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UPDATE 
Week ending May 23, 1999
+++ Lockheed team wins MEADS +++ DRF introduces 25th EMS helicopter +++ Eurofighter tests reach 1000 flights +++ Air Europe - 11th Member of the European Airline Alliance +++ General Dynamics buys Gulfstream +++ Weber in Washington: "Airline alliances are consumer-friendly" +++ News in brief +++

Lockheed team wins MEADS
Auftrag für MEADS-Luftabwehrsystem geht an Lockheed-Team

On May 19, the NATO MEADS Management Authority (NAMEADSMA) announced that the team comprised of Lockheed Martin, Alenia Marconi Systems from Italy, and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace will manage the 3-year technology development effort for the controversial MEADS air defence system, under a contract valued at approximately $300 million. It thus beat a Raytheon-led team, which also comprised Dasa and Alenia. "The requirement that fostered the MEADS system remains valid and more urgent with each passing day," said MEADS International president, Werner Huss. "MEADS International made significant progress and achieved very promising results during the Project Definition-Validation phase," added Huss.
Now that the selection has been made, MEADS International's "task is to prepare detailed plans for demonstrating a prototype system in 2002 that will provide allied maneuver forces the air and missile defense capability they currently lack," said Donald M. Lionetti, vice president of air and missile defense at Lockheed Martin Electronics & Missiles. "Our three-country team will focus on strategically transportable/tactically mobile equipment, including a lightweight launcher; a 360-degree fire control radar; and battle management, command, control and communications," he added. The system will employ the flight-proven PAC-3 missile, under development separately by Lockheed Martin Vought Systems of Dallas, Tx.

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DRF introduces 25th EMS helicopter
25. DRF-Hubschrauber in Dienst gestellt

German air rescue organization DRF (Deutsche Rettungsflugwacht) has officially taken delivery of its 25th helicopter. The Eurocopter BK 117 was accepted by DRF president Siegfried Steiger at Schloss Solitude near Stuttgart. The ceremony was part of the DRF annual meeting, at which the 1998 figures were presented: 17792 missions were flown, from 18 helicopter stations in Germany and by air-ambulance aircraft also in service with DRF. At Göttingen, Karlsruhe, Leonberg, Nürnberg, Ochsenfurt, Rendsburg, Villingen-Schwenningen and Zwickau over 1000 flights were recorded. DRF has 270000 members.

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Eurofighter tests reach 1000 flights
1000. Testflug im Eurofighter-Programm

At Dasa's Manching test centre in Bavaria, Eurofighter has completed its 1000th sortie. Protoype DA5 reached the milestone with chief test pilot Wolfgang Schirdewahn at the controls. He was conducting a routine mission to verify new control laws for autopilot and engine operation. DA5 is especially tasked with avionic tests and currently the best equipped among the seven prototypes. Eurofighter is working towards first deliveries in 2002.

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Air Europe - 11th Member of the European Airline Alliance
AirEurope wird elftes Mitglied der Qualiflyer Group

The Swissair-led Qualiflyer Group has received a further boost by the Italian carrier Air Europe's decision to become the 11th member of Europe's fastest-growing alliance system. Air Europe, in which the SAirGroup owns a 45 per cent stake, operates primarily from its home base at Milan's brand-new Malpensa Airport. From there, Air Europe serves some 45 international and domestic charter and scheduled destinations with a fleet consisting of seven Boeing 767s and five Airbus A320s, soon to be joined by a pair of Boeing 777s. The company transported around 800000 passengers in 1998, generating revenue of around EUR 200 million. With the inclusion of Air Europe, the Qualiflyer Group's fleet now amounts to 488 aircraft (a 17.5-per-cent increase on 1997) operating some 16 720 weekly services (6.2 per cent more than in 1997) over a coordinated network covering 329 destinations (5.7 per cent more than in 1997) in 125 countries on every continent.

