Eutelsat's W2M satellite is delivered by a European/Indian industrial consortium for Ariane 5's next launch
Eutelsat's W2M satellite is delivered by a European/Indian industrial consortium for Ariane 5's next launch
(NSI News Source Info) October 22, 2008: The W2M satellite payload for Arianespace’s upcoming Ariane 5 mission touched down today in French Guiana, arriving in a brightly-colored shipping container that underscores the Indian origins of its spacecraft bus.
The W2M satellite is unloaded from an An-124 cargo jetliner at Cayenne’s Rochambeau International Airport in French Guiana. Its protective shipping container carries the colors of India’s flag: deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The flag’s central symbol – representing a wheel of law – is replaced on the shipping container with a view of the Earth, which is circled by an orbiting telecommunications satellite.
W2M is one of two payloads that Arianespace will orbit for Europe’s Eutelsat aboard the next heavy-lift Ariane 5 – joining HOT BIRD™ 9 on the workhorse launcher’s sixth, and final, flight in 2008.
The W2M platform will provide television and radio broadcasting across Europe, and it also carries one steerable beam that can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements. Weighing approximately 3,460 kg. at liftoff, the spacecraft will be positioned at an orbital slot of 16 deg. East following its Ariane 5 launch.
W2M is the product of an alliance between Europe’s EADS Astrium and the ANTRIX commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ANTRIX/ISRO supplied the satellite bus, and also was responsible the spacecraft’s integration and test before its shipment to French Guiana. EADS Astrium is prime contractor in charge of overall W2M program management, and the company also designed and built the communications payload.
W2M will typically operate 26 transponders in Ku-band, with the capacity for up to 32 depending on operational modes. It has a designed operational lifetime of more than 15 years.
Greece And Turkey Still At Guard
(NSI News Source Info) November 8, 2008: Since the end of the Cold War, Greece has shifted its military orientation away from the north (and former Cold War opponents Bulgaria and Russia), and towards the east. The major military objective now is preparation for a war with fellow NATO member Turkey, a war Greece has little chance of winning. The Aegean sea region, and Cyprus, supplies a number of potential conflicts between Turkey and Greece. Despite this, the two nations have been slowly developing a warmer relationship. But the underlying dispute goes back nearly a thousand years.
As part of the festering feud, Greece has been improving its air force (which is equipped, like the Turkish air force, largely with U.S. built F-16 fighters) and navy. The two countries share a 206 kilometer land border, which is fortified and manned by army units on both sides.
Turkey is much less concerned about a war with Greece, partly because there are still preoccupied with Kurdish separatist rebels in eastern Turkey, and partly because the Turks still consider themselves more formidable fighters than the Greeks. While tensions have been reduced over the last decade, the Greek and Turkish air forces still aggressively patrol the naval border, some of it disputed, in the Aegean. This produces regular opportunities for armed incidents, and escalation.
China Aims IRBMs At India
(NSI News Source Info) November 8, 2008: Apparently in response to recent Indian tests of longer range missiles, China has moved over a dozen of its DF-21 IRBMs to Yunnan Province (which borders Myanmar, and puts most of eastern and northern India within range). The DF-21 has a range of 1800 kilometers and a 300 kiloton warhead. China has over fifty of them. Previously, most DF-21s were aimed at Russia and Japan.
World Will Tremble If Pakistan Falls
(NSI News Source Info) Washington - Oct 22, 2008: The global financial crisis is close to knocking out its most important and potentially most dangerous victim yet: Pakistan needs a financial support package of $10 billion to $15 billion to avoid collapse.
The stakes could not be higher: With a rapidly increasing population of more than 150 million -- larger than that of Russia -- Pakistan is also the world's only Muslim nuclear power. But since the fall of President Pervez Musharraf earlier this year, the bitter regional, social and religious disputes that have been building for decades have exploded in public. The current government of pro-American President Asif Ali Zardari is struggling to maintain any effective presence at all in the vast North-West Frontier Province, which covers one-quarter of the country.
If the government in Islamabad goes bankrupt, then the extreme Islamist forces spearheaded by the Taliban of Afghanistan, who already enjoy broad support among the Pashtun tribes of the NWFP, will have a far greater chance to turn the great cities of Pakistan, especially giant Karachi, into chaos.
