U.S. Air Force officials are looking beyond the Japanese-made liquid apogee engine (LAE) for the culprit for the failure of the first Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) satellite to reach orbit, says Undersecretary Erin Conaton. The IHI model BT-4 LAE failed twice to fire during an orbit-raising attempt shortly after the satellite launched Aug. 14. Possible contributors could include a problem with the fuel source or LAE fuel supply lines.
Mary Pat Hartnett (see photo) has been promoted to assistant vice president-programs at SRCTec (Syracuse Research Corp.) from director-electronic warfare programs. Gary Stevens has been promoted to assistant vice president from director of manufacturing.
U.S. Navy and Northrop Grumman officials are still planning to conduct the first flight of the Unmanned Combat Air System demonstrator Dec. 12 at Edwards AFB, Calif. The low-observable, tailless aircraft was slated for first flight during the summer, but it was slipped to allow additional time for working through challenges with the interface between the air vehicle and aircraft carrier.
Founded: 1946 Ownership: Lee Terry/Terry Family Employees: 98 Revenues: $12 million Business: Seal, gasket and clamp block specialist working in various silicones and natural and petroleum-based rubbers, primarily for Boeing.
Dr. Daniel G. Hankins, Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians, has been selected president of the Association of Air Medical Services for a second one-year term. He is co-medical director of Mayo Clinic Medical Transport and Emergency Communications.
The new Franco-British defense accord is expected to trigger a series of initiatives that could remake Europe’s military industrial landscape. However, skeptics suggest the expansive commitments may trigger unsettling ripples in neighboring countries and have little staying power once national budgets recover.
Boeing was going through a particularly rough patch in 1971 when it had just 89 orders and Congress pulled the plug on the Supersonic Transport. Employment plunged by 38,000 workers and unemployment hit 14% in Seattle’s Puget Sound area.
In “Refining Procedures” (AW&ST Oct. 18, p. 47), clearly the aircraft in question was lost due to water ingress into the angle-of-attack (AOA) sensors during the rinsing process. The AOA sensors should have been blanked prior to the rinse and an entry made in the Aircraft Technical Log (ATL) that the aircraft had been “prepared for wash.” Following the rinse, the ATL should have been annotated that blanks had been removed. I am amazed that the French accident investigation office, BEA, has not addressed the improper preparation of the aircraft.
Japan soon is expected to issue a long-awaited request for proposals for its F-X fighter competition, despite a media report that the country has settled on the Lockheed Martin F-35 as a future combat aircraft. The Mainichi newspaper says the ministry plans to request “procurement costs” for the F-35 in its Fiscal 2012 budget request But the report, attributed to sources in the ministry and defense forces, left open the possibility of Japan buying other aircraft as immediate replacements for F-4 Phantoms, the requirement that is supposed to be filled by the F-X program.
China is set to overtake the U.S. as the world’s largest market for commercial air travel, but the market’s huge size also means Western aircraft-makers face a challenge from Chinese state-owned manufacturers wanting a large piece of the action.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are working to bring the Cassini Saturn probe back on line after it went into a safe mode Nov. 2. While they expect to recover the spacecraft, they missed a chance to collect science data during a Titan flyby Nov. 11. The spacecraft safes itself whenever it needs attention from controllers, and has 53 more Titan flybys before its extended mission ends in 2017.
Comparing Sikorsky’s S-97 X2 Raider coaxial counter-rotating main rotor concept aircraft to the Boeing-Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s disc-rotor concept aircraft is an example of how to make a rotorcraft fly fast simply and elegantly versus accomplishing the same end in the most complicated way imaginable.
Former Indian President A.P.J. Kalam has lent his name to a new cooperative effort by experts in the U.S. and India to advance space solar power as a way to improve life on Earth. Kalam, 79, is a space pioneer who served as the 11th president of India. He and his former associates at the Indian Space Research Organization have teamed with the Washington-based National Space Society for an initiative aimed at fielding a system of large satellites in space that collect solar energy and beam it safely to Earth’s surface.
Daniel J. Crowley (see photo) has been appointed president of Raytheon Network Centric Systems , succeeding Colin J.R. Schottlaender, NCS president since August 2002, who will retire Dec. 31. Crowley had a 27-year career at Lockheed Martin Corp., most recently as chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics.
Ash ElDifrawi (see photo) has been tapped to become executive vice president/chief marketing officer at Aircell . He joins the company from Hayneedle, where he led the rebranding of the company and development of a revolutionary online shopping experience. He also held leadership positions with Google, Wrigley and McKinsey.
Richard L. Johnson has been tapped to be president of D3 Technologies , a subsidiary of LMI Aerospace. He has held various executive and managerial positions with Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., including vice president/chief engineer, vice president-engineering and vice president/chief scientist.
John Purvis has been named vice president of Small Tactical Unmanned Air Systems at AeroMech Engineering . Purvis comes to AME from a large ISR systems integrator, where he was vice president-corporate strategic development and international business. He founded the aviation programs business area in Denver, leading more than 425 people in service of U.S. Special Operations Command and the U.S. Air Force.
Holden Shannon has been named senior vice president-corporate strategy and real estate at Delta Air Lines , as well as a member of the carrier’s Corporate Leadership Team. Before joining Delta, Shannon spent 15 years at Continental Airlines.
Nov. 22-24—University of Westminster Aviation Seminar: Air Transport Business and Management. London. Call +44 (207) 911-5000 ext. 3220, fax +44 (207) 911-5171 or see www.westminster.ac.uk/aviation Nov. 23-24—Shephard Group’s Military Logistics. Bristol (England) Marriott Hotel City Center. Call +44 (175) 372-7019 or see www.shephard.co.uk/events Nov. 23-25—International Aerospace Symposium of South Africa 2010. Villa Via Hotel, Cape Town. Call +27 (12) 841-4128 or see www.iassa.org.za/
Astronomers are evaluating a new trove of data from the old Deep Impact spacecraft, recycled as the Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization and Deep Impact Extended Investigation missions, and better known as Epoxi. On Nov. 4, the probe flew within 425 mi. of the comet Harley 2 to collect images like this one. Scientists hope the detail it returned will allow them to connect the comet’s activity to specific features on the nucleus.
Eutelsat will order a new satellite to replace a communications satellite that failed after launch last month. W3B, lofted on Oct. 29 atop an Ariane 5 along with Japan’s BSAT-3B, was declared a total loss after an anomaly was detected on the satellite’s propulsion subsystem, preventing its insertion into geostationary orbit. Engineers say fuel is insufficient to deorbit the spacecraft, so it will remain in low Earth orbit for several decades.
They are not Delta Air Lines’ core business, but the airline’s cargo-carrying and ground-handling subsidiaries, its frequent-flier program, Delta TechOps and private jet operation generate revenues that are important to Delta’s risk-reduction efforts.
A representative P80 first stage for Europe’s new Vega light launch vehicle is now in position on the pad at the European spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, awaiting the start of infrastructure/launcher tests. The full-scale stage, complete with instrumentation and a simulated solid propellant load, is set up on a pad originally built for the Ariane 1. The campaign will culminate early next year with a test of the full vehicle, including all three solid-propellant stages, the liquid-propellant upper stage and a simulated payload with fairing.
The U.S. Air Force is likely to begin implementing new purchasing practices for the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) rocket family and existing and new satellite programs in the interest of efficiency, says Air Force Undersecretary Erin Conaton. This could include bulk buys of EELV—an effort the Air Force has been exploring for months—as well as multi-year satellite procurements and changes in how the service calculates financial awards for contractors.