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General Dynamics buys Gulfstream
Gulfstream an General Dynamics verkauft

General Dynamics will buy business-jet manufacturer Gulfstream Aerospace for about $4.6 billion. The one-for-one stock swap is part of General Dynamics latest strategy to expand beyond its core naval and armored vehicle defense businesses. The purchase gives General Dynamics an impressive backlog of $ 4.1 billion in firm orders. Gulfstream chairman and CEO Theodore Forstmann said the merger was appropriate for the company because it would allow Gulfstream -- which he will continue to manage -- access to General Dynamics' larger resources and a chance to expand. "I'm very happy we've found a strong parent and a good home," Forstmann said.
Gulfstream was founded in 1978 by Allen E. Paulson from properties that were previously owned by Grumman Corp. He sold it to Chrysler Corp. in 1985, but teamed with Forstmann's New York-based investment firm, Forstmann Little & Co., to buy it back in 1990 for $825 million. Forstmann Little took the company public in 1996 but still owns 23 percent of its stock. Paulson is a director. The acquisition moves General Dynamics back into civilian aircraft seven years after it sold Gulfstream rival Cessna to Textron for $600 million.

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Weber in Washington: "Airline alliances are consumer-friendly"
Weber in Washington: "Allianzen sind konsumentenfreundlich"

Addressing the prestigious International Aviation Club in Washington D.C., Jürgen Weber, Chairman and CEO of Lufthansa, said that Europeans and Americans should revive their vision of a single transatlantic air traffic market and seek its early implementation. The idea inspired both sides when concluding their open skies agreements, he said. The time has now come to settle differences and inject fresh life into "our ideals.'' It was ongoing liberalization and avoidance of new regulatory constraints that first helped competition work fully to the benefit of the consumer. Airline alliances, like the Star Alliance, further the building of political bridges. They have demonstrated their value in harsh practice, Weber underlined. Remarking on the latest differences between the United States and the European Union, he urged both sides to engage in dialogue not after but before shaping and hardening their political views. Alliances rest on "trusting partner relationships, on mobilizing mutual commitment and refraining from any notion of dominating a partnership.'' Research findings have shown that airline alliances have strengthened competition and made transatlantic travel cheaper, Weber pointed out. Average fares have declined in open skies markets whereas, in regulated markets, they have even risen, he said. Weber emphasized the need to continue giving priority to improving air traffic infrastructure. Air traffic control in Europ especially needs urgent attention: its shortcomings are to blame for a third of all flight delays, he said. Lufthansa alone is burning a yearly 26,000 tons of fuel in holding patterns; "A senseless waste of resources.'' Europe requires a "single sky'' over a "single market.''

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News in brief / Kurzmeldungen