As American military analyst and UPI columnist William S. Lind has warned, Fourth Generation war -- 4GW -- non-state forces like al-Qaida benefit from undermining the structures of established states and can metastasize rapidly if a state structure collapses, especially in a vast nation like Pakistan.
The Taliban and their fellow Islamists, aided by al-Qaida, already have stepped up their guerrilla operations against the Pakistani army and police.
On top of all this, Pakistan is now on the verge of default. It needs $3 billion within a month to maintain its debt service schedule and $10 billion over two years. This seems peanuts compared with figures thrown around in the United States recently. The U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion bailout, and critics charged that even this huge sum would prove to be insufficient to restore investor confidence.
Precisely because major governments around the world feel under pressure, however, Pakistan is currently struggling to get a financial support package put together. Pakistani officials are meeting International Monetary Fund representatives in Dubai Tuesday to craft a rescue -- they hope.
But there have been some ominous signs: Apparently traditional supporters of Pakistan -- China and Saudi Arabia -- have shown no willingness to step up to the plate. Ironically, they are two of the handful of nations that do, in fact, have enormous financial reserves. But the plunging global oil price has spooked the Saudis, and the Chinese know their economic stability is dependent on the U.S. economy staying afloat and continuing to provide them with their most important export market.
Overall the Pakistani economy is in a desperate state, and the causes are long term, structural and not at all conducive to any "quick fix": The new Zardari government in Islamabad has inherited high inflation, large income inequality and a chronic lack of spending for infrastructure and education.
The caution and preoccupations of other countries around the world, however, do not diminish the threat to global and regional peace if Pakistan should default. The Zardari government -- already unpopular with the Islamists, the urban poor and its own military establishment, especially the officers of the Inter-Service Intelligence agency -- could hardly survive such a catastrophe. And if the Zardari government fell, the impact on regional stability would be dire.
Neighboring India, fearful of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal -- conservatively estimated at 30 nuclear weapons but possibly considerably larger -- might be spooked into considering some kind of pre-emptive intervention. Even if it did not, the threat would be real that in the chaos following default and the fall of the Zardari government, extremist forces could gain control of one or more nuclear warheads.
Also, if Zardari fell, the impact on Pakistan's relations with the United States and on Washington's ability to effectively prosecute the war on terror could be dire. Currently, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan -- around 50,000 in number overall -- are supplied by air along transport corridors over Pakistani territory. If a future Pakistani government should close those corridors, the already embattled U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan would find their situation deteriorating rapidly.
Pakistan's leaders are also understandably reluctant to put their political future and their country's fate in the hands of the International Monetary Fund, for they realize that IMF aid is usually tied to draconian conditions requiring the slashing of government spending. In a country like Pakistan, that means cutting social programs to support the poor, including subsidizing food prices.
Zardari government officials are now pinning their hopes on the recently created "Friends of Pakistan" group of nations that is led by the United States and also numbers Britain, Canada, France and Germany among its members. And Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is rushing to put together an economic package to attract international investment -- something Musharraf disastrously neglected during his nearly nine years in power.
The odds against Pakistan escaping economic meltdown are daunting. But the consequences of that happening are too frightful to contemplate.
UP-DATED NEWS: Pakistan talks with IMF on $10-$15 bln package
SINGAPORE: Pakistan is in informal discussions with the International Monetary Fund and other bodies over a $10-$15 billion package designed to stabilise its economy and avoid a balance of payments crisis, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. A little over half the total would come in the form of an IMF loan and the balance would be provided by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and bilateral donors, potentially including Saudi Arabia, the report said. Pakistan is also seeking funds from China, it said.
(NSI News Source Info) October 22, 2008: The W2M satellite payload for Arianespace’s upcoming Ariane 5 mission touched down today in French Guiana, arriving in a brightly-colored shipping container that underscores the Indian origins of its spacecraft bus.
The W2M satellite is unloaded from an An-124 cargo jetliner at Cayenne’s Rochambeau International Airport in French Guiana. Its protective shipping container carries the colors of India’s flag: deep saffron at the top, white in the middle and dark green at the bottom. The flag’s central symbol – representing a wheel of law – is replaced on the shipping container with a view of the Earth, which is circled by an orbiting telecommunications satellite. W2M is one of two payloads that Arianespace will orbit for Europe’s Eutelsat aboard the next heavy-lift Ariane 5 – joining HOT BIRD™ 9 on the workhorse launcher’s sixth, and final, flight in 2008.
