As a Nov. 23 deadline bears down on a congressional “Super Committee” tasked with agreeing on how to cut another $1.2 trillion from the U.S. budget deficit during the next 10 years, Democrats and Republicans remain far apart (see p. 54). One area of possible compromise is an overhaul of the U.S. corporate tax code. At 35%, the federal tax on corporations is one of the highest in the world, putting U.S. companies at a disadvantage with their competitors in Europe, Asia and Latin America. It also is distorted by a mishmash of credits and deductions.
Republic Airways, the U.S.-based parent of low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines and three regional airlines, has wrapped up its agreement with Airbus to purchase 80 A320NEO family aircraft. Frontier will operate the aircraft beginning in the second half of 2016, although by then Republic might no longer be the majority owner of the low-cost carrier.
California's Orange County Board of Supervisors has approved an incentive plan to entice airlines to start direct flights from the newly expanded John Wayne Airport (JWA) to Mexico. The incentive includes a $300,000 rent credit for terminal costs associated with Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) fees, and a regular daily departure slot from the tightly controlled airport. Although JWA has flights to Canada operated by WestJet, all passengers clear U.S. customs in Canada.
With 79 aircraft, Air Lease Corp. is on target for having 100 by year-end says President and Chief Operating Officer John Plueger, after release of the Los Angeles company's third-quarter results. Air Lease bought 14 aircraft in the quarter and entered into leases of 17 airplanes with 11 customers. Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy says passenger growth continues “at a strong rate in many regions of the world.” The company had a pretax profit margin of 31%, up from 15% in the second quarter, and net income of $18.3 million on revenues of $92.1 million.
The U.S. Navy has awarded Boeing a $1.7 billion contract for seven P-8A maritime patrol aircraft, the second low-rate initial production award for the program. The first, for the initial six production aircraft, was made in January. Boeing also is building six of the 737-derived submarine hunters for its flight-test program. Boeing also won a $48 million contract to develop the Type 4 advanced mission computer for the EA-18G and F/A-18E/F. The hardware is intended to increase warfighting capabilities. A production contract is expected in 2012.
Boeing, now formally offering radio-frequency identification (RFID) to keep parts-records in aircraft already in service, is looking at introducing the technology as factory standard on commercial and military aircraft. The company expects the FAA to certify the system by year-end, says program manager Phil Coop. The system went on the market only a year after Boeing and electronics and software supplier Fujitsu launched it, mainly because development began six years ago with the aim of fitting RFID as standard equipment on the 787.
The Indian government is signaling that Boeing soon will be awarded a contract for 22 AH-64D Apache Longbow Block IIIs for the Indian air force (IAF). The rotorcraft, which is used by the U.S. Army, is said to have outperformed the rival Russian Mil Mi-28N Night Hunter in tests and was strongly recommended by the IAF earlier this year following trials in 2010. The new helicopters will replace the IAF's aging Mil Mi-35s.
Embraer will develop a second generation of “E-Jets” with new engines, wings and landing gear, forgoing the option of creating a larger aircraft that would challenge Airbus and Boeing head-on.
What product is essential for flight controls but a mystery to some aeronautical engineers? With allowances for scale, a dentist or surgeon might recognize it. If your answer is flexible shafts you obviously have a knowledge of how thrust reversers, flaps and slats work. Or, maybe, you've just had a lot of cavities.
Long a bastion of secrecy, suspicion, obstreperousness and procedural lunacy, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is showing signs of change for the better regarding its interaction with business aircraft operators. A ray of light after years of darkness.
It's among the world's largest oil companies, but ExxonMobil says it is done serving business aviation and is shuttering its Avitat system. In the doing, it's merely following other Big Oil outfits. Many within the fixed-base operations and fueling business say they've anticipated the withdrawal for some time. Foremost among them is Craig Sincock, president and CEO of Avfuel Corp. of Ann Arbor, Mich.
Experienced participants in international airline conferences will confirm that one of the basic rules that is presented by the second panel (at the very latest) is: In the airline industry, size matters. While that may not be the case for every carrier—and a large footprint does not protect airlines from failure—the statement definitely applies to British airline BMI.
