Air Canada last week began offering special fares to Osaka for relief workers and the families of victims traveling to the earthquake-stricken area of Japan. The carrier filed its application to offer the fares soon after the Jan. 17 earthquake but did not receive approval until Wednesday. In a Jan. 26 message to employees, Air Canada blamed the delay on objections to the special fare registered by Canadian Airlines International, which serves Tokyo but not Osaka.
The Defense Dept. has elevated its point of contact with DOT and FAA officials involved in the Global Positioning System from its command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) office to Paul Kaminsky, deputy under secretary of defense for acquisition. The contact had been Emmett Page, assistant secretary of defense for C3I.
S&P put its B- preliminary senior debt rating of Continental's $1 billion Rule 415 shelf registration on CreditWatch with negative implications because of the serious operational and financial problems the airline has had implementing Continental Lite, and because of Continental's suspension of some rentals while it renegotiates aircraft leases (DAILY, Jan. 27).
Gen. Gary Luck, commander of U.S. and South Korean forces, told the Senate Armed Services Committee last Thursday that "the nuclear issue [with North Korea] seems under control" thanks to the recently signed agreement, but that there has been "no appreciable change" in the disposition of Pyongyang's ground forces.
Hawaiian Airlines flew 0.3% more revenue passenger miles in 1994 than it did 1993 on 3.8% more capacity, resulting in a load factor decline of 2.5 percentage points. The number of passengers boarded increased 5.7% for the year and cargo traffic rose 30.1% to 29.55 million cargo ton miles. In December, Hawaiian's passenger traffic slipped 0.9% on 5.7% more capacity, pushing the load factor down 4.5 points. Dec 94 Dec 93 12 Mths 94 12 Mths 93 RPMs 258,169,000 260,577,000 2,880,339,000 2,870,712,000
U.S. National Carriers Operating and Net Proft Third Quarter 1994 Operating Net Profit/Loss Profit/Loss (000) (000) Third Quarter 1994 Alaska $ 44,003 $ 22,190 Aloha (612) (197) American Trans Air 3,757 2,516
A task force of the NASA Advisory Council questions the agency's approach to aeronautics research, complaining in a draft report that it spends too much on near-term commercial research at the expense of more advanced research work in general and military aircraft work in particular. The NASA Federal Laboratory Review Task Force (see story page 146) said "declining NASA investment raises a concern for our future technology readiness for military aircraft," and recommended a reversal of the trend in coordination with DOD.
TWA and the unofficial committee representing its 10% noteholders have reached an agreement in principle on revised terms for the exchange of the 10% notes for new TWA securities. As a result, TWA said it expects to have the support of the committee for the airline's complex capital restructuring that entails, in part, swapping $500 million to $600 million in debt for new equity in the struggling carrier.
Lockheed Corp. pleaded guilty Friday to a single count of conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and agreed to pay the U.S. government $24.8 million to settle bribery charges. The charges stem from a 1989 sale of three C-130H aircraft to Egypt. According to the Justice Dept., Lockheed admitted making a $1 million payment to a member of the Egyptian parliament "for her influence in assisting Lockheed in obtaining the 1989 C-130 contract," which was valued around $79 million.
French air force chief General Jean-Philippe Douin warned that if low budgets force a choice between keeping the Dassault Rafale fighter or the Future Large Aircraft airlifter, Rafale will win-and France will turn to Lockheed for C-130Js. "If our budget remains what it is now and until 2006, we will not be able to buy both the Rafale and the FLA," Douin told aviation reporters in Paris last week, The DAILY confirmed Friday.
MarkAir says its costs are down to just 6.3 cents per available seat mile. Low-cost, low-fare leader Southwest reported unit costs of 6.94 cents for the December quarter and 7.08 cents for the full year 1994.
Cost constraints will lead the second phase of the Tier II Plus program to be a sole source contract, said John Entzminger, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle joint program office. Entzminger spoke this week at an Arlington, Va., conference sponsored by the Cruise Missiles Association and the Capital Chapter for the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems. He said ARPA will abandon its competitive phased approach in favor of a sole contractor because of lack of funds.
The U.S.Air Force's Wright Laboratory has accepted delivery of a highly modified F-16D after completion of its development as the Variable stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft (VISTA). Designated the NF-16D, the testbed first flew at Lockheed's Fort Worth, Tex., facility in April 1992. Designed to simulate other aircraft for aeronautical research and pilot training, it features a variable stability system based on three Rolm Hawk computers that adjusts pilot inputs into the appropriate motions for the simulated aircraft.