The W2M platform will provide television and radio broadcasting across Europe, and it also carries one steerable beam that can be re-oriented in orbit according to market requirements. Weighing approximately 3,460 kg. at liftoff, the spacecraft will be positioned at an orbital slot of 16 deg. East following its Ariane 5 launch.
W2M is the product of an alliance between Europe’s EADS Astrium and the ANTRIX commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). ANTRIX/ISRO supplied the satellite bus, and also was responsible the spacecraft’s integration and test before its shipment to French Guiana. EADS Astrium is prime contractor in charge of overall W2M program management, and the company also designed and built the communications payload.
W2M will typically operate 26 transponders in Ku-band, with the capacity for up to 32 depending on operational modes. It has a designed operational lifetime of more than 15 years.
Greece And Turkey Still At Guard
Greece And Turkey Still At Guard(NSI News Source Info) November 8, 2008: Since the end of the Cold War, Greece has shifted its military orientation away from the north (and former Cold War opponents Bulgaria and Russia), and towards the east. The major military objective now is preparation for a war with fellow NATO member Turkey, a war Greece has little chance of winning. The Aegean sea region, and Cyprus, supplies a number of potential conflicts between Turkey and Greece. Despite this, the two nations have been slowly developing a warmer relationship. But the underlying dispute goes back nearly a thousand years.
As part of the festering feud, Greece has been improving its air force (which is equipped, like the Turkish air force, largely with U.S. built F-16 fighters) and navy. The two countries share a 206 kilometer land border, which is fortified and manned by army units on both sides.
Turkey is much less concerned about a war with Greece, partly because there are still preoccupied with Kurdish separatist rebels in eastern Turkey, and partly because the Turks still consider themselves more formidable fighters than the Greeks. While tensions have been reduced over the last decade, the Greek and Turkish air forces still aggressively patrol the naval border, some of it disputed, in the Aegean. This produces regular opportunities for armed incidents, and escalation.
The Human Brain
New Map IDs The Core Of The Human Brain
Jul 08, 2008
An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate.
Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.
The work by the researchers from Indiana University, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Harvard Medical School marks a major step in understanding the most complicated and mysterious organ in the human body.
It not only provides a comprehensive map of brain connections (the brain "connectome"), but also describes a novel application of a non-invasive technique that can be used by other scientists to continue mapping the trillions of neural connections in the brain at even greater resolution, which is becoming a new field of science termed "connectomics."
"This is one of the first steps necessary for building large-scale computational models of the human brain to help us understand processes that are difficult to observe, such as disease states and recovery processes to injuries," said Olaf Sporns, co-author of the study and neuroscientist at Indiana University.
The findings appear in the journal PLoS Biology. Co-authors include Patric Hagmann and Reto Meuli, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne; Leila Cammoun and Xavier Gigandet, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Van J. Wedeen, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical Center; and Christopher J. Honey, IU.
Until now, scientists have mostly used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to measure brain activity -- locating which parts of the brain become active during perception or cognition -- but there has been little understanding of the role of the underlying anatomy in generating this activity.
What is known of neural fiber connections and pathways has largely been learned from animal studies, and so far, no complete map of brain connections in the human brain exists.
In this new study, a team of neuroimaging researchers led by Hagmann used state-of-the-art diffusion MRI technology, which is a non-invasive scanning technique that estimates fiber connection trajectories based on gradient maps of the diffusion of water molecules through brain tissue.
A highly sensitive variant of the method, called diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), can depict the orientation of multiple fibers that cross a single location. The study applies this technique to the entire human cortex, resulting in maps of millions of neural fibers running throughout this highly furrowed part of the brain.
Sporns then carried out a computational analysis trying to identify regions of the brain that played a more central role in the connectivity, serving as hubs in the cortical network. Surprisingly, these analyses revealed a single highly and densely connected structural core in the brain of all participants.
"We found that the core, the most central part of the brain, is in the medial posterior portion of the cortex, and it straddles both hemispheres," Sporns said.
"This wasn't known before. Researchers have been interested in this part of the brain for other reasons. For example, when you're at rest, this area uses up a lot of metabolic energy, but until now it hasn't been clear why."
The researchers then asked whether the structural connections of the brain in fact shape its dynamic activity, Sporns said. The study examined the brains of five human participants who were imaged using both fMRI and DSI techniques to compare how closely the brain activity observed in the fMRI mapped to the underlying fiber networks.
