Darrell Richardson, former CEO of Air Turks & Caicos and Pace airlines, is the new CEO of Gulfstream International Airlines, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Other newcomers to the executive management team are: David Querio, chief operating officer; Curtis Berchtold, VP and CFO; Peter Barry, VP-technical operations; Matthew Holliday, VP-sales and marketing; and Donna Tipsword, VP-human resources.
Aluminum manufacturer Alcoa says a new narrowbody aircraft could deliver up to 27% better fuel efficiency compared to a current-generation aircraft if it were equipped with new engines and its major components were made from the company's newly developed aluminum alloys.
For a decade, the turmoil surrounding the U.S. Air Force's KC-X tanker competition has overshadowed most other activity in the military sector. But with that contest now settled, a new strategic landscape is emerging. There are increased prospects that the market for new tankers will effectively be split, with Boeing building a far larger number of aircraft under its Air Force KC-46A program but Airbus Military garnering a larger number of customers for its A330-based refueler.
Boeing is completing the first 767 to be built at the new two-per-month rate on its recently relocated north-facing assembly line in Everett, Wash., as it readies for the start of KC-46A tanker production for the U.S. Air Force in 2013. The manufacturer will mark the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the 767 into service in 2012 and has 56 orders in its firm backlog. That is sufficient to sustain its new 767 production line in Everett's 40-32 bay at the two-per-month rate until 2014, when the tanker is to make its first flight.
Andy Nordgren will join the U.S. National Mediation Board to handle airline and railroad collective bargaining cases. A pilot for American Eagle Airlines since 1998, he was chairman of its pilot union negotiating committee.
As the U.S. government's program executive officer for the $380 billion Joint Strike Fighter program, Vice Adm. David Venlet, is at the center of a delicate balancing act. He is one part program advocate—having to fight for funding in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill—and one part critic—responsible for pressuring prime contractor Lockheed Martin to dramatically improve performance in flight testing and deliver the stealthy fighter jets on a newly revamped cost and schedule.
Tony Tyler (see photo), former CEO of Cathay Pacific, has been named director general of Geneva-based International Air Transport Association, effective July 1. He is succeeding Giovanni Bisignani, who will become director general emeritus. Peter Hartman, president and CEO of KLM, will take over IATA's chairmanship from David Bronczek, and Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal was elected to a new two-year term on the Board of Governors.
Responses to International Editor Robert Wall's Upgrades for Rafale include: jackjack, who says: Rafale's Specter electronic-warfare suite also is set for more iterations. One effort would be to add a single-ship precision emitter geolocation capability to the fighter.
The narrowbody sales boom that Boeing highlighted last year as the industry headed to the Farnborough International Air Show is even stronger this year as aerospace companies gather in Le Bourguet for the Paris event. In its 2011 forecast for aircraft sales to 2030, Boeing sees single-aisle transports capturing 70% of 33,500 deliveries of new passenger and freighter jets. Average annual passenger traffic of 5.1% in the 20-year period will push demand for aircraft past the $4 trillion mark for the first time.
USAF Lt. Gen. Ellen M. Pawlikowski has been appointed commander of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles AFB. The first woman to hold the position, she succeeds Lt. Gen. John T. Sheridan. Brig. Gen. John B. Cooper has been selected for promotion to major general. He is director of logistics, installations and mission support at Headquarters U.S. Air Forces in Europe, Ramstein AB, Germany. Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Cox has been promoted to major general.
Alenia Aeronautica, Selex Galileo and Alliant Techsystems this week plan to announce a strategic partnership to work together on an AC-27J gunship concept. The U.S. Special Operations community for some time was interested in such a system, but unable to secure funding. A program revival is still several years off. ATK is making a strategic push to become a gunship specialist, having performed similar work on the Airbus Military CN-235 and Cessna Caravan.
Michael Brunskill has been appointed director of customer service at Pelican Products, Torrance, Calif. He was VP-customer operations for Source Refrigeration.
Haydee Ramirez (see photo) has been promoted to director of business development for Africa from international sales assistant at Jet Support Services, Farnborough, England.
Combating particulate matter is a key component of Air Dynamics Industrial Systems Corp.'s business, whether it's an excess of dust in industrial facilities manufacturing snack foods or ensuring that military equipment remains reliable in the harshest of desert environments.
Lockheed Martin Space Systems' troubles have deepened with its agreement to forfeit $15 million for botching delivery to orbit of a new U.S. Air Force satellite.
Canada, long a powerhouse in space robotics, will shift gears with its tiny share of the International Space Station (ISS) and focus on life sciences for deep-space exploration. Among the work Canadian researchers hope to advance is on-orbit analysis of medical samples. Although a far cry from the tricorder of Star Trek fame, the potential Canadian Space Agency (CSA) contribution could help future flight surgeons keep astronauts alive on the way to Mars.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Amy Svitak (Washington)
Europe's Columbus Orbital Facility is the smallest pressurized laboratory module on the International Space Station, but the European Space Agency and its member states have deep roots in the ISS program that belie the 8.2% share of the resources they control. In addition to Columbus, the European company known today as Thales Alenia Space built many of the station's other pressurized modules in Turin, Italy, as well as the seven-window cupola that gives station crews a spectacular view of the Earth spinning below.
Turkish companies are showing keen interest in tapping into the latent demand for air, ground and cargo services in India, where the aviation sector is looking at investing $30 billion in the next 15 years to meet growing traffic demands.
India's defense ministry has formally approved purchase of 10 Boeing C-17 transports under terms of the U.S. foreign military sales program. The commitment was announced earlier this month (AW&ST June 13, p. 36).
India has selected the Pilatus PC-7 Mk.II as its future basic trainer, in large part owing to its low cost. The PC-7 beat out the Grob G-120 TP, Embraer EMB-312 Super Tucano, Aermacchi M-311, Hawker Beechcraft T-6C Texas-II and Korean Aerospace KT-1. All participated in flight trials last year. India's chief of air staff, Air Marshal P.V. Naik, says price negotiations for 75 aircraft have begun. The program cost is about $1 billion.
In 1972, an Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crew flew their L-1011 into the Everglades when they became distracted over a landing gear malfunction. Although the investigation into the AF447 tragedy is ongoing, it seems that human factors are at the core. It does not appear that the pitot tube issue involved the A330's artificial horizon and altimeter. Even if it did, wouldn't g-forces have provided a tell-tale clue to one of the three flight crewmembers who were ultimately in the cockpit for the flight's last 3 min.?
With the shuttle era over and its International Space Station assets underutilized, the U.S. space agency is scrambling to take advantage of the unique facility as a place for paving the way for mankind's next steps into the Solar System, and perhaps recouping the taxpayer's investment. NASA already is building up its program of microgravity research aimed at enabling humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, working on both the human body and the technology that will keep it healthy in deep space.
Boeing will make the double-stretch 787-10X its next major development priority, taking precedence over the longer-term 777X and the New Small Airplane (NSA) replacement for the 737. Plans to step up development of the -10X as a competitor to the Airbus A350-900/-1000 are emerging as Boeing prepares for the long-delayed certification of the baseline 787-8 and proceeds with the critical design review of the next model in the family, the stretched 787-9.
NASA engineers have an ambitious test series planned this summer for the first complete J-2X upper-stage engine, even though it remains uncertain whether it will find a place in the agency's new heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS). On June 11 workers installed the engine in historic Test Stand A2 at Stennis Space Center, Miss., originally built for Saturn V development and later used to test the space shuttle main engine. The first hot-fire test could come as early as this week, according to Mike Kynard, J-2X project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center.
