Work is officially underway on Gokturk, an optical imaging intelligence satellite ordered last year from Thales Alenia Space by the Turkish defense ministry. Thales Alenia sister company Telespazio is prime contractor for the 70-cm.-class satellite, which is to be launched in 2013. Thales Alenia is supplying the imager, derived from the one designed for France’s Pleiades, along with the spacecraft bus, based on the Proteus platform.
USAF Brig. Gen. Craig A. Franklin has been selected for promotion to major general and assignment as director of operations/deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters. He has been commander of the 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing of Air Combat Command (ACC), Joint Base Balad, Iraq. He will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. Kurt F. Neubauer, who has been commander of the 56th Fighter Wing of Air Education and Training Command, Luke AFB, Ariz. Brig. Gen. Bryan J.
Presidents need to use the “bully pulpit” to get things done. So it was heartening to hear Barack Obama include aviation in a passionate appeal to stimulate the U.S. economy by investing $50 billion in shoring up the nation’s fraying transportation infrastructure (see p. 17).
The need to transport more mine workers longer distances, in some instances overseas, is generating demand from charter airlines for larger aircraft, especially in Australia, Mongolia and Papua New Guinea. “Twenty years ago, it was the 19-seaters and then in five-year intervals it has stepped up to 36-seaters, then 50 seats, then 70 and 100 seats. Now it is the A320,” says Hugh Davin, managing director of Skywest Airlines, an Australian regional carrier that is one of the country’s largest operators of mining charters.
Intelligence has been a thorny issue for the U.S. Air Force. In 2008, then-Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley were fired after a series of highly publicized, politically embarrassing missteps, including unauthorized lobbying for the costly F-22 stealth fighter, lapses in the management of nuclear weapons and deficient intelligence collection for commanders in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since then, the Air Force has made strides in delivering the MC-12W intelligence collector to the field.
Thomas Rueckert has become CEO of Lufthansa Technik subsidiary Shannon (Ireland) Aerospace. He was head of the Aircraft Maintenance Center in Berlin. Rueckert succeeds Martin Kaiser, who is now CEO of Lufthansa Technik Turbine Shannon Ltd. He follows Ulrich Gaedicke, who is now managing director of subsidiary Hawker Pacific Aerospace Ltd. in London. Gaedicke succeeds Michael Kirstein, who has been named CEO of Hawker Pacific Aerospace Corp. in Los Angeles. Andreas Tielmann has been named head of the group’s Landing Gear Services and president of Hawker Pacific.
Despite the compromise space policy being worked out between the White House and Congress (AW&ST Aug. 2, p. 58), there is only one sure way for NASA to develop cost-effective spaceflight capability that is safe, reliable and reusable. It involves using the basic space shuttle architecture but changing the liquid rocket fuel from cryogenic hydrogen to kerosene (RP-1) so as to greatly downsize the external tank that holds the fuel and oxidizer.
Using economic stimulus funding from NASA, five U.S. aerospace companies are developing some of the technology needed for commercial human spaceflight even as they await final word from Congress and the White House on just how much support the private space transportation industry will receive.
FAA regulators are cracking down on a malfeasant maintainer. The FAA last week revoked Phoenix Heliparts’ certification for supposedly performing improper repairs and falsifying maintenance records. The violations started on Aug. 27, 2008, when the FAA’s district office discovered unauthorized use of an electronic recordkeeping system, failure to comply with its repair station and quality control manuals, and employment of unqualified people to perform maintenance work.
Efforts by Delta Air Lines and Virgin Blue to challenge the dominance of United Airlines and Qantas Airways on U.S.-Australia routes have been dealt a severe blow by the U.S. government’s initial ruling against their planned joint venture.
There is growing concern in the U.K. defense and aerospace sector that decisions made in London’s far-reaching Strategic Defense and Security Review (SDSR) will jeopardize capabilities before an industrial base assessment can be completed.
Pat Shanahan (see photo), who is vice president/general manager of Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes , has also been named general manager of the 747-8 program. He succeeds Mo Yahyavi, who is taking on a special assignment. Elizabeth Lund (see photo), who was head of 767 manufacturing, has been appointed deputy program director. Succeeding Lund is Kim Pastega (see photo), formerly director of 777 manufacturing. Jason Clark (see photo), who led the 787-8 passenger interiors development team, follows Pastega.
O3b, a global Ka-band constellation intended to bring high-speed Internet to remote areas of the developing world, is on track to finalize a $1.1-billion financing package necessary to deploy the 20-satellite fleet. The first eight spacecraft are under construction at Thales Alenia Space; the others will go into production once these are orbited.
India is quietly working on a new ramjet-powered cruise missile that could demonstrate how far the country’s missile development sector has evolved. The long-range cruise missile (LRCM) is apparently designed to be capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to a range of 1,000 km. (620 mi.) and traveling at Mach 3.2. Weapon schematics indicate the liquid-fueled ramjet is being developed by India’s Advanced Systems Laboratory (ASL) for surface-to-surface, air-to-surface and antiship roles.
U.S. human spaceflight could take off in any direction as lawmakers buckle down to a high-pressure pre-election session before fleeing Capitol Hill for the mid-term elections, including deciding whether to begin work on a shuttle-derived heavy-lift launcher next year under a new NASA concept.
The top officer at U.S. Northern Command (Northcom), Navy Adm. James Winnefeld, expects to have a formal Pentagon requirement next year for a low, slow-flying aircraft to fill a “gap” in U.S. air sovereignty interdiction capability—an issue that still hits home in the nation’s capital. Candidates could include a fast-attack helicopter or slow-flying fixed-wing aircraft. At issue is a need to investigate low and slow targets, such as general aviation aircraft, unmanned aerial systems or helos.
Munish Seth has been named country head for Indian business for France-based Alcatel-Lucent . He succeeds Vivek Mohan, who now heads Alcatel-Lucent’s global services business. Munish was head of Asia-Pacific customer solutions and support.
The Comac C919 will share a technological level with the Boeing 787 and Airbus A350, with a forward-looking strategy of systems design aimed at keeping the aircraft competitive during its production life, says the deputy chief of Avic, the Chinese manufacturer’s main supplier. If it is to thrive in commercial markets, Avic must rid itself of the mind-set of a military manufacturer, says Executive Vice President Zhang Xinguo in a wide-ranging interview with International Aviation, the Chinese partner magazine of Aviation Week.
Finmeccanica has won a £400-million ($616-million) contract to provide the latest batch of Eurofighter Typhoons with its electronic warfare self-protection system. The Praetorian defensive aids subsystem includes missile warning sensors, electronic support measures and countermeasures subsystem.
Crew decisions on where to attempt an emergency landing could come under scrutiny as investigators sort out what caused the Sept. 3 crash of the UPS Boeing 747-400 Freighter during an emergency landing in Dubai.
Momentum is building for Japan to ease its nearly complete ban on arms exports, raising the prospect of the country taking incremental steps to participate in international weapons programs.
Lockheed Martin and NASA are drawing up contingency plans for the Orion spacecraft, which—depending on funding—could still allow for a simplified, stripped-down version to fly an orbital test in mid-2013.
Overcapacity, poor management and regulatory restrictions are threatening the financial viability of many low-cost carriers in the Middle East, as is reflected in the demise of Sama Airlines in Saudi Arabia.
Roddy Boggus has been named a Dallas-based senior vice president/aviation market leader for Parsons Brinckerhoff . He was executive vice president-aviation in the Dallas office of a Nashville, Tenn.-based architectural and engineering firm.
