The NASA/Lockheed Martin Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has made another major discovery that broadens the potential that areas of the planet could have been habitable for microorganisms during its nearly 4-billion-year history. The spacecraft’s Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer instrument focusing on intact layers of ancient bedrock found carbonate minerals, indicating that Mars had neutral to alkaline water when the minerals formed at these locations more than 3.6 billion years ago.
Separately, ESOA has called on the EU to include satellite systems in its plans to spend €5 billion on improving broadband and energy connections in Europe. The spending is part of a €200-billion stimulus package to be launched next year.
Etihad Airways could acquire Europe’s third largest low-fare airline, Air Berlin, a move that would lead to an entirely new business model of airline combinations.
International Launch Services says a quality initiative begun with Proton M builder Khrunichev following a March 2008 launch mishap is well underway. According to ILS, 16 immediate measures have been completed and 22 Phase 1 actions are nearly done. Eight other steps related to launch system improvements have commenced and are due to be completed by the end of 2009. On Dec. 10, ILS completed its fourth mission since the March incident.
Brussels Airlines is reviving ideas to turn Brussels airport into an important hub now that the airline is a member of Star Alliance and has the benefit of Lufthansa as a major shareholder.
As ATR drafts plans for its next turboprop, the company is laying out more than just ambitious performance targets—it also wants to revamp how it designs aircraft. Although the Toulouse-based company is still in the early stages of defining its new turboprop, discussions with potential engine partners are already underway. ATR officials say talks are well advanced with Pratt & Whitney, General Electric, Rolls-Royce and Snecma about potential offerings.
Dassault Aviation says Falcon business jet deliveries will not increase in the fourth quarter, as expected, due to deferrals to the first quarter of 2009. This will result in a 10% drop in 2008 consolidated sales compared to last year.
“There may be no better time to buy Boeing Co. stock.” As I reflect on the 49 Market Focus columns we published this year, that’s the one line I’d like most to take back. It was written in March, after Boeing’s shocking (and now overturned) loss of the U.S. Air Force tanker contract to an EADS NV-Northrop Grumman Corp. team. Boeing shares had declined from a peak of $107 five months earlier to less than $80. “You’d better believe this is not going to be an $80 stock,” one bullish analyst was quoted as saying.
Selex Galileo has successfully tested its Falco unmanned aircraft using a new catapult launch system. The first flight was conducted at the Cheshnegirovo air base in Bulgaria, using a pneumatic catapult. The regular launch mode is short takeoff from a runway, but the catapult option has always been part of the design. Nevertheless, Selex Galileo undertook preliminary integration tests in Finland using Falco models to ensure there were no aircraft-balance or center-of-gravity problems when the UAV comes off the rail.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Dec. 18 announced it is investigating what caused the Nov. 26 uncommanded rollback of a Rolls-Royce Trent 895 engine on board a Delta Air Lines Boeing 777-200ER. The incident was the second in 2008 involving the same engine and aircraft types. Delta Flight 18 was in cruise at 39,000 ft. near Great Falls, Mont., when the No. 2 (right) Trent 895 lost power. After the aircraft descended to 31,000 ft., the engine recovered and responded normally, according to the NTSB.
The French government is aiming part of a multibillion-euro recovery plan at accelerating the deployment of urgently needed weapon systems and to keep beleaguered sectors of its defense industry afloat.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. (ret.) James L. Jones, whom President-elect Barack Obama has named national security adviser, resigned last week from the Boeing board of directors.
Lockheed Martin and Thales Alenia Space have formed a partnership to develop and deliver a new family of low-cost, highly responsive, agile space radar systems for the U.S. and international market. The deal, which is based on a framework agreement concluded in 2007, aims to draw on Thales’s strengths in turnkey radar imaging systems and Lockheed’s small satellite know-how. The two companies say an integrated design is nearly complete, and the team has answered a recent USAF request for information.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand expects to be the first carrier to test second-generation fuels in an Rolls-Royce RB211-powered Boeing 747-400 on Dec. 30. ANZ, which is relying on jatropha, postponed the flight from Dec. 3. Continental Airlines expects to use an algae biofuels mix in a CFM56-7B-powered 737 on Jan. 7 out of Houston.
Several Aviation Week editors recently assumed new and expanded duties. Robert Wall, formerly Paris bureau chief, was named international editor, responsible for coordinating news coverage globally. Washington-based Amy Butler was promoted to senior Pentagon editor, and Madhu Unnikrishnan, also based in Washington, was appointed business editor, reporting to Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo. In addition, Benet Wilson, who had been a member of the commercial aviation reporting team, was named online managing editor for our business aviation team.
In your inspirational victory speech on Nov. 4, you proclaimed that “change has come to America.” Without a doubt, our nation will experience unprecedented and far-reaching change as we work together through the current economic crisis, and a litany of other challenges. Yet times of great change also bring great opportunities.
The U.K. National Audit Office’s annual review of military procurement continues to make uncomfortable reading for the British Defense Ministry. The Major Projects Report 2008, published Dec. 18, highlights a number of program delays and budget increases among the 30 procurement projects examined. The report covers the 12-month period ending Mar. 31, 2008.
Tickets for the Jan. 20 inauguration of Barack Obama as 44th president of the U.S. are precious commodities, so it may be hard to imagine that those who can get them haven’t thought of how they will get to Washington. But for those who are troubled by such problems, Spectrum Air, a new boutique luxury airline that normally flies New York-Los Angeles routes, is offering round-trip, 10-passenger accommodations for $12,000 on a Gulfstream IV. Limousines will provide transportation at both ends of the flight from Van Nuys airport in California to Dulles International.
Congress and the Obama administration should agree to a two-year “strategic pause” in committing money to new and experimental weapons systems—including manned, long-range bombers, suggests a new report by a national security think tank. The Center for National Policy also calls for rebuilding and increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps, building more Navy submarines and resizing the Air Force with a greater reliance on unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Malaysian government’s public accounts committee is backing the purchase of 12 Eurocopter EC725 helicopters, which the country this year decided to order and then defer. The value of the deal is estimated at 1.6 billion ringgit ($464 million).
