NetJets Europe posted its first net profit, a trend that should continue, Warren Buffet tells Berkshire Hathaway investors--Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets Europe. The business jet operation added 589 clients last year, bringing its total to 1,300. Client flights for 2006 were up 33% to 62,000. Fleet expansion will continue, with 24 aircraft to be added this year for a total of 138. The largest markets for NetJets Europe were the U.K., France and Switzerland, with Germany, Eastern and East-Central Europe and Russia all recording growth of 40% or more.
U.S. Central Command released an annotated electro-optical image from the Block 10 Global Hawk of these suspected improvised explosive devices (IEDs) at Aviation Week & Space Technology's request. The mounds of earth, photographed Jan. 22 near a highway outside of Tikrit, Iraq, are thought to contain the deadly IEDs. The Defense Intelligence Agency degraded the resolution, using an algorithm, prior to release.
MARKET FOCUS Meggitt aims for No. 2 rank in aircraft brakes and wheels 10 NEWS BREAKS Thousands of Airbus employees march in Toulouse to protest job cuts 18 Israel Air Force accepts Heron unmanned aircraft into service 19 Final wind tunnel tests nearing completion for F-35 Lightning II 20 New award advances efforts to develop small geostationary satellite platforms 20 Satellite captures partial eclipse that could not have been seen from the ground 21 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
The U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center is completing final wind tunnel tests of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II, helping to set the stage for production of the multi-role Joint Strike Fighter.
I was troubled by the letter entitled "FAA, Disaster Is in the Making" (AW&ST Feb. 19, p. 7) from a Boeing 777 captain with a major U.S. airline whose name was withheld by request.
The Thales Group reports net income increased 16% to €388 million in 2006 from €334 million ($438 million) in 2005 as operating margins improved to 7.3% from 7%. Order intake rose to €12.7 billion from €10.8 billion, and backlog increased slightly to €20.6 billion from €20.2 billion.
Change the way you look at combat aircraft, Navy officials say. Active electronically scanned array radars being introduced on F/A-18Fs, F-22s and F-35s "are really sensors that are forward in the battlespace collecting information and putting different effects on targets," says Capt. Donald Gaddis, program manager for the Super Hornet. These effects eventually will include data streams, energy bursts and offensive algorithms. Gaddis identifies the electronic warfare officers in the back seat as perhaps the busiest men in the Navy.
Air Canada plans to operate its first Boeing 777s to European and Asia-Pacific destinations--and on the inaugural daily nonstop service between Canada and Australia. The airline has a total of 18 777-300ERs/200LRs on firm order, and in April will take delivery of the first of eight 777s scheduled for arrival in 2007. (It also holds purchase rights for a mix of 18 more 777s.) Flights from Air Canada's Toronto hub to London Heathrow begin in April, to Frankfurt and Tokyo in June and to Hong Kong in August. Services from the Vancouver hub to Tokyo begin in July.
The skyrocketing use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) by U.S. and coalition nations during operations such as in Afghanistan will "inevitably" lead to loss of aircraft through mid-air collisions if it is not regulated more tightly soon, senior NATO air force officers warn.
Letters 6-7 Who's Where 8 Industry Outlook 13 Airline Outlook 15 In Orbit 17 News Breaks 18-21 Washington Outlook 23 A European Pespective 49 Inside Business Aviation 53 Classified 63 Contact Us 64 Aerospace Calendar 65
The Gome-2 spectrometer on Europe's Metop-A polar-orbiting weather satellite has begun supplying geophysical products showing ozone and nitrogen-dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere. The products, developed by German aerospace center DLR, are being released through Eumetsat's ozone satellite application facility, which generates, validates, archives and distributes records and predictions on ozone, trace gases, aerosols and surface ultraviolet radiation.
Julie Andrews has been named director of communication and Mike Rein deputy director and senior manager of launch operations communications for the Denver-based United Launch Alliance. Rein was communications manager for Boeing's Florida operations.
Mark Bernardini (see photo) has become head of the San Diego-based Government Services Industry unit of Resources Global Professionals. He was a senior manager for Deloitte Consulting, serving the aerospace and defense manufacturing and Defense Dept. sectors.
