Jade Cargo International, China’s first international airline joint venture, is facing a financial crisis and its future is threatened by divergent shareholder interests. According to industry sources, minority shareholder Lufthansa Cargo was forced to transfer additional cash to the Shenzhen-based carrier to ensure that operational costs are covered this month and keep Jade in the air. It is understood that majority owner Shenzhen Airlines distanced itself from this move, offering no monetary support.
Lockheed Martin will begin cutting its 2,445-strong workforce on NASA’s space shuttle external tank project this fall as the shuttle fleet moves toward a planned retirement in 2010. Employees at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, where the tanks are built, as well as at company facilities at Kennedy Space Center and Huntsville, Ala., will be affected.
David Nixon’s letter on Alan Stern’s Viewpoint “Making NASA Relevant Again” provided an incomplete description of NASA’s mission (AW&ST July 7, p. 10; June 23, p. 78). The Space Act of 1958 mandates that U.S. aeronautical and space activities contribute materially to one or more of the following objectives: •Expansion of human knowledge of the Earth and of phenomena in the atmosphere and space. •Improvement of the usefulness, performance, speed, safety and efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles.
Pratt & Whitney’s PW1000G geared turbofan demonstrator was expected to arrive in Toulouse, France, on Aug. 9 to begin preparations for flight tests in late September on board an Airbus A340-600 development aircraft. The engine was sent to Airbus after amassing 43 hr. of flight test time on 12 sorties on P&W’s Plattsburgh, N.Y.-based Boeing 747SP flying testbed. This was around 8 hr. and five flights more than originally planned, mostly because of stormy weather over the Northeast U.S. in July which forced a number of tests to be cut short.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says 24 Su-30 Sukhoi multi-role fighters have been delivered, complete with trained pilots and ground crews as well as air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles as part of a $3-billion deal with Russia. He warned the newly reactivated U.S. 4th Fleet, which so far has no major ships, to stay out of Venezuelan waters. The sale also involved tanks and assault rifles. Chavez says he hopes to buy even more advanced Su-35s. The U.S. has refused to provide spare parts for Venezuela’s small F-16 fleet.
The British Office of Fair Trading is pursuing criminal prosecution of four former and current British Airways officials over accusations of price-fixing with Virgin Atlantic Airways representatives. They are accused of colluding to set fuel surcharges for long-haul flights between July 2004 and April 2006. Under fire are BA’s head of sales, Andrew Crawley; former commercial director Martin George; former chief of communications Iain Burn, who now works for Etihad; and Alan Burnett, who was BA’s sales chief for the U.K. and Ireland.
Aerospace and defense company Cobham posted a strong set of interim results last week, with the underlying profit before tax up 24% over last year at £107 million. Order intake grew by 42%, ending the first half at £818 million. The U.K.-headquartered company has been acquisitive, particularly in the U.S., and CEO Allan Cook said it would continue to look for opportunities.
A rush of new and expanded CFM56 overhaul shops in China planned for the next several years is likely to leave the country with more capacity than even its burgeoning engine population needs. Executives involved in the expansion are looking more closely at getting work from abroad, opening a new phase in China’s move into the international aerospace market. Experience suggests that they could be quite competitive.
Brazilian manufacturer Embraer has cut 500 jobs in a restructuring to reduce costs, according to a local union. The company declines to comment on the number of jobs cut, but “confirms some adjustments in its organizational structure, affecting some management and administrative positions.” Embraer reported higher net revenues and income in the second quarter on record deliveries of 97 regional and business jets. Employment reached a record 23,700 people last year.
Surrey Space Technology Ltd. has established a U.S. subsidiary to take advantage of growing demand among U.S. government and other international customers for economical but advanced responsive satellites and payloads. To be based in Colorado with facilities to be established later in California and the District of Columbia, SSTL U.S. eventually will become a self-contained design, production and operating entity. Commercial Director John Paffet will head the new company.
European anti-trust regulators have raised no objections to the combination of Northwest and Delta airlines.The European Commission views the two carriers’ transatlantic routes as “mainly complementary,” so asked for no changes in the structure of the deal. It did stress that the positive review should not be interpreted as a signal of how it may rule in its ongoing anti-trust examining of the SkyTeam alliance, to which both carriers belong.
Publicly held air cargo companies outshined their passenger-carrying peers in the 2008 Top-Performing Companies study, and they appear to be better prepared for a hazardous future of fuel highs and economic lows. United Parcel Service (UPS) heads the cargo rankings over rival FedEx and growing freight operator Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings. UPS scored a remarkable 99 out of 100 in the financial health category, as it has in each of the past eight years. The company ended the year with a cash and accounts receivable balance of $10.4 billion.
