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.
Materials get weight-saving makeovers Familiar materials are getting a new look as the drive to cut aircraft weight and cost continues. These include carbon fibers deliberately broken to make it easier to form complex parts, and structures made from magnesium—a super-light metal once shunned because of corrosion and flammability concerns.
Maryanne R. Lavan has been appointed senior vice president/general counsel of the Lockheed Martin Corp. , Bethesda, Md. She has been vice president-internal audit, and succeeds James B. Comey, who has resigned. Thomas J. Falk has been named to the board of directors. He is chairman/CEO of the Kimberly-Clark Corp.
Boeing is launching an inquiry into why shoddy workmanship in some 787 horizontal stabilizers was not detected until 25 units were complete, but says subsequent inspections will not delay delivery of the first aircraft.
Asia Broadcast Satellite continues to pursue a low-risk expansion strategy that favors acquiring aging spacecraft from other operators over new purchases. The strategy goes back to the origins of ABS, which fashioned its first satellite, ABS-1, from the former Lockheed Martin/Intersputnik LMI-1, launched in 1999.
The development of unmanned air systems is benefiting from European and U.S. military officials seeking to plug operational weaknesses in operations in Afghanistan, as well as to combat burgeoning piracy problems on the Indian Ocean and elsewhere. One area of growing interest for NATO is cargo-capable UAVs. “We have shortfalls in Afghanistan in terms of helicopters and we have looked into UAVs to see if they can fill this gap,” says Giovanni Romani, an official in NATO’s defense investment division.
The Chinese commercial aviation industry is in the midst of a major crackdown on corruption that has seen the arrest of government and airline officials and the suicide of another. The target of the campaign is bribery for favorable route rights granted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), with China Southern Airlines most deeply embroiled. The national audit office has found that the three major carriers—China Southern, Air China and China Eastern Airlines—have booked fees for “coordination of route rights.” Those “fees” appear to have been bribes.
Japanese industry will seek a bigger role in Boeing’s 737 successor program than the already large share it holds in the 787, according to policy goals set out by the ministry that guides the country’s economic development.
Boeing has completed firm configuration of the 787-9, the first stretched variant of the baseline 787-8. The -9 will be 206 ft. in length, or 20 ft. longer than the -8. The -9 will seat 16% more passengers, or 250-290 depending on seat configuration. Despite having the same wingspan as the -8 and heavier overall weight, the -9 is expected to have a range of up to 8,500 nm.—or around 300 nm. farther than the -8. First 787-9 delivery is scheduled to Air New Zealand in late 2013.
Japan Airlines, reporting it is more insolvent than estimated, has formally asked its creditor banks to waive more of its debt. With debt exceeding assets by about ¥950 billion ($10.8 billion), ¥100 billion more than estimated in January, the carrier is asking the banks to forgive about an additional ¥40 billion. The government agency acting as JAL’s administrator is expected to add a further ¥50 billion. In that event, JAL’s net assets will remain unchanged after reorganization is complete.
Carl Esposito has become vice president-marketing and product management for Honeywell Aerospace , Morris Plains, N.J. He was vice president-avionics marketing and product management for the Avionics and Flight Control Systems Div.
Neil R. Planzer, vice president of Boeing Air Traffic Management, has been named to receive the 2010 Glen A. Gilbert Memorial Award from the Alexandria, Va.-based Air Traffic Control Association . The award honors the long-term achievement of an individual in the field of aviation and is named after Gilbert (1913-82), a pilot and administrator who led the development of U.S. and international air traffic control, and is considered to have played a key role in the formation of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Airbus is gearing up to build the A350 wing, the company’s first commercial composite wing structure, with the dispatch of large precision tools from California-based Coast Composites.
Hybrid Air Vehicles is flying a one-sixth linear-scale demonstrator to gather data for Northrop Grumman’s long-endurance multi-intelligence vehicle, a 300-ft.-long unmanned surveillance airship designed to stay aloft at 20,000 ft. for at least 21 days (see p. 42). The hybrid airship is to be deployed by the U.S. Army to Afghanistan, where the need for continuous surveillance is fueling interest in persistent platforms like LEMV as well as solar- and hydrogen-powered long-endurance UAVs. Hybrid Air Vehicles photo via Northrop Grumman
Doug Brooks, who is chairman/president/CEO of restaurant company Brinker International, has been named to the board of directors of Southwest Airlines .
The article “Jamming Secrets” (AW&ST May 24, p. 57) left me musing about the defense industry. My experience dates to when the enemy was viewed through optical or iron sights and a kill was initiated by finger pressure on a trigger, not via a button on a TV screen 5,000 mi. away. Also, today the preponderance of combat deaths and wounds are being inflicted by crude booby trap devices set off by fanatics touching two wires together. I do not see where the “. . .
Last week’s World Trade Organization ruling in the Boeing-Airbus fight over subsidies might have little immediate effect (see p. 26), but it is certainly fueling the political fire roaring over the Air Force KC-X tanker program. Competing bids are due within weeks and a contract award is expected by November—a timeline that perfectly includes this and another expected WTO decision. After the initial ruling became known, Boeing proponents like Kansas Republicans Sen. Sam Brownback and Rep.
Although European transport ministers have given support to the European Commission to devise a policy of body scanners, it will likely be another year before that directive emerges. The commission has been looking at the issue since the attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Dec. 25, 2009, and spelled out an initial set of recommendations in mid-June.
EADS Innovation Works is designing a hybrid helicopter able to fly on fuel-saving diesels, emission-free batteries or both. Power for electric motors on the main and tail rotors comes from four sources: two lithium-ion battery packs, and generators driven by two “opposed-piston, opposed-cylinder” two-stroke diesels 30% more fuel-efficient than today’s turbine engines.
At the Eisenhower Presidential Library in May, Defense Secretary Robert Gates paid a glowing tribute to Ike as “a low-maintenance leader” of simple tastes, small entourages and modest demands. This was no folksy homage to the former president whose portrait hangs behind Gates’s desk at the Pentagon. Like the rest of his remarks that day, the comment was meant to focus on efficiency in defense spending not seen in Washington for at least a couple of generations.
Justin Erbacci has rejoined Frankfurt-based Star Alliance as vice president-information technology. He was an IT director at Credit Suisse and had been Star’s director of strategic sourcing.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency is preparing for a flight test of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system by year-end on the heels of a successful flight demonstration of the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) program.
