Army acquisition chief Claude Bolton says he has a notional goal of relaunching the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) program by February 2008, when the Fiscal 2009 budget will be submitted to Congress. Lockheed Martin won the ACS contract, but the program unraveled in 2005 after officials realized that the planned platform, the Embraer EC-145, was not large enough to carry the intelligence suite. At that point, ACS money was redistributed to the existing Guardrail and Aerial Reconnaissance Low fleets.
The Finnish defense ministry is urging Finnair to acquire Airbus A330-based multirole tanker transports, which the government would lease for military ops and possible use in evacuations. The airline seems to be trying to work out how to meet the demand and its fiduciary responsibility to shareholders. The Finnish government is still a majority shareholder.
Much of the future of electronic attack will not involve large aircraft carrying massive antennas blasting forth bursts of electronic noise. Instead, some electronic warfare specialists are developing cheap (less than $500 each in quantities of 25,000), bread-loaf-size ground sensors packaged in high-impact plastic containers that carry relatively dumb, unclassified sensor payloads.
Alitalia is meeting with little success in its efforts to shore up its financial coffers by selling some of its real estate. The carrier is trying to auction a chunk of land near Rome Fiumicino airport, but the airport authority, Aeroporti di Roma, says it, and not Air One, holds rights to the land. At the same time, the ENAC civil aviation agency is questioning whether construction might interfere with airport operations or future expansion of the facility. Additionally, the auction itself has not generated much interest.
Italy has awarded Alcatel Alenia Space a contract to complete the Sicral 1b satellite, which is intended to meet Italian and NATO secure-communications requirements through the end of the next decade.
William H. Swanson, who is chairman/ CEO of the Raytheon Co., has been elected chairman for 2007 of the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He succeeds Ronald D. Sugar of the Northrop Grumman Corp. Rockwell Collins CEO Clayton Jones was elected vice chairman. The board has reelected John Douglass as AIA's president/CEO and Ginette Colot as secretary-treasurer. Members of the Board of Governors Executive Committee include Swanson, Sugar, Jones, Douglass and the following: James F.
The government of Oman has approved completion of a major expansion of its central command-and-control facility to occur in time for the upcoming major Gulf Cooperation Council exercise, Peninsula Shield. EADS, which built the original facility, is responsible for the new improvements that include 120 workstations and will incorporate a command-and-control information exchange data model from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The contract is worth €5.7 million ($7.3 million).
French military officials say a crash program to qualify the Rafale F2 to carry Paveway 2 smart bombs, necessary to allow the multirole fighter to be deployed to Afghanistan, will be completed by mid-March.
NetJets Aviation and NetJets Europe have signed a second order for an additional 48 Raytheon Aircraft Co. (RAC) Hawker 750 and Hawker 900XP business jets for U.S. and European operations. Combined with the first order in October 2006, the sale is worth more than $1 billion. Plans call for initial deliveries of the Hawker 900XP to begin this year and end in 2009, with follow-on deliveries from 2009-12. Hawker 750 deliveries will occur in 2008-09, with the additional airplanes to be shipped in 2010-11.
Boeing has delivered the 100th shipset of F-22 Raptor wings to partner Lockheed Martin in Marietta, Ga. According to Paul Bay, Boeing vice president and F-22 program manager, the company has reduced time to build a set of wings by more than 45,000 man-hours and cut cycle time by 70% since the first wings were shipped late in 1996. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin has delivered 82 F-22s to the U.S. Air Force and has orders for another 49 of the air superiority fighters.
Envelope expansion on the Alenia-Aermacchi M-346 advanced jet trainer is continuing with release of a new version of the flight control software. It has allowed the trainer to reach a speed of Mach 0.96, entering the full transonic regime and topping its previous high speed of Mach 0.85. Aermacchi is starting production of the first pre-production M-346, which is set to fly before year-end.
Japan Airlines will boost frequencies to the U.S., France, China and India in the schedule it will introduce Apr. 1. The company also will add 737-800s to its international routes, operating from Osaka to China and Vietnam. In another first, JAL will introduce first-class on domestic services by Boeing 777s.
