U.S. Army Col. Jeffrey N. Colt has been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. He is commander of the Joint Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence, Indian Springs Airfield, Creech AFB, Nev.
Lynn Malmstrom has been named CEO of McClellan-based California Shock Trauma Air Rescue . He succeeds Joseph F. Cook, who has retired. Malmstrom was chief financial officer.
Robert Anton has become senior vice president-component services for Air France Industries . He succeeds Pierre Bosse, who has been named deputy CEO of Air France subsidiary airline Regional. Anton was vice president-product, strategy and development of Air France Industries’ Component Services Div.
Gary Hodak has been named director of technical services for the King Aerospace Commercial Corp. , Addison, Texas. He was director of avionics at the Associated Air Center.
Poland and Sweden intend to join the Multinational Space-Based Imaging System (Musis) project, an initiative to create a common architecture for Europe’s next-generation military remote-sensing constellation. The European Defense Agency, which is coordinating Musis, says both have expressed interest in joining the six founding members—Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France and Italy. Sweden already has a stake in the civil Spot satellite network, and is said to be interested in joining France’s proposed Ceres signals intelligence satellite program.
Eric Salo’s letter on powered wheels is spot on. Today’s massive air travel volume will only intensify. The amount of fuel wasted, as well as the volume of carbon dioxide and other pollutants emitted, will grow. A big airport acts just like a giant smokestack. Future airliners will have to be designed with robust auxiliary power units (APU), powerful enough to keep the aircraft “alive” while motivating an electric motor for backing from the gate and for taxiing.
Didier Lux has been appointed executive vice president-customer services for Airbus . He was executive vice president-quality and succeeds Charles Champion, who is now executive vice president-engineering. Pilar Albiac Murillo will succeed Lux. She was head of lean manufacturing deployment.
USAF Maj. Gen. Susan K. Mashiko has become deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office/commander of its Air Force Space Command Element. She was director of space acquisition in the Office of the Undersecretary of the Air Force at the Pentagon. She has been succeeded by Brig. Gen. John E. Hyten, who has been director of cyber and space operations in the Directorate of Operations/deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. Hyten, in turn, has been followed by Brig. Gen. Edward L.
Argentina will launch a satellite in mid-2012 to ensure a continued domestic satcom capability and help local industry develop the skills to design and built its own telecom spacecraft. Arsat, the operator that will own and operate the satellite, inked a launch agreement last week with Arianespace. To be built by Invap of Argentina using subsystems from EADS Astrium and Thales Alenia Space, Arsat-1 will have 24 Ku-band transponders of varying bandwidth. It will replace Nahuel-1A, orbited in 1997.
Delta Air Lines sold regional subsidiaries Mesaba Airlines and Compass Airlines to two regional carriers for $82.5 million—one of them under a deal in which it is lending money to the regional carrier, at 12.5% interest, for the acquisition.
The German air force plan to renew its airborne signals intelligence capability has moved one step closer to realization with the first flight of the Euro Hawk unmanned aircraft. The Euro Hawk, a derivative of the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk Block 20 the U.S. Air Force is buying, flew on June 29 from 10:32 a.m. to 12:24 p.m. PDT from Palmdale to Edwards AFB, Calif., where the initial checkouts are taking place. The vehicle reached 32,000 ft. Deliveries are expected to begin next year.
The new National Space Policy just issued by the White House opens the door to reviving long-dormant discussions in areas of mission assurance, space protection and international cooperation.
The long, winding road to improving aviation safety cooperation between the European Union and the U.S. seems to heading for culmination with removal of the last major obstacle in sight. Two years ago the U.S. and the EU finalized the safety bilateral, but the U.S. refused to ratify the terms because of a dispute involving European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) fees and charges. Now Europe is balking, concerned about provisions in the House version of the FAA reauthorization bill that make twice-yearly inspections of foreign repair stations mandatory.
What technologies are needed for a micro air vehicle that can perform a wide range of civilian missions in an urban environment? Answering that question is the goal of Honeywell’s Commercial Ducted Unmanned Vehicle (CDUV) research project. CDUV is not a product, but an effort to look at technologies before a market emerges, says Bob Witwer, vice president for advanced technology. Design goals for the commercial UAV were a weight below 2 kg.
Sikorsky remains interested in enticing foreign customers to buy the CH-53K heavy-lift helicopter despite a slip of three years in the operational capability for the first customer, the U.S. Marines, to 2018. Officials at Naval Air Systems Command in Maryland, who manage the program, recently hosted representatives from Germany and Israel in a technical coordination meeting. One question raised by the Germans is load distribution; they are looking for more internal capacity. Berlin is thought to be wedded to a European design.
The U.S. House Science Committee is digesting what NASA terms “a large volume of information” that was turned over in response to a committee demand for numbers backing up the policy shift embodied in the Fiscal 2011 budget request (AW&ST June 28, p. 28). The data dump doesn’t include “pre-decisional budget information” considered confidential by the White House, which oversaw the data release.
John C. Sommerer has become head of the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory , Laurel, Md. He also is chairman of the Naval Research Advisory Committee.
The success of a new KLM service will help reveal how quickly airlines can exploit the potentially important opportunity for intercontinental flights to secondary Chinese cities. The destinations offer huge populations of people whose incomes and ability to travel are rising; but for the moment, they are tough markets that only two Western airlines—KLM and Lufthansa—have been brave enough to pioneer.
Thomas A. Kennedy (see photo) has been named president of Waltham, Mass.-based Raytheon Co. ’s Integrated Defense Systems. He succeeds Daniel L. Smith, who will retire July 30. Kennedy has been vice president for Tactical Airborne Systems within Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems.
Senate Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) asserts that there never has been a Pentagon competition for the Joint Strike Fighter’s powerplant. “I’m sure of it,” Levin told reporters last week. Moreover, if Defense Secretary Robert Gates says otherwise, then “he’s wrong.” Levin’s staff e-mailed reporters a “chronology” explaining that the F-22’s F119 engine was once presumed to go in the F-35, but when officials decided that would not work, they directed Pratt & Whitney to build the F119-derivative F135.
Michelle Ventker has been appointed a facilitator and strategist at Service Elements , Scottsdale, Ariz. She was vice president of the Ownership Experience Department at Netjets.
With EADS CEO Tom Enders at his side, Spirit AeroSystems CEO Jeff Turner opened a 500,000-sq.-ft. factory in Kinston, N.C., on July 1 to produce the composite center fuselage, Section 15, for the Airbus A350. Spirit selected Kinston two years ago because it has canal access to the Atlantic Ocean for shipping the 65-ft.-long, 20-ft.-dia. composite barrel sections, which will be built in panels (AW&ST May 19, 2008, p. 51). Airbus’s selection of Spirit came two years after the U.S.
