Air Transat leases Boeing 737-800s for the winter

Transat A.T. Inc. announced Friday the signing of an agreement for the seasonal leasing of Boeing 737-800 narrow-body aircraft that will be supplied in the winter by Transavia France, the Air France/KLM Group's French leisure airline. The five-year pact is for four planes for the winter of 2015, five for 2016, six for 2017, seven for 2018 and eight for 2019. The aircraft, which will be operated by Air Transat, will fly to destinations in Mexico and the Caribbean.

On July 24, Transat announced an agreement with the U.S.-based International Lease Finance Corp. for the long-term leasing of four Boeing 737-800s, which will become the core of Air Transat's permanent narrow-body fleet.

"This deal gives us greater flexibility and a significantly improved cost structure,” said Jean-Marc Eustache, president and chief executive officer of Transat. “This strategy is key to our future success and to a return to profitability in winter.”

"By renewing an agreement originally forged between the two companies in 2010, Transavia France is once again improving its flexibility and its ability to adapt to the seasonal nature of its operations,” said Antoine Pussiau, president and chief executive officer of Transavia France.

Gitlin named president of Aircraft Systems at United Technologies

United Technologies Corp. (UTC) announced Thursday that David Gitlin has been named president of the Aircraft Systems business segment of UTC Aerospace Systems, effective immediately and reporting to Alain Bellemare, president and CEO, UTC Propulsion & Aerospace Systems. Gitlin succeeds Curtis Reusser who is leaving to pursue his career outside of UTC.

Gitlin has served as senior vice president of Aircraft Systems since the launch of UTC Aerospace Systems.

Gitlin, 44, has been with UTC since 1997, holding leadership positions in legal, business development, program management and customer service. Before the acquisition of Goodrich, he served as president, Aerospace Customers & Business Development, at Hamilton Sundstrand, where he oversaw aerospace customer service and support, business development activities, strategic partnerships, and mergers & acquisitions.

UTC is based in Hartford, Conn.

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Spirit AeroSystems layoffs

Spirit AeroSystems, Inc. on Thursday continued its previously announced workforce reductions by issuing layoff notices to approximately 150 salaried and management workers in Wichita, Kan. In addition, a significant number of Spirit salaried employees have expressed interest in voluntary retirement and voluntary layoff programs. The company is offering a lump sum severance payment and career transition services to employees who are laid off, and a lump sum severance payment and enhanced healthcare and pension options to eligible employees who decide to participate in the voluntary retirement program.

At the same time Spirit is reducing its salaried and management population, the company is hiring several hundred more factory workers, including assembly, composite, metals and process mechanics, and quality inspectors. These company actions to balance the workforce are being taken to meet record demand from its customers, and become more competitive in a cost-sensitive environment. Spirit is already producing at record rates and ramping up for further increases later this year and in early 2014. Spirit's backlog remains robust at about $38 billion.

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Dunkin' Donuts looks to develop 150 restaurants in the UK

Dunkin' Donuts announced Thursday that it has signed agreements with two franchise groups to begin developing restaurants in the United Kingdom. The two agreements call for the development of 50 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in Greater London over the next five years, with an initial focus on North London and East London. The chain is also in advanced discussions with additional franchise partners to help develop a total of 150 Dunkin' Donuts restaurants in the U.K. over the next five years, which includes the two signed agreements.

Twenty-five restaurants will open in East London under an agreement with The Court Group, chaired by U.K. businessman David Sheepshanks, CBE. Another 25 restaurants will open in North London under agreement with DDMG Ltd., a partnership formed by three experienced U.S. Dunkin' Donuts franchisees from the Baltimore/Philadelphia area and two local U.K. operators.

Founded in 1950, Dunkin' Donuts currently has more than 10,500 restaurants in 31 countries around the world, including more than 100 locations across Europe in Bulgaria, Germany, Russia and Spain.

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A one-two punch from the Sun in 1859

The impact of space weather was dramatically demonstrated approximately a century before the United States launched their first satellite into space when awe-inspiring auroral displays were seen over nearly the entire world on the night of Aug. 28-29, 1859. In New York City, thousands watched “the heavens . . . arrayed in a drapery more gorgeous than they have been for years.” The aurora witnessed that Sunday night, the NewYork Times told its readers, “ will be referred to hereafter among the events which occur but once or twice in a lifetime.” Even more spectacular displays occurred on Sept. 2. For residents of Havana, Cuba, the sky that night “appeared stained with blood and in a state of general conflagration.” Earth had experienced a one-two punch from the Sun, the likes of which have not been recorded since. From Aug. 28 through Sept. 4, auroral displays of remarkable brilliance, color, and duration were observed around the world, as far south as Central America in the Northern Hemisphere and as far north as Santiago, Chile, in the Southern Hemisphere.

Even after daybreak, when the auroras were no longer visible, disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field were so powerful that ground-level magnetic field monitoring sensors were driven off scale. Telegraph networks in many locations experienced major disruptions and outages. In several regions, operators disconnected their systems from the batteries and sent messages using only the current induced by the aurora. In fact, telegraphs were completely unusable for nearly eight hours in most places around the world.

Humanity was just beginning to develop a dependence on high-tech systems in 1859. The telegraph was the technological wonder of the day. There were no high-power electrical lines crisscrossing the continents or sensitive satellites orbiting Earth, both of which are vulnerable to events of the sort that disrupted telegraph systems in the 19th century. There certainly was not yet a dependence on instantaneous communication and satellite remote imaging of Earth’s surface. Now, in the early part of the 21st century, as the Sun is ramping up its activity in solar cycle 24, decision makers are asking: Has there been adequate preparation for severe space weather events, and what might be the consequences of worst-case events like that of the storm of 1859?

Source: Solar and Space Physics: A Science for a Technological Society, published by the National Science Council.

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Video: Space station crew says goodbye to Japan cargo ship

International Space Station (ISS) astronaut Karen Nyberg of NASA used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the Japanese HTV-4 cargo ship on Wednesday, after its month stay at the orbital outpost.

The cargo craft, dubbed "Kounotori" --- the Japanese word for "white stork" --- by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, arrived at the ISS Aug. 9 filled with more than three tons of supplies and spare parts for the crew. It will be commanded to deorbit on Saturday, headed for a destructive entry into the Pacific Ocean.

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Beechcraft Baron, eye in the sky for ISR missions

Military and law enforcement agencies across the globe will find the mission persistence of the Beechcraft Baron ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) to be efficient and effective.

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