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Airbus’s Latest Jetliner Takes Its First Flight

June 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

There was a lot more riding on it than the multinational crew of two test pilots and four engineers sharing the inaugural flight.

The new aircraft carries the burden of dispelling Airbus’s reputation for cross-cultural and industrial dysfunction that caused costly delays in the introduction of the company’s previous plane, the A380 superjumbo. And in the wake of last year’s failed merger of the plane maker’s parent, European Aeronautic Defense Space, with the British military contractor BAE Systems, the company is betting its future ever more heavily on the success of commercial jets like the A350.

It is no coincidence that Airbus showed off the A350 — a twin-engine wide-body jet meant to compete with the 787 Dreamliner and 777 from Boeing — as the global aviation industry assembled for the biennial Paris Air Show, which is scheduled to open Monday at Le Bourget airport north of the French capital. As always at the show, the world’s largest aerospace bazaar, any other announcements by other industry players will be undercard matches compared to the perennial Airbus vs. Boeing main event.

At precisely 10 a.m., the A350 lifted effortlessly from the sun-dappled runway at Toulouse-Blagnac Airport, the purr of its two Rolls-Royce engines momentarily drowned out by the cheers and whistles of the throng of Airbus employees, well-wishers and members of the media who had gathered — camera phones at the ready — to capture the moment.

The distinctive curled tips of the jet’s carbon-fiber wings glinted briefly before it slipped into the clouds.

Judith Lindner, a 36-year-old quality control technician from an Airbus factory in Stade, Germany, whooped as the jet sailed past, jabbing her thumb in the air.

“What a tremendous thrill — fantastic,” said Ms. Lindner, who added that she personally helped to inspect the vertical stabilizer on the plane’s tail. “I feel such a mix of pride and relief.”

Analysts said the value of a well-timed and well-executed A350 debut could not be overestimated. Indeed, some said they still expected that Airbus, despite Friday’s test flight in Toulouse, would try to maintain the public-relations momentum by staging a A350 flyby sometime during the weeklong show in Paris, about a 90-minute flight north of Toulouse.

It would be hard for Airbus to find a bigger stage. Show organizers said they expected the chalets and exhibition halls of the air show to be filled with more than 2,200 companies from more than 40 countries. As many as 350,000 visitors from the aerospace industry, as well as the public, are expected over the course of the week.

Even Boeing executives grudgingly acknowledged that the timing of the A350 flight was likely to steal much of the U.S. company’s thunder at the event.

“I know they work hard to keep the home fans entertained,” Randy Tinseth, Boeing’s head of marketing, said at a briefing Tuesday in Paris.

Despite the likely buzz from Airbus’s new plane, though, this year’s show might well be relatively subdued in terms of new jet order announcements, given the uncertain near-term outlook for airline profits and economic growth, particularly in emerging markets.

A slowdown in new orders would not spell disaster, however. A frenetic buying spree by airlines over the past three years has left both Airbus and Boeing with order books fat enough to keep their assembly lines humming for much of the next decade.

Not so long ago, prospects did not look nearly as bright for Airbus, when it was struggling to roll out its last big-bet plane: the twin-deck A380. Miscommunication in the design, manufacturing and installation of several hundred kilometers of electrical cables resulted in a series of missteps in the mid-2000s that delayed the A380’s first delivery by three years. The debacle prompted a management reshuffle in 2006 and more than $6 billion in losses.

Airbus executives say they are determined not to repeat the experience.

For the new A350, the company has reconceived its internal design systems and decision making, even involving key suppliers in the design process from the start. And while in the past Airbus engineers in France and Germany operated independently — in some cases using incompatible tools and software — they now collaborate virtually, working from shared digital blueprints and in real time. As the A350’s flight testing progresses and Airbus fine-tunes its design over the coming 12 to 18 months, it hopes to minimize delays through quicker and more transparent communication across the production and supply chains.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/15/business/global/airbuss-latest-jetliner-takes-its-first-flight.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Filed Under: Global Business Tagged With: , ,

U.S. Expresses Concern Over Cyberattacks in Japan

September 21, 2011 by Leave a Comment

TOKYO — The United States gave a stern warning on Wednesday over recent cyberattacks on Japan’s top defense contractors, the latest in a series of security breaches that have fueled worries over Tokyo’s ability to handle delicate information.

