US officials have slammed the Chinese government after a state security official was convicted by a federal jury in Ohio last week of attempting to commit economic espionage and the theft of aerospace trade secrets.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said Yanjun Xu (41), described as a deputy division director of Sixth Bureau of the Jiangsu Province Ministry of State Security, had targeted companies recognized as leaders in the field of aviation. This included an attempt to steal information about GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan.

Xu was the first Chinese intelligence officer to be extradited to the US to stand trial and his conviction produced a strident response from senior Justice Department and FBI officials.

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FBI Counterintelligence Division assistant director Alan E., Kohler described the case as state-sponsored espionage by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) designed to “steal American technology and put Americans out of work”.

“For those who doubt the real goals of the PRC, this should be a wake-up call; they are stealing American technology to benefit their economy and military,” Kohler said.

“This conviction of a card-carrying intelligence officer for economic espionage underscores that trade secret theft is integral to the PRC government’s plans to modernize its industries,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said the conviction of a card-carrying intelligence officer underscored that trade secret theft was integral to the Chinese government plans to modernize its industry.

“But this conviction also serves notice that the United States will not sit by as China, or any other nation-state, attempts to steal instead of researching and developing key technology,” he said.

The department cited court documents and evidence that Xu started operating as early as 2013 and used multiple aliases to target companies in the US and abroad recognized as leaders in aviation.

He was arrested in Belgium after GE cooperated with the FBI.

“He identified experts who worked for the companies and recruited them to travel to China, often initially under the guise they were traveling to give a presentation at a university,’’ the DoJ said in a statement. “Xu and others paid the experts stipends on top of covering travel costs.

According to today’s conviction, Xu attempted to steal technology related to GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan – which no other company in the world has been able to duplicate – to benefit the Chinese state.”

Xu was convicted of two counts of conspiring and attempting to commit economic espionage, which carries a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison for each count and a fine of up to US$5 million.

He was also convicted of conspiracy to commit trade secret theft and two counts of attempted theft of trade secrets, which carries a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years imprisonment for each count and a US$250,000 fine.  A federal district court judge will determine any sentence.

Qantas is set to take off according to chairman Richard Goyder despite enduring a terrible 18 months where the airline only had 30 days without travel restrictions with one of the only bright spots the resources sector flying in WA.

Those restrictions meant that total passenger numbers were down by over 70 percent compared with pre-COVID Mr. Goyder to shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting in Sydney today.

“The financial impact of this has been clear. In August, we posted a statutory loss before tax of A$2.35 billion for the 2021 financial year – which follows a loss of A$2.7 billion the year before,” Mr. Goyder said.

“The news has been much better in the past few weeks, as lockdowns end, borders start opening and our people prepare to come back to work.

“But it’s fair to say the trading conditions for the first half of this financial year have been terrible.

“In total, it’s likely COVID will have cost us more than $20 billion in revenue by the end of this calendar year.

“It’s a staggering number – and it’s remarkable that the business has managed to deal with this as well as it has,” Mr. Goyder said.

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Mr. Goyder added that while the airline still had significant state border and quarantine impediments to navigate through it feels like we are coming to the end of a long and difficult road, thanks to the success of the vaccine roll-out.

“What’s key for shareholders to know is that Qantas is a structurally different company coming out of the pandemic than we were going in.

“We are on track to deliver $1 billion of transformation by FY23, with $850 million realized by the end of this financial year.”

Qantas will give a trading update in December but Mr. Goyder said that the board is confident “in our levels of liquidity, even more so with forward bookings flowing through.”

Mr. Goyder added that the “confidence is reflected by the market and the fact we’ve been trading at a 10-year high market capitalization, even before most of our planes were back in the sky.”

Going forward one of the airline’s top priorities is sustainability and accelerating our emissions reduction Mr. Goyder told shareholders.

“In 2019, the Qantas Group was only the second airline in the world to commit to a net-zero emissions target by 2050,” Mr. Goyder said.

There are four pillars that support our net-zero target according to Mr. Goyder.

The first is working with governments and other businesses to create a sustainable aviation fuel industry in this country, offsetting emissions by investing in high-quality projects, ongoing work to reduce fuel burn, including through smarter flight planning, and embracing new, low emission technology as it becomes available.

But Mr. Goyder cautioned that electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft are decades away from being a practical alternative – especially given the distances we face in Australia.

“That’s a key reason why sustainable aviation fuels will be so important as are more efficient aircraft that offer a step-change in emissions, Mr. Goyder said.

“With our long haul fleet, we’ve already made big strides in the past year by retiring our 747s and introducing more fuel-efficient 787s.

The 787 uses 34 percent less fuel per passenger than an A380 and about 40 percent less than a 747-400.

Mr. Goyder said that the airline was now close to deciding on up to 100 new medium to short-haul aircraft that cut fuel used by 15 percent over the existing fleet.

“Discussions with Airbus, Boeing, and Embraer are well advanced, and we expect to decide on preferred aircraft by the end of this calendar year,” Mr. Goyder said.

He added that these “next-generation aircraft have the range and economics to reshape Qantas’s network with more direct routes between cities and towns.”

And in great news for the airline’s long-suffering staff, Mr. Goyder said that the board sees “no need for further large-scale job cuts.”

“In fact, we expect to be recruiting again in operational areas as we scale up for a return to flying.”

Mr. Goyder praised the airline’s senior management team, led by chief executive Alan Joyce.

“It was not a foregone conclusion that Qantas would survive this pandemic.

“Had action not been taken very quickly, and had the recovery program not been put in place, the conversation here today could have been very different.

