FAA CONFIRMS GILLIGAN IN TOP SAFETY POST
Pegg Gilligan is the new US Federal Aviation Administration associate administrator for aviation safety, replacing Nicholas Sabatini, who retired in January. She has been deputy assistant administrator for aviation safety since July 1995. John Hickey, director of the Aircraft Certification Service since 2000, will replace Gilligan and Hickey's deputy, Dorenda Baker, will replace him.
EC225, S-92 TO CONTEST UK'S SAR-H DEAL
The Eurocopter EC225 and Sikorsky S-92 will contest the 2012 and beyond UK Ministry of Defence/Maritime and Coastguard Agency SAR-H search-and-rescue helicopter contract. A Lockheed Martin UK/VT/British International Helicopters team is pitching the EC225 against the S-92 proposed by a CHC Helicopter, Thales UK and Royal Bank of Scotland consortium.
BMI TURNS IN £100M LOSS
UK operator BMI has turned in a 2008 post-tax loss of almost £100 million ($137 million) as fuel costs rose by £60 million and revenue edged up slightly to £1.04 billion. Chief executive Nigel Turner says the airline, which is expected to be purchased by Lufthansa this year, has been affected by "unprecedented and extremely challenging" market conditions.
TEST SUCCESS FOR SPACE STATION SUPPLY ENGINE
SpaceX reported a successful full mission duration firing of its new regeneratively cooled liquid-oxygen/kerosene Merlin Vacuum engine. The engine will power the upper stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle that will make its maiden flight later this year and has been selected by NASA to resupply the International Space Station after the Space Shuttle retires in 2010.
CRASH 'WILL NOT STOP SARAS PROGRAMME'
India's National Aerospace Laboratories is vowing to press on with its 14-seat Saras push-prop utility aircraft programme despite losing one of the two prototypes in a 6 March test-flight crash near Bangalore that killed all three crewmembers. Launched in the 1980s, the first prototype of the indigenously designed aircraft flew in 2004 and the second in 2006.
NATS PROMISES 10% EMISSIONS CUT BY 2020
UK air navigation service provider NATS has promised to reduce the emissions by aircraft it controls by 10% per flight by 2020 through shorter routeings, greener airport approaches and departures and the enabling of optimum en-route flight levels.
LEGAL WRANGLE KEEPS CLEAN SKY GROUNDED
A legal wrangle over procedures has halted selection of industry partners for €50 million ($63.2 million) of research contracts for the European Union's Clean Sky joint technology initiative. A call for project proposals was to come this quarter, with industrial activity beginning later this year.
ELBIT SYSTEMS POSTS STRONG YEAR
A strong fourth quarter helped Israeli defence and technology group Elbit Systems boost full-year 2008 profit by nearly 49% to $767.4 million on revenue up by one-third to more than $2.6 billion. Elbit ended the year with a $5 billion backlog, up from $4.6 billion at the close of 2007 and 72% attributable to non-Israeli orders.
Source: Flight International
