Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
CHINOOK VANDALISM: A worker at Boeing’s Ridley Park, Pa., helicopter plant has been charged in the vandalism of a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter, according to press reports. Prosecutors at a news conference said the worker apparently was upset about being reassigned to another line, and cut a bundle of wires in the aircraft on the morning of May 10. The damage was discovered May 13, prompting a brief shutdown of the production line (Aerospace DAILY, May 15, 16). Another Chinook was found with a suspicious washer, but that case is still under investigation.
Federal prosecutors are saying the damage done to two Boeing Chinook helicopters appears to be “deliberate” and U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan has launched a criminal investigation into what exactly happened at the company assembly plant in Ridley Township, Pa., just outside Philadelphia. Flanked by Kenneth Maupin, the lead investigative agent for the Defense Criminal Investigative Service of the Department of Defense, Meehan announced the criminal probe at a press conference in front of the plant May 15.
SpaceX says it’s not tracking any major technical issues in the final weeks before the third launch attempt for its Falcon 1 rocket, which is expected in the last week of June from Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. The Falcon 1 has had two test flights but has yet to reach orbit. The first flight attempt ended just seconds after liftoff due to a fuel leak, while the second attempt in March 2007 made it to space but didn’t go fast enough to achieve orbit because of fuel sloshing (Aerospace DAILY, March 22, 2007).
