With the Singapore Airshow set for Feb. 11-16, much of this issue focuses on Asia. A special report begins on page 46 with an article on the impact of low-cost carriers in the region. An article on page 40 and a section beginning on page 73 focus on India's defense buildup. Bruno Delliere's photo depicts one of the custom-configured F-16s in Singapore's inventory. Some, such as this aircraft, are based in the U.S. for training. A major mid-life update program is planned.
Sharing borders with China and Pakistan, both of which have undertaken their own weapons modernization efforts, and having borne the brunt of devastating terrorist attacks, India has undertaken its own military transformation. Without its own defense industrial base, India's modernization has been fueled by imports, and India now tops the list of global weapons buyers in the last five years (see map on pages 74-75). Despite procurement delays due to India's current political situation, the trend is expected to continue in the long term.
Two recent events epitomize radically diverging fates in the global defense industry. At the end of 2013, Singapore ordered Type 218SG submarines from German company ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS) for €1.6 billion ($2.2 billion). A month later, the French defense minister awarded a €1 billion contract for the modernization of Dassault's Rafale fighter aircraft (see photo). A good story for both companies? Not quite.
Airbus Helicopters has completed the certification process for its EC175 medium twin-engine rotorcraft. CEO Guillaume Faury said he expected the delayed aircraft would win certification within days. Deliveries to the three main launch customers—NHV, UTAir and Heli-Union—are not due until the second or third quarter of the year, however. Certification of AgustaWestland's rival AW189 is also expected shortly, with deliveries due to launch customer Bristow within a week of certification.
Colin Jowers has become global director of business technology for London-based Air Partner. He was global chief operating officer of Royal Bank of Scotland's Global Banking and Markets Research and Strategy Div.
David Campbell has become vice president-technical operations for JetBlue Airways. He was vice president-safety and operations performance for American Airlines. Campbell succeeds Dave Ramage, who will be retiring.
Dann Runik (see photos) has been promoted to executive director of advanced training programs for New York-based FlightSafety International from manager of OEM and customer relations at the FSI Learning Center in Savannah, Ga. Marin Todorov has been promoted to manager of specialty and enrichment training programs from manager of e-learning systems.
Stephen A. Fuselier (see photo) has been appointed director of the Space Science Department in the San Antonio-based Southwest Research Institute's Space Science and Engineering Div. He was a program director and had worked in the Space Physics Department at Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center.
Obituary: Gilbert W. Speed, the founder of SpeedNews publications and conferences, a sister business of Aviation Week & Space Technology, died Jan. 27 after a long illness. He was 81. Speed's career in the aviation and aerospace industries stretched more than 60 years. He started as a student apprentice at the Bristol Aeroplane Co.—now part of BAE Systems—in 1952. Five years later, he moved to New York to work for Eastern Airlines as a development engineer for the DC-8 and Lockheed Electra.
Europe's version of the Russian Soyuz rocket has more customers than launch slots this year, a problem that complicates a European Commission plan to see six Galileo positioning, navigation and timing satellites orbited by the end of 2014. With four prototype Galileo satellites already in orbit, EC Vice President Antonio Tajani is on a quest to see six more fully operational spacecraft lofted in pairs from the European spaceport in French Guiana starting in June, followed by subsequent launches in October and December.
Diane L. Damos, President (Gurnee, Ill. ), Damos Aviation Services Inc. (Gurnee, Ill. )
Sean Broderick's Airline Intel column “No Easy Answers” (AW&ST Dec. 9, 2013, p. 17) did not mention pilot selection as a possible contributing factor to the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident in which a Boeing 777 crash landed on approach to a major U.S. hub on a clear morning July 6, 2013. Note that pilots with lower scores on certain types of selection tests may have trouble learning and retaining complex material. They also may be slower to recognize critical situations developing.
After two years of contentious debate, the European Commission has a freshly minted budget of €10 billion ($13.7 billion) over seven years with which to complete and launch two new flagship space programs: the Galileo satellite navigation constellation and the Copernicus Earth-observation system. With some half-dozen spacecraft dedicated to the two programs set to launch this year, the EC's next task is to figure out how to use them.
An article on NASA commercial-crew vehicle development in the Jan. 27 issue (page 26) incorrectly stated the type of Commercial Crew Transportation Capability Contract agreement that will be awarded. “One or more” firm fixed-price contracts will be awarded, according to NASA. web hed: Multiple Contracts On The Way
Aviation Week has appointed Jeremy Torr as Singapore-based Southeast Asia bureau chief, effective immediately. Torr is a trained engineer and a journalist who has worked in Singapore for 13 years, most recently as editor of Asian Airlines & Airports magazine. He began his career in the U.K., where he wrote for The Guardian, The Sunday Times and a range of technical publications. Torr later was a technology editor for The Sydney Morning Herald.
The Royal New Zealand Air Force has become the latest customer for the Beechcraft T-6 Texan turboprop trainer. Beechcraft and Global Mission Support have partnered with Safe Air and CAE to provide 11 T-6s and simulators and other equipment to support training. The T-6 will replace the CT-4 Airtrainer. The first four are scheduled to be delivered in November, and all 11 by mid-2015.
The price of carbon dioxide allowances (EUAs) under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) rallied to a four-month high in January, as the European Commission's short-term market intervention proposal drew nearer to final agreement. The price of EUAs for delivery in December 2014 rallied to €5.61 per metric ton ($7.66) on Jan. 28—the highest price since Sept. 26, according to Platts data. Prices took support last month from proposed short- and long-term reforms of the ETS.
The cliff-hanger Boeing machinists' vote that cleared the way for 777X production in Washington state in the first few days of 2014 was crucial to the company's commercial future, says Boeing chairman and CEO, Jim McNerney. “We are exiting a period where every few years we had a dramatic event and entering a period of 10 years of stability. Having said that, the vote was close. There were emotions on both sides of the equation but eventually everyone centered on this huge business opportunity we had with the 777X and we came together.”
