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Week ending November 30, 1997
+++ Eurofighter gets go from German parliament +++ Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa sign alliance agreement +++ Global Excellence Alliance canceled +++ FLA ready to start, says Airbus +++ Meteosat celebrates 20th anniversary of the first Meteosat launch +++ Critical design review for ACT/FHS research helicopter completed +++ Mars Global Surveyor Radar Mapping Mission shortened +++ Deutsche BA starts Munich-Frankfurt services +++ Spartan satellite recovered +++ BMW Rolls-Royce delivers first BR715 +++ Bombardier Delivers 400th Challenger Jet +++ News in Brief +++
Eurofighter gets go from German parliament
Bundestag billigt Eurofighter-Beschaffung
On November 26, the German Bundestag has finally approved the production investment and procurement phases of the Eurofighter programme. A proposal of the SPD opposition party to eliminate funding was rejected by 331 to 296 votes (four abstentions), and a similar move by the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (Green party) was defeated even more clearly (75 yes, 348 no, 213 abstentions). Thus, with approval of the 1998 defence budget, all is now clear for the signature of the next inter-governmental MoUs and the contracts with industry. This may happen as soon as mid-December.The debate on the Eurofighter was once again characterised by familiar arguments. Defence minister Volker Rühe extolled the excellent cost-performance of the EF2000 in comparison to all other new fighters, while speakers from the opposition party pointed to the financial and technical risks of the programme. After the decision in the Bundestag, industry naturally hailed the go as "a milestone for the joint European security provision, but also an important vote for German industry" (Manfred Bischoff, Dasa Chairman).
Eurofighter procurement for the Luftwaffe up to 2014 will cost 23,1 billion DM (180 aircraft at a fly-away unit cost of 63,4 million DM plus production investment, taxes, logistic equipment etc., but no weapons). 847 million DM are in the 1998 budget, and up to 2001 a total of 4,958 billion DM will be needed, prompting fears that other important defence programmes will suffer. Germany is teamed with the UK (232 aircraft), Italy (121) and Spain (87).
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Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa sign alliance agreement
Lufthansa und Singpore Airlines vereinbaren Allianz
After a year of discussions, Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa on November 24 announced the formation of a strategic alliance that will provide passengers of both carriers with a wide range of enhanced benefits. A Memorandum of Understanding confirming the alliance was signed in Singapore by Dr Cheong Choong Kong, Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive of Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Mr Juergen Weber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lufthansa. It covers a wide area of commercial co-operation, including code-sharing, network and schedule development, frequent flyer programmes, product development, ground-handling, customer service, information technology and cargo operations.The alliance is an expansion of a long-standing commercial relationship between the two carriers. SIA and Lufthansa first began working together in September 1989, when they initiated a joint freighter service between Singapore and Frankfurt. This has since increased to five weekly joint cargo services. The two airlines will further develop this commercial relationship to include passenger services. In so doing, they will expand their passenger schedules to offer travellers more choices and better connection times.
Currently, both airlines operate daily round-trip passenger flights between Singapore and Frankfurt. Four of SIA's daily flights to Frankfurt go beyond to New York. From April 1998, each airline plans to increase its frequencies between Singapore and Frankfurt to 10 flights per week from the present seven, offering passengers alternative daytime departures from both cities, along with the current late-night service. Lufthansa will use Singapore as a primary hub in Southeast Asia and Australasia, while SIA will use Frankfurt as its hub in continental Europe. From July 1998, the two airlines will share codes on flights between Singapore and Frankfurt, and on services beyond both international hub airports, including SIA's service between Frankfurt and New York. SIA's codeshare services beyond Frankfurt will also extend to destinations within Germany and throughout continental Europe (including Eastern Europe). Likewise, Lufthansa's codeshare services beyond Singapore will cover destinations in Asia and Australasia.
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Global Excellence Alliance canceled
Delta, Swissair und SIA lösen Allianz auf
After SIAs switch to Lufthansa, Delta Air Lines, Swissair and Singapore Airlines have agreed to cancel the Global Excellence cooperative alliance which has been in place since 1989. Delta will discontinue its code-share agreement with Singapore from New York to Singapore, but will continue to work closely with Swissair through its European alliance partnership which also includes Sabena and Austrian Airlines. The Global Excellence alliance, one of the first of its kind, was intended to combine resources and routes of the three airlines to provide customers with convenient service across the geographic regions served by its members."While the Global Excellence alliance has produced benefits for its members and customers, it has not realized the success of other cooperative arrangements like our European partnerships," said Robert W. Coggin, Delta executive vice president - marketing. "As competitive and strategic needs change, it's natural that agreements among airlines change as they pursue their separate interests." Canceling the Global Excellence alliance will allow the three airlines to explore other cooperative arrangements which are more compatible to their individual services and route structures.
