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UPDATE
Week ending May 11, 1997
+++ Dasa supports Lagardere in bid for Thomson-CSF +++ Lufthansa announces 1996 financial results +++ ESA warns NASA to reschedule the International Space Station +++ Austrian Airlines to become First European A330-200 Operator +++ Scientists discuss Hipparcos mission results +++ Aeroflot: controversial contract with Boeing +++ Boeing to build Teledesic's 'Internet-in-the-Sky' +++ Boeing's first quarter results +++ News in Brief +++

Dasa supports Lagardere in bid for Thomson-CSF
Dasa will mit Lagardere kooperieren

The bidding for the privatisation of French defence giant Thomson-CSF has forced companies in Germany and the UK to position themselves for the inevitable European restructuring in the industry. In this high-risk game, Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) has taken sides with the Lagardere group (Matra). According to a memorandum of understanding, Dasa will support "fully and exclusively" the Lagardere bid for Thomson-CSF. If successfull, it would contribute its space, missile and defence electronics businesses to newly formed groupings. The tentative plans were outlined as follows:
  • Space: A new 50/50 company would be formed by Dasa and Matra Marconi Space, covering all satellite, orbital infrastructure, launcher and service activities. This would be the third largest company of its kind in the world.
  • Missiles: Dasa would sell 30 per cent of its Lenkflugkörper GmbH subsidiary to Matra Bae Dynamics, thus linking this flagging entity to the European leader while leaving open furhter national consolidation options.
  • Defence electronics: Dasa and Lagardere would join their activities in some steps to a 50/50 company.
This decision by Dasa supersedes previous plans to link up with Aerospatiale. These had hit many problems in recent months and were all but abandoned. Also supporting Lagardere is British Aerospace, which actually pitches in with 300 million pounds.
Facing off Lagardere for the Thomson-CSF privatisation is the Alcatel Alsthom company, together with Dassault. They apparently prefer a purely French solution before moving on to the European scene from a position of strength.

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Lufthansa announces 1996 financial results
Lufthansa legt Finanzergebnisse für das Geschäftsjahr 1996 vor

In the difficult operating conditions last year, which saw extra burdens totalling nearly DM 680 million due to a surge in fuel prices, a sharp rise in airport and air traffic control fees and state-ordained one-off charges for pension provisions, Deutsche Lufthansa earned a profit on ordinary activities before taxation of DM 686 million. The result was DM 70 million or 9,3 percent down on 1995. Lufthansa's Executive Board is proposing to pay shareholders an unchanged ten-percent dividend of 50 pfennigs per share with a face value of DM 5. Turnover of the group rose 4,8 percent to DM 20,9 billion. The carriage of passengers and freight yielded DM 18,5 billion, or some 90 percent of total revenue. That is an improvement of 4,3 percent.
The Group's 3 passenger airlines Lufthansa, Lufthansa CityLine and Condor raised traffic revenue by 4,6 percent to DM 15,1 billion. While Lufthansa passenger services showed a net profit of DM 409 billion, CityLine's business saw a DM 6 million profit. Condor, the charter airline, performed with a DM 108 million net profit. The traffic revenue of Lufthansa Cargo, at DM 3,4 billion, more or less remained at 1995 level.
Air freight business suffered from weak growth in key markets like India, Japan and some European countries and also from downward pressure on yields caused by excess capacity in the cargo market. This led to a loss of DM 60 million in the Cargo division. Other revenue of the Lufthansa Group climbed by 9,3 percent to just short of DM 2,4 billion. The main contribution to this came from aero-engineering wing Lufthansa Technik, which lifted its sales outside the Group by almost 22 percent to over DM 1 billion. Catering turnover dipped by DM 80 million vis-á-vis 1995 to DM 0,5 billion.

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ESA warns NASA to reschedule the International Space Station
ESA warnt NASA vor Verschiebung des Raumstationsprogramms

Because of cost ESA is eager to stick to the current program schedule for the International Space Station (ISS). ESA will not only provide the Columbus Orbital Facility but also many components for other part and modules of the ISS. Also for the first five years ESA will be responsible for 14 European assembly missions, about a third of the total 41 planned.
Russia financial problems now endanger the program, because some components still to be built in Russia are essential for the schedule. If the current schedule is not to be met, then additional cost for personal and storage will have be financed by the partner countries. Also the currently ongoing marketing initiative of ESA and other ISS partners to find users and all efforts to develop user concepts will suffer considerably if the program slipps on the time line.
In talks in Washington a ESA delegation will meet NASA officials to find ways to solve the problem that also would hit American industry and administration as well as partners in Japan and Canada.

