The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) this week will issue a preliminary report that is likely to confirm investigators’ suspicions that oil pipe leaks led to the uncontained failure of a Trent 900 engine during a Qantas Airbus A380 flight Nov. 4. Meanwhile, the carrier plans to resume limited operations of some A380s, although the investigation will remain open.
Hezbollah’s efforts to field an effective, multi-faceted military force are evolving with upgrades emerging in its air defense and aerial attack capabilities.
As the familiar philosophical question goes, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” But I am proposing a Washington variation: “If a federal advisory committee uses a lot of fallen trees to create a report, do the results have any consequences?” I raise the question because the Future of Aviation Advisory Committee, appointed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, will be completing its six months of work on Dec. 15.
Oneworld’s members appear set to benefit greatly from links with their new partner, S7 Airlines, but Russia’s biggest domestic airline is facing some major hurdles of its own before it can take full advantage of its new status.
Emily Richard (see photo) has been promoted to assistant director-corporate communications and government relations of the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority . She joined the authority from the Tennessee Department of Finance and Administration, where she was marketing and communications director.
Dec. 6—Aeropodium’s Second Annual “Aviation Asset Management in the Middle East.” Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Also, Dec. 10—Legal Aviation Workshop “Legal Aspects of Leasing Aircraft Agreements” Cozen O’Connor, Army and Navy Building, Washington. Call +1 (305) 767-4707, +44 (208) 123-7072 or see www.aeropodium.com/law/aircraftlease.html
Patrick Dewar (see photo) has been appointed senior VP-corporate strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin . He was VP-business development for the company’s Electronic Systems Business. Honors and Elections
Aurora Flight Sciences is in talks with potential system integrators to help put its Orion five-day-endurance unmanned aircraft into production if a U.S. Air Force-funded technology demonstration proves successful.
Airbus’s long-running debate about whether it will have sufficient resources to develop its New Engine Option (NEO) upgrade for the A320 centers on the quality of engineering skills available, rather than quantity. The completion of this evaluation, due within weeks, is all that is stopping the aircraft manufacturer from launching the multibillion-dollar program by year-end, says Airbus CEO Tom Enders, as the business case is “convincing.”
A team led by Thales Alenia Space will begin developing the space segment of Europe’s next-generation geostationary weather satellite system under a preliminary contract awarded by the European Space Agency after a year of bickering over the scope of work. The €1.3-billion ($1.8-billion) authorization to proceed covers four imaging satellites and two sounding spacecraft. ESA issued it on behalf of Eumetsat, which will operate the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) system. This move should ensure continuity with the current network through 2037.
Greg Collett (see photo) has been promoted to VP-initial phase operations and Austin Shontz has been named VP-final phase operations, both at Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. .
Space Systems/Loral shipped Hispasat 1E to the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, Nov. 24, in preparation for a December launch on an Ariane 5. The satellite carries 53 Ku-band transponders to serve direct-to-home, digital terrestrial television and broadband mobile, land and marine services from 30 deg. W. Long. for coverage of Europe, the Americas and North Africa. The Hispasat Group serves Spanish and Portuguese-speaking populations.
Kerry T. Nock, President Global Aerospace Corp. (Altadena, Calif.)
From 2000-03, we and our technical partners at SAIC and the Colorado School of Mines conducted an extensive NASA Institute of Advanced Concepts (NIAC) study demonstrating that nuclear thermal rockets (NTR) were unnecessary for a sustained Mars transportation system (AW&ST Oct. 4, p. 48). We found that the use of cycling spaceships, called astrotels, on resonant orbits between Earth and Mars resulted in transit times of about 150 days, 20-40 fewer than for the “game-changer” NTR.
Graham Warwick’s “Designs for Success” (AW&ST Nov. 1/8, p. 72) makes it clear that systems engineering, as it is implemented on many programs, has not significantly reduced program delays and cost overruns. Systems engineering has valuable tools for management of complex systems. These tools involve decomposing design requirements. However, the requirements and mechanization must be defined before decomposition begins.
Lenny Genna (see photo) has been tapped to be president of L-3 Link Simulation & Training . He was VP of the division’s rotary-wing, unmanned aerial and ground training systems.
Detlef Muller-Wiesner (see photo), chief operating officer-innovation at EADS, has been elected president of the International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences for a two-year term. Frank Miller, director of aviation for the city of San Antonio Aviation Department, has been elected chairman of Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA).
Europe is exploring near-term alternatives to a planned payload return capsule as it struggles to hash out a strategy for operating the International Space Station beyond 2015.
The European Space Agency has received more than 140 letters of intent to perform exploration research from the International Space Station. These LOIs are in addition to 40 to study climate change using the orbital facility. Simona di Pippo, ESA’s director of manned spaceflight, says the commitments show the high level of scientific interest in the ISS and underscore the agency’s attempt to enlist support for funding a five-year extension in station life (see p. 30).
Lynn Dugle, president of Raytheon’s Intelligence and Information Systems, has been appointed to the board of the Intelligence and National Security Alliance .
Fears that commercial companies will be unable to deliver cargo to the International Space Station are unfounded, says NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Both Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC) and Space Exploration Technologies Inc. (SpaceX) have the experience necessary to build viable space vehicles, regardless of what some in NASA may think. “I would ask them to reserve their judgment when they become critical of the people who used to sit next to them building rockets,” he says to internal critics. “Let’s be fair.
Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have won NASA study contracts for advanced, environmentally friendly airliner concepts for service entry in 2025. The two teams will define a preferred system concept for an aircraft that can meet the agency’s aggressive environmental targets for commercial aircraft starting development after 2020. Compared to a current twin-engine widebody, the N+2 goals include designs that burn 50% less fuel, decrease harmful emissions by 50% and reduce areas affected by objectionable airport noise by 83%.
Simon Caldecott has been named VP-operations for Piper Aircraft . He was VP-assembly integration and testing at Raytheon Aircraft and VP-assembly operations at Hawker Beechcraft.
As British military planners transform the new Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) into a concrete plan, industry officials are keeping watch for new, if limited, opportunities. Some capability cuts may open the door for others to meet those needs. But there is little room to maneuver in the U.K.’s tight budget environment.