The SAirGroup is to acquire the Dobbs group of Memphis, Tennessee, the world's third-largest airline caterer and the largest train caterer in the United States. The purchase price for the debt-free group is USD 780 million (CHF 1 170 million). The Dobbs group is being sold by the VIAD Corp. financial group, which is listed on the New York stock exchange, as part of a closer focusing of its portfolio strategy. The acquisition - the biggest in its history - will enable the SAirGroup to further substantially develop its airline-related businesses, further educing its exposure to the airline cycle and spreading business risk over a broader activity base. The acquisition of Dobbs and its integration into Gate Gourmet, the SAirGroup's airline catering group within its SAirRelations division and currently the second-largest airline caterer in the world, will create the global market leader in the airline catering sector. The new combined company will have an annual turnover of more than CHF 3 billion (around USD 2 billion).
+++
The Canadian Space Agency's first contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), the 56-foot-long Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS), has begun its campaign toward launch with an arrival at the Kennedy Space Center on Sunday, May 16. The SSRMS is in three segments which when fully assembled is comprised of two booms, each with two 12-foot sections, joined by a hinge. There are two Latching End Effectors (LEE) for grappling, one effector mounted on each end of the arm. Seven joints are associated with the arm which allow for highly flexible and precise movement. Four video cameras with lights, two of which have a pan/tilt capability, will be mounted on each of the booms and on the two end effectors. These cameras will permit the astronauts maximum visibility for operations and maintenance tasks on the ISS.
+++
On May 19, the Czech Defence Ministry has announced that it had sent letters the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, France, Sweden and Germany expressing interest in purchasing advanced fighter aircraft. Spokesman Milan Repka declined to give the exact number of fighters the Czechs intended to buy, but a plan widely discussed in recent years calls for the purchase of some 24 to 36 aircraft to replace the current ageing fleet of Soviet-made MiG 21s. Repka said the government expected preliminary offers by September. The cabinet would then evaluate the bids and fine-tune its demands before opening a tender, he said.
+++
Lufthansa CityLine will recruit some 900 new flight attendants in the coming four years, according to present plans. The staffing additions are required for new aircraft which Germany's second largest scheduled passenger airline will be putting into service in the future. Lufthansa CityLine currently employs almost 700 flight attendants. Moreover, the company will employ 500 pilots up to the year 2003, thereby doubling its present complement of cockpit crews. This huge intake is necessitated by new aircraft which the European scheduled airline will put into service in the coming four years. At the moment 341 pilots fly for Lufthansa CityLine in its Canadair Jet fleet and 199 pilots on board Avro RJ85s.
+++
On May 14, Bell and Boeing celebrated the rollout and delivery of the first production MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft at the Bell Helicopter Textron Flight Research Center in Texas. After remarks from Gen. Terry Dake, Assistant Commandant, U.S.Marine Corps, the first of 360 MV-22B Ospreys to be delivered to the Marine Corps appeared swiftly and silently from out of view as it conncluded its scheduled acceptance test flight.
+++
On May 22, a Lockheed Martin-built Titan IV B rocket successfully launched a classified payload for the U.S. Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) at 02:36 a.m. PDT. The NRO is the U.S. government agency responsible for reconnaissance satellites. The launch was from Space Launch Complex Four East (SLC-4E) at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. This was the 28th Titan IV launch overall, the ninth from Vandenberg. Nineteen Titan IVs have been launched from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. Titan IV, the nation's largest, most powerful expendable launch vehicle, is built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics in Denver, Colo. The Titan IV B improves overall performance of the earlier Titan IV A configuration by approximately 25 percent, and is capable of boosting payloads weighing 47,800 pounds into low-Earth equatorial orbit, 38,800 pounds into low-Earth polar orbit or more than 12,700 pounds into geosynchronous orbit.
+++
On May 21, the Telesat telecommunications satellit was launched by a Russian Proton-K booster. The 3,646-kilogram satellite, designed and manufactured for Telesat Canada by U.S. Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space company, is intended for communication operations, including the relaying of TV programs over North America. It is equipped with 32 powerful transmitters that operate on the Ku band. This was the third commercial Proton-K launch this year, with eight more scheduled for 1999. The next, involving an Astra satellite, is scheduled for June 17.
+++
As a result of the Kosovo crisis, the airspace of Yugoslavia remains closed and large parts of the airspce of adjacent states is either closed or severely restricted. This will inevitably lead to incresed delays in the comming summer holiday season, as important routes to Greece and Turkey are affected. Eurocontrol has declared that it nevertheless has managed to bring down the delays attributed to the conflict to 30 per cent, after an initial 50 per cent.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen sind weiter abrufbar:

*May 16, 1999 *May 9, 1999 *May 2, 1999

*April 25, 1999 *April 18, 1999 *April 11, 1999 *April 4, 1999

*March 28, 1999 *March 21, 1999 *March 14, 1999 *March 7, 1999

*February 21, 1999 *February 14, 1999 *February 7, 1999

*January 31, 1999 *January 24, 1999 *January 17, 1999 *January 10, 1999

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

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Last updated May 23, 1999
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