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Austrian Airlines to become First European A330-200 Operator
Austrian Airlines wird erster europäischer A330-200 Betreiber

Austrian Airlines has signed contracts for the acquisition of four Airbus Industrie A330-200 long-range, twin-engine aircraft during a ceremony in Vienna, following an earlier announcement by the airline. Three of the aircraft will be purchased directly from Airbus Industrie, while one will join Austrian's fleet under a lease agreement. Sabena has also signed contracts for the purchase of four Airbus Industrie A330-200 long-range twin aircraft during a ceremony in Zurich, where Swissair has signed a similar contract.
Austrian Airlines, Swissair and Sabena, were the first European airlines to make a firm commitment for the A330-200, when agreements for the acquisition of the aircraft type were signed with Airbus Industrie in December 1996. Austrian Airlines also was an early customer for the European consortium's four-engine, ultra-long haul A340. The most recently delivered A340-300 is the largest aircraft ever registered in Austria.
To date, 172 A330s have been ordered, of which 41 are the longer-range A330-200 version. 55 A330s have been delivered to ten customers and are flying with airlines in Asia and Europe.

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Scientists discuss Hipparcos mission results
Wissenschaftler diskutieren Hipparcos Mission

On the island of San Giorgio in Venice, Italy, astronomers from all over the world will gather from May 13 to 16 to discuss information gathered by ESA's Hipparcos. The spacecraft operated in orbit from 1989 to 1993, measuring the angles between stars in the sky. The following three years computing teams all ober Europe generated a consistent, high precision plot of 118000 stars in the Hipparcos catalogue and somewhat less accurate but still unprecedented data on a million stars in the Tycho catalogue.
ESA says that the distances, motions, pairings and variability of stars are now known far more accurately than ever before. Hipparcos therefore will have a direct impact on every branch of astronomy, from the solar system to the history of the universe, especially on theories of stars and their evolution.

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Aeroflot: controversial contract with Boeing
Krach in Rußland wegen Boeing-Kauf der Aeroflot

The move of Aeroflot Russian International Airlines to purchase ten Boeing 737-400 aircraft has caused a controversial debate between the airline and Russian government and officials. President Boris Jeltzin recently has launched an aggressive "buy Russian" campaign to help lift the economy out of recession. But Aeroflot chief Valeri Okulov said the Boeing aircraft were best suited to meeting Aeroflot's goals of better passenger service, increased profitability and greater competitiveness. Mr. Okulov is married to the Presidents's eldest daughter Elena. Nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinowsky has called on the government to prosecute Aeroflot's directors if they buy abroad.

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Boeing to build Teledesic's 'Internet-in-the-Sky'
Teledesic-Satelliten von Boeing

Teledesic Corporation and The Boeing Company have announced that Boeing will become an equity partner in Teledesic and serve as the prime contractor for the company's global, broadband 'Internet-in-the-sky'. Boeing will invest up to $100 million for 10 per cent of the current ownership of Teledesic, a private company whose primary investors are telecommunications pioneer Craig McCaw and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.
As the prime contractor, Boeing will lead an international effort to design, build and launch the Teledesic Network. The estimated contract value will be $9 billion. Using a constellation of several hundred low-Earth-orbit satellites, Boeing and Teledesic will create the world's first satellite network to provide affordable access to telecommunications services such as broadband Internet access, videoconferencing and interactive multimedia.
Teledesic's satellite constellation will orbit about 50 times closer to Earth than traditional geostationary satellites. The Teledesic Network's low orbit eliminates the long signal delay normally experienced in satellite communications and enables the use of small, low-power terminals and antennas, about the size of direct broadcast satellite (DBS) dishes.