"It turns out they're quite closely related," Sporns said. "We can measure a significant correlation between brain anatomy and brain dynamics. This means that if we know how the brain is connected we can predict what the brain will do."
Sporns said he and Hagmann plan to look at more brains soon, to map brain connectivity as brains develop and age, and as they change in the course of disease and dysfunction.
Jul 08, 2008
An international team of researchers has created the first complete high-resolution map of how millions of neural fibers in the human cerebral cortex -- the outer layer of the brain responsible for higher level thinking -- connect and communicate.
Their groundbreaking work identified a single network core, or hub, that may be key to the workings of both hemispheres of the brain.
The work by the researchers from Indiana University, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, and Harvard Medical School marks a major step in understanding the most complicated and mysterious organ in the human body.
It not only provides a comprehensive map of brain connections (the brain "connectome"), but also describes a novel application of a non-invasive technique that can be used by other scientists to continue mapping the trillions of neural connections in the brain at even greater resolution, which is becoming a new field of science termed "connectomics."
"This is one of the first steps necessary for building large-scale computational models of the human brain to help us understand processes that are difficult to observe, such as disease states and recovery processes to injuries," said Olaf Sporns, co-author of the study and neuroscientist at Indiana University.
The findings appear in the journal PLoS Biology. Co-authors include Patric Hagmann and Reto Meuli, University Hospital Center and University of Lausanne; Leila Cammoun and Xavier Gigandet, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Van J. Wedeen, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical Center; and Christopher J. Honey, IU.
Until now, scientists have mostly used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology to measure brain activity -- locating which parts of the brain become active during perception or cognition -- but there has been little understanding of the role of the underlying anatomy in generating this activity.
What is known of neural fiber connections and pathways has largely been learned from animal studies, and so far, no complete map of brain connections in the human brain exists.
In this new study, a team of neuroimaging researchers led by Hagmann used state-of-the-art diffusion MRI technology, which is a non-invasive scanning technique that estimates fiber connection trajectories based on gradient maps of the diffusion of water molecules through brain tissue.
A highly sensitive variant of the method, called diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), can depict the orientation of multiple fibers that cross a single location. The study applies this technique to the entire human cortex, resulting in maps of millions of neural fibers running throughout this highly furrowed part of the brain.
Sporns then carried out a computational analysis trying to identify regions of the brain that played a more central role in the connectivity, serving as hubs in the cortical network. Surprisingly, these analyses revealed a single highly and densely connected structural core in the brain of all participants.
"We found that the core, the most central part of the brain, is in the medial posterior portion of the cortex, and it straddles both hemispheres," Sporns said.
"This wasn't known before. Researchers have been interested in this part of the brain for other reasons. For example, when you're at rest, this area uses up a lot of metabolic energy, but until now it hasn't been clear why."
The researchers then asked whether the structural connections of the brain in fact shape its dynamic activity, Sporns said. The study examined the brains of five human participants who were imaged using both fMRI and DSI techniques to compare how closely the brain activity observed in the fMRI mapped to the underlying fiber networks.
"It turns out they're quite closely related," Sporns said. "We can measure a significant correlation between brain anatomy and brain dynamics. This means that if we know how the brain is connected we can predict what the brain will do."
Sporns said he and Hagmann plan to look at more brains soon, to map brain connectivity as brains develop and age, and as they change in the course of disease and dysfunction.
China Aims IRBMs At India
China Aims IRBMs At India(NSI News Source Info) November 8, 2008: Apparently in response to recent Indian tests of longer range missiles, China has moved over a dozen of its DF-21 IRBMs to Yunnan Province (which borders Myanmar, and puts most of eastern and northern India within range). The DF-21 has a range of 1800 kilometers and a 300 kiloton warhead. China has over fifty of them. Previously, most DF-21s were aimed at Russia and Japan.
World Will Tremble If Pakistan Falls
World Will Tremble If Pakistan Falls(NSI News Source Info) Washington - Oct 22, 2008: The global financial crisis is close to knocking out its most important and potentially most dangerous victim yet: Pakistan needs a financial support package of $10 billion to $15 billion to avoid collapse.
The stakes could not be higher: With a rapidly increasing population of more than 150 million -- larger than that of Russia -- Pakistan is also the world's only Muslim nuclear power. But since the fall of President Pervez Musharraf earlier this year, the bitter regional, social and religious disputes that have been building for decades have exploded in public. The current government of pro-American President Asif Ali Zardari is struggling to maintain any effective presence at all in the vast North-West Frontier Province, which covers one-quarter of the country.
