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UPDATE 
Week ending November 15, 1998
+++ SAirGroup takes stake in LTU +++ MTU enters North American engine maintenance market +++ Shuttle returns with space-veteran Glenn +++ ESA warns of Leonides meteor storm +++ British Airways confirms Airbus order +++ First production Boeing Super Hornet flies +++ News in brief +++

SAirGroup takes stake in LTU
LTU-Anteile gehen an Swissair

On November 12, the long awaited deal was finally signed for the SAirGroup to acquired a 49.9 per cent equity holding in the Düsseldorf-based LTU Group. The contract is retroactively effective from November 1, 1998. Under this transaction the previous shareholders of the LTU Group, WestLB and several private investors, will together sell 49.9 per cent of LTU Group shares to a new wholly-owned subsidiary of the SAirGroup, named "LTU Holding". LTU Holding will function as a holding company for the LTU Group. During the course of the next year, a second share package, consisting of the remaining 50.1 per cent of the LTU Group, will be brought into LTU Holding. At this point, German-based investors will assume a 39.9 per cent share of LTU Holding and, subject to the approval of the German federal competition authority, WestLB will take a 10.2 per cent stake in LTU Holding, ensuring that the majority of the company's shares are owned by German investors, as is prescribed under European civil aviation regulations.
The reorganisation of ownership in the LTU Group has been prompted by a condition made by the German federal competition authority, stating that WestLB must sell its LTU Group holding following the merger of Preussag and Hapag Lloyd. SAirGroup Board Chairman Hannes Goetz stressed the strategic significance of move to Germany, saying "We Swiss cannot grow much more within our home market. As our bilateral transportation agreement with the EU is not yet concluded, we have developed the Qualiflyer Group, an alliance that now has ten member airlines, concentrating on scheduled airline services. We've now shifted our attention to the charter and leisure travel business where we hope to create a similar European grouping." Philippe Bruggisser, SAirGroup CEO, underlined that LTU will maintain its individual identity and that all the companies participating in the alliance will benefit from the partnership. The purchase requires the approval of the Brussels-based European Commission and the German civil aviation authority in Braunschweig. The LTU Group consists of the LTU airline, having a fleet of 29 aircraft, and LTT-Touristik, which consists of six tour operator brands: Tjaereborg, Meier's Weltreisen, Jahnreisen, Smile & Fly, THR and Marlboro Reisen.

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MTU enters North American engine maintenance market
Neuer Wartungsbetrieb in Kanada für MTU

To move closer to present and future North American customers and in keeping with the ongoing expansion of its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business, MTU has signed a joint-venture agreement with Canadian Airlines International to launch MTU Maintenance Canada Ltd.The company, which has facilities at Vancouver International Airport, British Columbia, officially started operations on November 9.
The Canadian partner brings to the venture its basic maintenance business, notably the CF6-50 and JT8D work and the CFM 56 in the near future, together with the workforce and infrastructure of its former engine shop. MTU in turn provides the finance and the comprehensive know-how of the world's leading independent engine servicer, plus the conveniences deriving from business association with MTU Maintenance in Hanover and other MTU companies. MTU further agreed to provide training for MTU Maintenance Canada's workforce. MTU Maintenance Canada, whom the government of British Columbia helped locate in Vancouver, is a 70-30 MTU-Canadian joint company which currently has some 200 employees. But the company is already hiring, so that the workforce will increase to 230 by the end of the year. The company expects it to grow to 450 employees by 2002.

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Shuttle returns with space-veteran Glenn
Glenn wieder sicher gelandet

Space shuttle Discovery landed at the Kennedy Space Centre at 12:03 p.m. EST (1703 GMT) on Saturday, November 7, returning 77-year-old space legend John Glenn and its six crewmates back Earth after a nostalgic nine-day orbital mission. Though there was criticism of the scientific value of Glenns return to space after three decates, it gave the U.S. space agency a much needed boost before work starts later this month on the International Space Station, its most challenging construction project in outer space.
Flight controllers in Houston cleared the shuttle to land after some last-minute discussions about gusty winds at the landing strip. Weather forecasters at mission control and an astronaut flying a shuttle simulator aircraft at the landing site eventually agreed it was safe to land. Aside from the weather, the only uncertainty involved a drag chute lying exposed in Discovery's stern after its cover fell off at launch on Oct. 29. In nearly nine days, Discovery made 134 orbits of Earth and travelled 3.6 million miles (5.8 million km).