An online assault on defense contractors including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which builds F-15 fighter jets and other American-designed weapons for Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, began in August but came to light only earlier this week, prompting rebukes from Japanese officials over the timing of the disclosure. IHI Corp, a military contractor that supplies engine parts for fighter jets, may have also been a target, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The breach came less than two weeks after a Japanese air traffic controller was questioned for posting secret American flight information on his blog. The data including detailed flight plans of Air Force One last November, as well as data on an American military reconnaissance drone, officials said.

The breaches threaten to undermine any progress made by Japan, an important American ally in the Asia-Pacific region, in bolstering cybersecurity in recent years.

The Japanese government had promised to revamp its security procedures after a Navy officer was arrested in 2007 over the leak of classified data on the United States Navy’s advanced Aegis combat radar system, which is also used on Japanese warships.

“We are concerned by news reports of cyberattacks on select Japanese companies and will continue to monitor the issue,” said Karen Kelley, a spokeswoman for the American Embassy in Tokyo.

“For every country, these kinds of intrusions have the potential for long-term negative impact and must be taken seriously. This is why cybersecurity must be a public sector priority in close collaboration with the private sector,” she said.

Mitsubishi Heavy said on Monday that its computer systems had been hacked and some network information may have been compromised. According to the company, 83 computers and servers at 11 locations, including its Tokyo headquarters, factories and a research and development center were accessed in the attack. Details of the breach were still unclear, a company spokesman said on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa has said that he had not received reports that any classified information had been compromised. It also remained unclear where the attacks originated, he said.

But an investigation by a security company has revealed that connections were made to 14 overseas sites, including at least 20 servers in China, Hong Kong, the United States and India, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest daily. China, especially, has vehemently denied that the attack could have originated from within its borders.

Mitsubishi Heavy has built F-15 fighter jet and missile systems, including Patriot batteries, and AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missiles, designed in the United States. The company builds some of that equipment with American contractors, including Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.

Mitsubishi Heavy won 215 deals worth $3.4 billion from Japan’s Defense Ministry in the year ending last March, or a quarter of the ministry’s spending that year, according to Reuters. It has previously seen breaches in security: the loss of data on nuclear reactor tests in 2006 and on its fighter jets in 2003.

Still, the United States military has not been free of serious security hacks. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin was the victim of a sophisticated hacking attack. A Japanese defense white paper last month urged its defense community to better protect against cyberattacks after that breach.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=567390d6ef612e3c1752006c29ccb252

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RSA Faces Angry Users After Breach

June 8, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The company’s admission of the RSA tokens’ vulnerability on Monday was a shock to many customers because it came so long after a hacking attack on RSA in March and one on Lockheed Martin last month. The concern of customers and consultants over the way RSA, a unit of the tech giant EMC, communicated also raises the possibility that many customers will seek alternative solutions to safeguard remote access to their computer networks.

Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup said they planned to replace the tokens as soon as possible. The banks declined to say how many customers would be affected, although SAP said that most of its 50,000 employees used RSA’s tokens and that it was seeking to replace them all.

Defense industry officials said Tuesday that concerns about the tokens had prompted some of the nation’s largest military contractors to accelerate their plans to shift to computer smart cards and other emerging security technology.

The RSA tokens provide security by requiring users to enter a unique number generated by the token each time they connect to their networks.

Competitors eyeing the dominant market share of RSA are offering special deals like $5 rebates per token to customers that are considering a switch.

For now, however, the biggest worry for RSA is how to appease angry customers as well as mollify computer security consultants, who have been increasingly critical of how long it took the company to acknowledge the severity of the problem.

Industry officials said that Lockheed, the nation’s largest military contractor, made the security changes suggested by RSA after its attack in March. They included increased monitoring and addition of another password to its remote log-in process. Yet the hackers still got into Lockheed’s network, prompting security experts to say that the tokens themselves needed to be reprogrammed.