If the government in Islamabad goes bankrupt, then the extreme Islamist forces spearheaded by the Taliban of Afghanistan, who already enjoy broad support among the Pashtun tribes of the NWFP, will have a far greater chance to turn the great cities of Pakistan, especially giant Karachi, into chaos.
As American military analyst and UPI columnist William S. Lind has warned, Fourth Generation war -- 4GW -- non-state forces like al-Qaida benefit from undermining the structures of established states and can metastasize rapidly if a state structure collapses, especially in a vast nation like Pakistan.
The Taliban and their fellow Islamists, aided by al-Qaida, already have stepped up their guerrilla operations against the Pakistani army and police.
On top of all this, Pakistan is now on the verge of default. It needs $3 billion within a month to maintain its debt service schedule and $10 billion over two years. This seems peanuts compared with figures thrown around in the United States recently. The U.S. Congress approved a $700 billion bailout, and critics charged that even this huge sum would prove to be insufficient to restore investor confidence.
Precisely because major governments around the world feel under pressure, however, Pakistan is currently struggling to get a financial support package put together. Pakistani officials are meeting International Monetary Fund representatives in Dubai Tuesday to craft a rescue -- they hope.
But there have been some ominous signs: Apparently traditional supporters of Pakistan -- China and Saudi Arabia -- have shown no willingness to step up to the plate. Ironically, they are two of the handful of nations that do, in fact, have enormous financial reserves. But the plunging global oil price has spooked the Saudis, and the Chinese know their economic stability is dependent on the U.S. economy staying afloat and continuing to provide them with their most important export market.
Overall the Pakistani economy is in a desperate state, and the causes are long term, structural and not at all conducive to any "quick fix": The new Zardari government in Islamabad has inherited high inflation, large income inequality and a chronic lack of spending for infrastructure and education.
The caution and preoccupations of other countries around the world, however, do not diminish the threat to global and regional peace if Pakistan should default. The Zardari government -- already unpopular with the Islamists, the urban poor and its own military establishment, especially the officers of the Inter-Service Intelligence agency -- could hardly survive such a catastrophe. And if the Zardari government fell, the impact on regional stability would be dire.
Neighboring India, fearful of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal -- conservatively estimated at 30 nuclear weapons but possibly considerably larger -- might be spooked into considering some kind of pre-emptive intervention. Even if it did not, the threat would be real that in the chaos following default and the fall of the Zardari government, extremist forces could gain control of one or more nuclear warheads.
Also, if Zardari fell, the impact on Pakistan's relations with the United States and on Washington's ability to effectively prosecute the war on terror could be dire. Currently, U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan -- around 50,000 in number overall -- are supplied by air along transport corridors over Pakistani territory. If a future Pakistani government should close those corridors, the already embattled U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan would find their situation deteriorating rapidly.
Pakistan's leaders are also understandably reluctant to put their political future and their country's fate in the hands of the International Monetary Fund, for they realize that IMF aid is usually tied to draconian conditions requiring the slashing of government spending. In a country like Pakistan, that means cutting social programs to support the poor, including subsidizing food prices.
Zardari government officials are now pinning their hopes on the recently created "Friends of Pakistan" group of nations that is led by the United States and also numbers Britain, Canada, France and Germany among its members. And Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is rushing to put together an economic package to attract international investment -- something Musharraf disastrously neglected during his nearly nine years in power.
The odds against Pakistan escaping economic meltdown are daunting. But the consequences of that happening are too frightful to contemplate.
UP-DATED NEWS: Pakistan talks with IMF on $10-$15 bln package
SINGAPORE: Pakistan is in informal discussions with the International Monetary Fund and other bodies over a $10-$15 billion package designed to stabilise its economy and avoid a balance of payments crisis, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. A little over half the total would come in the form of an IMF loan and the balance would be provided by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and bilateral donors, potentially including Saudi Arabia, the report said. Pakistan is also seeking funds from China, it said.
