The U.K.’s Brimstone anti-armor weapon is an ideal missile for dealing with massed tank formations—unfortunately the Cold War ended, and with it went the target set, before the weapon was even to enter service. In parallel, rules of engagement have become increasingly restrictive, driven by the need to minimize civilian casualties and collateral damage, a role for which the baseline MBDA Brimstone was ill-suited.
I find the Feedbox section of AW&ST to be full of enlightening, and sometimes exasperating, views from a host of readers when it comes to NASA. One reader recently castigated NASA as “the most misdirected and wastefully expensive federal project I have ever experienced.” He went on to say “ . . . we know little more about it [the Moon] than we did when [Neil Armstrong] returned.” That is absolutely breathtaking in the face of the Obama administration’s cancellation of the lunar return program.
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Benjamin Murray has been appointed president of XOJET , San Carlos, Calif. He was executive vice president of NetJets Inc. and CEO of Executive Jet Management.
I was inspired by the account of the Hayabusa spacecraft mission (AW&ST June 28, p. 31). I was a member of the Mars Observer spacecraft team in the 1990s, and the account of Hayabusa’s trials and eventual success brought back fond memories. Before that, I worked on the Rosetta mission, at the time a comet sample-return attempt.
Jack Pelton, the charismatic CEO of Textron Inc.’s Cessna Aircraft Co., cannot be faulted for seeing signs of hope in the battered business jet industry. During a recent speech in Washington, he opined that companies have a chance to lure back a good number of the thousands of workers they have laid off—when the market improves. “It’s an attractive industry for a young person to be in,” Pelton says. “There are an awful lot of people waiting to get back onto the payroll at Cessna so they can have that high quality of life.”
Capt. Jeffery Kilmer has been named regional chief pilot for international operations and Capt. John Bryan Bailey chief pilot for Anchorage and Los Angeles at Fedex Express . Kilmer was a line captain and instructor, while Bailey was a company FAA designee and standards check airman.
Australia’s Regional Express Holdings (REX) is the top-performing regional carrier for the second consecutive year. Its liquidity and financial health scores were the highest in its category. Though REX’s total score dropped compared with last year, it still managed to edge out SkyWest Airlines for the top spot. REX recorded a profit of $17 million in fiscal 2009, down slightly from its 2008 profit. The carrier’s fleet includes 45 Saab 340s (right). In the regional category overall, the median score rose in this year’s study following two years of decline.
Andy Nativi (Genoa), Robert Wall (London), Douglas Barrie (London )
Singapore becomes the most likely launch export customer for the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 advanced jet trainer now that contract negotiations with the United Arab Emirates are apparently becalmed. While no member of the M-346 team now bidding in Singapore is willing to comment, claims are emerging from South Korea about the preferred platform. The M-346 is being bid against the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)/Lockheed Martin T-50.
The long-running saga of FAA reauthorization may finally be drawing to a close, but even at this late stage there are plenty of unresolved issues to worry the aviation industry.
Post-2000 the U.S. “legacy” airlines have incurred enormous financial losses, and four of the six have been through Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filings—one of them (US Airways) twice. High passenger load factors notwithstanding, there is excess capacity in the U.S. carrier ranks; “excess” in the sense that fares and yields are not high enough for these carriers to generate consistent profits.
Dana Sacks has become vice president-human resources partners and talent acquisition for United Airlines parent UAL Corp. She was vice president-human resources for PepsiAmericas.
Hispasat is moving to reinforce its Amazonas transatlantic spacecraft fleet and Hisdesat secure communications satellite business in spite of a planned leverage buyout that could see one of its largest blocks of shares shift to new owners. The Spanish satcom operator last week selected Space Systems/Loral to build Amazonas-3, a big new C-/Ku-band satellite intended to replace the Amazonas-1 and provide additional growth capacity at the 61 deg. W. Long. Amazonas orbital slot. It is due to be orbited in 2012 by an unnamed launch provider.
Two years ago, a comparatively unknown—at least in the U.K.—Canadian company began to operate key facilities at the heart of British military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Privatizing the rotary-wing element of the Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) was controversial, and the choice of the winning bidder—Vector Aerospace—raised eyebrows. CEO Declan O’Sheasat down with London Bureau Chief Douglas Barrie to discuss the challenges encountered and the progress made in supporting a major element of the British military’s helicopter fleet.
Michael A. Taverna (Villepinte, France), Douglas Barrie (London)
Contenders for an emerging French anti-tank missile requirement are positioning to bid for the program, though budget revisions may yet affect the shape and timing of any procurement, or indeed, whether one takes place at all.
This year’s rankings of publicly traded airlines identify those managers who have best positioned their companies for recovery from last year’s global recession and volatility in fuel prices. Scores represent the composite of five performance categories, placing significant emphasis on financial fitness and earnings performance. The five categories (and their contributions to total score) include:
Airbus CEO Tom Enders and Boeing CEO Jim McNerney are diametrically opposed when it comes to the U.S.-European trade dispute about government aviation subsidies. But the leaders of the two commercial aircraft giants are in tandem on another issue: China’s future as an aviation superpower. Airbus and Boeing believe Beijing’s drive to become a major producer of commercial aircraft is unstoppable. In Enders’s view, China is going to be “the aviation nation of this century. I see no way of preventing that.”
Matters of moment continue to be full of irony. Hours after the U.S.-Europe aviation trade dispute further escalated, Spirit AeroSystems and Airbus jointly opened composite materials manufacturing facilities in Kinston, N.C. The initiative underscores that the production of commercial transports is, more than ever, global. Spirit will produce the long-range A350 twinjet’s “Section 15,” a 65-ft.-long fuselage barrel, as well as other key airframe elements such as the wings’ front spars.
Sid Ashworth has been named vice president-Washington operations for GE Aviation . She was principal of the Ashworth Group and had been on the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations.
Allies’ eyebrows are raised by Joint Strike Fighter program director Vice Adm. David Venlet’s decision to skip the Farnborough air show. Venlet’s decision came as a surprise, given the important role that allies play in the F-35 program and the squeezes on their defense budgets. Venlet plans to stay in the U.S. to keep his focus on restructuring the program. Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter is planning to attend the show, although only for a short period.
Thales is working on a new slate of spinoffs for its active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, including a family of airborne surveillance radars and flat-panel and conformal designs suitable for communications, electronic attack and other advanced missions.
