Dire warnings of an aerospace brain drain have been issued for so many years that it's easy to tune them out. Four years ago, a presidential commission predicted a "devastating loss of skill, experience and intellectual capital." Across the U.S., CEOs say the industry is not attracting nearly enough young engineers to replace the baby boomers that will start retiring in large numbers in the next few years. This magazine sounded the alarm in 1999, then 2000 and again in 2003.
Thai Airways International says it's likely to buy eight A330-300s that Airbus is offering at $90 million each as compensation for A380 delays. But the airline still isn't satisfied with the rest of the compensation package--$28 million in cash. Chairman Chalit Pukbhasuk says the price on the A330s represents a special discount of $10 million. Thai is interested in the offer because it needs 24 new aircraft within the next five years. It says that it will probably also take options on another four of the cheap A330s.
When Boeing takes an order for a new passenger airplane, several years can transpire before deliveries are made and payments are collected. Based on that model, the company's 2006 financial results should just be the start of a long run of growth. Revenues in Boeing's Commercial Airplanes unit rose 33% last year to $28.4 billion, and operating profit soared 91% to $2.7 billion, as the first benefits of an order surge that began in 2005 began to hit the bottom line. And there's much more to come.
Etihad Airways will start Airbus A340-500 services between Sydney and Abu Dhabi, its home base, Mar. 26, aiming to connect the Australian city with European and Middle Eastern destinations that Qantas doesn't serve. The announcement comes only three weeks after Canberra granted permission to the United Arab Emirates carrier to join the heavily contested Australian international market.
Kenneth J. Binder has been promoted to executive vice president/chief financial officer from senior vice president-finance/acting CFO of the New York-based Sequa Corp. Leonard P. Pasculli has become vice president-human resources and James P. Langelotti vice president/treasurer. Langelotti was assistant treasurer and succeeds Kenneth A. Drucker, who has retired. Gail Binderman has been named to the board of directors. She is director of corporate strategy and development and an investment officer of the Ampacet Corp.
Kongsberg Defense & Aerospace and Lockheed Martin have signed a joint marketing agreement for an air-launched version of the Norwegian company's Naval Strike Missile (NSM). Designated the Joint Strike Missile (JSM), the new weapon will be adapted for deployment by Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), including carriage in its internal weapons bay. Kongsberg says it will take "three years to reach the technological maturity required for the missile to be an option for deployment on the JSF."
Steve Fossett--holder of numerous aviation world records in balloons, gliders, airships and powered aircraft--and four other "legends of flight" will be enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, Dayton, Ohio, on July 21. The others are: Walter J. Boyne, former director of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum, aviation historian and author; Evelyn Bryan Johnson, a flight instructor who has logged more flight hours, trained more pilots and given more FAA exams than any other pilot; Sally K.
Jake Hart (see photos) has become vice president-autopilot systems and Jim Shirey vice president-business development of Cobham subsidiary Chelton Flight Systems, Boise, Idaho. Hart was a marketing executive and Shirey a business development executive with Sagem Avionics Inc.
NASA faces major challenges in both the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and in reestablishing its role in aviation and technology development (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 66). Unfortunately, the budget will not permit both. The cost of human spaceflight is simply too high, and it will not be reduced by the VSE. Nor does it make sense to abandon the International Space Station, the only practical destination for a future generation of reusable spacecraft.
The European Space Agency will split a €329-million ($424.4-million) prime contract for Bepi Colombo Mercury mission, the agency's next major science project, between Astrium and Alcatel Alenia Space. Astrium Germany will be overall prime contractor, with Astrium U.K. and Alcatel Alenia Italy as co-primes, says Jacques Louet, ESA's director of science projects. But Astrium Germany will shoulder the full program risk under a "political expedient" approved last week by ESA's industrial policy committee.
