The American Society of Aviation Artists joins Aviation Week & Space Technology for the 11th year in presenting art selected from ASAA’s 2010 Exhibition, in this annual special issue. AW&ST has determined its “Best of the Best” award winner and top choices for honors in the categories of Military, Commercial, General Aviation and Space, while ASAA’s prize winners were chosen by an ASAA-invited judge.
European leaders hope to work with the U.S. to build a global space-based surveillance network to provide early detection and identification of vessels engaged in piracy, contraband, illegal immigration and other sea-based threats.
The Italian defense ministry has issued first images from its Cosmo-SkyMed 4 radar imaging spacecraft, and announced that the four-satellite constellation has reached its full operating capability. The full system is capable of supplying 1,800 all-weather images per day and is said to have a spatial resolution of better than 70 cm.
Spirit AeroSystems has rolled out the first composite fuselage for the industry’s largest heavy-lift development effort, the Sikorsky CH-53K, planting the Kansas fuselage specialist firmly into rotorcraft development and giving Spirit its first dedicated military project.
John Jarrell has joined EMS Technologies as VP and general manager of the company’s aviation business unit. He has been at Sensis Corp., where he was VP and general manager of air traffic systems.
Vincent Zarrella (see photo) has been promoted to director of customer service at Piper Aircraft . He is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with crew chief experience on Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters and was an FAA airframe and powerplant-certified mechanic. Piper also promoted Jim Slaton to senior manager of parts sales. He has worked in various capacities for Piper in production, technical support and warranty.
Reader Greg Lloyd of Spokane Valley, Wash., correctly points out that last week’s item on the Tiger Stripes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus overstated the temperature differential of the feature in degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the moon’s south polar region is 36F (20C) warmer than anticipated.
Steve Bowyer of Tucson, Ariz., took second place in the Commercial category of this year’s Aviation Week Photo Contest with this image. It shows a technician watching from the ground as the new Neptune Aviation/Tronosjet BAe 146 air tanker drops a load of water during development testing in Missoula, Mont. This aircraft is the first new platform to enter the aerial firefighting world in many years. A complete section showing all of this year’s prize-winning photos starts on page 36.
While the recent Middle East Business Aviation (MEBA) show in Dubai lacked any blockbuster announcements, the offhand remarks, when combined, were perhaps even more meaningful than any one major multiple aircraft buy.
The Pakistani air force is gearing up for a major expansion of its JF-17 single-engine fighter force. The service just began taking delivery of the first batch of Chengdu FC-1/JF-17s (now produced in Pakistan) this year, with about half of the 42 ordered now in place. With one squadron operational, service officials now plan to set up a second unit.
Andrew Rountree (see photo) has been appointed VP and CFO for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority . He has been acting CFO since May. Before joining MWAA, he was director of finance for the City of Richmond, Va.
Bolstering efforts to develop connecting traffic through Tel Aviv, El Al Israel Airlines hopes it can leave behind its isolation in the industry by setting up more partnerships.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Space Shuttle Era retrospective (AW&ST Dec. 6, p. 62) and am intrigued by the shotof the shuttle Atlantis backing away from Mir on STS-71. Clearly visible are the orbiter and the space station. Who took this photo and from what location? (It was taken by a member of the Mir crew shooting from the Soyuz lifeboat, which separated from Mir during the maneuver-Ed.)
Eric Baravian (see photo) has named senior VP-finance and CFO of ATR , succeeding Giovanni Tramparulo, who has become sales finance special adviser. Baravian has been a senior analyst in customer marketing for Airbus.
Boeing’s Phantom Ray company-funded unmanned combat-aircraft demonstrator arrived at Edwards AFB, Calif., on Dec. 14 on the back of NASA’s shuttle carrier aircraft. The Phantom Ray is only the second aircraft to fly on the modified 747 in its 33-year history. The unmanned aircraft weighed 30,000 lb. with its adapter, compared with 220,000 lb. for a space shuttle orbiter.
What a difference a year makes. On Dec. 15, 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicted the global airline industry would lose $5.6 billion in 2010. This Dec. 14, Geneva-based IATA said the world’s airlines will instead turn a projected profit of $15.1 billion this year, a swing of more than $20 billion.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank has agreed to provide a $171.5-million direct loan to SES. The loan will help support construction of a satellite ordered from Space Systems/Loral in early 2009 to serve a Mexican startup, QuetzSat, which was established by Luxembourg-based SES and local partners to provide fixed satellite service for Mexico and the U.S.
The Russian government this year still hopes to launch the first in a new generation of Glonass precision navigation and timing satellites. The first of the Glonass-Ks arrived at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on Dec. 12, where the spacecraft will undergo checkout before being mated on a Soyuz-2 launcher. It will be the first launch of a Glonass from Plesetsk. The launch follows the Dec. 5 failure of a Proton M Block DM to place three Glonass-Ms into orbit.
Developmental testing of India’s Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) is set to accelerate in the new year in the hope of meeting a planned 2012 in-service date. By early January, a second prototype (TD-2) should join TD-1, which has been undergoing trials since March. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) has logged roughly 50 hr. on that platform as it works on validating basic handling and aerodynamic performance, as well as low-level agility and responsiveness. A third prototype is slated to join the program by June 2011.
Feb. 1-2—MRO Middle East Conference & Exhibition. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Feb. 16-17—A&D Technology & Requirements Conference. Washington. 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 24-25—A&D Cybersecurity Conference. Washington. You can now register ONLINEfor Aviation Week Events.
Airbus will not meet its target of delivering at least 20 A380s this year and its 2011 deliveries could suffer as well. It is the third year in a row Airbus will fall short of the number of A380s it initially set out to hand over to customers. In the past, Airbus production problems were at fault, but this time the aircraft maker has been let down by suppliers.
With airlines bracing for yet another slip in Boeing’s 787 delivery schedule, some of the program’s key customers are considering how much longer they can reshuffle their current fleets and what the damage will be to their long-term plans.
