House defense appropriators are following their authorizing colleagues and earmarking funds toward the General Electric-Rolls Royce F136, the alternate engine for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite the Obama administration’s continuing veto threats. Behind closed doors July 27, the spending panel overwhelmingly approved a Republican-pushed provision to direct $450 million toward the F136, even over the new subcommittee chairman’s reservations.
Retiring the space shuttle is the best thing that could happen to U.S. manned spaceflight. After 38 years in low Earth orbit, now maybe we can go somewhere. Why let robots have all the fun?
Boeing Co.’s second-quarter operating profit was down 15% from the same period a year earlier amid a 9% decline in sales. But dig deeper into the results and a more nuanced picture emerges. Call it a tale of two Boeings.
European network airlines are starting to see improving financial performance and are witnessing a return of business to pre-crisis levels in some key areas. Airlines in Europe have been trailing other markets in putting the recent two-year decline in passengers and revenue behind them, but stronger-than-expected cargo operations and structural changes implemented by network carriers are starting to show results. However, the weak economic situation in Europe keeps carriers from celebrating prematurely.
Gerald P. Leary has been appointed Brussels-based president of FedEx Express for Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa. He succeeds Robert W. Elliott, who is retiring. Leary was senior vice president-European operations.
The U.S. Air Force is starting operational development of an automatic ground collision avoidance system (Auto-GCAS) that potentially could save many front-line combat aircraft.
Six North American carriers launched a new group for developing a standardized code to govern the display of fee-based services such as checked bags or roomier seats by flight searchers and ticket sellers, even though another group is already undertaking a similar effort.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Charles D. Foran (Dallas, Texas)
The first airplane I ever flew was a North American AT-6D as an aviation cadet in 1949. I’ve owned—and performed the maintenance for—a 1944 SNJ-5 for 20 years. I’ve also flown F-51s and old and “tired” F-80Cs that had the pressurization worn out at 30,000 ft. I suggest the Air Force forget about its plan to pressurize the AT-6B to save weight, complexity, cost and maintenance (AW&ST July 26, p. 59).
Reader Karl Kettler repeats several false “truths” about commercial spaceflight (AW&ST July 26, p. 10). The first is that commercial crew transport leaves America’s astronauts in the hands of “start-up space boutiques that have little to offer.” Actually, United Launch Alliance has expressed a strong interest in bidding on commercial crew contracts, as has Orbital Sciences. And Boeing has been working with Bigelow Aerospace on a low-cost spacecraft (via NASA’s CCDev Space Act Agreement) that could service Bigelow’s proposed commercial space station.
Jon Nemo has been named Philadelphia-based managing director of the Aerospace, Defense and Government Services Group of Harris Williams and Co. He was a managing director in the Aerospace and Defense Investment Banking Group (formerly Jefferies Quarterdeck).
Marc Wittingen has been named director of international sales for airlines and fleets for StandardAero , Tempe, Ariz. He was director of customer programs for StandardAero’s PW100 business in Tilburg, Netherlands, and was an executive with KLM Engineering and Maintenance/Air France Industries. Dale Hawkins has been appointed airframe sales manager for business aviation. He was an airframe service sales representative for Kal-Aero/Duncan Aviation.
Ian Massey has been appointed to the Strategic Advisory Council of Denver-based Bye Energy Inc. He is a member of the board of directors of the Republic Financial Corp. and a fomer executive vice president of Republic’s aviation and private equity businesses.
NATO has awarded TNT Airlines a five-year service contract to provide interim airlift capacity for which the alliance previously had used three NATO Boeing 707-based AWACS Program Trainer Cargo Aircraft. But NATO wants to use quieter aircraft. The TCA will be phased out and TNT will begin operations in January.
Europe’s Cryosat-2, launched three months ago to study variations in polar and sea ice that could impact long-term weather and climate trends, has released its first data.
Thierry Marin-Martinod has been named technical director of Cincinnati-based Nexcelle . He was director of systems engineering at Aircelle, one of Nexcelle’s parents, and had been managing director of the cabin interior and electrical seat unit at Messier-Bugatti.
French industrial giant Safran intends to pursue plans to find a partner to bolster its aircraft systems business, even though Zodiac Aerospace rebuffed a merger offer a few weeks ago. “There is a worldwide trend toward globalizing the Tier 1 supply base,” Safran Chairman/CEO Jean-Paul Herteman says. The proposed linkup with systems supplier Zodiac would be a big step toward that end, as together the two companies share the same customer base and would be able to provide 75% of the systems on a typical commercial transport, he says.
Beryllium mirror segments designed to keep the James Webb Space Telescope in focus at the super-cold L2 Lagrangian point have completed their first round of tests in a vacuum facility originally built to test mirrors for the Chandra X-ray telescope.
Darrin Quern (see photo) has become managing director of the Coyne Airways hub operation in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was director of global networks for Asia for TNT Airways.
As we get closer to the date when the U.S. Air Force must select who will build the KC-X you can almost see the American flags waving double-time. The big push by Boeing to get the tanker award is heavily laden in national sentiment. But if USAF buys the Boeing product they will be taking a major technical step backward because the 767 is not “fly-by-wire” and the Airbus A330 is, not to mention that the Boeing offering doesn’t have a stick. Even the C-17 has a stick, and it’s fly-by-wire as well.
Disparate labor groups form the American Aviation Labor Alliance. It includes the Coalition of Airline Pilots Associations (CAPA), which represents various independent pilots’ unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the Transport Workers Union. The Alliance has hired Albertine Enterprises of Washington as its chief lobbyist. CAPA President Paul Onorato says passing an FAA reauthorization bill and reforming bankruptcy laws, are its top priorities. The alliance offered a seat to the Air Line Pilots Association, but ALPA passed.
Aug. 16-19—National Defense Industrial Association’s 13th Annual Space and Missile Defense Conference and Exhibition. Huntsville, Ala. Call +1 (256) 382-5823 or see www.smdconf.org Aug. 16-20—Terrapinn’s Aviation Outlook Africa. BMW Pavilion Convention Center, Cape Town, South Africa. Call +27 (11) 463-6001 or see www.terrapinn.com/2010/aviationza Aug. 24-27—Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned Systems North America. Colorado Convention Center, Denver. See www.auvsi.org
Smoke rises from the wreckage of a crashed C-17 Globemaster III near the runway at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. The accident killed three Alaska Air National Guardsmen and one active-duty crewman and occurred while the crew was practicing low-altitude maneuvers for an air show scheduled for this past weekend.
The FAA reauthorization bill has been delayed once again, with House and Senate lawmakers proposing another one-month extension for the agency’s operating authority. The two chambers failed to come to agreement on the FAA bill before the last extension expired Aug. 1. By setting a one-month duration, lawmakers are signaling they will make one more attempt to finish the long-term bill before the November elections.
Alexey Komarov (Moscow), Michael A. Taverna (Farnborough)
The aeronautics sectors in Russia and Ukraine, separated by the collapse of the Soviet Union, are once again attempting to consolidate, taking advantage of a favorable political situation following last winter’s Ukrainian presidential election.
