The Dutch government made an about-face on its plans to purchase the Raytheon Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile. A previous administration had committed to buying 30 of the ship-launched weapons for use on LCF-type air defense and command frigates. But the roughly $94 million needed for the purchase and installation could be better spent, says current Dutch defense minister Eimert van Middelkoop, a member of the Christian Union party. The funds could be redirected to efforts to recruit and retain military personnel.
Prof. Jean-Pierre Swings has become chairman of the European Science Foundation's European Space Sciences Committee. He succeeds Prof. Gerhard Harendel. Swings completed his doctorate and postdoctoral training at Liege University in Belgium in 1974. His current research interests include extragalactic astrophysics, very large telescopes and instrumentation, space astrophysics and solar system exploration. Swings also has been general secretary of the International Astronomical Union.
MORE THAN 11,000 PEOPLE ATTENDED THE 2007 EUROPEAN Business Aviation Convention and Exposition--a record for the annual event held in Geneva. The three-day show also included 354 exhibitors that occupied 1,423 booth spaces, and 60 aircraft were on static display at the Geneva International Airport.
Passengers on Air Canada, Air Canada Jazz and the mainline's other regional partners now have a way to help reduce environmental effects of air travel. For a "small, voluntary additional payment," they may purchase a "carbon offset" that would support projects to reduce greenhouse gases. The mainline is teaming with nonprofit organization Zerofootprint in the effort. At the airline web site, customers will find information about carbon offsets, a calculator to determine how much carbon dioxide their trip will generate and the cost to offset it.
The U.S. Air Force has released its revised request for proposals for the $15-billion Combat Search and Rescue-X (CSAR-X) HH-60G Pave Hawk replacement program. The changes came after losing bidders Sikorsky and Lockheed Martin protested Boeing's win last year with a Chinook variant. The revision addresses an apparent lack of clarity by USAF evaluators on the life-cycle costs of each proposal. USAF plans to announce a winner in the fall, and buy 141 helicopters.
BELL/AGUSTA AEROSPACE CO. OFFICIALS SAY THEY EXPECT to achieve FAA and European certification of the BA609 civil tiltrotor in 2010, followed by initial customer deliveries in 2011. Michael Cuppernull, BAAC director, says there are now two aircraft flying--one at Bell Helicopter Textron's XworX facility in Arlington, Tex., and another at Agusta's Cameri test center in Northern Italy. The two tiltrotors have accumulated about 200 flight hours and both Bell and Agusta have stationed flight teams at each other's facilities.
A raft of problems is forcing Boeing to further delay delivery of Italy's KC-767A tanker aircraft. The air force now will have to wait until mid-2008 to receive its first aircraft--more than two years later than originally planned.
MBDA Chief Operating Officer Guy Griffiths is moving to head up BAE Systems Integrated System Technologies (Insyte). He follows Clive Richardson, the former Insyte CEO, who is becoming a managing director at Qinetiq. Griffiths' move to Insyte could prove temporary, however, as he is touted as the prime candidate to lead the planned merger of BAE's and VT's naval shipbuilding business as well. MBDA is also about to lose its CEO, Marwan Lahoud, who is soon likely to join EADS to succeed Executive Vice President Jean-Paul Gut. He is widely expected to leave EADS shortly.
Safran shareholders have approved 2006 results, along with findings of independent auditors who concluded in April that problems at the Sagem Defense & Security Div. were linked to errors by Sagem officials who have since been dismissed, and not to Chairman Jean-Paul Bechat. The shareholder move, combined with strong backing from Supervisory Board President Francis Mer, considerably buoyed Bechat's position, perhaps signaling he may stay on beyond his planned September retirement date.
TPG has pulled out of the bidding for Alitalia, causing the airline's share price to tumble. Onerous privatization rules were among the reasons for TPG's withdrawal, leaving groups led by AirOne and Aeroflot in the running. AirOne, Italy's second-largest carrier, is seen as the front-runner.
Florida-based Piper Aircraft Inc. notes that the recent unanimous vote by the Vero Beach City Council and Indian River County Commissioners to develop a financial incentives package is "a sign there is a legitimate effort underway to partner with Piper." The company's facilities have been at their site for 50 years.
Amy Butler (Los Angeles AFB and Sunnyvale, Calif.)
