With their own national budgets on the decline, European aerospace and defense companies are turning to exports for salvation. But developments in Italy and the U.K. suggest that strategy is easier to enunciate than execute. Aerospace companies in the U.K. and Italy are worried that turmoil in the Middle East and Africa will lead to additional restrictions that will curb arms exports.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission apparently ducked a significant delay when a crane operator accidentally lifted its composite back shell with a 2,000-lb. aluminum table attached to it. Richard Cook, deputy Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says the mishap does not appear to have resulted in excessive loads on the back shell structure, which is designed to help protect the car-sized rover as it enters the Martian atmosphere.
Usman Mastan (see photo) will be responsible for Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft jet sales in 18 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe. He was director of aircraft sales at Empire Aviation Group and earlier held sales and engineering roles at CAE Aviation training.
USN Capt. and former astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper has relieved Capt. Chris Meyer as commander of Naval Surface Center Carderock. Stefanyshyn-Piper was chief technology officer at Naval Sea System Command.
Spirit Airlines completed an initial public offering that may have revealed investor thinking about the airline industry as much as it raised money for the South Florida-based low-cost carrier. Spirit sold 15.6 million shares at $12, for $171 million in net proceeds, but it had originally estimated an offering price of $14-16 for 20 million shares, which would have netted about $276 million at the midpoint of the range.
Ulf Liljenberg has been named vice president of Volito Aviation, Malmo, Sweden. He was vice president-technical at Transwede Airways and more recently held senior marketing roles at PK Airfinance and CTT Systems AB in Sweden.
Industry is cheering a measure proposed for the House version of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill that would authorize the president to remove satellites and related components from the U.S. Munitions List (USML)—a deep desire for 13 years. The amendment, which Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) crafted, comes amid the Obama administration's export licensing reform effort. Rohrabcher withdrew it at the last minute from the bill the House later approved, but look for it to rise again.
On Feb. 24, 2009, the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) launched an OSC (Orbital Sciences Corp.) Taurus XL. The result: Launch mishap attributed to payload shroud failure. Mission cost: $209 million, according to Mishap Investigation Board Executive Summary. Last March 4 NASA Glory was launched on another OSC Taurus XL, with the same results as the first foray. The two ballistic failures that now reside in the Pacific Ocean cost at least $410 million.
Lawrence A. “Bud” Sittig has been appointed president and chief operating officer of Carlsbad-based California Pacific Airlines. Following Air National Guard service as a fighter pilot, Sittig flew for Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines and later was a founder and vice president of operations for Skybus Airlines.
Boeing plans to conduct 787 validation flights in Japan starting July 4 using the second test aircraft, ZA002. The exercise is aimed at helping All Nippon Airways prepare for service entry later in the third quarter, three years later than originally planned. ZA002 will be used to fly simulated service flights between Haneda Airport in Tokyo and airports in Osaka, Okayama and Hiroshima.
The need to monitor and protect Kazakhstan's territorial borders and resources is spurring the country's investment in satellite technology. Kazcosmos, the national space agency of Kazakhstan, has contracted Astrium/Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. to produce two Earth-observation satellites, the first of which is due to launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in 2013, says Kazcosmos Chairman Talgat Musabayev. He says the spacecraft will have 6.5-meter (21-ft.) resolution, making it a medium-resolution satellite.
By the end of the decade, low-cost carriers will dominate intra-European point-to-point air travel, confirms U.K.-based consultancy York Aviation in a market analysis commissioned by the European Low Fares Airline Association (Elfaa). While this is not surprising, such a confirmation of the low-fare operators' victory is still a shock for an airline industry that remains slow in adapting to a new economic model.
A day after fending off a congressional challenge, Bell and Boeing were showing off the V-22 Osprey in New York, aligning media flights with the Marines' Fleet Week activities in Manhattan. Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) held the tiltrotor aircraft up as a “boondoggle” that does not operate well in high-threat environments. “That's like having a coat that doesn't perform well in the cold,” she said, trying to pull funding for the Osprey out of the defense authorization bill. But comments about the aircraft's woes are completely outdated, aver contractors and Maj. Gen.