Last year's U.S.-European Union attempt to liberalize transatlantic aviation foundered on the Transportation Dept.'s inability to win industry and congressional support for relaxing rules on foreign ownership and control of U.S. airlines. This year's pact (see p. 45) will hinge on U.S. negotiators' next-best substitute--a franchising concept by which a U.S. carrier could operate as a "franchisee" of a European airline. It would be able to fly the franchisor's livery, display the franchisor's brand, logo or trademark at U.S.
Rick Hughes, Director of Operations (North American Trisonic Wind Tunnel, El Segundo, Calif. )
Your article "Winding Down," about the planned closure of the North American Trisonic Wind Tunnel later this year (AW&ST Feb. 19, p. 13), failed to mention the irony of the loss of yet another piece of the fast-eroding U.S. R&D infrastructure in spite of sustained demand.
U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak will take up duties on the staff of the Naval Air Training Command at NAS Corpus Christi, Tex., after her assignment as a NASA astronaut was terminated last week. Nowak faces felony charges in Florida stemming from an alleged stalking incident at the Orlando airport Feb. 5, and already had been replaced as capcom on the upcoming STS-117 mission (AW&ST Feb. 12, p. 14). Nowak's detail was terminated one day after the National Air and Space Museum awarded the STS-121 shuttle mission team its 2007 Current Achievement Trophy.
A Government Accountability Office report filed last week says a U.S. Air Force decision to include passenger and cargo capabilities in its replacement tanker aircraft program was made without required analyses. Mandatory policy requires a formal capabilities-based approach toward evaluation capabilities that compete for scarce funds. Defense officials object saying that USAF presented analysis and rationale for the capability through the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System process.
On the strength of a launch order from All Nippon Airways, Boeing has designated a second center for the 767 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) program. Singapore Technologies Aerospace's Aviation Services Co. is to convert five passenger 767-300ERs from ANA's fleet at its Paya Lebar headquarters in Singapore. The contract is valued at $136 million; ANA holds two options. The work, set to begin in October, includes installation of a reinforced floor, cargo door and cargo-handling system.
Eugene F. Kranz has been selected to receive the Houston-based Rotary National Award for Space Achievement Foundation's National Space Trophy for 2007, on Apr. 20. The award is presented to an individual who has excelled in furthering national goals in the field of space. Kranz will be cited for achievements in "the development of flight control operations for all NASA manned space flights." He is most famous for the role he played in the rescue of the Apollo 13 mission after its translunar abort.
THE EXPERIMENTAL AIRCRAFT ASSN. says discussions with FAA officials have resulted in "removing barriers" in the recent Air Tour rule that threatened to adversely affect EAA's Young Eagles program, says EAA President Tom Poberezny. The discussions centered on aircraft types approved for the flights as well as restrictions on pilot qualifications. "Everyone we met at FAA assured us that there was no intent to harm the Young Eagles program in any manner through the Air Tour rule," he says.
Indra will develop flight-training devices for Eurocopter EC135s under a deal between the Spanish electronics company and the EADS helicopter unit. The devices, to be operational by mid-year at American Eurocopter and Eurocopter Deutschland in Donauwoerth, Germany, will include six-degree-of-freedom, full-motion simulators.
"A vast and harmonious 'ocean of air' unites us all," said Alexander ter Kuile, secretary general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (Canso), at a summit on civil and military ATC cooperation in Bangkok late last month (see p. 50). The meeting was sponsored by the Air Traffic Control Assn. and by Aeronautical Radio of Thailand. Canso has 45 air navigation service providers as members and they control 60% of the airspace and 80% of the world's air traffic.
The A320-family plant that Airbus is building in Tianjin with Chinese partners will be ready by the end of the year, state media say. Deliveries are due to begin next year.
The Australian government has approved a proposed A$11-billion (US$8.6-billion) private takeover of Qantas Airways, leaving the bidders with the final challenge of talking around two investment funds that are reluctant to sell their shares at the offered price. The bidders had to promise that most operations would stay in Australia.
Timothy D. Bair (see photo) has become director of the Institute for Manufacturing and Sustainment Technologies at Pennsylvania State University's Applied Research Laboratory. He was a deputy director at Hill AFB's Air Logistics Center in Utah and an investigative staff member on the Columbia Accident Investigation Board.
