1 billion for the Homeland Security Dept. to install in-line baggage screening machines at airports. “Aviation didn’t make the cut,” laments John Meehan, ATA’s chief operating officer.
Operations in icing conditions and pilot training are two factors under scrutiny by the NTSB as its investigation of Colgan Air Flight 3407 gets underway.
French legislators say that despite deep misgivings about President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to rejoin NATO’s integrated command structure, they are unlikely to block it. Members of the ruling UMP party complain that NATO commitments to give France leadership of the Allied Command Transformation office in Norfolk, Va., and a regional command in Portugal do not constitute sufficient payback for giving up France’s military independence. Sarkozy is expected to announce the return to the command at the annual NATO summit Apr. 3-4.
French legislators say, despite their deep misgivings, they are unlikely to block President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to rejoin NATO’s integrated command structure. Members of the ruling UMP party complain that NATO pledges to give France leadership of the Allied Command Transformation office in Norfolk, Va., and a regional command in Portugal do not constitute sufficient payback for relinquishing France’s military independence (AW&ST Feb. 9, p. 21).
The FAA is hiring thousands of air traffic controllers to stay ahead of a spike in retirements, but this is raising new concerns about an increasingly inexperienced workforce. Trainees now comprise a quarter of the U.S. controller staff—up to half at some facilities—and this ratio is set to rise further.
Martin St. George has been promoted to senior vice president-marketing and commercial strategy from vice president-network planning for JetBlue Airways . He will be succeeded by Scott Laurence, who was promoted from director of network planning. Alex Battaglia has been appointed vice president-airports. He was vice president of JetBlue’s operations at New York JFK International Airport.
Yair Gilboa has been named general manager of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) Ramta Div.’s Commercial Aircraft Group. He has been director of aircraft modernization programs for the IAI Lahav Div.’s Military Aircraft Group. Joseph Betsalel (see photo) has become general manager of the Components Div. of the IAI Bedek Aviation Group. He was deputy director of IAI’s New Delhi mission. And, David Tobias (see photo) has been appointed information technology and processes director in the IAI Procurement, Operations and Logistics Directorate.
Air China’s parent company, China National Aviation Holding, is likely to buy a 90% stake in East Star Airlines to improve its network in central China. The initial stake would cost Air China 600 million yuan ($88 million) and the company would have the right to take full ownership after two years. East Star is a small carrier operating Airbus A320s and is based in Wuhan. Meanwhile, a number of China’s smaller airlines managed to turn a profit in 2008.
The new U.S. Customs and Border Protection Unmanned Aircraft Operations Center in Grand Forks, N.D., will rely on and help promote local aviation infrastructure and the academic community there, federal officials said last week in formally opening the center.
I recently watched a podcast of a panel discussion from the University of California dealing with ways to overcome fossil fuel dependence. One speaker focused on energy lost as waste heat in industrial processes. In passing, he stated that a car under heavy braking can generate one megawatt of transient waste heat energy. Is there is any estimate of the energy lost through waste heat on a given day by all the world’s airliners upon landing? Why are there no research studies on mitigating or, better yet, capturing this lost energy?
A Jordanian Internet service provider —SmartLink—and an unnamed Kuwaiti investment firm plan to create a company in the United Arab Emirates offering broadband satellite services. Backers say the company—SmartSat—will be funded to the tune of $500 million, sufficient to begin operation using leased-in satellite capacity, and to order a dedicated satellite and ground infrastructure. They point to strong growth in demand for video and telecom services throughout the Middle East, noting that satellite lease revenues there have been expanding at a 17%-a-year pace since 2003.
Jonathan Scharfen (see photo) has been appointed vice president-international operations for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Technical Services Sector, Herndon, Va. He was an executive with the U.S. Homeland Security Dept.
Boeing has changed its strategy to continue with tenuous C-17 airlifter production from building fewer airframes annually to reducing costs, thanks in part to an opportunity to gain business from unhappy customers facing delayed deliveries of the A400M built by EADS. International customers now pay about $220 million for the four-engine airlifter, while the U.S. price is about $200 million.
Rob Pasterick has been appointed vice president-finance/corporate controller of Chicago-based Boeing . He was chief financial officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) and succeeds Harry McGee, who has been named vice president-strategy integration for internal services. Pasterick will be followed by Ray Ferrari, who was vice president-finance for network and space systems at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. He will be succeded by Craig Saddler, who has been president of Boeing Australia and the South Pacific.
Concerns are mounting at European defense companies that the global economic downturn will drive down military spending. Although such cuts by major European nations have not yet emerged, there are signs among smaller states that budgets will be affected. Croatia has deferred its fighter competition, Romania may do the same, and Estonia already has slashed its allocations for defense.
Kuwait low-fare carrier Jazeera Airways has overhauled its management team beyond the recent decision to name Andrew Cowen as its chief executive. Steven Greenway, formerly chief commerce officer at SkyEurope, was named to the same position at Jazeera. John Turnipseed is the new vice president for human resources, a position he held at Eos Airlines and Southwest Airlines, according to Jazeera. Marwan Boodai remains as chairman. Boodai said recently that the sale and leaseback agreement with Sahaan Leasing means the airline is debt free and has ample cash on hand.
The three members of Expedition 18 to the International Space Station are unpacking a fresh load of supplies, after Russia’s Progress M-66/32P docked with the nadir port of the International Space Station’s Pirs compartment Feb. 13 following a two-day flight from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The unpiloted vehicle carried 2.4 tons of dry cargo and almost another ton of propellant for the space station’s Russian thruster.
Greg Thomas has become general manager and Steve Pearson managing director of sales, marketing and support services for Nordam Singapore Pte. Ltd. Thomas was director of supply chain services for the repair division of Nordam in Tulsa, Okla., while Pearson was engineering manager in Singapore.
Spacehab Inc., which made its name renting pressurized cargo modules to NASA for space shuttle missions, is changing its name to Astrotech Corp. The Houston-based company’s payload-processing subsidiary near Kennedy Space Center was called Astrotech Space Operations, but with the upcoming retirement of the shuttle fleet, the name change “more accurately reflects the company’s current mission and vision,” says Chairman and CEO Thomas B. Pickens, 3rd.