USN Capt. and former astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper has relieved Capt. Chris Meyer as commander of Naval Surface Center Carderock. Stefanyshyn-Piper was chief technology officer at Naval Sea System Command.
Brad Drew has been named vice president of sales for Orlando, Fla.-based Signature Flight Support Corp.'s global operations. He was senior vice president of sales at Sentient Jet and had been group vice president at American Express Financial Advisers. HONORS AND ELECTIONS
Workers at Astrotech Space Operations in Titusville, Fla., are beginning four months of testing and launch preparation with the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) spacecraft, which reached the Florida launch site May 20 from Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Denver on a U.S. Air Force Boeing C-17. Weighing 200 kg (440 lb.) each, the two spacecraft will be launched into tandem lunar orbits on a United Launch Alliance Delta II early in September.
Kazakhstan is perceived as being backward, but the reality of this diverse country that is strategically located between Russia and China is quite different, and flag carrier Air Astana has been tasked with helping convey that to the rest of the world.
Astronomers using observatories in orbit and on four continents produced these images of particle jets erupting from a supermassive black hole in the galaxy Centaurus A, demonstrating how merging data from multiple sensors is helping science gain unprecedented views of complex phenomena.
The White House is hardening on its threat to veto the defense authorization bill that passed the House last week over an issue pertaining to the General Electric/Rolls Royce F136 alternate engine for the Joint Strike Fighter. This year, the House Armed Services Committee included a provision that would limit funding for potential F-35 engine upgrades unless the Pentagon provides a competition with the incumbent engine, the F135 made by Pratt & Whitney. Upgrades would be needed if, for example, the aircraft's weight increases.
Boeing is finally getting some love from Wall Street. CEO James McNerney and his management team received a positive response from analysts following an annual investor day on May 24 in Seattle. “We agree with McNerney's view that Boeing has the best growth profile in the industry,” says Credit Suisse's Robert Spingarn. He is hardly alone: Analysts have twice as many “buy” ratings (18) on the U.S. airframer's stock as “holds” (9), with only a single “sell.”
In The World column (AW&ST May 16, p. 15), Boeing's Phantom Eye UAV seems to be mounted on a transportation trolley, not a launch trolley as stated. How does this trolley-launched heavy aircraft land? Binyamina, Israel (It is on a launch trolley, and it lands like a glider, thanks to its nose and rear skid gear, similar to the Condor's—Ed.)
Aengus Kelly has become chief executive officer of Netherlands-based AerCap, taking the reins from Klaus Heinemann, who has retired. Kelly, who was treasurer, earlier worked for Guinness Peat Aviation and its successors AerFi, AirFinance and AerCap in Ireland, Amsterdam and Florida, respectively.
Norbert Marx has been named general manager and Wu RongXin deputy general manager of Guangzhou (China) Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering Co. Marx joins Gameco from Heli-One Inc. in Vancouver. Wu was Gameco's chief financial officer.
Boeing hopes to avoid a further delay to the delivery of the first 747-8F by coming to a speedy agreement with the FAA and Honeywell over whether flight management software in the freighter is sufficiently representative to allow the final step toward certification to begin. Agreement is pivotal to enabling functionality and reliability tests to begin by early June, keeping Boeing on track to achieve certification around midyear.
Dixie Aerospace is acquiring AAR Corp's line of PMA (parts manufacturer approval) parts to complement its own landing gear, engine and interior systems components. AAR says the PMA parts line was a non-core element of its business and represents less than 0.5% of its annual sales, which in 2010 were $1.35 billion. Selling this piece allows AAR to “sharpen our focus on our core business,” which includes MRO, supply chain, aerostructures, and government and defense services, says company spokesman Chris Mason.
