U P D A T E
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Week ending July 27, 1997
+++ Brussels approves the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger +++ Airshow crash at Ostende kills nine +++ New Repair Schedule for MIR +++ Delta Air Lines remains largest airline in the world +++ CAE simulator for German air force +++ Heeresflieger sign up for EC 135s +++ German cabinett approves Space Station money +++ Swissair faces long-haul-competition +++ Huygens mated to Cassini +++ Eurocopter to concentrate at Donauwörth +++ Lockheed Martin tops defence sales list +++ News in brief +++
Brussels approves the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas merger
Brüssel stimmt der Boeing-McDonnell-Douglas-Fusion zu
After weeks of hard battling, Boeing made last minute moves that resulted in the approval of the projected merger by the European Commission. Three major obstacles were seen by the Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert and his experts: - Boeing's exclusive contracts with American, Delta and Continental,
- the use of military technology developed by McDonnell Douglas under government contracts and
- the use of the civil development capacities of McDonnell Douglas by Boeing.
And thirdly as Douglas Aircraft Group cannot be sold it will be legally separated from Boeing and its structures and actions will be made transparent. This way Douglas aircraft can still be maintained and overhauled at the Long Beach facilities. Also Boeing concessed the company would not use this organization to achieve benefits for the sale of Boeing airplanes.
Finally Boeing also has concessed to the Commission that it will not put pressure on own suppliers that also deliver products to competing airliner manufacturers.
With agreeing to the Commissions conditions Boeing has avoided a trade war between Europe and the US that experts have foreseen had the Commission declined the merger plans. So the heavy pressure President Clinton, Foreign Secretary Albright and other officials of the Washington administration had put on politicians all over Europe the night before the Commission's decision had no effect on the Commission.
After the green light from Brussels, Boeing shareholders voted 99 to 1 per cent for the merger on Friday, July 26. On the same day, McDonnell Douglas announced a majority of around two thirds by its stockholders. The new company will begin operations on August 1.
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Airshow crash at Ostende kills nine
Absturz bei Flugtag in Ostende fordert neun Tote
At around 16.45 hours on Saturday, July 26, an Extra aerobatic aircraft of the Jordanian aerobatic team went out of control while performing at the airshow at Ostende, Belgium. The machine went down on a red cross tent and burst into flames, flinging wreckage around the spectators area. Reports say that nine people died and around 40 were injured, ten of them seriously. The cause of the accident is not clear yet.
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New Repair Schedule for MIR
Neuer Terminplan für MIR-Reparatur
Anatoli Solovjov and Pavel Vinogradov will repair the damages onboard Mir, after the current Russian crew will have left the space station. US astronaut Michael Foale will stay on Mir until mid-September, when US space shuttle Atlantis will perform another docking mission. The launch of the new Russian crew is scheduled for August 5th. French astronaut Leopold Eyharts however will not be part of the crew as the Spektr module cannot be used until being repaired and his experiments were planned to be conducted there.
The two Russians will perform two space walks, one to repair Spektr from the inside and install new cabling and one to repair the module from the outside. Foale will then be seated in the Soyuz capsule for safety reasons. The repaired energy system will deliver 70 per cent of the original power supply.
They will also run tests to check out Spektr after glas and other debris of shattered displays and instruments that would endanger the astronauts after Spektr would be oerational again.
On June 25th an overloaded Progress capsule M-34 had collided with the Spektr module and a solar generator cutting the energy supply of the station by 50 per cent and making Spektr unusable.
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Delta Air Lines remains largest airline in the world
Delta bleibt die Nummer eins unter den Luftverkehrsgesellschaften
With more than 97 million carried in 1996, Atlanta, Georgia-based Delta Air Lines remains the largest airline in the world in terms of passengers. Delta was also number one in 1995. As the latest IATA World Air Transport Statistics show, United Airlines is the second largest, giving a 81,86 million passenger performance. United is followed by American Airlines (79,32 Mio.), US Airways (56,64 Mio.) and Northwest Airlines (52,68). Japans' ANA at number six (39,37) is the largest non-US-airline in the ranking. Lufthansa German Airlines with its 33,12 million passengers ranks at number nine. International services in terms of scheduled passenger-kilometers flown see British Airways keeping the pole position. BA is followed by United, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa and Air France. Among freight carriers, Federal Express is at number one, followed by UPS and Lufthansa.
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CAE simulator for German air force
Luftwaffe bestellt neuen Tornado-Simulator
CAE Elektronik GmbH has won a 15,3 million US-Dollar contract to supply the Luftwaffe with a new Tornado full-mission simulator. It will be delivered at the beginning of 2000 to Holloman AFB in New Mexico. "It will be used both for biennial Tornado tactical training and extended top-grade training for pilots and weapons systems officers of the Luftwaffe", CAE has said. The simulator will include an instruction and debriefing station, a digital radar land mass system, a digital communication and sound system and a system enabling simulation of acceleration forces. The Luftwaffe already has seven Tornado simulators from CAE in service. Italy also uses CAE equipment for its Tornado training.
