With the New Start treaty with Russia overwhelmingly ratified by the Senate, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy repealed, and streamlined defense authorization language ready for presidential signature, the end of 2010 saw significant defense-related achievements for the Obama administration on Capitol Hill. But the victories are overshadowed by a slew of unfinished business, and 2011 is shaping up to be an even harder year for getting just the basics accomplished.
Jan. 17-19—Civil Air Navigation Services Organization’s Middle East Conference. Park Rotana Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. See www.canso.org Jan. 20-23—U.S. Sport Aviation Expo. Sebring (Fla.) Regional Airport. See www.sport-aviation-expo.com Jan. 24-26—International Quality and Productivity Center’s “Airport Security Asia 2011.” Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott Hotel. Call +65 (67) 229-388. See www.airportsecurityasia.com/Event
The U.S. Import-Export Bank has approved a $666-million loan package for the design and construction of Inmarsat’s Global Xpress Ka-band satellite system. The three-spacecraft system was ordered from Boeing last summer.
While Alfred “Fred” Kahn’s life focused on teaching economics and his love of Gilbert and Sullivan, his brief, but explosive, involvement with aviation as the champion for ending government control of route allocation and pricing will continue to reverberate across the industry.
This image of the planet Mercury is a day-long time exposure designed to reveal its comet-like tail of gas streaming away from the Sun. NASA’s Stereo-A solar probe captured the image, which shows a feature much brighter than would be expected from the sodium gas tail that can be seen from Earth. The U.S. space agency’s Messenger probe is set to reach Mercury on March 18, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit the innermost planet.
Perhaps the strongest measure of Ashton Carter’s influence in changing how the Pentagon buys weapons is the desire of so many industry titans to wait out his term as procurement czar and get back to business as usual.
Airbus Military has added a fourth A400M Grizzly to its flight test program. Despite a slow start, Airbus Military is running slightly ahead of the flight test schedule, with more than 1,000 hr. and 300 flights.
The European Commission and European Space Agency have opened a center in Fucino, Italy, that will be responsible for mission control of the Galileo satellite navigation system. A center in Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, is responsible for satellite control.
Meredith Siegfried (see photos) has been promoted to president of Nordam . She was chief operating officer of the company’s Repair Group. She was vice president of the Global Engineering and Quality, Repair Group. Basil Barimo is now vice president/general manager of the Repair Division and Global Technical Operations. Steve Pack is responsible for all of Nordam’s manufacturing operations as chief operating officer of the Manufacturing Group.
Michael T. Strianese, L-3 chairman, president and CEO, has been received the John W. Dixon Award from the Association of the U.S. Army . Strianese received the award for his company’s ongoing contributions to the U.S. armed forces and the defense industry.
Gregory D. Blaney has been named director of NASA ’s Independent Verification and Validation program, which provides software verification and validation services, as well as software safety assurance for the agency’s most critical missions. Blaney has been acting director since December 2009 and will continue to lead the facility’s day-to-day operations.
When David Neeleman was much younger, someone influential in his life must have taught him to think big and learn from his setbacks, because the combination have served this 51-year-old aviation entrepreneur well.
Intelsat is hopeful it can recover use of a wayward communications satellite that had wreaked havoc with operators around the world until it was finally shut down just prior to Christmas. Dubbed Zombie Sat,Galaxy 15 went out of control on April 5, sending operators scrambling to protect their spacecraft from interference. During the next six months, the spacecraft flew by a dozen satellites, in some cases coming to within a tenth of the distance normally maintained between geostationary satcoms (AW&ST May 24, 2010, p. 23).
The Russian government is struggling to compensate for a Proton launch failure that dashed hopes of having a full 24-unit Glonass navigation satellite constellation in service by the end of 2010.
Aviastar-SP completed the first flight of the Tupolev Tu-204SM on Dec. 29. The SM is aimed at giving the Tu-204, in production since 1989, another lease on life. It features a slightly lighter airframe, more modern avionics, a two-pilot cockpit, a new auxiliary power unit and improved Perm PS-90A2 engines designed by Russian Aviadvigatel with Pratt & Whitney. Next year, Aviastar-SP plans to produce another prototype of the SM, with an aim to complete type certification tests by 2012. However, the future of the upgrade remains unclear.
French armaments agency DGA has qualified the MM40 Block 3 Exocet antiship missile, which is intended for France’s Horizon and Fremm frigates, for active service. The first four of an initial batch of 45 Block 3s, which will double the range of the Exocet and give it a land-strike capability, were delivered in mid-December; the remainder are due by mid-2013.
In the Nov. 18, 2002, edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology featuring a special report on the airline industry, the cover text exclaimed, “Restructure . . . Or Die.” At the time, low productivity, high costs and an onslaught of low-fare carriers grabbing market share were the bane of most large airlines’ existence, especially in the U.S. and Europe.
Neel Shah has been promoted to senior vice president and chief cargo officer and Chris Collette to senior vice president-supply chain management for Delta Air Lines. Shah joined Delta from United Airlines Cargo, where he was vice president-sales and marketing. Collette came from Northwest Airlines.
USMC Gen. (ret.) Peter Pace has been named to the board of directors of the AAR Corp. He was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2005-07 and is now a member of the Secretary of Defense’s Defense Policy Board.
Liquid fuel rocket engines, high-speed Internet communications and hyperspectral imaging technologies are among the highlights of a new 10-year space spending plan drawn up by the Italian government. The plan, unveiled last week by Italian Space Agency ASI, will also seek to shift more spending to domestic programs and spread the spending burden for the International Space Station (ISS) extension, currently awaiting approval by the European Space Agency member states, by making ISS utilization a mandatory ESA program.
An Ariane 5 carrying the Hispasat-1E and Koreasat 6 satellites was launched Dec. 29 from the European space center at Kourou, French Guiana. The Space Systems Loral-built, 5,320-kg. (11,700-lb.) Hispasat-1E was placed in an orbital slot at 30 deg. West. The Thales Alenia Space Koreasat 6, with a weight of 2,850 kg., was placed at 116 deg. East. Both spacecraft are designed for 15 years in orbit.
The British government plans to unveil a new defense and security industrial and technology policy this year that will spell out the national industrial capabilities deemed essential to meetnational security needs, even in an age of austerity.
