The U.S. Navy's P-3s are set to receive a new round of equipment upgrades, but much of the operational focus remains on the crews serving as a vital airborne node and supporting troops on the ground with communications and long-range sensors. The P-3s have become a crucial element in the network for ground forces. When they first took on the role, crews were learning on the fly. Now equipment and procedures have greatly improved, according to P-3 crewmembers.
Jeff Butler has become staff vice president-station operations and Wendy Jones managing director of internal audit for Alaska Airlines. Butler was managing director of inflight operations, while Jones was internal audit manager.
An impending funding decision will underpin fundamental choices the U.K. government faces on its future space role, as it mulls partnering options, and amid calls that it replace a key agency. The government is struggling with the timetable for its comprehensive spending review, and elements of the package have now been delayed until toward year-end. Top-level figures for science funding are still expected around mid-year.
USMC Maj. Gen. George J. Trautman, 3rd, has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and deputy commandant for aviation. He has been commanding general of the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, Okinawa, Japan.
Night Vision Systems has been awarded a $139.3-million, fixed-price, five-year contract to build night-vision equipment for the U.S. Army, Air Force and Marine Corps. Vision System International took a $6.6-million add-on contract to provide Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systems for USAF F-15s and F-16s and Navy F/A-18s.
Singapore has ordered four Gulfstream 550 Conformal Airborne Early Warning (CAEW) aircraft to replace its four Grumman E-2C Hawkeyes. The first is due to arrive next year and the others by 2010. Israel has also ordered Gulfstream CAEWs.
Honeywell's Chairman and CEO David M. Cote was pleased enough with the financial results for first-quarter 2007 that he told analysts on Apr. 20, "We blew the doors off this quarter." Total sales were up 11% over a year earlier, earnings were up 27% and free cash flow soared to $458 million from just $117 million a year ago. In the aerospace sector, profits increased by 14% as business aviation sales showed the biggest gains over a year ago at 12% for new aircraft and 11% in the aftermarket, compared to 8% and 9%, respectively, for air transport.
MARKET FOCUS Boeing's fortunes looking rosy, though some are skeptical 10 NEWS BREAKS New NATS ATC tower at London Heathrow Airport 16 Iran displays Raad anti-ship cruise missile in military parade 18 Brazil's ATC cited as cause of crash in ExcelAire report 20 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS Post-shuttle life for Hubble if new hardware arrives, works as planned 22 NRO begins new optical spacecraft procurement 24
David A. Fulghum (Tokyo and Honolulu), Douglas Barrie (London)
Chinese efforts to modernize its airpower, coupled with North Korean missile developments, are triggering concerns about rapidly improving air-strike capabilities in the region. China's increasing offensive and defensive capabilities, identified by senior U.S. military officials and intelligence analysts, are spurring programs for advanced aircraft among their neighbors including India, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Japan.
Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sees merit in the idea that the Air Force should have the lead in unmanned aircraft operations. If the Air Force provided the Army with UAV operators, that would "free up Army troops to do other things," he says, while avoiding creation of a separate Army corps of UAV operators and maintainers.
IN A SIGN THAT PRIVATIZATION OF AIR NAVIGATION CAN DELIVER services efficiently, Nav Canada plans to reduce its customer fees for the second year in a row. This year's proposed 3% reduction builds on a 1.8% cut for the previous year made on Sept. 1, 2006. Nav Canada CEO John Crichton said cost-cutting and a rise in air traffic make the reduced fees possible. Fees are only up 7% since they were instituted in 1999--or 13 percentage points below inflation, Nav Canada says. The agency is financed through publicly traded debt.
Mercer Management Consulting has signed a letter of intent to acquire the assets of Texas-based Cavok International Inc., which specializes in airframe maintenance and air carrier certification. The transaction is scheduled to close by May 15.
Jena-Optronik is one of 11 companies, in a field of 27,000, chosen by Boeing as a "supplier of the year," the first time a German concern has received the honor. A spinoff of the 19th-century Carl Zeiss firm, Jena-Optronik produces the Astro 15 star tracker used by Boeing in its satellites.
The maintenance of commercial aircraft is a $41-billion industry likely to grow to a $62.9-billion business by 2017, but only if the U.S. air traffic control system improves fast, says the head of the Air Transport Assn.
Lockheed Martin has taken full ownership of the unit that helped complete the Jindalee over-the-horizon radar system used by Australia to monitor air and sea activity far to the north of its own territory. The company is emphasizing the potential business down under that could be drummed up by the unit, formerly RLM Systems. "The acquisition of RLM Systems expands Lockheed Martin's commitment to the Australian defense and intelligence communities, allowing us to provide broader capabilities in country for our government and industry partners," the company says.
Alakai Technologies, OpenAero and Capacg have agreed to develop a flight-data management system using "plug-and-play" technology for piston-engine aircraft, such as the Cirrus SR20. The package is based on the Flight Operational Quality Assurance program for transport-category aircraft--with one exception, there are no FAA requirements to be met. General aviation pilots will be able to monitor, as well as voluntarily and anonymously share, engine trend and flight ops data. They also have the option of using the FDM system as a purely informational tool.
Oboronprom and AgustaWestland are discussing license production of the AW139 helicopter. The Russian unit, which manages helo design and manufacturing facilities in the country, has indicated an interest in the Ulan-Ude rotorcraft production site. Mil Mi-171s are now built there, as are Su-25 ground attack aircraft. A framework agreement could be signed as early as next month.
Spirit Aerosystems will provide component repair and overhaul services for engine nacelles for 777s and 737NGs as part of Boeing's Component Repair and Leasing Services Network Service Center program.
South Korea will decide in 2009 whether to launch full-scale development of its planned KFX indigenous stealth fighter, which has now entered the feasibility-study phase after clearing the hurdle of project definition. The feasibility study will be complete by February next year, says the Agency for Defense Development, the office responsible for managing defense research and development.
Jet Airways is renaming its subsidiary Air Sahara as Jetlite, and will position the carrier as a budget airline. Synergies between the two travel providers would help reduce unit costs, says Naresh Goyal, chairman of Jet Airways. He plans to renegotiate fares and share training facilities to cut costs and make the business model profitable. Jet Airways recently launched a new corporate logo, and deliveries of its first 10 Boeing 777-300ER and 10 Airbus A330-200 transports will begin late this month.
In response to leasing companies, Airbus has created a "focus group" of executives from the 15 manufacturing, repair and overhaul centers that form its global network to work on spare parts, aircraft-on-ground and other fleet issues for the A380. The first meeting is set for this week. Leasing companies sought a total-care package to help them transition A380s from one customer to another, including transfer of documentation from one prime MRO provider to another.
Local environmental effects of global climate change will pose serious security threats in the years ahead, as fragile nations that collapse under shortages of food, water and usable land become lawless areas potentially breeding terrorism and other military threats, a U.S. military think tank concludes.
Former Telesat Canada President and CEO Laurier (Larry) J. Boisvert has been named president of the Canadian Space Agency, a position that had been vacant since the departure of astronaut Marc Garneau last year. Boisvert joined Telesat in 1972, and also served as president and CEO of Telesat Mobile Inc.
Turning to obligations in another worrisome theater, Pace rejected the notion that forming Africa Command would further stretch U.S. forces tagged for Iraq and Afghanistan operations. "What we're trying to do with Africa Command is to have an entity that is not exactly the same as all [the] other commands, but rather has many more participants [from other] agencies of government. The object is to assist governments get ahead of problems."