Martin Marietta Astronautics is scheduled to launch the next Navy Ultra High Frequency Follow-On (UHF F/O F4) communications satellite from Cape Canaveral Air Station tomorrow night, Martin Marietta reported. Liftoff of the Atlas II booster is set for an 80-minute window that opens at 7:21 p.m. EST and extends until 8:41 p.m. EST. Hughes Space and Communications Co., which build the HS 601-series spacecraft, is the launch customer.
Digital Equipment Corp., Maynard, Mass., said it has been chosen by Raytheon Co. to participate in an effort to upgrade the mission computer of the U.S. Navy's E-2C surveillance aircraft. Digital said yesterday that under this new phase of a long-standing agreement with Raytheon, it "will deliver a full complement of comprehensive solutions to the upgrade initiative."
China's attempt to grab a foothold in the world's commercial launch market was dealt another setback when a Long March 2E rocket carrying a Hughes-built satellite exploded 51 seconds after takeoff from Xichang in southwest China. Hughes said yesterday it still had not determined what caused the loss of Apstar 2 shortly after the launch Thursday morning (5:40 p.m. Wednesday EST). It was the second of two communications satellites the company had built for APT Satellite Co. of Hong Kong.
A B-2 bomber on Tuesday participated in its first operational exercise, Red Flag 95-2 at Nellis AFB, Nev. The plane, carrying two inert Mk. 85 2,000 pound bombs, flew from its base at Whiteman AFB, Mo., to the exercise in a round-trip, 7.5 hour mission that included one refueling.
Four of five United Technologies businesses turned in double-digit operating profit gains in 1994, including long-suffering Pratt&Whitney, UTC said yesterday. Net income grew 20% to $585 million in 1994, despite relatively flat sales of $21.2 billion, but most of the genuine growth came in the company's commercial businesses-P&W's contribution came courtesy of cost- cutting. Cash flow was nearly double 1993's rate at $481 million.
The U.S. Navy is expected to use one or more of its aircraft carriers in an upcoming Pacific Ocean test of the military capabilities of Comsat World Systems' Wideband Mobile Maritime Service. The test, to take place before the end of this fiscal year (Sept. 30), will complement Atlantic Ocean trials which ended in November, Paul A. Stern, Comsat World Systems business development manager, told The DAILY here.
The McDonnell Douglas/British Aerospace T-45A Goshawk U.S. Navy trainer aircraft was cleared for full-rate production this month along with its ground-based training system, following a successful Milestone III review on Jan. 17, MDC reported yesterday.
A draft of the U.S. Army's operational requirements document for the Aerial Common Sensor (ACS) will be available to industry for 60 days beginning about Jan. 30, the service said. The Communications-Electronics Command, Fort Monmouth, N.J., said in a Jan. 27 Commerce Business Daily notice that companies have until Feb. 15 to request a copy of the ORD.
A small California company that received the first U.S. government license to operate a high-resolution commercial remote sensing satellite system is merging with a new Ball Aerospace subsidiary that is planning a high resolution system of its own. WorldView Imaging Corp. will become part of EarthWatch, Inc., Ball's subsidiary based in Boulder, Colo. Worldview will merge its planned three- meter resolution system with Ball's planned one-meter system, which has also been licensed.
The U.S. relies too much on weapons of "immaculate destruction" that echo Cold War thinking, a top U.S. Marine Corps officer said at a conference here. Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Wilkerson, assistant deputy chief of staff for plans, policy and operations at Marine Corps headquarters, said the U.S. in the future is more likely to face complex crises that can't be quickly resolved by overpowering force alone.
Stumped seers are re-thinking their assumptions These days, the aerospace industry seems to be getting a lesson in Zeno's Paradoxes. Zeno, an ancient philosopher, contended that finishing a foot race was impossible because the remaining distance could always be divided in half. Obviously absurd, but nonetheless it was only last year that mathematicians were able to resolve it by inventing a new class of number to occupy the space.
ORION ATLANTIC has accepted delivery of the Orion 1 communications satellite on orbit at 37.5 degrees West longitude. Matra Space Systems turned over the Ku-band relay, first of a planned three-satellite network, on Jan. 20. The new satellites will replace leased transponders operated by the Washington-based international partnership.
