PO Box 138, Manama, BAHRAIN Code: GF Employees: 5,760 www.gulfairco.com Tel. (973 17) 322-200 Fax (973 17) 320-933 Ownership: Abu Dhabi; Bahrain; Oman- 33.33% each Executive Management Chairman Shaikh Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Harthy President & CEO James Hogan VP Finance Ahmed Al Hammadi
British Airways and its staff unions are closing on a deal that would help tackle its $3.8-billion pension deficit. The four unions involved earlier this month recommended to their members that the BA proposals be accepted. They would see retirement age options between 55-65.
Boeing has won two contracts--for $248.3 million and $5 million--for C-17 sustainment-labor/engine logistics support and material. Raytheon Aircraft Co. will supply the U.S. Air Force with five King Air 350 extended-range ISR aircraft and a single King Air 350 light transport in a contract worth $132.3 million. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems garnered a $42.6-million deal for program management, repairs and support of weapons-carrying Predator MQ-1 and MQ-9 unmanned aircraft.
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA AEROSPACE Foundation and Robeson Community College are building a new flight training facility in Lumberton, N.C. The university is partnering with the college to provide training in an effort to meet growing demand for commercial pilots, airport managers and air traffic controllers. The Lumberton Flight Training Center will offer four-year courses in commercial aviation, flight education, aviation management and air traffic control. Construction is scheduled to be completed in May.
The Polish military is looking to buy six aircraft for VIP transport, with interested parties to submit intentions to bid by Jan. 19 and formal bids due by the end of April. A source selection is set for May. The government also wants the winner to provide two aircraft on lease within four months of contract signature until the first two purchased aircraft are available. The deal would encompass flight crew and maintenance training.
The ongoing debate among readers (AW&ST Oct. 2, 2006, p. 6) concerning feasibility of various concepts for flyback boosters is not likely to produce any improvements in space launch architecture. As always, having the right concept at the start is critical to success of space access activity, such as the rapid-response system being pursued by the U.S. Air Force.
Blue Origin, the secretive commercial rocket company bankrolled by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, is looking for engineers with experience developing big cryogenic rockets as it advances its planned New Shepherd vehicle for human suborbital flight.
The German defense ministry has awarded a large information technology contract to a consortium of Siemens Business Services and IBM Deutschland. The so-called Herkules program is the largest IT endeavor the German armed forces have ever undertaken. A joint venture is being set up to manage the 10-year, €7.1-billion ($9.4-billion) project, with the companies holding 50.1% and the state the balance.
The House Democrats' new ethics broom sweeps clean. The House code of official conduct will prohibit representatives from using official, personal or campaign funds to pay for the use of privately owned aircraft. Members still will be able to charter commercially available airplanes. The "corporate jet ban" provision was one of several amendments to House rules after Democrats took control Jan. 4.
Comair and its pilots have until Feb. 2 to reach an agreement on work rules and pay rates. Management and the Air Line Pilots Assn. unit set that date in a temporary accord reached Dec. 28, which averted a showdown. The agreement defers an $8-million pay increase scheduled to take effect Jan. 1. The 1,600-member union has authority to strike if negotiations fail to achieve an accord satisfactory to the union. Comair management is armed with court authority to impose contract terms that would reduce pilots' average annual wage of $59,600 by $6,400.
John Clark has become chief scientist for aeronautical engineering for the National Transportation Safety Board. He was director of aviation safety and will be succeeded by Tom Haueter, who has been deputy director.
Gene Cunningham (see photo) has been named vice president/deputy director of the Bell Boeing Program Office in Amarillo, Tex. He succeeds Mike Anderson, who is retiring. Cunningham was vice president-business development for Boeing Rotorcraft Systems in Philadelphia.
Lithuania has taken delivery of the first of three Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan tactical airlifters. The air force will receive the other two aircraft in 2009. The airlifters are fitted with an air-refueling probe to support extended-range operations for overseas missions. This week, Alenia will also deliver the first of 12 C-27Js to the Pisa-based 46th Aerobrigade of the Italian air force. The aircraft was used for the fly-off in the U.S. under the Joint Cargo Aircraft program, where it is pitted against the EADS CASA CN-295.
Bell Helicopter has delivered three Bell 412s to India's largest private helicopter operator, Mumbai-based Global Vectra Helicorp, taking its fleet to 18. The company was the first to introduce the Bell 412 to the offshore market in India, and is the largest supplier of offshore air logistics support to the oil and gas industry. GVH has created an MRO center in Mumbai and is the only company to undertake the 3,000-hr./five-year check on Bell 412s.
French space industry officials say disagreement over how to implement a key element of a demonstrator program aimed at maintaining vital launcher technologies could compromise the program's success.
Hans Schmitz has become senior vice president of Lufthansa Technik's new VIP and Executive Jet Solutions Center in Hamburg. He was general manager of Ameco Beijing. Schmitz will be succeeded by Andreas Meisel, who heads Lufthansa Technik's Aircraft Overhaul and VIP Jet Services Div. Meisel was Ameco's executive director of sales and services.
Raytheon has delivered the first Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (Viirs) engineering development unit for use on the next-generation U.S. polar-orbiting weather satellite system. Delays delivering Viirs were a key factor in overall cost growth to the $11.5 National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess), up from an earlier estimated $7 billion. The delivery clears the way for integration system-level testing of the Viirs onto the Npoess Preparatory Project spacecraft, a risk-reduction project managed by Ball Aerospace.
Ethiopian Airlines has leased two DC-10-30F freighters from U.S.-based World Airways. The aircraft are expected to provide 520 additional tons of weekly cargo capacity for Ethiopia's export market for perishable goods. The aircraft are set to serve the Addis Ababa-Brussels route, but also will operate to the African cities of Cairo, Khartoum, Kinshasa and Nairobi, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
The U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board is to discuss its plans to conduct five leadership-directed studies for Fiscal 2007. Topics of interest are: "Implications of Cyber Warfare, Operational Utility of Small Satellites," "Theater Ballistic Missile Threat Assessment," "Thermal Management Technology Solutions" and "Use and Sustainment of Composites in Aircraft." Though, all but the first hour of the Jan. 16 meeting will be closed.
Tom Bradley (see photo) has been appointed director of national space programs for the Strategic Systems Div. of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, El Segundo, Calif. He was one of the division's deputy program executives.
Eutelsat has selected Alcatel Alenia Space to build a new W-Series spacecraft--the W7--and Sea Launch to be the launch provider. Set for orbiting in the second quarter of 2009, the 5.6-metric-ton, 12-kw. spacecraft will be equipped with as many as 70 K u-band transponders, allowing the Paris-based operator to double capacity at its new 36 deg. E. Long. orbital neighborhood, and to move an older spacecraft--Sesat 1--to a new location.
Your editorial "Beware of Weaknesses in US Airways' Bid for Delta" (AW&ST Dec. 4, 2006, p. 66) made several important points regarding the proposed merger. However, one important element was omitted: the customer.
