As anticipated, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has chosen Gen. James Amos, a former fighter pilot, to be the next Marine Corps commandant and Lt. Gen. Joseph Dunford to be assistant commandant. The idea of selecting an aviator, rather than a ground forces commander, to lead the leathernecks had been floated in trial balloons via leaks to several news organizations in mid-June. It fits with Gates’s campaign to challenge the Navy and Marines to reevaluate their roles and needs.
While “legacy” platforms strive for supremacy in ongoing fighter battles, the “fifth-generation” contender’s present fight is in Washington, with cost, test schedule and an alternative engine as critical issues. Though absent from the flight line and flying display, the Lockheed Martin F-35 will remain a prominent point among military aerospace attendees at this year’s Farnborough International Air Show.
Daniel P. Garton has been appointed president/CEO of American Eagle . He had been its president before becoming executive vice president-marketing for parent American Airlines. Garton succeeds Peter Bowler, who will be retiring.
Michael A. Taverna (Villepinte, France), Robert Wall (Berlin)
French military leaders appear to be edging toward Britain’s approach to UAV procurement, focusing development on a tactical system and adding medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) assets as needed to complement the core requirement.
A Cambodian proverb holds that when elephants fight, the ants suffer. But there is a real danger of that wisdom being turned on its head as the U.S. and European Union spar in the World Trade Organization (WTO) over subsidies for large commercial aircraft. In their zeal to win, could Boeing and Airbus be teaching emerging rivals how to craft state subsidies—and inadvertently speed the end of their own duopoly?
A huge gap in U.S. ballistic missile defenses may soon be filled by air-to-air weapons fired from fighters or unmanned aircraft fitted with long-range sensors. The problem area is boost phase—from launch to low space, about 400 km. (250 mi.) altitude. Study of boost-phase intercept (BPI) in the 1990s was abandoned because of the short range of fighter radars and missiles and the immaturity of unmanned aircraft. But the idea of attacking during boost phase—when ballistic missiles are slow, hot targets—remains attractive to military planners.
Regarding Emirates’ order for additional A380s “leaving competitors puzzled about how to react” (AW&ST June 14/21, p. 30), Airbus’s website shows 530 orders for the A350 as of May 31, including 70 from Emirates. Add the 860 orders for the 787 on Boeing’s website and this comes to 1,390 orders for the A350/787 combined versus only 202 for the A380, which was launched years before either the 787 or A350. There will always be exceptions in any industry-wide fleet-planning scenario, but a clear preference for size and technology seems inherent in these numbers.
Air France-KLM is requesting proposals by year-end for a potential order of 80-100 Boeing 787-900s or Airbus A350-900s that likely would be delivered between 2015-25, KLM President and CEO Peter Hartman says. The new aircraft would replace KLM’s Boeing 747 Combis and MD-11s, Air France’s Airbus A340s and probably the group’s oldest A330s.
Experts have started opening the sample canister from the Hayabusa asteroid mission after its safe recovery in the Australian outback June 13, but it remains to be seen if it actually contains material from the asteroid Itokawa. Hayabusa landed twice on the small, potato-shaped asteroid Itokawa in November 2005, following its launch May 9, 2003, on an M-V rocket. But the sampling procedure did not go as planned, and it could take as long as six months to determine whether Hayabusa returned with any samples.
Robert Wall (Paris and Washington), Douglas Barrie (London and Linkoping, Sweden)
Political and programmatic upheaval is shifting the ground under U.S. and European combat aircraft builders as they await the outcome of competitions in Asia, Latin America and Europe.
Edward M. Liddy has rejoined the board of directors of Chicago-based Boeing . He was chairman/CEO of the Allstate Corp. and a member of the Boeing board before becoming interim chairman/CEO of American International.
European weather satellite operator Eumetsat has given a go-ahead for the Meteosat Third Generation system, clearing the path for it to be put to contract.
Scientists expect two new European microsatellites to provide considerable advances in space astronomy. The Swedish-led Prisma technology mission, orbited by a Dnepr-1 rocket from Yasni, Russia, on June 15, will test precision-flying maneuvers and techniques that could be used for such interferometry-based telescopes as the U.S.-European Lisa gravitational wave experiment. Built by Swedish Space Corp., Prisma consists of two satellites whose relative position is to be maintained to within 1 cm. and relative attitude to within 1 deg. throughout the 10-month flight.
Rolls-Royce has kicked off testing of the TrentXWB powerplant, with a goal to quickly bring the first five of seven test engines into trials and have the first one flying next year on an Airbus A380. Rolls, on June 17, ran the first of the TrentXWBs, which are being designed for the Airbus A350XWB twinjet widebody, at its Derby facility. Program officials had hoped the milestone would be logged in May, but last-minute delays caused the schedule slippage, including time lost due to air traffic restrictions brought by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano in late April.
Glenn Johnson has become president of Horizon Air . He succeeds Jeff Pinneo, who also was CEO and is retiring. Johnson was chief financial officer/executive vice president of finance of parent Alaska Air Group. He will be followed as CFO by Brandon Pedersen, who was group vice president of finance/controller.
Graham Warwick and Michael Bruno nailed it in “Collateral Damage” (AW&ST May 31, p. 28). General Electric/Rolls-Royce is the only team that “wants” a competitive engine program no matter the cost to the F-35 program. Once again, taxpayers are called on to support aerospace contractors who refuse to accept that they’ve lost a competition. Unfortunately, some House Armed Services Committee members owe certain allegiances to contractors.
Forrest Colliver (see photo) has been named director of business development for air traffic systems for the Sensis Corp. , East Syracuse, N.Y. He was vice president-marketing and business development for EMS Technologies’ Satcom Div.
Israel expects to be able to monitor Iranian nuclear sites and other sensitive areas in the Middle East with greater effectiveness following the launch of a new optical intelligence satellite. Ofeq 9, orbited by a Shavit booster on June 23, was built by Israel Aerospace Industries and is equipped with a high-performance camera supplied by Elbit’s Elop affiliate. According to Israeli press sources, the camera offers a spatial resolution of well under 50 cm.
Chad Seifert has been named general manager of Chromalloy ’s gas turbine engine service and remanufacturing center in Phoenix. He was director of operations. Dennis Miller has become general manager of the Midwest City, Okla., gas turbine engine maintenance and service center. He was vice president/general manager of Smiths Tubular Systems. Miller succeeds Connie Van Fleet, who has retired.
Chinese commercial aircraft builder Comac aims to complete selection of suppliers for its C919 narrow-body airliner this week, about five months behind schedule. The country’s three biggest airlines will order up to 100 C919s this year, probably at the Zhuhai air show in November, acting as initial customers under state direction. They will not be launch customers, because the project was launched long ago, in May 2008. Indeed, serious marketing of the aircraft to Chinese customers has begun only in the past few weeks.
India’s ambitions to grow its commercial aerospace process through a regional aircraft program seem to be headed down an unusual dual turboprop/jet-powered aircraft path. But the Bangalore-based National Aerospace Laboratory (NAL), which is close to completing a design study of the so-called Regional Transport Aircraft (RTA), is focused on baseline 70-seat and stretched 90-seat versions that could accommodate either turbofan or turboprop engines. The developers seek a platform that can support both approaches simply through an engine and nacelle change.
Japan Airlines has applied to the Japanese government for antitrust immunity for its proposed deepening of cooperation with American Airlines on transpacific routes. A similar application was filed with the U.S. Transportation Department in February. JAL is in worse financial shape than disclosed when it entered bankruptcy protection in January, with debts now estimated to exceed assets by about ¥1 trillion ($11.2 billion), up from ¥868 billion.
