Arianespace will launch a communications satellite for the Communications and Information Technologies Ministry of Azerbaijan. Construction of the 3-metric-ton spacecraft was awarded to Orbital Sciences Corp. To be equipped with 36 active Ku- and C-band transponders and lofted in late 2012 on an Ariane 5 rocket, Azersat-1 will provide communications services throughout Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, as well as Azerbaijan itself. The award is the tenth of the year for Arianespace and its first ever from the former Soviet Union.
Founded: 1996 Ownership: Bob Finley and Scott Dean Employees: 54 Revenues: $12 million (2010 estimate) Business: Designs and supplies complete manufacturing systems; works closely with manufacturing subcontractors to complete the systems.
Peter Likoray, sales director-Canada at Bombardier Aerospace , has added the U.S. Southeast to his portfolio. Antonio Regillo has been named sales manager-Canada, and Denise Bell has joined the company as sales manager-U.S. Southeast. Likoray began his career with Bombardier Specialized and Amphibious Aircraft Sales in 1990, and Regillo joined the company in 2002 as liaison engineer. He later became team lead for international sales support. Bell worked for Bombardier Aircraft Services and Comair.
The Nov. 2 midterm election results will prompt a shakeup of committees covering civil aviation.One probable Republican leader in the House vows to make FAA reauthorization an early priority. A veteran on aviation issues, John Mica (R-Fla.), is likely to chair the full Transportation Committee starting next year. He replaces James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who was defeated by Republican challenger—and former Northwest Airlines pilot—Chip Cravaack.
The latest attacks on commercial aviation reveal how adaptable terrorists can be. The clever printer cartridge bombs shipped from Yemen, apparently at the hands of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, were the first known attempt at terrorism via the air cargo sector (see p. 32). But these attacks are producing a new and welcome kind of unity for industry and its partners in governments—a clear positive to come out of the recent near-misses at the hands of Al Qaeda.
Fresh off the completion of its integration with Northwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines finds itself facing some new challenges that could threaten its competitive advantages internationally and in a key domestic market.
Questions are emerging about the design and vulnerability to serious malfunction of both the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine and the Airbus A380 airframe following the destructive failure of one of the turbofans on Qantas Flight QF32 Nov. 4. Flying debris from the engine’s uncontained failure caused extensive airframe damage, and appears to have punctured fuel tanks and knocked out some of the A380’s hydraulic and electrical systems, as well as rendered the No. 1 engine unresponsive to shutdown attempts.
The grounding of Qantas’s six Airbus A380s due to a Nov. 4 engine failure has caused major operational headaches for the carrier. The 450-seaters carry a large proportion of passengers on the airline’s key long-haul routes to Los Angeles and London and a fifth of its international travelers overall. The first problem Qantas faced was how to handle more than 1,200 stranded passengers, mostly in Los Angeles. The carrier scrambled to put more Boeing 747-400s on its A380 routes and cleared the backlog by Nov. 8.
Heinrich Loechteken has been named chief investment officer of International Lease Finance Corp. (ILFC), a subsidiary of American International Group. Loechteken was chief investment officer and CFO of AerCap and executive vice president and CFO of DaimlerChrysler Capital Services and chief credit officer of DaimlerChrysler Financial. Pierre Vellay has been retained by ILFC as an adviser on new aircraft and engine programs. He is an associate of New & Next Consulting and a senior adviser to AT Kearney.
Managers across NASA face more uncertainty as the agency scrambles to find at least $1.5 billion to finish the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) while even the telescope’s most powerful sponsor in Congress is calling for “frugality” on the project.
The most striking aspect of Delta CEO Richard Anderson’s office is, well, how unremarkable it is: The room is devoid of the knickknacks and photos that seem to abound in most executive offices. There are not even many work papers—just a few of the most important folders—and the bookcases across the far wall are so bare that I ask, on the way out from my interview, whether he has just moved in.
The Pentagon says Foreign Military Sales (FMS) for the past fiscal year reached $25.2 billion, with another $6.4 billion in other security cooperation deals. The Defense Security Cooperation Agency notes that its combined deals have now topped $30 billion for the third straight year. Israel heads the list of customers with $4 billion in deals, followed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia at $2.6 billon.