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FLA ready to start, says Airbus
Arbeiten an FLA könnten im Februar beginnen
At a policy group meeting in Toulouse on November 20/21, industry has advised the interested nations that it would be ready to start the Pre-Launch activities of the new European military transport as early as February 1998. "This is solely dependent on resolution of funding agreements", a statement said, adding that "everything will be in place" for the official establishment of Airbus Military Company (AMC) "by the end of this year".On the "recent political initiative to try to combine the FLA and the An-70 programmes", the official position of Airbus is that "at the present time this looks highly unlikely because of the widely differing technical and financial objectives of each of the organisations concerned. Some of the FLA nations will continue to monitor the progress of the An-70 programme, but at their request this will not interfere with FLA Pre-Launch Activities".
According to Airbus, seven nations have now unofficially issued requests for proposals for a total of 288 aircraft (Belgium 12, France 50, Germany 75, Italy 44, Spain 36, Turkey 26 and UK 45). This means that Aerospatiale, Alenia, BAe, CASA, Dasa and Turkish Aerospace Industries will get a shareholding in AMC, with FLABEL as an associate partner.
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Meteosat celebrates 20th anniversary of the first Meteosat launch
Meteosat feiert 20jähriges Jubiläum des ersten Meteosat-Starts
On November 24th, EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, celebrated the 20th anniversary of Meteosat-1's launch in Darmstadt, Germany. Seven Meteosat were launched since November 1977 until September 1997. They all have contributed to a better weather forecasting in Europe. EUMETSAT was founded in 1986 and has 17 member states. Its objectives are to establish, maintain and exploit European systems of operational meteorological satellites. EUMETSAT operates its Meteosat satellites from Darmstadt. The current satellite programmes shall continue at least until the year 2000. A second generation system is under development for the years until 2012. Preparatory work for a new polar satellite system is also under way with a first launch scheduled early in the next century.
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Critical design review for ACT/FHS research helicopter completed
Neuer Versuchshubschrauber für das DLR
The DLR (German Center for Aerospace Research), Eurocopter Germany and Liebherr Aerospace have recently completed the Critical Design Review of the new ACT/FHS research helicopter. ACT/FHS is based on the EC 135 and gets its 60 million DM funding from the DLR, the German ministry of defence and industry. It will be used for a broad range of research projects covering- safety concepts for new systems and effective certification procedures
- man-machine interface to reduce pilot workload, as well as carefree handling research
- technology demonstration of fly-by-light, smart actuators and innovative avionic architectures
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Mars Global Surveyor Radar Mapping Mission shortened
Radarvermessung des Mars verkürzt
The problems with bringing the Mars Global Surveyor spaceprobe in the desired orbit have resulted in a almost complete restructuring of the whole mission. The originally planned start of the mapping of Mars has now been set back by NASA officials from March 1998 to March 1999. Because pressure on the damaged panel has to be reduced to prevent loosing the probe the aerobraking process is now been prolonged by around six months. Also the scientists wait for Mars to take a better position towards the sun. Both results in the one year delay. This also means that the duration of mapping mission has be cut by one year. Now a nine month period of systematic mapping is planned to gather data at a very hight rate because of the cllear atmosphere of Mars during that time frame.
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Deutsche BA starts Munich-Frankfurt services
Deutsche BA nimmt Frankfurt/Main in ihr Streckenentz auf
British Airways subsidiary Deutsche BA adds Frankfurt to its route network. On November 24, the airline inaugurated flights from Frankfurt to Munich. The new route is served eight times a day in each direction with a Boeing 737 aircraft. With its latest service Deutsche BA starts attacking rival Lufthansa in the LH main hub. Carl Michel, head of Deutsche BA, said he is expecting to gain a 25 percent market share during the first year on that route.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
Spartan satellite recovered
Spartan Satellit eingefangen
Astronauts Winston Scott and Takao Doi, Japan, succeeded in recovering turning satellite Spartan within a three hours EVA (Extravehicular Activity). They waited for an hour until they could grab the staellite and pull it back into the payload bay of space shuttle Columbia. Mission specialist Kalpana Chawla had unwillingly given the satellite a push with the robot arm while putting it into space. Columbia was launched on the STS-87 mission on Thursday 20th. As part of the mission a simultaneous measuering campaign by SOHO and Spartan was originally planned but while Spartan was spinning around its axis SOHO was shut off because of a voltage spike.
