Israel’s defense industry is further cementing ties with India, with New Delhi’s decision to equip its Tejas Light Combat Aircraft with the Rafael Derby as the baseline beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (Bvraam). The choice of the Israeli weapon is supposed to help the Tejas reach its full operational clearance by December 2012. Indian officials last year already gave up on the notion of using the indigenous Astra missile as the main Bvraam, owing to development problems.
EADS Astrium, which helped pioneer government satcom services, will supply a new airborne satcom terminal for the United Arab Emirates’ Yahsat satcom network under a series of awards that also saw Boeing tapped to provide very-low-profile Ka-band airborne antennas for the network. Astrium also will deliver Yahsat operations and maintenance services to the UAE armed forces, which will share use of the system. The five-year operations/maintenance award, signed at the end of 2010 but revealed only last week, will include training and logistics support.
Southwest Research Institute will use the planned Lynx spaceplane under development by XCOR Aerospace to send its scientific payloads and payload specialists on suborbital missions. Spearheaded by Alan Stern, a former NASA associate administrator for science, SwRI has purchased six Lynx flights for dates to be determined. Stern and two colleagues at SwRI will use the horizontal takeoff and landing flights to conduct biomedical, microgravity and astronomy imaging experiments.
Like everyone else in town, NASA managers are braced for political bloodletting as Congress tries to keep the government funded past March 4. Budget-cutters are in full cry as the expiration for the current continuing funding resolution looms. Going in, NASA has another week operating at its fiscal 2010 rate—$18.7 billion, the same as requested for 2012. But lawmakers have to appropriate funds for the rest of this fiscal year first.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has tried to do too many things too fast, and its problems have been compounded because the development effort was launched without a complete test program. Paul Kaminski, speaking as a private citizen, singled out three aircraft programs—Lockheed Martin’s F-16, F-117 and F-35—as examples of how some programs function smoothly, others become delayed, and yet others are repaired along the way.
The imminent fielding of the first medium-range Akash surface-to-air missile (SAM) unit signifies a milestone for India’s decades-old guided-missile development efforts and clears the way for the overdue retirement of obsolete hardware.
Bidders for Brazil’s F-X2 fighter competition will have to wait a little longer to discover who has clinched the much-coveted deal. The Brazilian government has now officially delayed a source selection decision, citing budget cuts, although the duration of the delay remains uncertain. The long-running competition pits Dassault’s Rafale against the Boeing F/A-18E/F and Saab Gripen.
As volunteers from Russia, Europe and China practice for the exploration of Mars on the planet’s simulated surface at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) in Moscow, NASA engineers are considering what it would take to use a portion of the International Space Station for the first phase of a mock Mars mission. Russia’s Alexandr Smoleevskiy, Diego Urbina of Italy and Wang Yue of China “landed” on the red planet mockup at the midpoint of the Mars 500 project on Feb. 14.
Roger Franklin has been appointed chief financial officer of Bridgewater, Va.-based Dynamic Aviation , succeeding Merle Zook, who has been promoted to executive vice president. Franklin was CEO/corporate secretary of the Quest Aircraft Co.
Airlines and industry analysts last week remained wary of rising fuel prices but were cautiously optimistic that hedging would, for now, limit the effect on costs. The uprising in Libya and indications that other oil-rich countries could witness the political upheaval that unseated governments in Egypt and Tunisia have pushed oil prices above $100 a barrel and futures close to $140 in a run not seen since 2008.
U.S. airline stocks took a hit on Feb. 22 as jet fuel prices rose in response to ominous headlines from Libya. This particular spike may be an overreaction to political unrest, but the situation in the Middle East is far from settled. Prices likely will continue to fluctuate with current events as we head into summer, when fuel costs typically rise due to seasonal factors.
Even as a political tsunami sweeps over Arab countries in the Middle East, there is little sign of change in the region’s primary military fissure: the standoff between Israel and Iran. Both sides are flexing their military muscle—Israel by successfully testing its Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, and Iran by sending warships to the Mediterranean for the first time in 30 years.
After more than a decade of development, Carter Aerospace Technologies has completed initial flights of a prototype designed to combine the vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) capability of a rotary-wing aircraft with fixed-wing cruise speed and efficiency. The proof-of-concept Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) uses the company’s slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) technology, which has been licensed to unmanned-aircraft manufacturer AAI Corp. for use in VTOL designs. Carter will build two PAVs for AAI this year, for modification into prototypes of a cargo UAV.
Jeffrey D. Wood has joined Irving Place Capital of New York as senior adviser for the firm’s industrial practice. He was president of Airfoil Technologies International.
Rick Stine (see photo) has been appointed senior vice president of Tempe, Ariz.-based StandardAero ’s Components Sector in Cincinnati. He comes from the Heico Corp., where he was senior vice president of technical operations.
Sharon Pinkerton has been promoted to senior vice president-legislative and regulatory policy and Tom Hendricks to senior vice president-safety, security and operations at the Air Transport Association of America . Pinkerton was assistant administrator for aviation policy, planning and environment at the FAA; and Hendricks, a retired USAF Reserve colonel, was director of line operations at Delta Air Lines.
Boeing embarked on two ambitious and innovative experiences in its 787 program. Yet, the company did not appreciate the level of challenge it was taking on, and did not prepare itself for the additional complexity involved.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is looking at a sweeping reform of how it manages its military programs. But there are already indicators that the wide-ranging proposals on the table will go only partway to stanching the string of cost overruns that have plagued major procurements in recent years. For industry, the message is mixed. While the measures promise greater program stability in the long term, the transition period will be difficult.
Congressional auditors suggest Capitol Hill prod the Air Force for a new analysis of the purported tactical aircraft shortfall. Noting that much has changed since the last tacair gap calculation, the GAO says, “Better information on the [Joint Strike Fighter] restructured program and on the F-16 fleet is expected to become available in 2011; this could enable a more informed analysis, comparing and contrasting the various alternatives for mitigating the projected aircraft shortfalls.”
General Electric will convert a Boeing 747-400 into a new flying testbed as part of plans to upgrade its test facilities in preparation for evaluating Leap-X and other next-generation commercial transport engines from 2013 onward. The aircraft will be modernized and refurbished under a $60 million plan announced by GE on Feb. 24. The 747-400 will replace the current 747-100 testbed.
Jean-Pierre Talamoni (see photo) has been appointed director of international development within the Strategy and Marketing Organization of the Paris-based EADS Group . He was responsible for Europe, the Middle East and Africa within the same unit, and before that was director of sales and business development at MBDA Missile Systems.
NASA is looking for a new launch date for its Glory climate-monitoring spacecraft after a last-minute delay Feb. 22. The vehicle interface control console in a van near the pad at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., gave an incorrect reading that a “hold-fire” command had been sent about 15 min. before the Taurus XL launch vehicle was set to lift off.
FAA is set to accelerate the training of air traffic controllers as the agency nears completion of a nationwide simulator deployment program. The final four MaxSim training systems, developed by simulation specialists Adacel, will be installed at sites around the U.S. by the end of this year as part of a concerted effort to ramp up controller hiring and training. The FAA currently has 14 systems at its Oklahoma City training academy and 22 others at or near major U.S. airports, including the Hawthorne facility close to Los Angeles International (LAX).
Karl Bowles has become sales manager for the Middle East for the Signature Flight Support Corp. , Orlando, Fla. Bowles, who will be based in Bahrain, was director of business development for the Middle East for Jet Support Services.
