Embraer has begun announcing major suppliers for the KC-390 tanker/transport, awarding DRS Defense Solutions a contract to develop the cargo handling and aerial delivery system. The Brazilian manufacturer is expected to announce suppliers for five major aircraft systems, including engines and avionics, before launching the joint definition phase in May (see p. 48).
Latin America now is the third-largest market for business aircraft behind North America and Europe. And aircraft manufacturers and trade associations believe that it will only grow stronger. Turboprop aircraft deliveries in Latin America increased by 46% and turbofan deliveries were up 36% from 2009 to 2010, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s most recent shipment report. The regional gain was in vivid contrast to the 14% overall drop in turbine business aircraft deliveries from the previous year.
Clayton Mowry, president of Arianespace, has been elected chairman of the New York-based Society of Satellite Professionals International and Keith Buckley, president and CEO of ASC Signal Corp. as president. Other new board members are Mike Aloisi, vice president-technology, satellite and affiliate services, MTV Networks; Robert Bednarek, president and CEO of SES World Skies; Paul Cohen, executive director of satellite engineering at Fox networks; Nongluck Phinainitisart, president of Thaicom; and Tony Rayner, vice president of business development of Eutelsat.
Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, better known as Embraer, delivered almost one in five new business jets in 2010, finishing third in total units behind Cessna and Bombardier. This was 23 more aircraft than the Brazilian manufacturer delivered in 2009 and just six years after announcing it was entering the business jet market.
While last week’s visit to Wichita by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood underscored the importance of aircraft manufacturing and export, three companies most closely identified with the city—Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier Learjet—have now established large fabrication bases in Mexico. They’re hardly alone.
Steve Wright has been appointed vice president of Blackcomb Aviation , Whistler, British Columbia. He is the pilot, founder and former owner of a Vancouver-based helicopter company and aerial film coordinator.
Michael Lederer has joined TWC Aviation of Los Angeles as director of aircraft sales and acquisition. He was a sales executive at Bombardier Aerospace. Honors and Elections
In our report on F-35 costs (March 21, p. 27) we should have said Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Office has estimated the average cost of the country’s planned F-35s at $148 million each, including the engine.
While the battle between the global alliances for dominance in Latin America may have peaked last year, the region still provides enough possibilities to pique the interest of Oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance. Activity in 2010 clearly defined how the region will be aligned in the coming years. Star, in particular, pulled off a minor coup by first convincing SkyTeam’s Avianca to shift to its merger partner’s preference and then persuading Copa Holdings to follow in the steps of former investor and close partner Continental Airlines.
Marc Allen has become president of Boeing China , based in Beijing. He was vice president of Global Law Affairs and general counsel of Boeing International.
Military sales covered a 6% drop in commercial activity in 2010, prompting the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) to predict that when all companies’ reports are completed, the industry will see a record high of $216.5 billion in sales. The situation will likely be reversed in 2011: “While signs of recovery are increasingly evident for the commercial sector, the challenges for the military side . . . may be just beginning,” AIA says in a year-end review. Total orders in 2010 were $195.7 billion, a 16.4% increase over recession-laden 2009.
There’s a no-risk way to establish a no-fly zone in Libya. We need only to do what former U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson (D-Texas) did in Afghanistan to keep Russian planes from attacking the Mujahideen rebels. He got Congress to allocate funds to send Stinger missiles to the rebels, and they established their own no-fly zone. Washington, D.C.
Former astronauts Kenneth Reightler and Brian Duffy (see photos) have joined ATK ’s Aerospace Group in Minneapolis. Reightler is vice president of engineering for the Spacecraft Systems and Services Div. and Duffy is vice president of Exploration and Johnson Space Center program manager for the Space Launch Systems Div. Reightler was vice president of NASA program integration for the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.’s Human Space Flight Div. Duffy was vice president and manager of NASA’s Altair Lunar Lander program.
Russia hopes that upgrades to the Mi-26, now undergoing flight trials, will help boost the helicopter’s chances in an Indian air force competition. The Mi-26T2 is up against Boeing’s CH-47F Chinook; the order is expected to be for 15 rotorcraft. The -26T2 incorporates improvements based on the operational experience of the previous Mi-26 variants, say officials from Rostvertol, the manufacturer.
The 10th telecommunications spacecraft for Australia’s SingTel Optus will use a 1300-series platform from Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) and carry 24 Ku-band transponders that can be switched between fixed and broadcast satellite service frequencies for users in Australia and New Zealand. Called Optus 10, the satellite is slated to be orbited in 2013, although a launch provider has not been chosen.
Controllers at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory are ready to receive the first images ever taken from orbit around the planet Mercury this week, starting with a shot of this region around the South Pole outlined in yellow. NASA’s Messenger probe became the first manmade object to enter orbit around the planet late on March 17, after a 15-min. burn with its main thruster slowed it by 1,929 mph. That sent Messenger into an elliptical orbit that will take it as close as 124 mi. to the surface.
The article “No-Fly Zone” (AW&ST March 7/4, p. 28) either missed or was unaware of two critical aspects of the way we are supposed to do business in this country: Use joint military doctrine already established for this mission, and utilize the military experts trained to handle surface-to-air-missile (SAM) suppression. The capability you call for is here and ready to go—the U.S. Navy’s 15-aircraft electronic-attack squadrons based at NAS Whidbey Island, Wash., and deployed worldwide.
David Nield (see photo) has been appointed director of final phase operations at Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. Nield spent 13 years with Raytheon Aircraft Co., now Hawker Beechcraft Corp.
Refinement in predictive analysis has allowed Boeing to create new software tools to give pilots real-time data to tailor their routes and descents as a way to save fuel.
The decision by SES to launch a medium-size geostationary communications satellite on a Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket marks another effort by satellite operators to add to their bottom lines by taking a tight-fisted approach to the prices they pay for launch services. Luxembourg-based SES has also entered a “framework understanding” with Sea Launch as the latter emerges from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that could see the ocean-going Sea Launch Odyssey again lofting SES spacecraft from the equatorial Pacific Ocean someday.
Peter Bowler has been appointed a senior adviser and chairman of Stamford, Conn.-based Passur Aerospace ’s Customer Advisory Panel. He retired from American Eagle Airlines last summer after a 26-year career with its parent AMR Corp.
EADS’s Cassidian defense business is buying out Saab’s 42.4% share in Grintek Ewation to dominate the communications electronic warfare business (12.6% remains with Kunene Finance Co.). Competition authorities still have to OK the deal that should generate a pre-tax capital gain of 120 million Swedish kronor ($18.7 million) for Saab. EADS says there are plans to increase the local shareholding in the South African business.
David Billon-Lanfrey has been promoted to vice president of research and development, technology and products at Paris-based Sofradir , succeeding Philippe Tribolet, who died in November 2010. Billon-Lanfrey headed the R&D optronics characterization team at the company and was project manager for R&D and product development.
