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.
Boeing’s Insitu subsidiary has won the long-running competition to supply the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps with a small tactical unmanned aircraft system (Stuas). Insitu’s Integator was selected over the AAI Aerosonde Mk. 4.7, General Dynamics/Elbit Storm and Raytheon KillerBee-4. The two-year, $43.7-million contract covers development of the Stuas, which is scheduled to become operational in Fiscal 2013 and replace UAS services provided by Boeing using Insitu’s Scan-Eagle. Stuas dates back to 2006, when Navy and Marine Corps requirements were merged.
Saverio Bellomo has been appointed director of international operations of Eclipse Aerospace , Albuquerque, N.M. He was airworthiness manager of operational compliance at the former Eclipse Aviation.
Flying low over California’s Mojave Desert, a U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory/NASA Block 50 F-16 is used to conduct tests of an automatic ground collision avoidance system (Auto-GCAS) designed to prevent controlled flight into terrain. With experimental flight tests coming to an end, the Air Force is poised to begin operational tests of the system for fighter-attack aircraft with digital flight controls. The upgrade, which does not require any hardware changes, will initially be applied to later Block F-16s before being installed in F-22s and F-35s.
The military utility of unmanned aircraft is beyond dispute, but two issues are increasingly problematic. First is figuring out how to process the deluge of data being generated. Second, the Pentagon and FAA must come to terms about domestic airspace access just so the armed services can keep up with training needs. At a Capitol Hill meeting organized by Women in Aerospace and moderated by Aviation Week, Brig. Gen.
The automatic ground collision avoidance system (Auto-GCAS) projects the aircraft’s trajectory over a digital terrain map and, by comparing known and predicted position to the terrain on the path ahead, determines if there is an impending collision. If it determines there is a possibility of a collision, it will execute an evasion maneuver. The system evaluates the aircraft’s energy state and whether this is sufficient to support the trajectory estimation, while simultaneously using the digital terrain elevation database.
Tom Horton has been promoted to president of American Airlines and its parent AMR Corp. from executive vice president-finance and planning/chief financial officer. He has been succeeded as CFO by Bella Goren, who was senior vice president-customer relationship marketing. Virasb Vahidi, who was senior vice president-planning, is now senior vice president-marketing and planning/chief commercial officer. Rob Friedman has been appointed vice president-marketing.
USAF Cols. Michael Moran and Bernard Gruber have assumed command of the Space Development and Test Wing and Global Positioning Systems Wing, respectively, of the Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB. Col. (select) Michael Nobel and Col. David Goldstein have assumed vice commands of the Space Based Infrared Systems Wing and Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing, respectively. And, David Madden heads the senior executive service command of the Military Satellite Communications Systems Wing. Col.
Wendy Taylor has become vice president-internal audit for the Goodrich Corp. , Charlotte, N.C. She was a partner in advisory services for Deloitte & Touche.
Increased emphasis on platform survivability in a key U.K. UAS requirement—now known as Scavenger—means BAE Systems must reconsider its options in bidding for the Defense Ministry project. Scavenger is the deep and persistent surveillance element of what wasDabinett. The collection and dissemination part of Dabinett is now called Solomon. The Scavenger requirement is looking for a “stealthy” platform, which probably also will be capable of weapons delivery. BAE’s Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance technology demonstrator does not have a low observable design.
Contractual uncertainty still hovers over the Airbus Military A400M, but development personnel are pressing forward to enter a new stage and will explore more challenging elements of the aircraft’s performance. Flight testing, which kicked off in December and now encompasses three aircraft, focused largely on validating basic handling. Much of that work is now wrapping up, so more onerous mission-related elements are being tackled, says Fernando Alonso, Airbus flight testing leader.
Another debut at AirVenture, noteworthy more for name than design, was that of the EAA’s new president, Rod Hightower. A business executive from Creve Coeur, Mo., long-time EAA member and a director of the National Stearman Foundation, Hightower assumes his new role Sept. 7. That day will mark the first time the organization has been led by someone other than a Poberezny since its founding by Paul Poberezny in 1953. Tom Poberezny, the current chairman and president, succeeded his father in 1989.
Shanghai Airlines will leave the Star Alliance by Oct. 31, ending months of speculation over the carrier’s future. Star confirms the move and says the decision was due to Shanghai’s recent merger with China Eastern Airlines. Star is still present in Asia’s fastest-growing economy through Air China. Industry sources say the airline and Star are working on filling the gap in Shanghai. Air China itself may boost its presence in the market or use capacity provided by Shenzhen Airlines.
Pressure is building in the U.S. for government mandates that would require airlines to fully disclose their fees and total trip cost to customers before they make a booking on airline websites—and to order the carriers to provide data to third-party distributors such as global distribution systems (GDSs) so they can do the same.