“The fact the Group has come through as well as it has is a huge credit to them. When we announced our recovery program, Alan confirmed he would stay on as CEO for at least another three years – so, through to late 2023 and possibly beyond.

The Board is comfortable that we are well placed for renewal, when that time comes, particularly with the talent and experience we have on our Group Management Committee.

Queensland-born Linda Hapgood’s mantra is “go take the hardest jobs, stretch yourselves, and know you can do more than you ever thought you could.”

And Hapgood has stretched herself and her wings and has just been appointed to lead Boeing’s digital preparations for both the design of its next all-new commercial jet and the integrated production system that will build it.

As Program Manager Integrated Product Team for Digital Transformation at Boeing it is Hapgood’s mission to leverage all the expertise and innovation of the company’s 50,000 engineers and the lessons of over 100 years of building aircraft, rockets, satellites and space stations and move it all onto a virtual world for integrated design, test, production and service.

Announcing Hapgood’s appointment in a staff memo Boeing’s chief engineer Greg Hyslop, Commercial Airplanes Chief Executive Stan Deal and Chief Information Officer Susan Doniz said that for “our next BCA (Boeing Commercial Aircraft) development program” the company will “create a digital environment where the next new airplane and production system can be designed together.

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“This effort will determine the standards and interfaces by which we are linked together with a digital thread through design, test, certification, build and support,” the memo said.

Hapgood’s new virtual world will be where the next Boeing commercial aircraft will be born and it will be a massive game-changing competitive edge for the cost of designing, building, and testing an all-new design tops over $20 billion.

For instance, says Hapgood we will digitally build the next product thousands of times before we physically build the first one as “it will be built in a virtual world.”

Designing a new aircraft in a 3D computer environment is not new and Boeing used that technology in the early 90s with its 777.

However only advances in computing power in the past ten years have enabled that to be taken to a whole new level of integrated design, test, build, and production process and tools.

“What it represents is an acceleration of ambitions, desires, and readiness as a company to leverage what we’ve been learning in different places around Boeing,” adds Hapgood.

“Our vision is to capture the advantages of technology in the sense of being able to simulate the product design, the production system design, and our services environment in the digital environment first before we build our first aircraft or lay the ground on our first factory.”

Hapgood has aviation and engineering in her genes.

Her father was an engineer with Ansett and her older sister Karen went into engineering inspiring Linda to put her “maths and science skills to good use and do something unique.”

She admits with a smile that 25 years ago she “didn’t really know much about engineering other than fixing engines.”

“So, I decided to take aerospace engineering at the Queensland University of Technology.”

While at QUT Hapgood secured an internship at Boeing Australia, which transformed into a full-time job on her graduation with honors in a Bachelor of Engineering, Aerospace, Avionics.

A three-year stint at Boeing Australia designing and implementing new weapons systems for Australia’s F-111 bombers caught the attention of Seattle and Hapgood found herself as an Avionics Project Manager responsible for 71 retrofit projects over two years.

Hapgood rapidly moved up the management ladder becoming a chief engineer on 767 and 747 Airplane Systems.

As Chief Engineer, she was responsible for more than 200 electrical and systems engineers on the 747-8, 767 Freighter, and 767-2C tanker.

“I really enjoyed the sense of bringing all the facets of a complex project together and I learned a lot about leading through influence because, as a project manager, you are not a direct manager of people, but you need to inspire people to help you achieve the goal.”

Hapgood adds that her “main passion is innovation and leading teams. As a manager, I really enjoy listening to people, understanding what they want to do and helping them bring their ideas to life.

Reflecting on her stellar career Hapgood muses that all she wanted was to get a degree in engineering and see what happened next.

“All that I knew for sure was that I wanted to have a challenging career and work overseas and see the world,” she said.

On the huge and game-changing challenge ahead Hapgood says “that in my experience, the big breakthroughs and innovations have come by bringing people from diverse perspectives and positions together to design the best solutions, with a focus on the customer.

But a key says Hapgood is that “if you have an idea of how to do something better, first you have to be patient enough to understand why folks are doing it the way they are today.”

Air New Zealand is welcoming the latest addition to its fleet – a new Airbus A320neo that has made the 21,000km journey from Toulouse, France.

“Our new A320 is a welcome sign of international travel being just on the horizon,” said Air New Zealand’s Chief Pilot Captain David Morgan.

It’s the first of two new A320neo aircraft to join the Air New Zealand fleet this month, with the second plane expected to arrive late next week.

Air New Zealand has 17 A320s, 5 A320neos, and 7 A321neos in its fleet with another A320neo and 7 more A321neos to come.

The aircraft, which can seat up to 165 passengers, is also the first A320neo to join the fleet since the end of 2019.

“It’s welcome news, particularly in the context of the challenges that Covid has brought upon our business.

“It won’t be sitting on the tarmac for long before it’s jetting out of Auckland across the Tasman and into the Pacific Islands. We’re starting to gear up now so it’s a tremendously exciting time for the team at Air New Zealand,” said Captain Morgan.

Captain Morgan adds that the new A320neos are powered by an engine that is exceptionally quiet for passengers and crew on board. They also feature Wi-Fi to help people stay connected and inflight entertainment so customers can enjoy world-class movies, TV shows, music, and more during flights.

The aircraft also uses significantly less fuel compared to older technology aircraft.

“I’m personally excited about our future with these airplanes. They’re going to deliver very efficient and sustainable customer journeys,” said Captain Morgan.

Air New Zealand has an average fleet age of 6.7 years making it one of the youngest and most efficient fleets in the world.

Airbus’s A320 series of aircraft is the world’s most popular family of jets with just over 10,000 delivered and another 5,600 on order.