RSC Energia reported a record 469-million-ruble ($17.7-million) net profit in 2006, with a 37% increase in revenues, and expects to maintain strong sales and earnings through the end of the decade, according to Chief Executive Nikolay Sevastiyanov. In 2007, Energia will deliver nine Block DM upper stages, used on the Sea Launch Zenit booster, along with two Yamal-300 telecommunications satellites. Over the next three years, the corporation also plans to manufacture four Soyuz manned space vehicles and up to seven Progress cargo vehicles.
Boeing has officially begun the worldwide assembly cycle for the 787 with the delivery of two composite fuselage sections made in Japan and air-freighted to Charleston, S.C. The assemblies include the 23-ft.-long Section 43 forward fuselage made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries and the 28-ft.-long Sections 11/45, the center wheel well and center wing tank, made by KHI and Fuji Heavy Industries, respectively, and joined by FHI.
A U.S. Air Force MQ-1 missile-firing Predator UAV crashed 5 mi. southeast of Baghdad International Airport just before midnight Jan. 17. Hostile ground fire does not appear to have been involved.
Although Airbus's cargo activities are moving into high gear with the formal launch of the commercial A330-200 freighter, it is the military side of the equation that will prove critical in determining whether the A400M transport will fly on time in the second half of the year. Meanwhile, the European manufacturer also has downscaled modernization plans for its cash-cow, the A320 family, lowering fuel-burn improvement targets that were set last year.
Kayser-Threde was instrumental in setting up RapidEye, a German company building a constellation of medium-resolution Earth observation satellites. However, RapidEye is now an independent company (AW&ST Nov. 20, 2006, p. 24).
Airbus faces at least another six months of turbulence as it deals with lingering issues on the A380 mega-transport, its A350XWB new twin-widebody and Power8 competitiveness plan, even though the company is trying to leave most of its bad news behind in 2006. One of the focal points in the coming weeks will be ongoing talks between the aircraft maker and its sole remaining A380 freighter customer, UPS, over whether that deal will stand. FedEx, Emirates and International Lease Finance Corp. have already withdrawn from the cargo version.
Yosef Fouks (see photos) has been named general manager of the Signal Intelligence, Electronic Warfare and Communications Div. of Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary Elta Systsms Ltd. He was director of naval systems. Yosef Oren has become general manager of the Imint and Radar Div. He was director of visual intelligence.
Virgin America is willing to make substantial changes to its investor agreements and board structure as part of a final plea to the U.S. Transportation Dept. to reverse a December tentative rejection of the carrier's start-up application. As part of the new structure, U.K.-based Virgin Group is dropping a board seat, leaving it with only two of eight voting seats. Virgin Group has agreed to put all of its voting shares in a trust with a department-approved U.S. trustee. The company's board is prepared to remove CEO Fred Reid "should the DOT find that necessary."
Katherine G. Ovalle and Elizabeth J. Wadsworth have joined the Washington law firm of Eckert Seamans Cherin and Mellott as associates focusing on aviation and aerospace law. Ovalle was associate counsel of the U.S. Transportation Dept. Office of Inspector General. Wadsworth was an associate for a Washington firm that specializes in aviation regulatory and commercial issues.
Alliot-Marie indicates she wants to make the former Giat arsenal, now known as Nexter, the center of the European munitions sector. This could involve merging the munitions activities of Thales affiliate TDA, MBDA and Eurenco.
A South Korean requirement for another 20 fighters looks certain to go to Boeing's F-15K, even though the government says it's looking for "next-generation" equipment and stresses that the deal is open to competition. Deliveries from 2010-12 are planned, following the 40 F-15Ks that South Korea ordered under a $4.2-billion contract in 2002.
Hong Kong's Dragonair carried 5.57 million passengers last year, 8.3% more than in 2005. The Cathay Pacific unit's cargo business rose 2.6% to 395,384 tons.