Though the overwhelming majority of the Pentagon's highly skilled technical workforce is at the cusp of or beyond retirement age, workers apparently aren't running for the door, as once feared. This is giving the Defense Dept. borrowed time to continue planning how to manage its aging workforce and head off a mass exodus.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael (Buzz) Moseley apparently isn't enthusiastic about his service's $15-billion decision to buy a variant of the CH-47 to be its future combat search and rescue helicopter. "Buzz . . . doesn't want his special operations guys having to fly the Chinook design," says a senior Air Force official, who adds that it's an older-generation aircraft than its combat-search-and-rescue competitors, Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland's US101 variant and Sikorsky's S-92 derivative.
In the Nov. 27, 2006, issue (p. 10), an editor rebuts Karl Kettler's letter entitled "What's the Fuss About ADS-B?" Policy decisions have been made that Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is the en-route, if not terminal, air traffic control surveillance system of the future.
The importance of the Middle East as a market for luxury was underscored by Boeing's release of cabin concepts for its 787 VIP airplane, including this view of a flying office, at the Middle East Business Aviation Conference in Dubai last week. Most Boeing Business Jets are based on the 737 NG platform, but the company has taken seven orders for the 787. It isn't disclosing the home-base of those customers, but the huge expansion of business in the Middle East for commercial and private aviation can't be underestimated.
Air China has agreed with CFM International to set up a joint maintenance business in China. The airline has ordered 53 CFM56 engines for 24 A321s that will be delivered from 2008-12. The airline valued the order at $345 million, or $6.5 million per engine.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency declared the Jan. 26 test of the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system a success. This was the first trial of Thaad at the Pacific Missile Range Facility near Kauai island in Hawaii, a facility that allows MDA to run the interceptor through its entire flight regime. Tests at White Sands, N.M., required them to truncate some of its capabilities for range safety. On Jan. 26, the interceptor hit its Scud-representative target just outside the Earth's atmosphere.
Fears that the upcoming presidential elections could compromise the ongoing French military modernization program are proving unfounded, although some big programs, notably a second aircraft carrier, still appear at risk.
DFW International Airport's first natural gas well will become operational this spring and start swelling non-aviation revenue. The airport already has collected $185 million in an initial bonus last October from Chesapeake Energy Corp., which entered into a long-term oil-and-gas lease agreement with DFW, which has 18,000 acres for natural gas exploration and production. It will receive an annual royalty of 25% of the value of natural gas produced there. DFW is also working on a 150-acre commercial development to boost non-aviation revenue.
David Abney has been promoted to chief operating officer from president of UPS International and has been named president UPS Airlines to succeed John Beystehner, who has retired. Alan Gershenhorn succeeds Abney as president of UPS International. Gershenhorn was Brussels-based head of operations of UPS Supply Chain Solutions in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
One of the features of the post-2001 airline environment in the U.S. has been the blurring of the boundaries between the traditional airline categories, and this trend shows every sign of continuing. Analysis of third-quarter cost data shows that while expenses for network carriers continue to decline, those for low-cost carriers (LCCs) are creeping upward--and some LCCs have effectively elevated themselves out of this category entirely.
A powerful new laser expected to expand greatly the ability of scientists to perform in-situ analysis of rocks is on its way to a 2009 rendezvous with Mars.
The Bush administration unveils its budget proposal for Fiscal 2008 this week, and both its context and content will carry risks and rewards for U.S. aerospace and aviation.
It may not have the heft of the proposed $4.8-billion sale of Smiths Aerospace to General Electric Co., but Esterline Technologies Corp.'s deal to acquire Canadian avionics concern CMC Electronics Inc. is another sign of supplier-level consolidation in aerospace, not to mention the growing role of private equity firms in industry mergers and acquisitions.
A week after Boeing said it would not use a wireless inflight entertainment system for the 787, that aircraft's launch customer, All Nippon Airways, opted for Panasonic Avionics Corp.'s eX2 system. A Panasonic official says the company was prepared to support either a wireless or wired IFE system. But he agreed with Boeing's assessment that wireless carries the greater risk in terms of regulatory approval and weight penalties (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 21).
