Ian Malin has been named treasurer and chief investment officer at London-based A.J. Walter Aviation. He opened Seabury Group's Hong Kong office and was responsible for its Asia-Pacific investment banking.
The U.S. Air Force is planning to establish a unit cost target for the next-generation bomber program that will dictate what capabilities are achievable in the new system, according to a senior industry executive. “Affordability will be paramount,” says Gary Ervin, president of Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. He declined to discuss the company's plans for a bomber solution, citing Air Force limits on public discussion of the program.
Jonathan Norris has been selected by the London-based Airline Passenger Experience Association to become executive director and editor-in-chief of its quarterly magazine and other media. He was VP of the Cabin Design Office at Airbus.
The two devastating earthquakes that struck New Zealand in the past 12 months are taking a toll on the country's defense procurements, which policymakers will be scaling back in response to government budget cuts. The government budget deficit is forecast to remain until fiscal 2014-15.
The second Harvest Hawk, a C-130 tanker modified to provide covering fire to marines on the ground, is headed to Afghanistan by the end of August, says USMC Lt. Gen. Terry Robling, the corps' commandant for aviation. The cover offered by the first Harvest Hawk, already supporting the war effort, is good enough to prompt him to reduce the planned buy to six from nine. The Harvest Hawk includes a palletized roll-on/roll-off ramp-mounted gun and weaponization kit. USMC expects to buy two kits per year, Robling says.
Timothy Harrington (see photo) has been appointed VP and controller of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Technical Services sector, Herndon, Va. He was director and business manager postal for international trade and treasury.
I like to call them the “software airplanes”—sent to the front with only the “I” in the ISR complete and working, functional in this Block of development.
On a security-restricted final assembly line in its Renton factory south of Seattle, Boeing has begun wiring and systems installation on the first of eight P-8I maritime reconnaissance aircraft for the Indian navy. Based on a 737-800 fuselage built by Spirit AeroSystems in Wichita, and a set of 737-900ER wings made by Boeing at Renton, the Indian patrol aircraft is the first export version of the P-8A that Boeing is building for the U.S. Navy.
An infinitesimal amount of petroleum—namely that which becomes aviation gasoline pumped into airplanes in California—has drawn a lot of attention lately. Industry eyes turned to the Golden State in mid-May when the Center for Environmental Health (CEH), based in Oakland, Calif., served notice that it intended to file suit against avgas suppliers and fixed base operators (FBO) who sell it in the state.
Amid the $22 billion bonanza in orders Boeing reported at last week's Paris air show, on its website the company also noted the cancellation of 10 widebody orders. The 777 column was reduced by two and the 787 column by eight. In both cases, customers were not identified. As of June 21, Boeing listed 147 net orders for the year, including 86 for the 737, four for the 747-8, 13 for 767s, 64 for 777s and minus-20 for 787s. In all, it has had 59 order cancellations from 206 gross orders written. The most cancellations are 37 for the 737 family.
William R. Voss, President/CEO Flight Safety Foundation (Alexandria, Va. )
I was quoted in “Painful Lessons” (AW&ST June 6, p. 36) and assume that unfortunately, in an effort to summarize a complicated point about automation, an opinion was attributed to me that is inaccurate and could damage both my reputation and that of the Flight Safety Foundation. At no point did I speculate that “AF 447 would not have crashed if the aircraft had been an older generation.” In fact, the foundation applauds the advancement of automation and the lives saved thanks to new technologies.
Mike Opheim has joined Satcom Direct, Satellite Beach, Fla., as VP-business aviation sales. He was director of Eastern U.S. aftermarket sales at Rockwell Collins.
With flight testing of the 787-8 now 97% complete, Boeing is focusing on development of the initial stretched 787-9 model and giving first indications that the follow-on double stretch 787-10 may enter service in 2016. Boeing Commercial Airplanes President James Albaugh says that although the -10 is not yet officially launched, its compelling economics make it an attractive option for development immediately after the 787-9, which will be delivered in the last quarter of 2013.
The first salvoes in a dramatically intensifying battle for the single-aisle airliner powerplant market were fired here as the first flight of Pratt & Whitney's PW1500G geared turbofan coincided with a landslide of orders for CFM International's Leap X1A on the Airbus A320NEO (new engine option).
Selex Galileo has upgraded its Falco unmanned aircraft, dubbed EVO, to boost its export potential. Falco is already in service in Pakistan and had been ordered by Libya as well. According to CEO Fabrizio Giulianini, EVO is going to fill a niche at the high end of the tactical unmanned aerial systems market. The EVO configuration can also be offered as an upgrade package to the basic Falco, because they have a common airframe.
A U.S. Navy MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned rotorcraft was lost June 21 while conducting a mission over Libya, according to program sources. At the time of the crash, the aircraft was delivering intelligence data from about 5,000-7,000 ft. as expected, and there was no immediate sign of a command and control problem or mechanical malfunction. This could indicate that the aircraft was shot down by hostile forces, the sources explain.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Richard A. Cody has been appointed corporate senior VP of New York-based L-3 Communications' Washington operations. He was Army vice chief of staff of from 2004 until his retirement in 2008.
Jenny Rogers (see photo) has joined Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., as director of North American sales, East Division, succeeding Geoff Nye, who is retiring. Rogers was director of Northeast U.S. sales for Hawker Beechcraft.
Hamadi Thamri has been promoted to president and CEO of TunisAir, succeeding Nabil Chettaoui in a management shuffle that also elevated Cheikhrouhou Ridha to director general. Thamri was CEO of subsidiary Tunisair Technics.
Prof. Hansjoerg Dittus (see photo) has been appointed an executive board member for space by the Cologne-based German Aerospace Center. He was director of the Institute of Space in Bremen, Germany. Chairman Johann-Dietrich Woerner has been reappointed for a second five-year term.
NASA and the Senate will lock horns this week over the space agency's plans to develop the heavy-lift launch vehicle Congress has ordered. John Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), a key senator, warns he will subpoena documents relating to NASA's plans for the space launch system (SLS) and other activities if the agency does not produce them quickly. In a letter to NASA last week, he and Sen.
Robert Wall (Le Bourget), Andy Nativi (Le Bourget)
Europe is seeking to cement its commercial rotorcraft edge over the U.S. Toward this end, AgustaWestland and Eurocopter are taking steps to ensure that their market dominance will persist beyond this decade.
The Obama administration objects to the “unilateral imposition” of the European Union's Emissions Trading System (ETS) on U.S. carriers and told EU officials last week the ETS should not apply to U.S. and other international airlines. The two sides, however, did not discuss how U.S. carriers might be exempted. “We did not talk about how that might be done. It's the result we're looking for; we didn't talk about the mechanism,” a U.S. official said after the meeting in Oslo. The U.S.
Piaggio Aero Industries, maker of a unique business airplane and itself an unusual kind of company, has been in the spotlight lately for a variety of good but disparate reasons.