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Boeing's first quarter results
Boeing: Ergebnisse des ersten Quartals

Sales of $7.3 billion and net earnings of $377 million or $1.09 per share for the first quarter of 1997 were reported by Phil Condit, Boeing Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. The stated net earnings include a $64 million cumulative adjustment to partially offset income charges in prior periods associated with the market value change of the Company stock held by the ShareValue Trust. Net earnings for the quarter, excluding the ShareValue Trust accounting impact, were $313 million or $.87 per share. Comparable figures for the first quarter of 1996 were sales of $4.3 billion and net earnings of $119 million or $.35 per share.
The higher sales and net earnings for the first quarter of 1997, excluding the ShareValue Trust accounting impact, were primarily attributable to more commercial aircraft deliveries and the first full quarter of operating earnings associated with the defense and space units acquired from Rockwell International Corporation. Partially offsetting the income increase were higher research and development expense for the commercial aircraft and defense and space segments, increased interest expense from the Rockwell defense and space acquisition, development expenses from the Sea Launch commercial space joint venture and the Bell Boeing 609 commercial tiltrotor joint venture, and a higher effective income tax rate. A total of 68 commercial jet transports were delivered, compared with 40 in the first quarter of 1996 when deliveries were limited by the recovery in production rates following the 10-week strike in the fourth quarter of 1995.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

On April 24, the third Airbus A300-600ST Beluga super transporter has made its maiden flight. After some check flights it will serve Airbus to transport large assemblies between the partner companies throughout Europe.
+++
Additional technical testing for PanAmSat's PAS 6 had led to the satellite owner's decision to postpone the launch. The originally scheduled date was May 13th. The next launch of Ariane will now be Flight 97, scheduled for June 3rd. The payload for this flight will be Indian satellite INSAT 2D and INMARSAT 3F4.
+++
Uzbekistan's flag carrier, Uzbekistan Airways, has signed a contract with Airbus Industrie for an additional A310-300, which will bring to three its long-range Airbus widebody-twin engine fleet. In addition, the airline has decided to purchase the two A310s it has been operating under a lease agreement during the last four years.
+++
The next generation of Boeing-built Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites will feature a substantial upgrade to the cesium atomic clock technology that forms the heart of the world's most accurate navigation system. The improvement is the latest result of long-standing development work on frequency standard technologies by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), Washington, D. C. The upgrade involves converting the GPS cesium clocks from analog to digital - the first-ever use of the commercially available digital cesium standard technology on a spacecraft.
+++
Belgians Constellation International Airlines has contracted with Lufthansa Technik for the total support of its two Airbus A320, powered by IAE V2500 engines.
+++
The Pentagon has authorised Bell Boeing to proceed to low rate production of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor transporter. The decision came after all conditions in the engineering and manufacturing development contract wer met, including an empty weight below 34180 pounds, a demonstrated 220 kts airspeed and delivery of the first EMD aircraft to the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. Funds for the first five Ospreys have been released.
+++
A plane crash in south China has killed at least 35 people and injured 35 others, a Chinese government-funded newspaper reported on Friday, May 8th. The Boeing 737, on a domestic flight, exploded at Shenzhen airport in south China on Thursday night after it veered into the grass by the runway and burst into flames.
+++
Hughes Aircraft has been awarded a contract from Euroatlas GmbH of Bremen to produce Stinger Night Sights (SNS) for use with the German Very Short Range Air Defense system. The SNS is a lightweight, low-cost thermal imager developed and optimized for the shoulder-fired Stinger and dual-mount Stinger.
+++
Most of the Heeresflieger CH-53 transport helicopters will be equipped with Elisra SPS-65 (V) airborne self protection systems. Some units were delivered recently for use in operations in Bosnia.
+++
The Netherlands and Norway have formally joined the US Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Denmark also considers to go along as an associate partner, entitling them to infos on the technical specs, but no say in development parameters.
+++
Six european airlines have lodged a formal complaint against state financial support for Air France at the European court of justice in Luxembourg. The EU commission has approved 20 billion French francs for a restructuring of the loss-making state airline.
+++

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Previous updates are still available:

PunktMay 4, 1997

PunktApril 20, 1997 PunktApril 13, 1997

PunktMarch 23, 1997 PunktMarch 16, 1997 PunktMarch 9, 1997 PunktMarch 2, 1997

PunktFebruary 23, 1997 PunktFebruary 16, 1997

Punkt January 26, 1997 PunktJanuary 19, 1997 PunktJanuary 12, 1997 PunktJanuary 5, 1997

Punkt December 22, 1996 PunktDecember 15, 1996 PunktDecember 8, 1996 PunktDecember 1, 1996

PunktNovember 24, 1996 PunktNovember 17, 1996 PunktNovember 10, 1996 PunktNovember 3, 1996

PunktOctober 27, 1996 PunktOctober 20, 1996 PunktOctober 13, 1996 PunktOctober 6, 1996

PunktSeptember 29, 1996 PunktSeptember 22, 1996

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Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved.
Last updated May 9, 1997