The Week in Brief 20 October 2011

Rod Walker (pictured) co-founder of the UAV Challenge died very recently. The Challenge is an annual event which pits UAV projects from universities and high schools against each other. It was developed to help shape and grow the Australian UAV industry. Rod Walker, who was a professor at the Queensland University of Technology, initiated the Challenge in partnership with the CSIRO.

Virgin Australia has pulled the wraps off its effort to drive a wedge into Qantas' market share while the competition is under huge pressure from on-going industrial disputes. VA has announced that it is putting plenty of extra capacity into the market "to minimise the impact of ongoing Qantas industrial action on the Australian travel and tourism industry". VA chief Borghetti couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to seize and hold more of the market, particularly the premium sector. And the timing is right too for VA, with most of the new product launched and amply publicised.

V Australia will codeshare with Hawaiian Airlines on the latter's flights out of Australia from the end of this month. Hawaiian is moving to daily services ex Australia from December.

Canberra Airport's managing director Stephen Byron has the answer to the second Sydney airport wrangle: Pointing out that his airport is a mere three hours down the road, or even less if that high-speed rail project gets up, SB says that, "Simply put, the answer to Sydney's second airport questin isn't years away - it's right here, right now, in Canberra".

The latest SITA Airport IT survey shows that improving customer service is the highest priority for airports in terms of IT investment. Such investment was up to 4.4 per cent of revenues last year, compared with 3.6 per cent the previous year. And airports in Asia, the Middle East and Africa led the way in investment in IT, but this simply reflects the level of infrastructure development in these regions.

Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney are establishing a new joint venture company to develop engines to power the next generation of mid-size airliners. The JV will focus on high bypass ratio geared turbofan technology; but will also undertake studies of future generation propulsion systems, including advanced geared engines, open-rotor technology and other configurations.

New Zealand's CTC Aviation is to train Royal Brunei cadet pilots, following the signing of a contract in Brunei last week. There will be seven cadets in the first intake.

Wellington Airport has appointed Steve Sanderson as its new CEO. He has been in a similar position at Queenstown Airport since May 2007, and prior to that accumulated an extensive background in infrastructure businesses. He will take up the new role early in 2012.

Most of the remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) flown by the US military are controlled out of a small base in the Nevada desert. Each RPA is operated by a pilot and a sensor operator, both in flying suits despite their remoteness from the vehicle, which might be flying in Iraq or Afghanistan. Is this the genesis of a new form of warfare, to be fought in the future at vast distances from the actual battlefield?

Michael O'Leary is at it again, grabbing headlines with provovative proposals. This time he's talking of cutting back to one toilet per plane to make room for more revenue seats. Ryanair's longest route is to Greece - four and a half hours - so that single WC could get popular.