The International Civil Aviation Organization is moving ahead with new rules to ensure the proper recovery of critical data from aircraft downed at sea.
In the hunt for a more profitable, efficient business, Italian aerospace and defense giant Finmeccanica is quietly undergoing a shift in priorities as it navigates through a difficult business climate.
European aerospace giant EADS faces the prospect of another turbulent transition period, with extensive personnel changes and a possible realignment of its shareholding structure. The personnel upheaval could be even greater than what was already expected. Airbus’s long-serving sales chief, John Leahy, says he may depart the company next year in addition to the anticipated leadership transition at the top of EADS and Airbus.
The resurgence in fighter modernization programs in the Middle East is having the follow-on effect of spurring the purchase of new training aircraft. Manpower has long been an area of concern for Middle Eastern militaries, with a dearth of home-grown pilots. While that situation is not expected to abate immediately, there is growing interest among military leaders to lessen their dependence on foreign pilots.
Clark Gordon has become director of marketing at Pro Star Aviation , Londonderry, N.H. He was vice president of sales for TrueNorth Avionics of Ottawa and is chairman of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association.
The U.S. Navy is building on the successful first flight of the stealthy, tailless Northrop Grumman X-47B demonstrator as a pivotal step toward the long-held goal of marrying persistent, autonomous unmanned intelligence and strike aircraft with the reach of its fleet of aircraft carriers.
NASA’s fiscal 2012 budget will continue to funnel money to commercial spaceflight and open-ended technology development, at the expense of a definite launch date for the troubled James Webb Space Telescope and robotic precursors for future exploration. Administrator Charles Bolden (below) was expected Feb. 14 to formally request funds to fly a third shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS) this year, and to funnel enough money to the private companies developing space taxis for low Earth orbit for first flights in 2015.
Neelam Mathews (Bengaluru), Leithen Francis (Bengaluru)
As India grows its military arsenal to gain strategic reach beyond its traditional sphere of interest, the country also is looking to boost its surveillance capabilities to support operations further afield. Key decisions have already been taken to bolster airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) capabilities, as well as long-range maritime patrol, but more is in the offing. Carrier-based AEW&C is now in the cards, as well as further purchases of unmanned aircraft.
Eumetsat officials say Belgium, the only country which has not yet approved development of the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) weather satellite system, is poised to sign on, ending a two-month quest to finalize the €2.8 billion ($3.8 billion) program. Portugal OK’d funding for MTG in January, enabling Eumetsat to sign an authorization to proceed with Thales Alenia Space, OHB System and Astrium, which will supply the space portion of the system. Spain and Switzerland, the other two holdouts, have also agreed to participate.
Kratos Defense & Security Solutions has struck a deal to acquire Herley Industries for $270 million in cash. Herley specializes in military microwave devices and has been an independent company for 45 years.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris)
NASA’s new budget request continues the Obama administration’s emphasis on using commercial spacecraft to send humans to space, and the players are putting their cards on the table as the next round of play begins. A new transatlantic entry in the agency’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev-2) seed-money effort would marry the first stages from NASA’s defunct Ares I crew launch vehicle and Europe’s Ariane 5, which turns out to be a pretty good substitute for the Ares I upper stage Boeing was building under the old Constellation program.
Fiscal austerity may finally lead to breakthroughs in reforming Europe’s military structure. But if the efforts fail, the region runs the risk of losing its global relevance, warns the leader of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen is particularly worried about European defense spending trends. “Over the past two years, defense spending by NATO’s European member nations has shrunk by some $45 billion—that is the equivalent of Germany’s entire annual defense budget.”
Japan’s defense ministry and industry aim to develop an engine with advanced stealth features, breaking away from reliance on the U.S. for a sixth-generation fighter that would enter service in the 2030s. Japanese engineers have designed the front of their proposed engine to avoid reflecting radio energy back to enemy radar. There is also evidence that the rear of the engine may be arranged to hide the turbines from radar behind the aircraft.
Financially troubled Indonesian carrier Mandala Airlines’ move to suspend all operations indefinitely may be a precursor of similar actions by other airlines. Indonesia has more than 20 commercial airlines, but market consolidation appears inevitable due to a new rule that is coming into effect in January 2012, which mandates that all commercial airlines have a minimum of 10 aircraft, five of which must be owned.
Feb. 20-24—International Defense Exhibition and Conference. Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates) National Exhibition Center. See www.idexuae.ae Feb. 21-23—MIU Events’ Second Annual Indian Business Aviation Expo. Shangri-La Hotel, New Delhi. Call +44 (218) 332-2211, +91 (11) 4279-5061 or see www.miuevents.com
NextGen satellite-based air traffic management could lose at least $234 million if House Republican appropriators have their way with a belated 2011 spending bill revealed last week. It is igniting widespread opposition across the aviation sector. Groups representing airlines to general aviation, and air traffic controllers to airports—entities not afraid to throw each other’s programs under the bus—appear to be standing united in telling the House subcommittee on aviation that any delays in moving NextGen forward would only cost more down the road while impairing U.S.
Susan Donofrio has been appointed Hawaiian Airlines ’ senior director of investor relations, working from New Jersey. She was a director-level analyst at Cathay Financial and has held similar roles at Fulcrum Global Partners and Deutsche Bank.
In the U.S., lawmakers take great delight in reminding the executive branch of the government that Congress can have the final word on most issues, starting with appropriations, hence the old saw “The president proposes, Congress disposes.” Indeed, presidents’ budget requests are routinely pronounced dead on arrival on Capitol Hill.
Jacques Desclaux (see photo) has been named chairman/CEO of PowerJet of Paris, succeeding Jean-Paul Ebanga, who joined CFM International. Desclaux was executive vice president of Europrop International.
Washington is pressuring partners in Japan—who are notoriously methodical customers—to commit to a production plan for the Raytheon-led SM-3 Block IIA ballistic missile killer to meet ambitious fielding deadlines in 2018. The Missile Defense Agency’s director, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, writes to Nobushige Takamizawa, policy chief in Japan’s defense ministry, that if partners are unable to come to an agreement, the U.S. must make plans to produce the interceptors stateside. Under the roughly $2 billion program, Japan and the U.S.
Russ Claughton (see photo) has been selected to lead the Education Office at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center , Edwards, Calif. He was campus administrator at the Northeast Independent School District in San Antonio, where he directed and evaluated student achievement and teacher performance. HONORS & ELECTIONS
John Young, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief from 2007-09, worries that the government and defense industry’s atrocious track record on program execution could stifle innovation at the far reaches of the supply chain. “Small firms do not have the resources to weather program start delays and source selection slips,” he says (see p. 24). Fred Lisy knows exactly what Young is talking about.
Is the sum of the individual pieces worth more than the whole? The answer to that question led to a recent decision by ITT Corp. to split into three stand-alone companies: defense, industrial products and water technologies. The breakup of the 90-year-old conglomerate will unlock value for its shareholders, explains CEO Steven Loranger.
As European engineers explore ways to improve natural laminar flow on future aircraft to achieve greater fuel-burn efficiency, Dassault has modified a Falcon 7X business jet to extend understanding of the phenomenon. Studying laminar flow is a key element of Europe’s Clean Sky program. Within the next couple of years, the program’s Smart Fixed-Wing Aircraft initiative aims to flight-test an Airbus A340 with a wing extension designed for laminarity.
Boeing and EADS have each submitted proposals for the U.S. Air Force’s latest attempt to buy a KC-135 refueling tanker replacement. USAF plans to buy 179 tankers through the KC-X program, which is estimated to be worth $35 billion. The service has not said when a winner will be announced.