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ESA warns of Leonides meteor storm
Gefahr für Satelliten durch Meteoritensturm?

When the Earth crosses the wake of Comet Tempel-Tuttle on 17 November, European scientists will use the NASA-ESA Hubble Space Telescope to detect impacts of cosmic dust. ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) has sent out a warning to spacecraft operators about risks to all satellites in the Earth's vicinity on that day, from the Leonid meteor storm. Countless dust grains thrown out by the comet will slam into the Earth's atmosphere at 71 kilometres per second. The Leonids, as they are called, may produce the most spectacular shower of meteors, or "shooting stars", seen since 1966. The Leonids approach the Earth from the direction of the constellation Leo. As a precaution, the Hubble Space Telescope will turn its back on Leo for ten hours around the predicted peak of the Leonid event, which is at about 20:30 CET on 17 November. Astronomers will take the opportunity to look for undiscovered galaxies in the opposite direction in the sky. Any disturbances caused to the 11.6-tonne Hubble spacecraft by the Leonid dust impacts will be recorded for analysis by dust specialists. One of the teams chosen for this study includes ESA and UK scientists and is headed by John Zarnecki of the University of Kent.

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British Airways confirms Airbus order
Airbus A320-Auftrag von BA unterzeichnet

British Airways has now signed a purchase agreement for 59 single-aisle Airbus Industrie aircraft, bringing all-times sales of the A320 Family to 1,863. This contract is the first firm order arising from the airline's announcement in August that it would purchase up to 188 A320 Family aircraft, making Airbus Industrie the main supplier of its single-aisle, short-haul fleet. The order comprises 39 A319s and A320s, all of which will be powered by IAE engines. This order is the first that British Airways has placed directly with Airbus Industrie.

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First production Boeing Super Hornet flies
Jungfernflug der ersen F-18E-Serienmaschine

The first production Super Hornet, F/A-18E6, successfully completed its first flight on November 6, from Lambert International Airport in St. Louis. The single-seat Super Hornet took off at 11:56 a.m., with Boeing test pilot Dave Desmond at the controls. The flight lasted 1.3 hours. "E6 performed flawlessly," Desmond said. "I encountered no problems during the flight, which is exactly what I'd expect from a Super Hornet."
E6 is one of the first lot of 12 low-rate initial production Super Hornets to enter production at Boeing and Northrop Grumman facilities. Delivery of the first production model Super Hornet is scheduled for January 1999. Assembly is scheduled to begin on the second lot of 20 low-rate initial production Super Hornets at Boeing facilities in December. The aircraft were funded in the fiscal year 1998 defense budget.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

