India may be grappling in the near term to resolve problems with its Astra missile program, but it is already working on a further development of the air-to-air weapon. Recent ground-launched firings were intended to assess control systems, maneuvering performance and lateral acceleration. The Astra test team, however, is now investigating two data link-related “incidents” observed during both trials, when the missile did not behave as expected.
Beaver Aerospace & Defense’s new electromechanical landing gear actuator employs an emergency freefall deployment feature, which allows the landing gear to be safely engaged in the event of a power outage. This ground-breaking technology allows aircraft manufacturers to save weight by eliminating hydraulic systems and reducing aircraft maintenance, according to the company. Beaver also provides repair, overhaul and testing services for all electromechanical actuation systems and ball screws. Actuators and ball screws are custom designed for almost any application.
Jamil Dirani (see photo) has become vice president-commercial of Messier-Dowty , Velizy, France. He was vice president-commerce, customer support and services of Hispano-Suiza.
Geert Boven, who has been executive vice president customer services and airport operations for Etihad Airways , has been named managing director and a member of the board of directors of Etihad-Amadeus International joint venture Amadeus Gulf. Chris Youlten has become vice president-airport and network operations of Etihad.
Engineers at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) are planning ground tests on an indigenous cryogenic upper-stage engine like the one that failed on its first flight in April, in hopes of refining their theory on what went wrong. Analysis of telemetry from the abortive flight, which cost ISRO its experimental GSAT-4 satellite (AW&ST April 19, p. 20), points to a failure of the Fuel Booster Turbo Pump, which ISRO says started up as planned and hit 34,800 rpm. before slowing down after 0.9 sec. and stopping altogether after another 0.6 sec.
Qianlin Li has become managing director and Huan Luo senior consultant in Landrum and Brown ’s office in Shanghai. Sarah Potter has been appointed project manager and Kulasap De Marchi a consultant in the Cincinnati office.
Donald M. Kerr is among the members of the new Government Advisory Board of Iridium Communications Inc. , McLean, Va. He is a research professor in George Mason University’s Volgenau School of Information Technology and Engineering and was principal deputy director of U.S. national intelligence, director of the National Reconnaissance Office and deputy director for science and technology at the CIA. Other members are: USN Vice Adm. (ret.) Conrad C. Lautenbacher, who is vice president-science programs for the CSC Corp.
A. Thomas Young has been named non-executive chairman of the Science Applications Interational Corp. , McLean, Va. He was independent lead director and succeeds Ken Dahlberg, who has retired. Young was retired executive vice president of the Lockheed Martin Corp.
Tom Davis’s letter questioning the efficacy of jamming in reducing casualties to American forces (AW&ST July 5, p. 8) fails to take into consideration the benefit of having an umbrella of jamming protection in the presence of an enemy dedicated to using the electromagnetic spectrum to do our forces harm. As an example, during Operation Allied Force in 1999, U.S. and coalition aircraft flew more than 27,000 combat sorties against robust Serbian air defenses with dedicated EA-6B jamming on every mission. Two aircraft were lost, no aircrew.
USN Vice Adm. David J. Venlet has been appointed director of the Joint Strike Fighter program in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. He was commander of Naval Air Systems Command. Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox has been nominated for promotion to vice admiral and assignment as commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Central Command/commander of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain.He has been commander of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Fallon, Nev. Rear Adm. (lower half) Donald E. Gaddis has been named Pentagon-based program executive officer for tactical aircraft programs.
Ed Muniz (see photo, p. 18), who is CEO of MEI Technologies in Houston, has received Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award for 2010 for Houston and the Gulf Coast Area for Entrepreneurial Excellence in Technology.
Bombardier will move production tooling for the all-composite Learjet 85 business jet to its Queretaro, Mexico, plant this month following completion of a test fuselage to validate the manufacturing tools, processes and quality. The Learjet 85 is Bombardier’s first all-composite aircraft. A second test fuselage, or manufacturing validation unit, will be produced at Queretaro before manufacture of test aircraft begins. They will be assembled and flown at Bomdardier’s Wichita, Kan., plant. The Learjet 85 is planned to enter service in 2013.
Qantas Airways and Boeing have brought forward delivery of 787s to the Australian airline by two years to 2012. The carrier will allocate the first aircraft to its Jetstar low-cost subsidiary. The first 787s delivered to the group will be 787-8s, of which 15 are on order. Eight will arrive starting in mid-2012 and the other seven, along with 35 787-9s, will enter service beginning in 2014. Allocation of 15 787s to Jetstar will allow that airline to transfer its Airbus A330-200s to the Qantas mainline operation, so it can retire its Boeing 767-300s.
Saturn looms in the distance beyond the asteroid Lutetia in this image collected by Europe’s Rosetta comet probe as it hurtled past the 130-km.-long (81-mi.) space rock at 15 kps. on July 10.
Joseph C. Anselmo’s commentary on “Aerospace’s Role in Chinese Power Play” (AW&ST July 5, p. 12) overstates China’s “assumed” commitment to quality. Experience with China’s certified material test reports show a system of fraudulent reporting in stating adherence to international quality standards. As the Western world’s quality systems are increasingly audited by third-party accreditation, China’s authoritarian policies leave little room for outside scrutiny.
Some revised thinking about the nature of its own forecasting methods and revisions to take other travel factors into account have crept into Boeing’s annual update of its commercial jet market outlook. But its basic trend line remains solidly planted in a belief that airplane fleet growth will continue to outpace national economies, leading to demand for 30,900 new aircraft worth $3.6 trillion in the 20 years ending in 2029.
After a decade of upheaval, the U.K. finally appeared to be ushering in a period of rotary stability with the conclusion of its Future Helicopter Strategy—made public in December 2009—but six months later a core element of the military’s program was again under scrutiny. As of early July, the £6-billion ($9-billion) search-and-rescue helicopter (SAR-H) private finance initiative program remained caught up in the finance ministry’s review of projects awarded in the dog days of the previous Labour Government.
Just before Northrop Grumman announced it will consider selling off its shipbuilding business, Wes Bush, the company’s new CEO, spoke with AW&ST Senior Technology Editor Graham Warwick and Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo about his focus on improving the U.S. defense giant’s lagging performance of recent years.
Moscow continues to pursue a comparatively aggressive schedule for its fifth-generation fighter, with a pre-production batch of the Sukhoi T-50 planned to enter manufacturing in 2012. The defense ministry, however, appears to be moderating previous claims that the aircraft would enter service in 2015, with senior officials now suggesting delivery of the first operational standard of the aircraft would begin in 2016. It remains to be seen if, even with a year’s slip, the revised schedule can be met.
James P. Woidke has been appointed chief operating officer of Sifco Industries Inc. of Cleveland. He was general manager of the company’s Aerospace Component Manufacturing Group.
Avoiding the pitfalls of the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35 programs is the highest priority for the U.S. Air Force and Navy as they think about the next generation of tactical aircraft to enter service after 2025. Overambitious requirements, immature technology, program complexity, development delays, escalating costs, procurement cuts—all are to be avoided as the services draw up their requirements for what are likely to be stealthy, supersonic, agile and networked—in other words, expensive—systems.
