Jeffrey Goebel has become vice president-geospatial value-added products and services and Jack Hild vice president of U.S. defense strategy for DigitalGlobe , Longmont, Colo. Goebel was director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency Office of Commercial Partnerships, while Hild was the agency’s assistant chief information officer
The latest setback in the Boeing 787 program, when combined with the problems bedeviling Lockheed Martin’s F-35, years of delays for the Airbus A400 military lifter and the long gestation of the colossal A380, could recast aircraft development schedules as so much wishful thinking, a kind of institutionalized fiction.
Your study of the A&D workforce is most enlightening. As noted, significant factors causing a drain of human capital include not only widespread retirement, but also the rise of low-cost competitors. The North American CEOs quoted in “Leader Board” (AW&ST Aug. 16, p. 45) are concerned about attracting the best and brightest engineering students, yet their stockholders reward them for offshoring both production and engineering work to such low-wage countries as Mexico, India and China.
Composites manufacturer Quickstep Technologies is striving to perfect a technique by the end of 2011 that offers to cut cost and weight from the next generation of narrowbody aircraft.
Pioneering space shuttle astronaut William B. Lenoir died Aug. 26 from head injuries sustained in a bicycle accident. He was 71. An electrical engineer who taught at MIT, Lenoir was selected as an astronaut in 1967 and picked as a backup science-pilot for Skylabs 3 and 4. His lone spaceflight was STS-5 in November 1982 on the shuttle Coumbia. He joined Booz, Allen & Hamilton in 1984, but returned to the space agency in 1989 as associate administrator for space flight. He rejoined Booz, Allen as vice president of the Applied Systems Div. in 1992.
William Maggs has been named senior vice president-technology operations/chief technology officer for Lockheed Martin’s Savi Technology , Alexandria, Va. He was CTO of Palm Inc.
Dennis Granato, who is director of surveillance programs and advanced concepts for space systems of operations of Lockheed Martin, has been elected president of the Washington Space Business Roundtable for 2010-11. He succeeds Andrea Maleter, who is technical director of the Futron Corp. She will remain a member of the board. Other new officers are: David Jackson of SES World Skies U.S. Government Solutions, as vice president; Hany Eldeib of Intelsat, as treasurer; and Janice Starzyk of International Launch Services, as secretary.
U.S. legacy carriers may be at fault for the depressingly low level of consumer confidence and restrictive legislation currently bulldozing through Congress, but even the most disgruntled opponent has to admire the skill and speed with which they are pushing through substantial merger agreements.
Tim Noonan, vice president of St. Louis-based Boeing Energy, has joined the Leadership Council of the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute . He is chairman of its Smart Grid working group, leading the institute’s efforts to develop solutions for creating a national Smart Grid that modernizes energy distribution and use. The council is an interdisciplinary research effort between the University of Colorado at Boulder and the U.S. Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colo.
46 China’s Comac C919 relies heavily on Western suppliers for advice, components and systems. At the front of the pack is CFM International’s LEAP next-generation engine technology. On our cover, David Griffin, a development mechanic at CFM partner General Electric performs a “straightness” check on the high-pressure compressor rotor for the LEAP-X developmental. He is using a Genspect rotor inspection procedure developed by GE. GE Aviation photo.
Kurt Stache has been appointed London-based vice president-international of American Airlines and Maya Leibman president of AAdvantage. Derek DeCross will succeed Stache as vice president/general sales manager.
Bob Noble (see photos) has been appointed vice president-supply chain for Boeing Commercial Airplanes 737/777 product development. He was vice president-787 supplier management and has been succeeded by George Maffeo, who was vice president-airplane programs supplier management. Maffeo has been followed by Kent Fisher.
USAF Col. Jeffrey L. Harrigan is one of six of his rank to be nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He is commander of the 49th Fighter Wing of Air Combat Command (ACC), Holloman AFB, N.M. The others are: Paul H. McGillicuddy, commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing of ACC, Beale AFB, Calif.; John F. Newell, 3rd, director of the Air Force secretary’s Chief of Staff Executive Action Group at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon; Mark C. Nowland, commander of the 71st Flying Training Wing of Air Education and Training Command, Vance AFB, Okla.; Robert D.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Genaro J. Dellarocco has been named commanding general of U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, Alexandria, Va. He was program executive officer for missiles and space, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
AgustaWestland has secured an order from offshore helicopter service provider PHI for the purchase of 10 AW139 helicopters with an estimated value of $120 million. The new order brings the AW139 orderbook to almost 480 of the twin-engine helicopters.
The Kaveri engine for India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft will complete a critical flight test in Russia this October on an Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute. The tests should clear the way for the engine to be certified for flight operations. The development program has been running behind, in part due to a shortage of critical materials such as nickel- and titanium-based alloys.
Boeing will decide by the end of the year whether to raise output of its 737 narrowbodies to as many as 40 per month. Current plans call for increasing production to 35 per month—from 31.5 currently—starting in 2012.
President Barack Obama continues his drive to reform export licensing, but the real challenge remains getting Congress to enact legislation that will shift power and influence among government agencies while loosening controls over items and technologies restricted since the Cold War. Last week, Obama announced a new approach that ranks U.S. exports by tiers, end-uses and end-users. The White House says it will “end most, if not all, jurisdictional disputes and ambiguities that have come to define our current system.” The administration will restructure the U.S.
With Congress due back in the Capitol next week, battle lines are forming for a final push to establish a new U.S. space policy. In a letter to House Science Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), Nobel laureates and former top NASA officials urge full funding for the Obama administration’s request for U.S. commercial crew transport—instead of spending $900 million on Russian Soyuz seats to the International Space Station—and the Exploration Technology Program, which risks cuts of $3.7 billion over the next three years.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Will Space Systems/Loral be the first beneficiary—or casualty—of the impending downturn in new satellite sales? The company’s present owner, Loral Space and Communications, is considering at least two alternatives for the satellite manufacturer’s future.
Ken Carroll has been become chief operating officer of EchoStar Satellite Services , Englewood, Colo. He was president/chief operating officer of WildBlue and chief financial officer of Liberty Satellite and Technology.
The U.S. military still faces significant operations in Iraq, despite the formal end of the combat mission there. Tactical and operational support to Iraqi security forces, including intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance, will continue, as will intratheater logistics, air mobility and potentially fire support. The Iraqis also will need a bit more help in securing their airspace and territorial waters from outside intrusion, note experts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Sept. 13-16—Practical Aeronautics Short Course: “Introduction to Aeronautics—A Practical Perspective.” National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, Kirtland AFB, N.M. Call +1 (970) 887-3155 or see www.practicalaero.com
