Airbus eyes French Spirit plant

French media are reporting that Airbus is talking with Spirit AeroSystems about buying Spirit's A350 XWB assembly plant in Saint-Nazaire, France. Spirit said the company doesn't speculate on business transactions that have not been announced, and Airbus said discussions with the company's suppliers are private. French newspaper Les Echos quoted a French union leader, Francoise Vallin, on the talks. Workers at Spirit's 90,000-square-foot French plant assemble the composite fuselage panels and central sections of the A350 that are designed, built and shipped from Spirit's larger facility in Kinston, N.C. (Source: Wichita Eagle, updated 03/19/13) Gulf Coast note: Airbus will break ground next month on an A320 assembly line in Mobile, Ala.

New chief for Lockheed F-35

Lockheed Martin named Lorraine Martin its new leader for the F-35 program. Martin, 50, replaces her former boss, Orlando Carvalho, 54. He becomes executive vice president in charge of the aeronautics business. From 2004 to 2008, Martin was vice president of flight solutions, simulation and support for aircrew training programs for the Air Force Special Operations Command at Hurlburt Field in Northwest Florida. (Source: Bloomberg News, 03/18/13) Gulf Coast note: Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the military's F-35 training center.

Airbus lands $24B Indonesian deal

PARIS, France -- Airbus has snagged a “landmark order” from Indonesia’s Lion Air Group this week. The two companies finalized the $24 billion purchase of 234 A320’s. Lion Air’s Airbus order actually exceeds the order that the Indonesian carrier placed with the plane-maker’s U.S. rival, Boeing, in 2011 for 201 planes valued at $22 billion.Airbus is due to break ground on April 8 on a $600 million final assembly line at Mobile’s Brookley Aeroplex that will be dedicated entirely to the production of the A320 family of aircraft. (Source:  al.com, 03/18/13)

Budget may ground the Blue Angels

After traveling from their winter base in El Centro, Calif., the Blue Angels have arrived in Pensacola amid a storm of uncertainty. Federal budget cuts threaten to cancel the Blue Angels annual July show at Pensacola Beach and perhaps being grounded for the rest of the season. The Navy has not informed the team of the fate of their air show schedule. The Navy has so far cancelled four air shows scheduled for April, but five practices in Pensacola in March are tentatively still scheduled. The sequestration cuts for the Navy, released in January, requires cancelation of all appearances through the end of the federal fiscal year which occurs in September. This includes the July Pensacola Air Show. The cancelations save an estimated $20 million. (Source: Pensacola News Journal, 03/18/13)

Firm to settle with county

DESTIN, Fla. -- Miracle Strip Aviation, one of two fixed-base operators at Destin Airport, has agreed to a plan that would settle its $485,000 debt with the county by 2019. The Okaloosa County Commission is scheduled to vote on the plan Tuesday. Under the plan, Miracle Strip Aviation, recently purchased by Mississippi-based Regal Capital, will pay the county $150,000 upfront, make $100,000 in major renovations to the county-owned terminal at Destin Airport and repay the remaining $235,382 at 4 percent interest over six years. Miracle Strip Aviation amassed the debt because of an error in the county’s billing system. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 03/17/13)

Operator announces terminal

CRESTVIEW, Fla. -- Bob Sikes Airport’s fixed-base operator anticipates breaking ground on a $600,000 terminal by April. Jonathan Dunn, Emerald Coast Aviation’s president, said his company recently sent the project out to bid. The 5,600-square-foot terminal will replace a facility that Emerald Coast Aviation and Sunshine Aero, its predecessor, have used for decades. The single-story building will house a reception area, offices, a lounge, pilots' room with shower, a conference room and an outdoor enclosed courtyard overlooking the airport. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 03/17/13)

STEMM school has new tool

F100 engine. Photo courtesy STEMM center

VALPARAISO, Fla. -- Science-minded middle school students in Okaloosa County now have a jet engine to use as a learning tool. Airmen from nearby Eglin Air Force Base delivered the engine Friday to the Okaloosa County STEMM Center, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, math and medical studies. The F100 engine from the U.S. Air Force Recruiting Service at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala., will be used to demonstrate a variety of scientific principals to students. The STEMM Center plans to invite teachers from across the Panhandle to use the engine in their own programs. (Sources: WEAR-TV, Northwest Florida Daily News, Okaloosa County schools, 03/15/13)

Contract: Lockheed, $105.9M

Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co., Sunnyvale, Calif., is being awarded a $105,868,182 cost-plus incentive-fee and fixed-price incentive-firm contract for contractor logistics support, legacy sustainment and combined task force support for the Space Based Infrared Systems. The location of the performance is Colorado Springs, Colo. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2016. The contracting activity is SMC/ISK, Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif. (Source: DoD, 03/15/13) Gulf Coast note: Work on the core propulsion system of the SBIRS is done by Lockheed Martin at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

Contract: Boeing, $99..9M

The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $99,900,000 firm-fixed-price, cost-plus-fixed-fee and indefinite- quantity/indefinite-delivery contract for production assets, spares, repairs and sustainment for the joint direct attack munitions system. The location of the performance is St. Louis, Mo. Work is expected to be completed by Jan. 31, 2016. Type of appropriation is foreign military sales funding. The contracting activity is AFLCMC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Contract involves foreign military sales. (Source: DoD, 03/15/13)

