Aviation Week & Space Technology

Thales Chairman/CEO Denis Ranque predicts that negotiations for the U.K.’s long-stalled Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft program are close to conclusion. Ranque says talks for the 27-year £13-billion ($25.4-billion) private financing initiative have been held up by the turmoil in the financial markets, but asserts that a contract will be signed in the first half of the year.

The International Air Transport Assn. is promoting its worldwide scheduling guidelines to address airport congestion issues while doing battle against any incursion of peak or congestion pricing, which can be discriminatory and ineffective, according to the industry group.

USAF B-1s and F-16s along with Navy F/A-18s, dropped 17 tons of bombs on 40 targets in clearing the Al Qaeda stronghold of Salmanpak, about 30 mi. southeast of Baghdad last week. The aircraft attacked improvised explosive devices planted in roads and booby-trapped houses that were designed to create a defensive belt around the town. The F-16s, flying out of Balad AB, attacked the mined houses. The raids are conducted at night to avoid injury to civilians.

Ronnie Choi has become president of Hong Kong Express Airways . He was chief commercial officer of Macau Express.

The 2008 Aviation Week & Space Technology Aerospace Source Book marks the introduction of new designs and typefaces for the outlook articles and specification tables. They were selected by Art Director Lisa Caputo, who supervised artwork and presentation of the issue with the other members of her department, Scott Marshall and Hans Michaud. This issue also is the first Source Book published with the Adobe/K4 content management system. The overall Source Book was prepared by a team headed by Assistant Managing Editor Michael Stearns.

In another setback for French defense exports, Morocco is ordering three Sigma-type missile corvettes from Schelde Naval Shipbuilding of the Netherlands. DCNS, the French naval defense group, was counting on Morocco to buy its new surface combatants. Most recently, the company had been offering its latest Gowind class of 1,700-2,000-ton missile corvettes.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) is researching how computers reading brain waves may one day speed up the ways intelligence analysts detect targets in satellite images and also alert platoon leaders when soldiers are losing situational awareness.

The future of U.S. Air Force aviation includes stationing very big unmanned reconnaissance aircraft on Guam (with the range to watch China, Eastern Russia and the Western Pacific Rim), medium-size UAVs at five bases along the borders of the U.S. and the new twin-engine, Joint Cargo Aircraft (for homeland security and operating in difficult terrain in South America, Africa and Southwest Asia) at seven Air National Guard and Reserves bases. There also are going to be lots of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in newly consolidated regular Air Force, Reserve and ANG units.

China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines will cooperate in marketing, buying aircraft and ground services, the Shanghai Securities News says. China Southern is willing to propose China Eastern as a member of the SkyTeam alliance. China Eastern is struggling to retain its independence in the face of a bid for control from the parent of Air China (see p. 392). China Southern and China Eastern do not propose to invest in each other.

The European Space Agency is revamping its science, exploration and manned spaceflight activities as part of a plan to align its management setup with changing space program realities, both in Europe and overseas.

French Defense Minister Herve Morin reaffirms that France’s full integration into the NATO command structure will depend on the U.S. and U.K. removing objections to an autonomous European Union military planning cell. “I regret that the planning cell could not be deployed for the EU-sponsored mission to Chad and the Central African Republic,” Morin told an industry and armed services gathering in Paris last week (see p. 390), noting that the cell would complement NATO and draw on NATO command assets.

Western nations are in the midst of a major, long-term re-equipment cycle in their fighter fleets, which should keep the market for the aircraft healthy at least into the next decade. Advancements in weapons, sensors, cockpit design and performance have made the newer aircraft more effective than older models, while their systems are more reliable, require less maintenance and are easier to upgrade throughout their life cycles than the aircraft they are replacing.

Keeping fare and yield momentum rolling looks to be the key to weathering economic recession for U.S. airlines, as surprisingly robust demand remains a rare bright spot in an otherwise gloomy financial outlook.

An aircraft creates a vapor trail around the Moon in this photo by Grant Faint for Getty Images. Aerospace Source Book cover design by the AW&ST Art Dept.

Iridium officials say a recent International Civil Aviation Organization stamp of approval for use of the company’s satellite communications system in flight safety situations could spur more airlines to install Iridium avionics. This type of equipment is used heavily by business jets, but is not widely employed in the airline market.

The opening paragraphs of “Moon Stuck” by Craig Covault (AW&ST Jan. 21, p. 24) create the misperception that the workshop we are organizing at Stanford University has already decided upon a new path for the human and robotic exploration of space. We wish to make it clear that the purpose of the workshop is to examine the Vision for Space Exploration critically in order to prepare for space policy considerations in a new administration and Congress.

The illegal use of middlemen, impending 2009 elections and regional geopolitical issues are all likely to slow India’s weapons acquisition process just as the world’s industry is gaining unprecedented access to what is expected to be a $40-billion market.

Dan White has become president of Com Dev USA , El Segundo, Calif. He was vice president-engineering of Datapath and had been director of satellite payload engineering for Lockheed Martin.

The outlook for the expendable launch vehicle (ELV) market is strong. Governments continue to be the prevailing customers, accounting for 66% of the total global launches in 2006, and this trend will continue in the decades to come.

Cessna Aircraft Co. has chosen three U.S.-based facilities to assemble and deliver its SkyCatcher light sport aircraft: Eagle Aviation near West Columbia, S.C.; longtime Cessna dealer Yingling Aviation in Wichita, Kan.; and Southwest Platinum Aviation in North Las Vegas, Nev. China’s Shenyang Aircraft Corp. will produce the two-seat, single-engine Model 162 as well as test flying, disassembling and shipping airplanes to the three authorized assembly sites. Cessna officials expect first flight of the SkyCatcher in the next few months.

The market for military fixed-wing trainers is becoming increasingly competitive, as a number of manufacturers introduce all-new designs, while others unveil improved variants of existing models.

DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing arm of Dubai Aircraft Enterprise, is making quite a splash. Nine months after American Bob Genise was tapped to start the business, it has accumulated assets worth $1.5 billion by acquiring more than two dozen airplanes from GE Commercial Aviation Services (Gecas) and Emirates. And that’s just the start: DAE has ordered new jets for $29 billion—100 from Airbus, 100 from Boeing (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2007, p. 33).

EADS’s Socata general aviation unit has received orders for 60 TBM 850 turboprop business aircraft this year—a record number for the TBM series, according to company officials. The orders drove sales of the single-engine airplane to more than 150 since it was introduced in December 2005. A majority of sales are from the U.S. market, with 20% from Europe and 10% spread across other markets including Brazil and Australia. Socata delivered 42 TBM 850s in 2006 and was scheduled to deliver 51 in 2007.

American Airlines has completed the first installation of an Aircell Internet broadband system on a Boeing 767-200. The carrier expects to complete installation on 15 767s this year that primarily serve transcontinental routes. American expects service to begin in the second half of 2008. Meanwhile, Southwest Airlines has begun testing a WiFi system in its 737 fleet.