Like all NASA employees, active-duty astronauts are bound by the new space policy contained in their agency’s Fiscal 2011 budget request (see p. 48). Not so astronaut alumni, who are debating turning over to the commercial sector development and operation of human spacecraft. James Voss, a veteran of five spaceflights, drew signatures from 24 former colleagues, including moonwalker Buzz Aldrin, shuttle-Mir pioneer Norm Thagard and Skylab crewman Owen Garriott, on a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) endorsing the safety of commercial spaceflight.
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala is starting to look more seriously at the European and North American maintenance, repair and overhaul market, and plans to use this week’s Farnborough air show to emphasize it is looking to expand its activities there, says Homaid Al Shemmari, executive director of Mubadala Aerospace. Mubadala is not looking for acquisitions, though. Instead, its Abu Dhabi Advanced Technologies and SR Technics are looking for partnerships.
The Russian military is continuing to juggle its rotary lift requirements with a further extension of the Hind combat support helicopter’s life in Moscow’s inventory. Last month the air force decided to order 22 Mil Mi-35Ms—the latest development of the Mi-24 Hind family—as part of a wider program to begin to overhaul the military’s rotary aircraft inventory.
Production processes for the A380 are about to be adjusted once more by Airbus, but this time the move is driven by increasing output rates instead of by the need to cure a shortfall in the system. After years of struggle to bring production rates to about two A380s per month, Airbus believes it has now started to turn the corner on the problems that have plagued the program for years. That is allowing officials to look ahead and explore how to make the next jump in output, to around three A380s per month.
Competition is fierce for Australia’s aerospace defense market, with BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and EADS all lined up to thwart Boeing’s ambitions. To complicate matters, the various factions habitually cross party lines to team for work. BAE Systems Australia, for example, signed an agreement in late June with Lockheed Martin to partner on readiness and sustainment support for the F-35, and in another sector it is teamed with Boeing on providing systems for the Boeing 737 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft.
Sea Launch will loft a satellite for AsiaSat under an agreement reached on July 12. The deal calls for a launch in 2012-14 for $105-114 million, less a credit for $16.15 million to offset a claim for AsiaSat 5, which Sea Launch had been due to orbit in 2009 under an earlier contract. Sea Launch executives say the company now has five contracts as it prepares to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection following a recent filing of its reorganization plan.
Jeff Carr has become vice president-aerospace communications at the Griffin Communications Group of Houston. He was director of communications and public relations for the United Space Alliance and had been director of public affairs and chief of the news and information branch at the NASA Johnson Space Center.
Ensuring that an AESA radar remains on track in its domestic constituency is a key element of sustaining Eurofighter Typhoon campaigns in crucial export markets, including India and Japan. A full-scale program to develop an active, electronically scanned array (AESA) for the Typhoon is about to be launched by the partners—Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain.
France’s new-generation M51 submarine-borne nuclear missile is on track to enter the inventory following a successful qualification launch with an inert warhead on July 10 from the Terrible, the missile-carrying submarine that will be the first to carry it.
Boeing has provided two responses to the U.S. Air Force’s request for information (RFI) on the HH-60 Personnel Recovery Recapitalization program, which aims to replace aging Pave Hawk helicopters used by the service for combat search and rescue (CSAR). One response, sent by Boeing alone, proposes a variant of the CH-47 Chinook, which won an earlier, ill-fated CSAR replacement effort that was terminated after a series of bid protests. The second RFI response, sent in partnership with Bell Helicopter, proposes the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor.
TRI-NAV Charts offer an atlas format for cross-country pilots. “Combo” charts keep you legal for both IFR or VFR navigation, with convenient Internet updates conforming to the FAA 28-day-cycle, according to the company. Charts include frequencies for towers and other contacts and show city names and positions relative to airports; major highways and major bodies of water. Also included in the atlas are planning aids; mileage between airports; Rand-McNally’s interstate/U.S. highways map for ground travel; and topographical relief. TRI-NAV Charts, 6645-4 S.
Indonesia will work with South Korea in joint development, production and marketing of the KF-X fighter that Seoul had planned to develop with support from foreign companies but not foreign governments. Indonesia will pay 20% of the development costs and buy about 50 of the aircraft, which South Korea aims at developing to the standard of Generation 4.5, having given up on achieving fifth-generation technology.
Walter Visser has become vice president of the CAE Global Academy in Montreal. He succeeds Kris Van Den Bergh , who has been named chief learning officer for civil aviation. Visser was vice president for the Middle East and India/managing director of Emirates-CAE Flight Training in Dubai.
John H. Young is succeeding Giuseppe Giordo as CEO of Alenia North America, as Alenia gears up to propose the M-346 as a trainer for the U.S. Air Force. Giordo became CEO of Alenia Aeronautica in Italy in June. Young joined the company in 2009, and was chief operating officer of EADS North America and an executive at Northrop Grumman.
Christopher Gregoire has become vice president/controller of the Lockheed Martin Corp. , Bethesda, Md. He succeeds Mark Bostic as controller. Bostic will continue as corporate vice president-accounting. Gregoire was principal accounting officer/assistant controller for the Sprint Nextel Corp.
USAF Brig. Gen. Charles W. Lyon has been appointed director of the Air Component Coordination Element of U.S. Air Forces Central Command of Air Combat Command (ACC) in Kabul. He was director of joint integration in the Directorate of Operational Capability Requirements under the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. Lyon has been succeeded by Brig. Gen. Stephen W. Wilson, who was commander of ACC’s 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, Al Udeid, Qatar. Wilson, in turn, has been followed by Brig. Gen. Randy A.
Nutek, in conjunction with Cleveland Hopkins International Airport aircraft maintenance crew, put Grime Off, a cleaning and degreasing solution and Green Carpet and Upholstery, a fabric cleaner, to the test. The Nutek team worked with MRO professionals to clean aircraft landing gear. Normal wheel well and gear wash would consume about 48-60 hr., but with the company product, in both foam and wipes, technicians complete the task in half the time, according to the company.
Steve Kantor has become president of New York-based L-3 Communications’ Services Group . He is also a corporate senior vice president and succeeds Carl E. Vuono, who will retire. Kantor has been corporate senior vice president/president of L-3’s Marine and Power Systems Group. He will be succeeded by Robert E. Leskow, who has been the group’s executive vice president/CFO.
The U.S. Air Force has ambitious plans to eventually educate 100 F-35 pilots per year from a new multiservice training center being constructed with $400 million in upgrades at Eglin AFB, Fla.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne will push for further exploitation of a deep-throttling cryogenic engine for space exploration after demonstrating an unprecedented thrust range from 104% of rated power down to 5.9% on a test unit.
A top civilian official is retiring from the Air Force, leaving another influential slot open as the service struggles to keep its key programs on track. Gary Payton, deputy undersecretary of the Air Force for space, is retiring effective July 31 to pursue other opportunities. For the past five years in that role, Payton has overseen slow but steady progress with electro-magnetic interference and control software issues on the delayed and over-budget Space-based Infrared System early warning missile defense satellite program.
Royal Navy Adm. (ret.) James Burnell-Nugent has become an independent non-executive member of the board of directors of U.K.-based Qinetiq . He was commander-in-chief of the fleet and had been commander of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and three other ships and submarines.
Robert Clare has become director of North American marketing for Universal Avionics , Tucson, Ariz. He was director of original equipment manufacturer marketing.