On his first swing through town as chief of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Tony Tyler, the former Cathay Pacific CEO, opines that the EU is “misguided” if it believes the furor over the emissions trading system it plans to force upon carriers serving the continent will fade away once it is in place. A bill pending in Congress would prohibit U.S. airlines from participating, and other nations have threatened retaliation.
Back on the ground, the U.S. transportation secretary should make sure tarmac-delay rules are enforced and consider requiring airports to plan for aircraft stuck on runways, say Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Olympia Snowe (R-Maine). In a Nov. 10 letter to Secretary Ray LaHood, the senators praised his department for putting new rules in place—a move they say has already reduced such incidents. But a recent 7-hr. delay at a Connecticut airport prompted them to chastise LaHood for failing to enforce them.
In the ongoing debate over adding the chief of the National Guard Bureau to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) urges the current Joint Chiefs not to stand in the way. “This is one thing we're agreeing on,” Manchin said of Congress. “Don't deny us that.” The issue is likely to come to a head in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill, expected this year. The Joint Chiefs—who also do not include the Coast Guard commandant—oppose adding the National Guard owing to concerns over muddying, and losing, their authority.
One enduring lesson from combating improvised explosive devices (IEDs) overseas has been that the answer lies just as much in Washington as in theater. Six months ago, the U.S. government-wide effort to learn more about a network that ran ammonium nitrate from two legitimate manufacturing facilities in Pakistan to Afghanistan was at a “dead stop,” says Army Lt. Gen. Michael Barbero, director of the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO).
Finally, in the politics-make-strange-bedfellows department, the Obama administration and Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) are both working to turn back proposed House cuts to life-extension efforts for the U.S.'s nuclear bombs. Turner suggests that some funding was siphoned by lawmakers for local water projects. The squabble has an administration known for wanting to cut nukes siding with a Republican lawmaker against his conservative counterparts who are usually known for hawkish stands.
In a little more than a decade, the role suppliers play in developing, producing and sustaining complex systems has quadrupled. Roughly 60-80% of every major aerospace and defense (A&D) manufacturing program effort is delivered to prime contractors from their supply base.
One of the industry's worst-kept secrets was that there was going to be more to come, when Airbus announced a delay to the A350-800 and -1000 at this year's Paris air show. The only questions were: When would a schedule shift for the baseline A350-900 be announced and how extensive would it be?
With Western aerospace and defense (A&D) budgets increasingly being crunched, and more of the same expected for years to come, program managers in the U.S. have a new mantra to march to: “keep it sold.”
Foreign governments have been known to describe the U.S. export system in terms fit for a circus. Kevin Wolf, assistant secretary of commerce for export administration, remembers the comment this way: “You authorize the export of the elephant, but you make it difficult to get the peanuts.”
Asia-Pacific Staff (New Delhi), Robert Wall (London)
The cost of acquiring the winning aircraft for India's Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) competition is no longer a secret (except to the public, for now). With final MMRCA bids in for the Dassault Rafale or Eurofighter Typhoon, the offers of both European companies were opened Nov. 4 and their contents revealed for the first time to the two European rivals, as well as the Indian government's MMRCA program team, and three defense ministry officers who will spend the next 6-8 weeks boiling the offers down to a common, comparable form.
New fighters, missiles and missions are the hallmarks of the U.S. Air Force. While these still percolate in long-term plans, near-term fiscal constraints are forcing the service to craft a delicate balance between upgrading existing forces and husbanding funds for new equipment.
As airlines launch the first commercial biofuel flights in the U.S., the government is working with industry to scale up production of biomass-derived jet fuel to commercial quantities beginning in 2012. Following the lead set by carriers in Europe and Mexico, United Airlines on Nov. 7 completed a revenue flight from Houston to Chicago on a blend of 40% biofuel from algal oil and 60% conventional jet fuel. On Nov. 9, Alaska Airlines began a series of 75 flights from Seattle to Washington and Portland, Ore., on a 20% blend of biofuel from waste cooking oil.