Arthur W. Coviello Jr., RSA’s executive chairman, made the offer in a letter posted on the company’s Web site on Monday. He said RSA was expanding the offer to companies other than military contractors, particularly those focused on protecting intellectual property and their corporate networks. He also said it was suggesting that banks use two additional RSA services to avert fraud in authenticating computer log-ins.

Mr. Coviello said in the letter that characteristics of the attack on RSA “indicated that the perpetrator’s most likely motive” was to steal security information that could be used to obtain military secrets and intellectual property. He said that RSA had worked with military companies to replace their tokens “on an accelerated timetable.”

Michael Gallant, an EMC spokesman, said, “We have not withheld any information that would adversely affect the security of our customers’ systems.”

“We provided very specific recommendations, we provided details of the attack, and we worked closely with customers to strengthen their overall security,” Mr. Gallant said.

The company’s admissions were too little, too late, industry experts said.

“They got pushed really hard by some of their customers, particularly in the financial services sector,” said Gary McGraw, chief technology officer for Cigital, a computer security consulting company based in Washington. “They came around, but they came around late.”

Mr. McGraw said that companies would be wise to replace RSA’s tokens and that some companies — banks, in particular — had done so. Like many people, he criticized RSA for failing to disclose the potential danger of the problem to its customers.

Until Monday, RSA said publicly and privately in meetings with customers that replacements were unnecessary, he said. “They shared their party line that everything is fine — pay no attention to the explosion in the corner,” Mr. McGraw said.

Reporting was contributed by Verne G. Kopytoff, Riva Richmond and Eric Dash.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f50d905b60d22630bec225c2074efce8

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Britain Investigates Bribery Charges Against EADS Unit in Saudi Deal

May 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

LONDON — Britain’s Serious Fraud Office is looking into allegations that a unit of European Aeronautic Defense Space bribed Saudi Arabian officials to win a multi-billion dollar contract, a person with direct knowledge of the investigation said on Tuesday.

The fraud office, which investigates complex instances of corruption, is seeking more information about allegations that the EADS unit handed out cars, jewelry and cash to win a £2 billion, or $3.3 billion, contract for upgrading the satellite systems of the Saudi National Guard, said the person, who declined to be identified because the investigation is at an early stage.

The allegations were made by Lieutenant Colonel Ian Foxley, a former employee of GPT Special Project Management, which won the contract, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported. GPT, based in Riyadh, is owned by a British company, Paradigm Services, which in turn is owned by EADS, one of Europe’s largest defense contractors and the parent company of Airbus as well.

“Certain allegations have been made and these are being properly investigated,” Alexander Reinhardt, an EADS spokesman, said.

Sam Jaffa, a spokesman for the fraud office, declined to comment. Mr. Foxley could not be reached for comment. There was no answer at the press office at the Saudi Embassy in London.

The allegations come more than a year after BAE Systems, Europe’s largest military contractor and an EADS rival, agreed to pay almost $450 million in penalties in the United States and Britain to settle investigations into possible bribes to win contracts. The investigations, which had dragged on for years, focused on arms deals in Saudi Arabia, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Before pleading guilty as part of the settlement, BAE Systems had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

The initial investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the dealings of BAE Systems had caused diplomatic problems between Saudi Arabia and Britain. The British government, then led by Prime Minister Tony Blair, pressured the fraud office into halting the investigation in 2006, arguing that it would damage Britain’s intelligence cooperation with Saudi Arabia in the struggle against Al Qaeda.

The halting of the investigation was challenged in court by two activist groups. The High Court in Britain ruled in 2008 that dropping the inquiry was unlawful.

Britain is currently working on a review of its bribery bill that is expected to go into effect this summer. The small changes were supposed to clarify what companies are and are not allowed to do to win business. But some lawyers argued the rules are too unclear on which foreign companies would be subject to the laws.

Nicola Clark contributed reporting from Paris.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=9ae3f31bd65b2f67cf5b68ffd934864a

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