Airbus reports it has won 711 net orders so far this year, or 754 gross orders, through the end of July. The intake for last month was 229 units, including a 100-aircraft order from Dubai Aerospace Enterprise first announced in November. The aircraft maker had delivered 286 aircraft by Aug. 1.
In a campaign speech Aug. 2 in Titusville, Fla., near Kennedy Space Center, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) expressed support for the addition of an extra space shuttle mission beyond the currently planned shuttle phaseout in 2010 to carry the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer instrument to the International Space Station.
During the last airline industry downturn, low-cost carriers capitalized on the woes of the legacy airlines to expand market share. But their much-admired lean business models now appear inadequate to protect them from the fallout of record fuel prices. “They were fine at $40-a-barrel oil, but not at $140,” says Raymond Neidl of Calyon Securities. He expects troubles to continue as long as fuel remains high, or until carrier managements pull themselves out of their vulnerable state.
David Chesmore has become product engineer for Flight Display Systems , Alpharetta, Ga. He was an electrical engineer at Bombardier Aerospace/Learjet, Wichita, Kan.
The FAA on Aug. 6 amended its July 12 emergency airworthiness directive to clarify the inspection process for the Eclipse 500 very light jet’s throttle quadrant assembly. The amended directive mandates following standardized procedures for testing and modifying the throttle lever, as outlined in Eclipse’s July 22 Service Bulletin. Under the new AD, Eclipse 500s tested under the previous directive may complete checks during next scheduled aircraft maintenance visit or within 60 days.
Malev Hungarian Airlines is cutting staff and fleet to deal with economic pressures. The airline is taking five Boeing 737s out of service temporarily, a move that comes on top of plans to withdraw two 767s from operations for the winter period. Malev plans to generate some revenue by leasing the 737s to other carriers. To keep its European and Middle East network intact, the airline also is redeploying aircraft and adding more fuel-efficient Bombardier Q400 turboprops.
There have been many calls for energy independence. But a political calling is not a political or economic result. As both the head of acquisition for the Pentagon and as Air Force secretary, I focused on realistic and feasible ways to move forward on the concept of energy independence, fully realizing that this was going to be a multi-year process, and possibly one with multiple paths to achievement. There were several imperatives driving the Air Force to underwrite this development.
Sometimes science and the Internet don’t mix. Aviation Week.com reported Aug. 1 that NASA informed the White House, as a courtesy, about a planned headquarters briefing on intriguing new Mars Phoenix soil data. The findings involved the potential habitability—not the actual presence or absence—of life on Mars. Even though Aviation Week reported that Phoenix instruments are not capable of detecting life, web sites around the world, seeing the report, inferred that the data meant the spacecraft had actually detected life on the red planet.
Two U.S. pilots took off Aug. 7 to try to set a new speed record for an around-the-world helicopter flight. Scott Kasprowicz, former chief executive of Texel Corp., and Steve Sheik want to land their Italian-built AgustaWestland Grand AW109S after traversing 20,046 naut. mi. and making 65 fuel stops within two weeks. According to promoters, no additional fuel tanks or mission-specific modifications have been added to the rotorcraft—powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW207s—unlike previous attempts at the world helicopter speed record.
Slot auctions? Not at my airports, so says the Port of Authority of New York and New Jersey (PA). The port authority vows to block all efforts to implement slot auctions—the Transportation Dept.’s favored solution to reduce congestion and delays at major New York area airports. Transportation has scheduled an auction Sept. 3 for slots at Newark (N.J.) Liberty International Airport. In response, the PA issued a Proposed Notice of Action that in effect would block flight activity—excepting emergency operations—for auction-acquired slots at JFK, LaGuardia and Newark.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace has delivered the first of two Boeing 757-200s to the Royal New Zealand Air Force converted for combination freight and passenger/VIP or special operations missions. With 127 orders from FedEx and DHL, ST Aero has carved a niche when it comes to 757 Special Freighter conversions. But the New Zealand contract called for a new twist: installation of a cargo door forward of the left wing, a crew access ladder to the electronics equipment bay and a permanent airstairs unit in Door 4R at the rear of the aircraft.
With FAA certification in hand, Boeing has delivered its first 737 with weight-saving carbon brakes to Delta Air Lines. These brakes are common on wide-body transports but until recently were unable to cool off fast enough to meet the turnaround times typical of single-aisle airplanes used on shorter routes. Boeing says Messier-Rugatti’s carbon brakes are 700 lb. lighter than comparable high-capacity steel brakes used on 737-700/-800/ -900ERs and 550 lb. lighter than standard steel brakes used on 737-600/ -700s.