U.S. Army Lt. Gen. (ret.) Ronald L. Watts (Englewood, Fla.)
“Intelligence Choices: Boeing, Northrop Battle Over New USAF Ground Surveillance Designs” (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 44) illustrates how the media create a perception that a proposal like a Boeing 737-based airborne ground surveillance system is even plausible.
The first complete J-2X upper-stage rocket engine is being assembled by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), and will be ready for testing early next year—just as the Ares I crew launch vehicle that it paced runs out of money.
USAF Lt. Gen. Philip M. Breedlove has been nominated for promotion to general with assignment as vice chief of staff. He has been deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. Breedlove will be succeeded by Lt. Gen. Herbert J. Carlisle, who has been commander of the 13th Air Force, Pacific Air Forces, Hickam AFB, Hawaii. Carlisle will be followed by Maj. Gen. Stanley T. Kresge, who has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general. He has been commander of the U.S.
Philip Galbraith has joined Airclaims Singapore from the London office. Before that, he worked for British Airways. Gina Pellegrino has been named an aviation surveyor within the company’s Miami office. She worked at Southwest Airlines and Pratt & Whitney. Jean-Philippe Rogier joined Airclaims from Sat-Heli, a maintenance, repair and overhaul operation at Bourges, France, where he was technical manager and airworthiness review manager.
Alex Berry has been named director of Chapman Freeborn Airchartering ’s executive jet division. In a career spanning more than 13 years, Berry has worked in executive positions for NetJets Europe, Marquis Jet and Bombardier Skyjet International, where he helped develop the jet card program. He also was executive vice president at VistaJet.
An unusual partnership is working to combine two normally opposing characteristics increasingly sought in unmanned aircraft: long endurance and runway independence. Unmanned industry leader AAI has sufficient confidence in tiny Carter Aviation Technologies’ slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) concept (see photos) that it is modifying two prototypes of its next-generation Shadow UAV to flight-test the design.
China’s largest aerospace company, Avic, has far to go in the reform effort launched two years ago, as long-established plants and institutes only gradually cede power to a new set of subsidiaries that are crucial to the group’s development. What should eventually emerge is a clean corporate structure in which the Avic head office in Beijing guides group strategy, allocates resources and sets financial targets; the new subsidiaries integrate the group’s product lines; and the plants and institutes concentrate on operations.
After years of wrangling with military space management issues, the U.S. Air Force is no longer seeking approval to oversee milestone decision authority for the Pentagon’s multibillion-dollar satellite program portfolio. This is a major shift from only a few years ago, when service officials hoped to regain authority over these programs.
Norwegian Air Shuttle is moving ahead with plans to expand its low-fare carrier operation to long-haul service, aiming to have the operation running no later than 2012 when it plans to field Boeing 787s. The airline says it has secured the lease of two 787s from International Lease Finance Corp., with the aircraft due to arrive in the fall of 2012. An airline official notes that the European route network is now strong enough to support expansion into long-haul operations. Flights to the U.S. and Asia would originate at Oslo and Stockholm.
Engineers at NASA’s Stennis Space Center are preparing for a 50-sec. hot-fire test of the Aerojet AJ26-62 engine slated to power the Taurus II commercial cargo vehicle, following a 10-sec. start-and-stop test Nov. 10. The modified Russian engine verified startup and shutdown sequences, as well as operations at the E-1 test stand at Stennis. The stand was modified for the Taurus II engine-acceptance tests under an effort to seed development of private vehicles that can deliver cargo to the International Space Station. After data from the 10-sec.
When it comes to future military export markets, the rise of China remains one of the big variables. Even though the nation ranks as the second biggest military spender globally, it is not among the top 10 exporters or importers of military equipment. The latter situation stems partly from an arms embargo imposed by the West after the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising.
Reader Thomas Rees perpetuates a common fallacy with his recent statement that it is impossible to predict global weather results decades in advance when “results are currently unpredictable week to week” (AW&ST Nov. 1/8, p. 12). It is akin to saying that since the next spin of a roulette wheel is unpredictable, the long-term financial performance of the casino is also unpredictable. Short-term random variation is independent of long-term trends.