The Pentagon's acquisition chief is planning to review the Air Force's next-generation space-based missile warning system's progress after years of cost overruns and delays, as program officials continue to report encouraging results from the first system on orbit. Pentagon acquisition czar Kenneth Krieg is scheduled to review the $11-billion Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) June 14 at Sbirs sensor provider Northrop Grumman's Asuza, Calif., production site. During this meeting, Krieg is expected to decide the future of the program.
Dassault Aviation is investigating adding winglets to its Falcon 900EX family, after getting good performance and customer results from a similar exercise on its Falcon 2000EX.
Finnair has taken delivery of the first of its three Airbus A340-300Enhanced aircraft, each equipped with four CFM56-5C4 engines. The carrier has subsequently increased its order for long-haul aircraft, adding seven A330/340s and 11 A350XWBs.
ADAM AIRCRAFT OFFICIALS SAY THE FIRST A700 ADAMJET built to fully conform to the production airplane has joined the flight test fleet after making its initial flight in April. The aircraft is being used to evaluate a production configuration of the flight control, landing gear and avionics systems as well as the data acquisition system used for testing. The Englewood, Colo.-based airframe manufacturer is scheduled to complete a fourth A700 this summer and a fifth later this year.
Delta Air Lines is in the process of selecting routes for its subsidiary Comair to operate 14 new Bombardier CRJ900s, which will replace a similar number of 50-seat CRJ100s. Delivery will start in August and continue through February. The 76-seat aircraft will be configured for 12-seat first-class cabins (a first for Comair as a passenger option) and 64 coach seats. In providing the aircraft, Delta recognizes Comair as "a strategic part of the Delta Connection network," says Chief Operating Officer Jim Whitehurst.
Lockheed Martin should receive the third HC-144A Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA), built by EADS CASA in Spain under the Deepwater program, by the middle of this month, an Integrated Coast Guard Systems (ICGS) official says. Under a revised schedule for then installing and validating C4ISR systems, the first MPA should be delivered to the U.S. Coast Guard in the early fall, and all three are to be handed over to the service by ICGS by December. Production delivery of the MPAs has occurred on time, if not slightly ahead of schedule, according to the official.
Every time I see an article featuring the inflatable manned space modules of Bigelow Aerospace Inc. (AW&ST Apr. 9, p. 22), I am struck by the similarity to the Walt Disney Presents television programs of late 1950s that featured space. Using the expertise of scientists Willy Ley and Wernher von Braun as a foundation, the Disney team produced concepts of space stations formed around inflatable cores described as: "The space station consists of airtight plastic into which strong threads or wires are imbedded for greater strength. The sections are carried . . .
GE Aviation's plant at Batesville, Miss., will feature the manufacture of carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite components. Groundbreaking for the 200,000-sq.-ft. facility is set for August. In 2006, GE teamed with Mississippi State University's College of Engineering Raspet Laboratory to demo component production. Raspet fabricates "fan platforms," which are installed between front fan blades of GE commercial jet engines.
CAE has contracted with Nippon Cargo Airlines, launch customer of the Boeing 747-8 Freighter, to design and manufacture an electric-motion-based CAE 7000-Series 747-400 full-flight simulator (FFS) plus a Simfinity suite of 747 training devices. The FFS may be converted to a 747-8F simulator--which would make it the first--pending Japan Civil Aviation Bureau approval.
Barry Eccleston, who is president/ CEO of Airbus North America, has received an honorary doctor of science degree from Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan Inc. for allegedly assisting secret CIA rendition flights of suspected terrorists. The federal lawsuit, filed in California, claims flight and logistical support services provided by Jeppesen enabled the clandestine transportation of three men to secret locations, where they were tortured and subjected to other "forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Jeppesen officials said they had not seen the lawsuit and had no immediate comment. Neither Boeing nor the U.S.
After a long, hard slog, business aviation leaders are upbeat about amended regulations that will accommodate the specific operating requirements of bizjet owners.
Onera says it plans to begin work on an advanced derivative of the Nostradamus over-the-horizon ionospheric radar that was brought into service in late 2005 with the French air force. The new version, which is expected to receive a green light by early 2008, probably will employ the same star-shaped network architecture as Nostra- damus. But it has not been decided whether to upgrade the existing facility or build a new installation.