Aircraft Lessor DAE Capital Signs Firm Order for 100 Airbus Aircraft
Aircraft Lessor DAE Capital Signs Firm Order for 100 Airbus Aircraft
July 16, 2008: DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing and financing division of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), has signed a firm contract for the purchase of 30 Airbus A350-900 and 70 Airbus A320 aircraft. The contract follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed at the Dubai air show in November 2007. DAE Capital aims to become a leading lessor based in the Middle East. DAE Capital’s parent company DAE is a fast developing global aerospace company with activities including airport development and operations, engineering, manufacturing and services. “DAE Capital has built a business from ground-up and has made impressive progress since its launch. With our industry-experienced management team and well-defined road map DAE Capital will become one of the top leasing companies globally,” stated Bob Genise, CEO of DAE Capital. “DAE’s order is a tremendous endorsement of our aircraft products and in Airbus and we thank them for this. The A350 XWB and the A320 products are leaders in their class. Airbus looks forward to building on this partnership in the years to come,” said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO. The A320 Family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognized as the benchmark single-aisle aircraft family. Each aircraft features fly by wire controls and all share a unique cockpit and operational commonality across the range. Around 6,200 Airbus A320 Family aircraft have been sold and more than 3,500 delivered to some 280 customers and operators worldwide, making it the worlds best selling commercial jetliner ever. With proven reliability and extended servicing periods, the A320 Family has the lowest operating costs of any single aisle aircraft. Uniquely, the A320 Family offers a containerized cargo system, which is compatible with the world-wide standard wide-body system. The A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) Family is Airbus’ response to widespread market demand for a series of highly efficient medium-capacity long-range wide-body aircraft. With a range of up to 8,300 nm / 15,400 km, it is available in three basic passenger versions: the A350-800 accommodating 270 passengers, the A350-900 seating 314, and the A350-1000 for 350 passengers in a typical three-class layout. The A350 has the widest fuselage in its category, offering unprecedented levels of comfort, the lowest operating costs and lowest seat mile cost of any aircraft in this market segment. Powered by two new generation Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines delivering each up to 92,000 lbs of thrust, the A350 XWB Family is designed to confront the challenges of high fuel prices, rising passenger expectations, and environmental concerns. Orders for the aircraft stand at more than 350 from over 20 customers. Airbus is an EADS company.
July 16, 2008: DAE Capital, the aircraft leasing and financing division of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), has signed a firm contract for the purchase of 30 Airbus A350-900 and 70 Airbus A320 aircraft. The contract follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed at the Dubai air show in November 2007. DAE Capital aims to become a leading lessor based in the Middle East. DAE Capital’s parent company DAE is a fast developing global aerospace company with activities including airport development and operations, engineering, manufacturing and services. “DAE Capital has built a business from ground-up and has made impressive progress since its launch. With our industry-experienced management team and well-defined road map DAE Capital will become one of the top leasing companies globally,” stated Bob Genise, CEO of DAE Capital. “DAE’s order is a tremendous endorsement of our aircraft products and in Airbus and we thank them for this. The A350 XWB and the A320 products are leaders in their class. Airbus looks forward to building on this partnership in the years to come,” said Tom Enders, Airbus President and CEO. The A320 Family, which includes the A318, A319, A320 and A321, is recognized as the benchmark single-aisle aircraft family. Each aircraft features fly by wire controls and all share a unique cockpit and operational commonality across the range. Around 6,200 Airbus A320 Family aircraft have been sold and more than 3,500 delivered to some 280 customers and operators worldwide, making it the worlds best selling commercial jetliner ever. With proven reliability and extended servicing periods, the A320 Family has the lowest operating costs of any single aisle aircraft. Uniquely, the A320 Family offers a containerized cargo system, which is compatible with the world-wide standard wide-body system. The A350 XWB (Xtra Wide-Body) Family is Airbus’ response to widespread market demand for a series of highly efficient medium-capacity long-range wide-body aircraft. With a range of up to 8,300 nm / 15,400 km, it is available in three basic passenger versions: the A350-800 accommodating 270 passengers, the A350-900 seating 314, and the A350-1000 for 350 passengers in a typical three-class layout. The A350 has the widest fuselage in its category, offering unprecedented levels of comfort, the lowest operating costs and lowest seat mile cost of any aircraft in this market segment. Powered by two new generation Rolls Royce Trent XWB engines delivering each up to 92,000 lbs of thrust, the A350 XWB Family is designed to confront the challenges of high fuel prices, rising passenger expectations, and environmental concerns. Orders for the aircraft stand at more than 350 from over 20 customers. Airbus is an EADS company.
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