Airbus gets big orders

Two airlines within two days put in orders for 184 Airbus aircraft. Lufthansa will buy 100 A320s and two A380s worth about $11.2 billion at list price, Airbus reported on Thursday. The Lufthansa Group is the biggest Airbus operator worldwide. (Source: Airbus, 03/14/13) On Friday, it was reported that Turkish Airlines is buying 82 A320 family aircraft. The order is worth about $9.3 billion, based on the current list price. Airbus will break ground April 8 on a $600 million final assembly line at Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala. The plant will employ 1,000 and generate thousands of construction jobs. It will produce the A320 family of aircraft. (Source: al.com, link, 03/15/13)

New officer assignments

The chief of staff of the Air Force announced today that Brig. Gen. Timothy J. Leahy, who has been selected for the rank of major general, commander, 23rd Air Force and director, operations, Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla., to director, operations, J-3, Headquarters U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Fla. Also, Brig. Gen. John M. Hicks, director, command, control, communications and cyber, J-6, Headquarters U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, to commander, 23rd Air Force and director, operations, Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla. (Source: DoD, 03/15/13)

Eglin slates boat ops

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – Residents in the local area may experience low-flying aircraft or noise when the 96th Operations Group conducts boat operations March 18-22 in the Gulf of Mexico south of Destin in the morning and the Choctawhatchee Bay in the afternoon. The operations are part of the 53rd Wing’s Weapon System Evaluation Program. Fighter aircraft will release various munitions in the Gulf of Mexico during the morning test missions. In the Choctawhatchee Bay during the afternoon test missions, about 30 boats will operate as visual simulated targets for fighter aircraft. No bombs or munitions will be released during these Choctawhatchee Bay operations. (Source: 96th Test Wing Public Affairs, 03/14/13) Previous

Officials to visit Airbus plant

MOBILE, Ala. -- Local officials are leaving Friday for a four-day trip to Hamburg, Germany, to tour an Airbus final assembly plant for the A320 jet airliner. The trip includes two days in which officials will tour the German plant considered comparable to the $600 million plant that will be built at Brookley Aeroplex. Groundbreaking for the Mobile plant is slated for April 8. The group will include the mayor, city attorney, four city council members, three county commissioners and representatives of the Mobile Airport Authority. (Source: al.com, link, 03/13/13)

Report sees more UAV jobs

A new study by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI) finds that more than 70,000 new American jobs will be created in the first three years following integration of unmanned systems into the national airspace. For the four states with a piece of the Gulf Coast Interstate 10 aerospace corridor, it will mean a combined 6,690 jobs and economic impact of $1.3 billion by 2017. That breaks down to 3,251 jobs and an economic impact of $632 million in Florida; 1,510 jobs and an economic impact of $294 million in Alabama; 1,097 jobs and an economic impact of $213 million in Louisiana; and 832 jobs and an economic impact of $162 million in Mississippi. (Source: GCAC, 03/13/13) Study; Related: Huntsville vying to become FAA UAV test site

MAF to build LNG tanks

NEW ORLEANS -- Aerospace giant Lockheed Martin said Tuesday it will build two liquefied natural gas tanks at the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, adding 400 jobs. Each 88-foot-long tank, designed to carry 295,000 cubic meters of liquid gas, will serve as fuel tanks for propulsion engines built by the Finnish company Wartsila, Lockheed President Gerry Fasano said. Those engines are built to power commercial transport ships. Fasano added that the two companies are discussing contracts to build another six tanks of various sizes at Michoud that could serve as storage tanks to transport gas overseas. MAF is also used by the British company Blade Dynamics to build wind turbine blades, and more recently, Sierra Nevada Corp. said it had partnered with Lockheed Martin to build structures for the Dream Chaser commercial space vehicle. MAF is also where Orion and the core stage of the Space Launch System are being built. (Source: Times-Picayune, NASA, 03/12/13)

Airport director resigns

PANAMA CITY, Fla. -- After two years of leadership at the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in West Bay, airport Executive Director John Wheat has resigned. Wheat said Tuesday that he accepted a new position as the director of the Sacramento County, Calif., Airport System, where he will oversee one international airport and three reliever airports. Wheat was recruited by officials in the Sacramento County Airport System, which boasts a passenger traffic count of about 9 million per year with 14 airlines. His resignation is effective April 5. (Source: Panama City News Herald, 03/12/13)

Charges against Vision dropped

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Criminal charges against Vision Airlines have been dropped. State Attorney Bill Eddins said Tuesday that his office dropped the first-degree grand theft charge against the airline after it paid more than $160,000 in fines and fees to Okaloosa County in the past month. The state attorney's office filed the grand theft charge after the county tried unsuccessfully for months to get Vision to pay unpaid passenger facility charges owed to Northwest Florida Regional Airport. (Source: Northwest Florida Daily News, 03/12/13) Previous

Airbus project snags piece of award

Trade & Industry Development named the Airbus assembly plant project in Mobile, Ala., among its top 15 corporate advancement award winners for 2013. The magazine selected the Airbus project as one of 30 Corporate Investment and Community Impact winners nationwide for the transformational effect it’s expected to have on Mobile. Several hundred projects announced during 2012 were considered. Groundbreaking is slated for April 8 for the $600 million, 1,000-employee plant that will be the final assembly location for single-aisle A320 family of aircraft. (Source: Mobile Press-Register, 03/12/13)

Contract: Enola, $20M

Enola Contracting Services, Chipley, Fla., was awarded a $20,000,000 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure maintenance and repair services at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. Work will be performed in Fort Stewart, with an estimated completion date of March 31, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 15 bids received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Fort Stewart, Ga., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 03/12/13)

Contract: Speegle, $12.4M

Speegle Construction Inc., Niceville, Fla., was awarded a $12,358,500 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the construction of a squadron operations facility at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz. Work will be performed at Luke AFB, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 16, 2014. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with 16 bids received. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 03/12/13)