Landing of Columbia is scheduled for December 5th at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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BMW Rolls-Royce delivers first BR715
Erstes BR715-Triebwerk für die MD-95 ausgeliefert
On November 26, BMW Rolls-Royce has shipped its first BR715 engine from the Dahlewitz plant. After fitment of accessories at a supplier facility in California, it will go to the Boeing Douglas Products Division at Long Beach, where the MD-95 prototype is currently prepared for its first flight in the second quarter of next year. This delivery comes only seven months after the first run of the BR715, which is the second version of the BR700 family. In parallel to the upcoming flight tests, ground runs will continue. Results so far are very encouraging, with specific fuel consumption better than expected. The BR715 offers thrust levels of 14000 to 23000 lbs, made possible by a new booster and a third stage in the turbine. Apart from the MD-95, it is currently pushed by BMW Rolls-Royce for the AE31X and the indonesian IPTN N2130 projects.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
Bombardier Delivers 400th Challenger Jet
400. Challenger Geschäftsreisjet ausgeliefert
On November 24, Bombardier Aerospace delivered its 400th Challenger widebody business jet, which in 17 years has captured more than one third of the market for large business aircraft. The 400th aircraft, a Challenger 604, serial number 5357, was delivered to a corporate customer in Mexico, who will be using it for both regional and intercontinental travel. "This is a proud milestone for everybody involved in the Challenger program," said John Lawson, president, Business Aircraft Sales, Bombardier Aerospace at a short ceremony in the Canadair delivery centre.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN
Daimler-Benz Aerospace is preparing for the first industrial mission of the reusable Eureca-plattform in 2000. During the Dubai Airshow Dasa has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Dubai based Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) for experiments in the field of telecommunication. Dasa scientists have paved the way for this cooperation agreement during the past 12 months. Eureca flew a eleven month mission in 1992/93 with 71 experiments.+++
The Wankel Rotary GmbH at Korb (near Stuttgart, Germany) has received a cash injection of eight million DM form Hannover Finance group in cooperation with another capital development company and the Technologiebeteiligungsgesellschaft of Bonn (Germany). This will allow the company to expand more rapidly in the future with the production of products like ultralight rotary aircraft engines, company president Jürgen G. Bax said.
+++
All British Airways flights throughout the world will be smoking-free from March 29 next year, the start of the summer schedules, the airline recently announced. BA has more than 7,000 services a week and more than 95 per cent are already non-smoking, including the UK, much of Europe, and a wide range of intercontinental flights. Extensive research shows that customers overwhelmingly want non-smoking extended to the rest of the network.
+++
Intelsat 901 will launched by a Proton-M International Launch Services annouced. The contract includes options for five additional launches.
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Lufthansa and Lufthansa CityLine have now teamed with travel company Pro Toura (Bremen) to market simulator time to aviation enthusiasts. A new company, PROFlight Simulatorflug (phone 0421/2055737) has been set up, which will offer city trips to Bremen, Frankfurt and Berlin, which include simulator rides at costs between 298 and 498 DM per person. Aircraft types on offer are the Piper Cheyenne, Boeing 737, A320 and even the Jumbo Jet.
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An Ariane 44L launched telecommunication satellites Sirius 2 and Cakrawarta 1 for Sweden and Indonesia on November 12th. The next launch of an Ariane (V103) is scheduled for December 2nd with JCSAT-5 and Equator-S.
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The Italian air force is apparently interested in procuring two Airbus A319CJ (Corporate Jets) to repalce its two DC-9 aircraft used for VIP duties. Deliveries could come in 1999 at a cost of around 80 million US-Dollars. Interior fit may be undetaken by Lufthansa Technik.
+++
The European Space Agency ESA and Russian Space Agency RKA have signed an agreement that now formally states: INTEGRAL is to be launched by a Proton in April 2001. In exchange RKA can use 25 per cent of the observation time of this gamma rays observatory. INTEGRAL is to orbit the Earth within two days and conduct measurements of gamma rays sources in space.
+++
Hughes Aircraft Company has announced the first international sale of the HISAR (Hughes Integrated Surveillance and Reconnaissance System). Although the company declined to name the customer, it is understood that the order comes from German company Traffic 2000, which will use the system mainly for environmental monitoring in the North Sea, mounted on board a Beech King Air 200T.