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Heeresflieger sign up for EC 135s
Eurocopter EC 135 für Heeresfliegerwaffenschule
On July 17, Eurocopter and the Bundesamt für Wehrtechnik und Beschaffung (German procurement agency) signed the contract for delivery of 15 EC 135 to the Heeresfliegerwaffenschule at Bückeburg. The helicopters, which are worth 95 million DM, will be delivered in 1998 and 1999 to replace Alouette IIs in the basic training role. German army aviation experts have devised a completely new training programme which includes extensive use of simulators. According to Eurocopter, the deal includes new logistics arrangements thereby the company will provide maintenance support at the Heeresflieger base in cooperation with army personnell.
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German cabinett approves Space Station money
Bundeskabinett genehmigt Gelder für Raumstation
On Wednesday, 16. July, the German cabinett has approved the German contribution to the international space station, which will amount to 2,5 billion DM up to 2004. As technology minister Jürgen Rüttgers is forces to cut overall space spending from 1,452 to 1,413 billion DM in next years budget, other projects will be hit - more specifically the German contribution to ESA, which goes down from one billion DM to 982 million. Though German aerospace association BDLI applauded the decision in principle, it said that this will have grave consequences in important sectors like mulitimedia, communications and Earth observation. Rüttgers on the other hand has urged the companies to get a bit more entrepreuneral and rely less on ever scarcer money from the State. In other news, it became clear after the cabinett meeting that the German participation on the French recce satellite Helios II and Horus will be delayed further and maybe cancelled altogether.
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Swissair faces long-haul-competition
Konkurrenz für die Swissair auf Langstrecken
Swiss World Airways, a new Swiss carrier based at Geneva, has announced plans to start long-haul services to North America by November. Swiss World emerged from protests following Swissair's decision to move most of its intercontinental flights from Geneva and concentrate them at its Zürich-Kloten hub. The new airline will start services to New York JFK and possibly Chicago, Miami and Montreal, using two Boeing 767. The development phase will see Swiss World aquiring five 767 aircraft. A five year maintenance contract has been signed with British Airways Engineering.
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Huygens mated to Cassini
Huygens und Cassini für den Start integriert
The European spaceprobe Huygens, developed and built by Aérospatiale with major partner Dornier Satellitensysteme (a Daimler-Benz Aerospace company), has been mated to Cassini at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Launch of the two spacecraft is scheduled for October 6th with a Titan 4B of the US Air Force. It will take the two spacecraft seven years to reach the Saturn system that they are designed to explore. While Cassini will continue to orbit Saturn Huygens will be ejected from Cassini and descend on Titan, the largest of the Saturn moons. It will land on the surface of Titan and transmitt visual and other information data back to Earth.
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Eurocopter to concentrate at Donauwörth
Stellenverlagerung von Ottobrunn beschlossen
After mediation talks have been unsuccessful, the Eurocopter Deutschland management is now free to implement its plan to concentrate most of the activities at Donauwörth. 230 personell will move to the plant, leaving 450 employees at Ottobrunn near Munich. The restructuring will slash cost by six million DM a year once one-time charges are absorbed, it is said. According to Eurocopter, Ottobrunn will remain the development centre for military programmes, while management, finance department, purchase department, qualitiy management and information processing etc. will be moved to Donauwörth. A "social plan", giving support to affected employees, will be worked out, with negotiations starting in September.
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Lockheed Martin tops defence sales list
Die Liste der wichtigsten Rüstungslieferanten
According to a survey by the US weekly Defense News Lockheed Martin continued to rank first in the top 100 international defence companies, reporting 14.3 billion US-Dollars in defense sales. Lockheed's nearest rival, U.S.-based military aircraft and missile manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp., reported 10.1 billion US-Dollars defense sales. British Aerospace, plc, maintained its 1995 third-place ranking, with defense revenue rising from 6.5 billion dollars in 1995 to 9.0 billion dollars in 1996. Northrop Grumman, which ranked fifth worldwide in 1995, ranked fourth in 1996, with 6.7 billion dollars; and Hughes Electronics Corp. ranked fifth this year, with 6.3 billion dollars defense sales.The report said that European companies are rebounding from a difficult period of unprofitability, but the growth of megadefense companies in the United States poses unprecedented challenges to their long-term viability. The ten largest European companies increased combined annual defense sales from 30.1 billion dollars to 37.8 billion dollars. Profits of the 10 firms totaled 4.12 billion dollars in 1996, up from a loss of 1.13 billion dollars the previous year. The top 10 U.S. companies' combined annual sales fell slightly from 59.6 billion dollars to 59.4 billion dollars. However, the 10 largest U.S. defense companies in the 1997 survey had combined net income of 6.4 billion dollars, the Defense News said.
