The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank) has authorized a $343.3 million direct loan to Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd. (AsiaSat) to finance the purchase of two Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) communications satellites, plus launch services. SS/L is building AsiaSat 6, a C-band satellite, and AsiaSat 8, a mixed Ku/Ka-band satellite, under a contract announced in November 2011. The launches, to be carried out by SpaceX, are planned for the first half of 2014. To date in fiscal 2013, the Ex-Im Bank has authorized $891 million in support of U.S.
As a reader of Aviation Week since the mid 1960s, I find the quality of writing and your adaptable format are a real pluses. Stay the course. Pauma Valley, Calif.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Ann E. Dunwoody (see photo) has been named to the board of directors of New York-based L-3 Communications. She was head of the Army Materiel Command and had been a strategic planner for the Army chief of staff and executive officer to the director of the Defense Logistics Agency.
With flight-testing of the Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-powered Airbus A350-900 getting underway, and rig tests of a scaled compressor for General Electric's GE9X about to begin for Boeing's upcoming 777X, the scene is set for an epic new chapter in the ongoing battle of the big fans.
Satvendar “Sam” Singh has been appointed Singapore-based chief commercial officer for AJW Aviation. He has worked for Mubadala Aerospace MRO Network/SR Technics Switzerland, Singapore Airlines Engineering Co. and Execujet Aviation Group.
While the Paris static line will be dominated by major U.S. and European companies and their big-ticket programs, indoor exhibits and a good deal of discussion will revolve around the increasing globalization of the industry. While the big four—Europe and the U.S., and Brazil and Canada on the regional side—continue to fend off competition in the commercial world, the defense market may be more fluid.
In the latest in a string of high-profile defense-industry corruption cases, a European official is charged with trying to pay bribes to prevent his company, Rheinmetall Air Defense (RAD), from landing on India's blacklist, where it was placed after a previous alleged instance of corruption.
I would like to add to the comments from readers in the last few issues as to how Aviation Week can improve. Concentrate more on the aerospace industry's motivating achievements and less on end-user financial squabbling. As an ex-patriot Englishman who came to the U.S. in the mid-sixties—a “can-do” attitude era—the culture contained a vibrant aerospace industry and we followed its many achievements (and sometimes failures) via the weekly in-depth updates in Aviation Week.
Thomas A. Surran has been appointed president of the Commercial Systems Div. of Flir Systems, Portland, Ore. He was CFO and succeeds Andrew C. Teich, who is now president/CEO. Jeffrey D. Frank has been named vice president-global product strategy.
Boeing is optimistic that a new wave of international sales will fill out production of the C-17 at its Long Beach, Calif., facility for the balance of 2014 and beyond. Boeing discussed sales prospects at the delivery of the first of 10 C-17s to the Indian air force on June 11. The aircraft, the 254th C-17 to be delivered, will be followed by four more for India by year-end and a further five in 2014, the first full year of production without any deliveries to USAF.
Spirit AeroSystems is not the only major supplier spun off from a major aircraft manufacturer to be in trouble. EADS subsidiary Premium Aerotec is replacing most of its executive board as the company struggles with inefficiencies in the ramp-up of key programs, particularly the Airbus A350.
Four major commercial aircraft are scheduled to make first flights in 2013. From top to bottom are the Airbus A350; Bombardier CSeries CS100; Boeing 787-9, the new stretched variant of the 787; and Mitsubishi Regional Jet. This year's Paris air show will be a tale of two industries, as rising demand for commercial aircraft contrasts sharply with slumping defense budgets in Europe and the U.S. Elsewhere in this issue, we examine new CEO Larry Lawson's plans for aerostructures supplier Spirit AeroSystems (page 38).
Halldor Sigurdarson has been appointed CFO of Eastern European charter operator Small Planet Airlines. He has been an executive at Air Atlanta and Excel Airways.
As it prepares for the 737 MAX, Boeing is adding more automation and fuselage buildup capacity at its Renton factory south of Seattle. But it is keeping options open for the transition of the new airplane into the existing 737 Next Generation final assembly line.
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Pegasus XL air-launched rocket is in final preparation to send a NASA scientific satellite into polar orbit to study a poorly understood region of the Sun's atmosphere in unprecedented detail. The Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) (see image) will combine an ultraviolet telescope and a multi-channel imaging spectrograph to study the interface region between the visible surface of the Sun and its upper atmosphere, which is the source of most of the Sun's UV radiation.
The Pentagon has finally signed a $6.5 billion, five-year contract with Bell-Boeing for the next 99 V-22 tiltrotors—92 MV-22s for the Marine Corps and seven CV-22s for USAF Special Operations Forces. This second multi-year deal covers work through fiscal 2017 and will save $1 billion, compared to buying the 99 aircraft in annual procurements, according to program officials.
Big shows are made for big news, and while there is no golden rule in the air transport business that says new product launches are best saved for major air events, Boeing hopes this year's gathering at Le Bourget will be the perfect venue for the go-ahead of the 787-10X.
The already relentless pace of the Trent engine program for the Boeing 787 is accelerating to new levels as Rolls-Royce ramps up flight- and ground-test development work on new and major derivatives of the Trent 1000.
There is little doubt that the Air France-KLM Group is in bad shape; its shares are trading at a fifth of their value in the company's glory days in 2007. Of all the elements contributing to Air France-KLM's debt (close to €6 billion, or $8 billion) and losses (a €530 million operating loss for the first three months of this year), the culture of complacency was probably the most damaging.
John H. Schmidt (see photo) has been named managing director for Accenture's North American aerospace and defense practice. He was a senior executive with the company's communications, media and high-tech industry group.
