The Society of Satellite Professionals International named seven 2011 inductees for its Hall of Fame: Masanori Akiyama, president and CEO of Sky Perfect JSAT Corp.; Robert Bednarek, president and CEO of SES Worldskies; Giuliano Berretta, chairman of Eutelsat Communications; Ellen Hoff, president of W.L. Prichard & Co.; Edward Horowitz, former CEO of SES Americom and co-founder of U.S. Space, which offers satellite communications to the U.S.
Although shipments of business and general aviation aircraft were down—again—for 2010, the $19.7 billion in billings were the third highest, with flight activity and corporate profits climbing. According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, its member companies delivered 2,015 business jets, turboprops and piston-engine aircraft in 2010, or 11.4% fewer than the previous year. But the popularity of high-ticket, long-range business jets helped lift total billings 1.2%.
Capt. (ret.) James C. Waugh, whose aviation career spanned nearly half a century, from crewing Pan American flying boats to heading all operations for the international carrier, and later serving as chairman of the Flight Safety Foundation, died in Cary, N.C., on Feb. 24 after a long illness. He was 89.
Fly-by-wire flight control systems have transformed the capabilities of combat aircraft and commercial airliners but have made few inroads into the rotary-wing market. As a result, the ability to exploit the potential of FBW to improve performance and safety is in its infancy within the rotorcraft industry.
March 8—Laureates Awards. Washington. April 12-13—MRO Military Conference & Exhibition. Miami. April 12-13—MRO Latin America Conference & Exhibition. Miami. April 12-14—MRO Americas Conference & Exhibition. Miami. May 10-12—NextGen Ahead. Washington. May 24-25—A&D Cybersecurity Conference. Washington. May 26-27—Inventory & Engine Asset Management Forum. Zurich. Sept. 27-29—MRO Europe 2011. Madrid. Oct. 24-26—A&D Programs. Phoenix.
Don Haloburdo (see photo) has been appointed vice president and general manager of Jet Aviation Flight Services , Teterboro, N.J., succeeding Bob Seidel, who left the company. After a career as a U.S. Navy pilot, Haloburdo served as a Gulfstream II and III captain and then was interim director of the New World Jet Corp.
The Pentagon may finally be grappling with what happens if and when its forces are hit with a large network attack. A number of recommendations appear in the newly released Defense Science Board study, “Enhancing Adaptability of U.S.
Ray H. Siegfried is the new director of aerospace services at The Persimmon Group , Tulsa, Okla. He was chairman of the Nordam Group and is a lieutenant colonel in the Oklahoma Air National Guard.
NASA has concluded that a 2016 crewed first flight of the new heavy-lift launch vehicle is not feasible (AW&ST Jan. 17, p. 18). NASA watchers should know by now that they are probably right. The agency is struggling with LV Phase A studies while trying to converge a congressional mandate with a six-year deadline. Although this sounds like a comfortable margin, there is a long way between Phase A and a downselected contractor for heavy lift. Under their current processes, NASA is now more than one year from final contractor selection, making 2016 look dubious.
The switch to a larger airframe for the U.S. Navy’s MQ-8 Fire Scout unmanned aerial system is the major change in rotorcraft procurement outlined under the Pentagon’s fiscal 2012 budget request. Changing from the Schweizer 333 on which the MQ-8B is based to the larger Bell 407 for the new MQ-8C is required to increase endurance and payload to meet an urgent special-operations requirement for a sea-based medium-range surveillance platform, the Navy says.
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.
