Qatar Airways' negotiations to buy the Bombardier CSeries are on hold as the airline deals with other expansion issues. During the EBACE business aviation show in Geneva last week, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker pointed to fielding plans for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, A350 and A320NEO. As a result “we have, at the moment, delayed our further negotiations for the CSeries.” The negotiations could resume in 6-12 months, he notes.
John M. Stone, (see photo) has been promoted to institute engineer in the Space Science and Engineering Div. at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He was the instrument suite electrical system engineering lead for its magnetospheric multiscale mission.
Growing interest in small satellites and the problem of how to launch them affordably could provide hypersonic system developers with a long-awaited first step on the way to reusable, routine access to space.
Here is a regional airline with Chinese characteristics—one that is growing so fast that it is rapidly picking up mainline characteristics. In just five years, the company has evolved from operating Dornier 328s to Embraer ERJ 145s, then Embraer 190s and now Airbus A320s. By mid-decade it plans to take the remarkably non-regional step of introducing widebodies for intercontinental services. A freight subsidiary is also in the works.
It has been almost 50 years since Mariner 2 became the first space probe from Earth to return scientific data from another planet. The swarms of ever-more-sophisticated robotic spacecraft that followed have changed our view of the planets around our Sun in ways that seem incredible today. On Aug. 27, 1962, when Mariner 2 lifted off for Venus, many scientists believed Earth's sunward neighbor was a steamy jungle planet beneath its clouds. Data from the two-channel microwave radiometer on Mariner 2 quickly disabused everyone of that notion. Passing within 22,000 mi.
Steven M. Simpson (see photo) has been promoted to director of training at Dallas Love Field for Executive AirShare, Kansas City, Mo. He was assistant chief pilot and standards captain.
With projected fleet growth and expected pilot retirements, it is inevitable there will be a shortage of crews to fill commercial flight decks. It is just a question of when and where, with some regions already feeling the pinch. So training provider CAE is getting ready to respond to demand by acquiring the flight-school, type-rating and crew-sourcing capacity of Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) of Canada, arguably the leading name in ab-initio pilot training.
AgustaWestland has logged the first flight of the 4,500-kg (10,000-lb.) AW169 helicopter it hopes to start delivering in 2015. The first of four flight-test aircraft flew on May 10 at the company's plant at Cascina Costa, Italy. Two more prototypes are to fly this year with a fourth next year, as AgustaWestland aims for civil certification in 2014.
Two Asian remote-sensing satellites are in on-orbit checkout following their May 17 launch on a Japanese H-IIA rocket. One is a South Korean spacecraft that is Japan's first international commercial launch payload. The two lifted off from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launch site on Tanegashima Island in southeast Japan on time at 12:39 p.m. EDT, and the spacecraft separated as planned.
Thales Alenia Space stands to receive a €53 million ($68 million) settlement by June 9 in a legal dispute with Globalstar. An arbitrator ruled in favor of Thales Alenia Space in a disagreement over a 2009 satellite contract between the operator and satellite maker.
A high-profile aviation dispute has invaded French politics and its timing is unprecedented. Several days before Francois Hollande officially succeeded Nicolas Sarkozy as president of the republic, a regional airport project upstaged the new leader. Hollande, who had begun to form his government, was preparing to appoint Jean-Marc Ayrault to a top position. Ayrault—who was named prime minister last week—is the mayor of Nantes and has been for many years a respected member of the National Assembly.
In recent years, it has been fairly easy to paint the regional airline industry with a broad brush: it is dominated by North America and perpetually struggling. But while U.S. regionals continue to be battered by bankruptcies and squeezed by major carriers, there is a bright side to the industry. In other parts of the world, regionals such as Wideroe and Rex are growing and even prospering. In this package of articles, Aviation Week's global team looks at carriers in four different markets to see why they are succeeding—or not succeeding, in the case of the U.S.
Indonesian authorities have begun extracting information from the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 that crashed during a demonstration flight on May 9, killing all 45 onboard. Late last week, the search for the flight data recorder at the crash site on Mount Salak was still continuing. Extraction of CVR information will be performed by Indonesia's national transportation safety agency, KNKT. Aircraft maker Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Corp.
SpaceX will get an early opportunity to show what it can do to help scientists and engineers use the International Space Station by flying a powerful thruster testbed up in the unpressurized section of its Dragon cargo capsule.
The International Space Station has a crew of six again, following launch and docking of Russia's Soyuz TMA-04M capsule with two cosmonauts and a NASA astronaut on board. The May 17 linkup restored the station to six-person operations for the first time since April 27, when a crew of three U.S. and Russian fliers descended to Earth after 5.5 months in orbit. Cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Sergei Revin and NASA's Joseph Acaba (seen in this photo taken in the Russian space agency control room) lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on May 15.
International Airlines Group (IAG) finally got a grip on its most important takeover target, acquiring BMI in April. Now the task of integration begins. IAG unit British Airways has been pursuing BMI literally for years, since gaining control of its smaller competitor appeared to be the only way to access more slots at its London Heathrow Airport home base.
Melanie Wolf (see photo) has been named head of press and public relations for Munich-based MTU Aero Engines, effective June 1. She succeeds Odilo Muehling, who will retire this month. Wolf was the spokeswoman for Eurocopter.
The Mexican navy has taken delivery of its fourth and final Airbus Military CN235-300 maritime patrol aircraft from EADS North America under a U.S. Coast Guard-managed foreign military sales (FMS) agreement. Mexico was the first FMS customer for the CN235. EADS is also supplying spares provisioning, ground support equipment and training for the Mexican navy.
USAF Maj. Gen. Frederick H. Martin has been appointed deputy director of operations for the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, U.S. Central Command, Baghdad. He has been director of operations, Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Scott P. Goodwin, who has been commandant of the U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center of Air Mobility Command, Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J. Taking his place will be Col. Martha A. Meeker, who has been selected for promotion to brigadier general.
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. (ret.) Daniel P. Holloway (see photo) has been named VP-customer relations for Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding division, Pascagoula, Miss. He was director of military personnel plans and policy on the staff of the chief of naval operations.
John M. Stone, (see photo) has been promoted to institute engineer in the Space Science and Engineering Div. at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He was the instrument suite electrical system engineering lead for its magnetospheric multiscale mission.