Italy's Finmeccanica has announced the launch of the Bell-Augusta Aerospace Co., a joint venture between Finmeccanica's Agusta unit and Textron Inc.'s Bell Helicopter. The joint-venture deal, signed in September, is for the construction of two new helicopters, the Bell BA609 civil vehicle and the Agusta AB139 helicopter. Bell Helicopter will be the majority shareholder in the venture and Bell's vice-chairman Jim Rogers was named director general.
+++
British-based low-cost airline Debonair has struck a deal with its bigger mainline rival Lufthansa to operate five aircraft for the German carrier's CityLine short-haul unit. Debonair said in a statement it has agreed to operate five British Aerospace 146-200 regional jets from Munich to various European destinations, giving City Line additional capacity on its routes. "This agreement enables Debonair to diversify its operation and strengthen its position in the industry," said Franco Mancassola, Debonair's chairman and chief executive.
+++
Two pilots were killed on November 6 when their U.S. Army Raytheon C-12 aircraft crashed just outside the town of Erlach, southern Germany. The pilots were conducting a training flight in the Beechcraft twin-engined propeller aircraft and there was no ammunition on board when the plane came down at about 1000 GMT.
+++
TRW long-time provider of system engineering and technical assistance to the U.S. Air Force, continued its mission-critical assistance to the Rocket Systems Launch Program in ensuring the successful launch on November 5 of a two-stage test rocket from Kodiak Island, off the southern coast of Alaska. The launch was the first from the Kodiak Spaceport launch complex developed by the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation for military and commercial launches. Early warning radars along the coast tracked the launch that simulated an incoming missile attack to the United States. "Kodiak was chosen for this ballistic missile defense test as a result of an initial study we performed for the Air Force in 1997," said Joe Mason, vice president and general manager, TRW Strategic Systems, San Bernardino. "Launches from Kodiak provide the opportunity to evaluate existing missile defense radar systems against threat-like missile trajectories."
+++
The futuristic ion engine flying on NASA's Deep Space 1 probe mysteriously shut down within minutes of being turned on, and ground controllers were trying to figure out what went wrong. The ion-propulsion engine ran for 4 1/2 minutes before turning off, said John Watson, a spokesman for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Ground controllers tried several times without success to restart the engine. It was the first time since Deep Space 1's launch 2 1/2 weeks ago that controllers turned on the ion engine, the most intriguing of 12 "Star Trek"-style technologies being tested on the $152 million mission.The engine must work in order for Deep Space 1 to rendezvous with asteroid 1992 KD next July.
+++
On November 6, a Boeing Delta II rocket lifted off the pad at Vandenberg AFB at 5:37 a.m. PST, successfully deploying five Iridium satellites within 85 minutes of launch. Delta rockets now have deployed 55 satellites over eleven launches for the Iridium system, a global wireless communication network combining the worldwide reach of 66 low-Earth orbit satellites with land-based wireless systems to enable subscribers to connect with hand-held telephones and pagers virtually anywhere in the world.
+++
The European Union Commission has cleared an airline catering joint venture set up by Canada's Onex Food Service's Inc.'s unit Arlington Services Holding Co. and Lufthansa Services Holding AG, a unit of German airline Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The European activities of this group will be called "European Kitchens." The E.U. Commission said in a statement that the venture didn't pose any competition problems, taking into account the fact that the combined market share of the two parties in 1997 was 30%, and that "most major competitors...are vertically integrated with airlines."
+++
NASA has completed two years of testing new rocket engines that breathe oxygen from the air, and is ready for flight testing. Officials from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center said that air-breathing engine technologies could make future space travel like today's air travel, and spacecraft with this engine would be completely reusable, take off and land at airport runways, and be ready to fly again within days.
+++
Amakusa Airlines Co. Ltd. of Kumamoto, Japan has placed a firm order with Bombardier Aerospace for one 39-seat Dash 8 Q100 to launch its new service linking three communities in the south of Japan. Delivery is scheduled for October 1999 with revenue service to begin in the spring of 2000.
+++
BA half-year profits have dropped by more than 10%, the company has announced. In a statement, BA attributes the shortfall to a drop in demand from business passengers, the rise in the value of the pound and an airline fare war. The airline also warns that the global economic crisis could pose a serious longer- term problem for the entire industry. The drop comes despite an extensive cost-cutting program BA implemented in recent months.
+++
Among the takeovers, mergers and joint ventures being reviewed by the European Commission under the EU's merger regulation are plans by Volvo Aero Corp, a unit of Swedish vehicle maker AB Volvo, to take a stake in TurboGen Aktiebolag, a company which makes turbogenerators and is currently solely controlled by ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.
+++
The Russian Transaero air company will cut by 30 percent the domestic flights in fall and winter and concentrate on international trips for the sake of larger foreign currency revenues. The routes will not be changed, but in Russia the company will use smaller aircraft. The flights to Tyumen, Samara and Novy Urengoi are temporarily canceled. They will be resumed in spring. The air transportation is now 30 percent smaller because of the economic crisis.
+++
The European Union's executive commission has said it would clear an alliance between Pratt & Whitney and General Electric to make engines to power the A3XX jumbo jet planned by Airbus Industrie. The two aircraft engine makers, both based in the United States, signed an agreement in May with Airbus to develop the new engine after Boeing Co. dropped its own project to produce a larger, 500-seat version of the 747-400.
+++

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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen sind weiter abrufbar:

*November 8, 1998 *November 1, 1998

*October 25, 1998 *October 18, 1998

*September 27, 1998 *September 20, 1998 *September 13, 1998 *September 6, 1998

*August 30, 1998 *August 23, 1998 *August 16, 1998 *August 9, 1998 *August 2, 1998

*July 26, 1998 *July 19, 1998 *July 12, 1998

*January to June 1998 *January to December 1997 *September to December 1996

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Last updated November 13, 1998
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