+++
Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH (LFK) has recently conducted another flight test of its generic hypersonic missile (Hyperschall-Flugkörper, HFK-L2). The test at the firing range at the Meldorfer Bucht was set up to validate control of the missile by small axial thrusters, which produced lateral accelerations of 10 gs. Extensive measurments were taken during the few seconds of peak speed, and the missile body was later recovered from the swamps nearly undamaged. The development programme is financed by the BWB (German procurement agency) and on the industrial side includes LFK, Diehl/BGT and Bayern-Chemie.
+++
Newspapers in the Netherlands are recently again speculating on a possible revival of the Fokker line of regional jets. The rumours are impicating businessman Jaap Rosen Jacobson, who alledgedly is "making progress" in securing supplier support and bringing in 20 to 40 new contracts.
+++
Lufthansa is expecting the best results ever for its 1997 financial year, with a profit before taxes of 1,2 to 1,3 billion DM. This figures will even exclude much of the sales proceeds of stakes in Hapag-Lloyd and Amadeus. In the first nine months, operating profit was up form 408 to 873 million DM, finance director Klaus G. Schlede announced. Passanger figures rose 7,3 per cent, meaning a record 74 per cent load factor. Still, there is a loss of 100 million DM on intra-German routes. With this positive trends, Lufthansa plans to create 1800 new jobs in teh next three years.
+++
German transport minister Matthias Wissmann has declared that the federal Government plans to proceede swiftly with the privatisation of German airports. Next year, its stake in Hamburg airport will be sold, followed by Cologne/Bonn in 1999 at the latest. For its 26 per cent stake in Hamburg, a price of 300 million DM could be raised, Wissmann estimated.
+++
At its first shareholder meeting in Wiesbaden, the Cargolifter AG has outlined its plans for the development of new large airships. Next year, a 32 m long prototype should be constructed, as well as a new big hangar for the real thing, which will be more than 200 m long. Cargolifter AG has choosen Brand, some 60 km southeast of Berlin, as its base, and is negotiating with the Brandenburg state government about financial support.
+++
With 14,800 workers added to its Washington state payroll this year through October, Boeing now employs 234,850 people. The Seattle aerospace manufacturer has 125,822 workers overall at the beginning of this year, before the acquisition of St. Louis-based McDonnell Douglas in August. The merger added 63,000 workers to the company. Boeing's Washington state payroll now totals 102,000, up from 87,200 at the beginning of the year. The increase is more than the 10,000 that Boeing estimated would be added this year.
+++
The third production Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) was delivered to the U.S. Air Force November 25 at Northrop Grummans Surveillance and Battle Management Systems facility at Melbourne (Florida). The aircraft was then flown to Robins Air Force Base, Ga., home of the 93rd Air Control Wing. The next Joint STARS program milestone will be declaration by the Air Force of Joint STARS's initial operational capability (IOC), scheduled Dec. 18 during a ceremony at Robins AFB.
+++
Boeing engineers have released for production 90 percent of the design drawings necessary to build the new Boeing 757-300. "Reaching this milestone means that we are nearing completion of the development phase of this airplane program and moving ahead to production," said Jack Gucker, vice president of Boeing 737/757 Derivative Programs. "Our program is right on track and we're proceeding toward an on-time delivery of the first 757-300 in January 1999."
+++
In concluding an intense engine competition begun in 1993, the Air Force of the Republic of Korea has selected the GE F404 augmented turbofan engine to power the new KTX-2 advanced trainer/light combat aircraft. Designed to be the world's most modern, cost-effective advanced trainer as well as a modern, low-cost fighter for the Republic of Korea and other nations, the KTX-2 is being developed by Samsung Aerospace Industries Ltd., in association with Lockheed Martin Corporation. Production of the KTX-2 is to begin in the year 2005 and continue through 2020.
+++
China is striving to have the capability of exporting entire satellites by the year of 2000, reported China Daily has reported. Having successfully entered the international market for launch services,China currently only exports some satellite spare parts, said Hua Chongzhi, vice-director of the China Aerospace Corporation (CASC) International Co-operation Department. Experts claim that China needs to develop satellite technology as well as explore business opportunities in the world market. As part of its efforts, a Sino-German joint venture is acting as the supplier of Sinosat-1, the first communications satellite built for a Chinese customer.
+++
Horizon Air has announced that it will convert 10 options to firm orders for de Havilland Dash 8Q-200 turboprops from Bombardier Regional Aircraft of Canada. The order is valued at $100 million. The aircraft will be used to replace older Dash 8-100s currently in Horizon's fleet. This latest order brings the total number of Dash 8Q-200s ordered by Horizon to 35 and the total value of the order to $350 million.
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November 23, 1997
November 16, 1997
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October 26, 1997
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Last updated November 28, 1997
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