With repairs to the fuel tank of the orbiter Discovery still underway, NASA shuttle program managers on Nov. 18 retargeted the earliest date for a second round of launch opportunities to Dec. 3 from Nov. 30. The delay will permit more time for agency managers to establish flight rationale using the repaired fuel tank. The upcoming launch period will close three days later to permit a Dec. 15 Soyuz launching with three U.S., Russian and European space station crewmembers.
Pratt & Whitney will complete the first ground-test phase of the production geared turbofan (GTF) by early December amid hopes that early results will encourage Airbus to formally commit to re-engining A320s with a higher-thrust derivative.
Michael Mecham (North Charleston, S.C., and Kinston, N.C. )
Boeing set off a frenzy among U.S. states with aerospace manufacturing ambitions when it issued a request for proposals in 2003 for a manufacturing site for the new twin-aisle jet it was planning.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Robin Rand has been appointed special assistant to the vice chief of staff at USAF Headquarters. He has been legislative liaison for the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. Rand has been succeeded by Brig. Gen. Lori J. Robinson, who has been selected for promotion to major general. She has been deputy director for force application and support for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. Maj. Gen. Brooks L. Bash has been named vice commander of Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, Hawaii.
The U.S. aviation industry will have to navigate a vastly altered political landscape in Congress next year. Not only are new leaders taking the reins in the House, Democrats are also losing a lawmaker who has been their dominant voice on aviation policy for more than two decades.
In a country where status is everything, for Japan Airlines (JAL) to concede it no longer necessarily wants to remain Japan’s Number One international carrier shows just how much life has changed for the once-proud operator. The airline is being forced to downsize its fleet, workforce, and, also, its ambitions. But this may be the only course of action open to management if JAL is to survive. In fact, JAL’s top management should be commended for being realistic about the carrier’s prospects and focusing on profitability rather than considerations of status.
Nick Jones (see photo) has rejoined Virgin Atlantic Cargo as vice president-Europe, Middle East and Africa after three years with Emirates. He succeeds Dominic Jones, who is now vice president-Asia-Pacific, and follows James Williams, who becomes vice president-Americas.
Europe’s launch sector is demanding changes in the Arianespace governance and shareholding structure in return for increased financial support. The European launch provider has asked for a capital injection from shareholders and a new public support mechanism to help it counter growing competition from lower-cost players and help defray the extra burden of operating two new launch vehicles—the Soyuz 2 medium lifter and Vega light booster—from its Kourou, French Guiana, spaceport (AW&ST Oct. 18, p. 31).
CFM International is poised to start endurance runs of its composite fan blade for the next-generation Leap-X engine as China’s Comac announces the first letters of intent for the turbofan’s launch application, the C919.
The U.S. Air Force has not released the name of an F-22 pilot whose plane crashed near Cantwell, Alaska, on Nov. 17, but his parents have identified him as Capt. Jeffrey A. Haney, 31, of the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. Early USAF reports said there was no body in the wreckage. Rescue personnel were still searching for Haney late last week.
U.S. defense spending is almost certain to be stretched further—and definitely not grow more than already planned—even as newly empowered Republicans in Congress look to battle the Obama administration over a swath of issues, including conventional weapons programs, strategic systems and war strategies.
The CALT Long March 7 medium-heavy space launcher will go into production in 2014, according to current plans, completing a new family of Chinese rockets with new fuels and engines. Sized between the Long March 5 and 6, the new rocket will offer up to 720 tons (1,590,000 lb.) of liftoff thrust from six engines fed by liquid oxygen and kerosene. The first stage of the Long March 7 will have two YF100 engines, CALT Vice President Hao Zhaoping tells Aviation Week. The YF100 is already known to have a thrust of 120 tons.
Christopher Forshier has been tapped to be director of business development for global airline operations at Metron Aviation . He was manager-operations strategy and implementation for Continental Airlines.
Capt. Jeff Martin has been named Southwest Airlines ’ first vice president of the Operations Coordination Center. He was assistant director of operations. Honors and Elections
Soot from hydrocarbon-fueled rockets flying tourists on suborbital junkets may contribute to significant warming at the Earth’s poles, if the business plans behind the nascent space-tourism industry are accurate.
Prospects are increasing that India will sustain four offerings in its $12-billion Medium Multirole Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) program but soon eliminate the MiG-35 and F-16IN from the field.
NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden has received an honorary doctor of science degree, conferred by Air University , in recognition of his contributions in education, government, public service and community affairs.
Dale Hawkins has been appointed to the newly created position of airframe sales manager at StandardAero ’s Business Aviation Sector. He comes from Kal-Aero/Duncan Aviation, where was a technician, team leader, department manager and airframe service sales representative. George Trivino has joined the company as regional sales manager for Latin America.
Cautious by its own admission, the airplane builder from Wichita is nonetheless in the early days of employing a novice workforce to make composite fuselage panels in a new factory it has built amid the farms of this rural North Carolina region.
Investors have made a lot of money and lost large sums betting on specialty metals companies Allegheny Technologies Inc. (ATI) and Ladish Co. Inc.Shares in ATI, a leading producer of titanium and nickel-based super alloys, rocketed from $2.10 in 2003 to nearly $120 four years later—and then plummeted to $15 when the global economic downturn hit. Similarly Ladish, which specializes in forging, casting and machining parts for jet engines, airframes and helicopters, saw its stock rise from about $5 in 2003 to $60 in 2007—and then fall back to where it started.
Northrop Grumman plans to perform the first high-speed taxi of its X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS-D) demonstrator by the first week of December as a prelude to first flight by year-end at Edwards AFB, Calif. The taxi test will take the stealthy, single-engine UCAS to 120 kt., according to company officials.
The prospects of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty that the U.S. and Russian presidents signed April 8 going into force this year dimmed last week when White House attempts to reassure Republicans in the Senate fell through. Under the American system, the president may sign a treaty, but it must then be ratified by a two-thirds vote in the Senate (see p. 19).
Israel’s defense establishment is pressing the government to accept a U.S. offer of 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in return for a renewal of the moratorium on West Bank settlement-building.
Lightsquared is preparing to launch its second spacecraft in a bid to become the first U.S. hybrid mobile satellite service to enter operation, following launch of its first satellite. SkyTerra-1 was lofted into orbit Nov. 14 by an International Launch Services Proton-M booster from Baikonur Cosmodrome. Built by Boeing using its 702 HP bus, the 5.3-metric-ton bird is equipped with a 22-meter (72-ft.) L-band reflector that will be the largest ever orbited for commercial purposes.
