Mark Bass has become vice president/general manager of the Maintenance, Modifications and Upgrades Div. of Boeing ’s St. Louis-based Global Services and Support unit. He was vice president of the F-15 program for Boeing Military Aircraft, and succeeds Tony Robertson, who is retiring. Following Bass is Roger Besancenez. Tim Norgart has been appointed the unit’s vice president-business development. He was director of business development for Boeing Military Aircraft’s Airborne Battle Management and Unmanned Airborne Systems Div.
Instead of de-orbiting the venerable Hubble Space Telescope following its useful service life, why not use a rocket motor to boost it into a higher “museum orbit,” out of the way of other satellites and above where atmospheric drag can degrade its orbit. Someday, advanced rocket propulsion will be dirt cheap, at which time the Hubble can be returned to Earth for celebrated display in a museum.
Israel’s military, like any other, has to create a budget balance among all the services, branches and agencies. Its methodology is a rolling five-year fiscal plan that is refreshed and updated every year. The multi-part effort begins with an intelligence assessment of the full spectrum of threats and predictions of what may actually happen. Then officials have to decide what threats to prepare for and where risks can be taken.
General aviation is famous for second acts, and that legacy continues with the Kestrel. A pressurized, single-engine turboprop, the composite-construction aircraft was created in the U.K. by Farnborough Aircraft but then left in limbo awaiting further funding. Now, the design has been taken over by Kestrel Aircraft, a new entity headed by former Cirrus Design chief Alan Klapmeier, who hopes to win FAR/EASA Part 23 certification for the aircraft by 2013.
Kris Bauer has been appointed senior vice president-operations and Scott Sheldon senior vice president/chief financial officer of the Las Vegas-based Allegiant Travel Co. Bauer was senior vice president-technical operations of Northwest/Delta Air Lines. Sheldon was Allegiant’s vice president/principal accounting officer.
Michael F. Canders (see photo) has been named president of the Telephonics Corp. ’s Communication Systems Div., Farmingdale, N.Y. He was a colonel in the U.S. Air National Guard and had been vice president-business development for Telephonics’ Command Systems Div.
Accident investigators will rely primarily on Airblue Flight 202’s data recorders to determine what factors led to Pakistan’s worst air disaster. On July 28, the Airbus A321-231 crashed while trying to land in heavy rain and low visibility at Islamabad; 152 people died.
Joseph D. Burns has been appointed to the board of directors of Atlanta-based EMS Technologies . He is managing director of technology and flight test and an Airbus captain for United Airlines.
Thai Airways International expects to cut costs by as much as 20 billion baht ($620 million) from 2010-12. Last year, the airline cut its non-fuel costs by 13% to 12.8 billion baht. To further reduce operational expenses and as part of expansion plans, Thai will be replacing its aging fleet with new, more fuel-efficient aircraft such as Airbus A330-300s and Boeing 777-300ERs.
Believing programs are becoming too complex for available system-engineering tools, causing delays and cost overruns, the Pentagon’s advanced research arm wants to follow the lead of the microchip industry and develop a new way to design and test systems.
Dassault is bracing for a long, slow recovery period for business jets, but the French aircraft maker is hopeful that the downward slide has finally ceased. Although cancellations for Falcon jets are still occurring, they have slowed markedly. In the first six months of 2010, the company was able to log a positive net-order intake of two Falcons. The development makes Chairman Charles Edelstenne is hopeful that a bottom has been reached in the market.
Technicians at Scaled Composites have feathered the tail structure of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane as its assembly continues at the company’s facility in Mojave, Calif.
India successfully conducted a test of its Advanced Air Defense (AAD) low-altitude missile defense system on July 26, even as developers were starting to focus on how to expand the system to a full multi-layered missile shield.
While the carriers maintain that the proposed merger between Continental and United Airlines is one of equals, the recently announced senior management team shows a notable reliance on Houston-based Continental’s leadership team. Under the integration plan issued last week, Continental chief Jeffery Smisek adds the title of president to the CEO role he had already been assigned, while the coveted CFO position goes to his colleague Zane Rowe rather than United’s Kathryn Mikells.
The hand-wringing by so many of your readers regarding President Barack Obama’s redirection our space exploration program seems to ignore two basic long-term historical lessons (AW&ST July 26, pp. 10-11).
The strong rebound in international passenger and cargo demand is continuing, as the airline industry further distances itself from the 2009 downturn and the ash-related cancellations earlier this year.
The growing integration of the Russian aerospace sector into the global industry, with a heightened emphasis on the civil end, is starting to pay dividends, as evidenced by events here.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes is expanding the GoldCare by-the-hour maintenance program it developed for the 787 to other aircraft as it prepares to apply the program with the European carrier TUI. Discussions with various airlines are underway to apply the model to the 737NG.
U.S. aerospace and defense advocates are using the recent Washington visit of British leaders, as well as the Farnborough air show, to push the Senate toward ratifying the aging defense export trade treaties that then-President George W. Bush signed in 2007 with the U.K. and Australia. British officials are advertising their disappointment that the U.S. has waited so long, and U.S. Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) representatives are sounding the alarm. “As made clear by U.K.
London recorded a £3-billion ($4.56-billion) increase in defense export sales for 2009, with orders for the year worth £7.2 billion. Sales were strong in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Figures from the U.K. Trade and Investment’s Defense and Security Organization put Britain’s numbers second, behind Washington’s. The government is trying to use export sales as a “shock absorber” to offset the impact on industry of impending domestic expenditure reductions.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Kristin Majcher (Washington)
The long logjam over U.S. space policy is breaking up, as the impasse between the White House and Congress evolves into serious negotiations over details of a compromise approach that would accelerate a heavy-lift launch vehicle and preserve the Orion crew exploration vehicle.
Boeing will fly two demonstrators to accelerate the development of technology to improve fuel efficiency and reduce noise. A Boeing 737NG (see image) will be flown in 2012 and a twin-aisle aircraft in 2013 under its ecoDemonstrators program. Flight-testing will be supported by $25 million in cost-matching funds received from the FAA under its Continuous Lower Energy, Emissions and Noise (Cleen) research program. Technologies to be flight-tested include ceramic matrix composite acoustic engine nozzles, advanced inlets and adaptive wing trailing-edge flaps.
The recent article “Stellar Nurseries” (AW&ST July 12, p. 44) states: “Currently accepted stellar theory says it should not be possible to form stars larger than eight solar masses.” This is actually a gross understatement of the problems inherent in the currently accepted theory, which cannot explain how any stars are formed. We are told that the force of gravity causes gas clouds to accumulate mass and eventually ignite to form stars.
Like reader Tom Davis, I have often wondered about the actual utility of the latest techniques/developments in active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and other electronics in current combats (AW&ST July 5, p. 8). I am reminded of this talefrom the days of classic warfare, when great warriors dueled each other in civilized arenas to determine the win/loss of battles. Once upon a time, there was a master swordsman, who had a brilliant disciple. Seeing the limit to his future under his guru, the disciple joins a rival kingdom.
The stakes could not be higher as the commercial aerospace industry struggles to define the new rules of the road that will govern industrial and trade relations in the post-Airbus-Boeing-duopoly.