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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN
German leisure carrier LTU is to sell its entire McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleet, comprising four aircraft. The 408-seat-aircraft will leave the airline in autumn next year. They will be replaced by two Boeing 767 and one Boeing 757. This means an eleven percent capacity cut. In future, LTU will concentrate on its Boeing 767/757 and its Airbus A330 fleet.+++
In 1999 two CD Radio satellites built by Space Systems/Loral are to be launched by Ariane 5. This is the most recent order for Arianespace incraesing the company's backlog to 46 launches. For the first time Arianespace has offered a new financing service to the operator, CD Radio Inc. based at Washington, D. C. Arianespace Finance is financing the launch for her customer.
+++
GIFAS, the French aerospace industry association, has announced the final figures for this year's Aérosalon that attracted substantially less visitors than the previous exhibition. Compared to 1995 with 325906 visitors this year the show only attracted 286037 people, of which 121908 were trade visitors. Reasons for this reduction were seen in the bad weather and the higher ticket prices from 75 Francs to 150 Francs for professionals. The number of exhibitors though rose from 1643 to 1853.
+++
With an order of ten satellite launches with at least five Long March rockets until 2006 Hughes Space and Communications gives China a new chance to make money in the international launch business. Their business relations reach back into 1988. After a series of failures China Great Wall Industrial Corp. has succeeded recently to put communication satellite Dongfanghong 3 and meteorological satellite Fengyun 2 into orbit using Long March rockets. Besides the new Hughes order other launch contracts for commercial satellites are imminent say sources in China.
+++
Eurocopter has revealed that Meravo (Ödheim), SP Helicopter Service (Dattenberg) and Euroheli (Schwanstetten) are among the German customers for the EC 120 light single-engined helicopter.
+++
The second production-standard V-22 Osprey prototype made its first flight on July 18 at the Bell test facility in Texas. It will be flown to Patuxent River for further tests in due course.
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Airbus received just 80 new orders in the first half of 1997, compared with 143 in the same period lasst year. According to the company, deliveries numbered 93 worth more than 6 billion US-Dollars.
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On July 21 Aero International (Regional) announced that Northwest Airlines has exercised previously announced options for the acquisition of twenty-four RJ85 regional jet aircraft bringing the total number of aircraft ordered to thirty-six. Deliveries of these additional aircraft will begin in May 1998 and will continue for a period of up to 48 months. Northwest placed its initial order for twelve RJ85s and twenty-four options in October 1996. Deliveries related to this first order began in April of this year and will continue at a rate of one per month. The first aircraft entered service in June with Mesaba Airlines, one of Northwest's Airlink affiliates, and currently three RJ85s are operating to nine destinations from the airline's hub city of Minneapolis.
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On July 15, NASAs Pathfinder remotely piloted vehicle set a new unofficial world record for high-altitude flight by a solar-powered aircraft at the U.S. Navy Pacific Missile Range Facility, Kauai, Hawaii. The new mark of over 71,500 feet set last week exceeds Pathfinder's previous record of 67,350 feet set in June 1997. Pathfinder is now being prepared to monitor coral reef degradation and deforestation around the island of Kauai.
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The Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford (UK) recorded record-breaking crowds of more than 200000 spectators at this years show, held on the weekend 19/20 July. Highlight among the 450 plus aircraft present at this largest military airshow in the world was the first UK landing of Northrop Grummans B-2 stealth-bomber on Saturday afternoon. As this year the NATO Tiger squadrons were back at Fairford, the Silver Tiger Trophy was awarded to No. 31 Squadron from Belgium. Best flying demonstration was by an Alenia G.222 transporter from the Italian Air Force test center at Pratica di Mare.
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After some communications problems, the Nasa Mars Pathfinder and Sojourner rover were still busy collecting data at the end of the week. Daily updates and lots of pictures can be found on the Jet Propulsion Lab WWW-pages and at mirror sites around the World.
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The Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH plans the first outing of its LZ N07 airship at the beginning of August. Meanwhile, a new hangar is being built at the Friedrichshafen airport, from where tests will be conducted. The N07 was built at the downtown exhibition centre.
+++
New Piper Aircraft announced that certification of its new turbocharged Saratoga TC was granted July 21 by the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration). Customer deliveries of the PA-32R-310T will begin in August. The Saratoga II TC is powered by a new 300 hp Textron Lycoming TIO-540-AH1A turbocharged engine, allowing operations at altitudes in excess of 20000 feet. Maximum speed is quoted as 356 km/h and range as 1523 km. Suggested retail is 378900 US-Dollars.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen ist nach wie vor abrufbar:
July 13, 1997
July 6, 1997
June 29, 1997
June 22, 1997
June 15, 1997
June 8, 1997
June 1, 1997
May 25, 1997
May 18, 1997
May 11, 1997
May 4, 1997
January to March 1997
September to December 1996
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Last updated July 27, 1997
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