USN Rear Adm. David L. Philman has been named director of warfare integration/senior national representative in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington. He was director of the Air Warfare Div. in that office. Rear Adm. (lower half) Jerry K. Burroughs has become program executive officer for command, control, communications and intelligence for the San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command. He was its chief engineer.
Lockheed Martin confirms it has signed a joint-venture agreement with Tata Group to make aircraft components and defense products in India. India’s Economic Times first reported the agreement, saying Lockheed Martin would invest 428 million rupees ($9.1 million) in the proposed venture and privately held industrial conglomerate Tata 1.22 billion rupees. Lockheed is bidding to sell the F-16 to the Indian air force, which has a 126-aircraft requirement.
James Reichart has been promoted to vice president-sales, distribution and loyalty programs of Republic Airways Holdings from director of advertising for subsidiary Midwest Airlines.
Mahindra Aerospace, aiming to become the Embraer of India, will move rapidly to build large aerostructures thanks to an agreement to buy equipment from Boeing’s Australian operation. The Indian company, a subsidiary of conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra, is catapulting itself into the industry with a range of Australian acquisitions that are accelerating its development, perhaps by a decade or more.
I must respond to Michael Gallagher’s letter “Two JSF Engines Are A Waste” (AW&ST June 14/21, p. 10). Years ago it was the U.S. Air Force that was in deep trouble with a significant part of the fighter force grounded due to problems with the F-15 and F-16 engines. The alternate engine debate was mute after that near disaster—at least until many forgot the history involved.
As Defense Secretary Robert Gates continues his mission in Washington to curb defense spending, the nation’s only wing flying U-2s and Global Hawks is proposing some new measures to save money in operating these sophisticated intelligence-collecting aircraft.
Boeing plans to unveil its Phantom Eye liquid hydrogen-powered unmanned aerial vehicle July 12 to company officials only. Boeing is developing the demonstrator with a hope of eventually building a vehicle capable of 10 days of high-altitude endurance with a 1,000-lb. payload, and in an effort to reinvigorate the company’s sluggish attempt to get an unmanned systems business off the ground. Officials will also try with Phantom Eye to beat the endurance record set by the Boeing Condor by flying 96-100 hr. First flight is slated for the first quarter of 2011.
More questions than answers are arising from the U.S. Navy/Air Force memorandum of agreement to coordinate efforts on their respective high-altitude reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Signed June 12 by the services’ chiefs of staffs, the agreement aims to produce operational and financial efficiencies in the Air Force Global Hawk and Navy Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) programs, both of which are in development, though the USAF Global Hawk has a head start of many years on its younger cousin.
Regarding Clayton Esterson’s letter on the CB-17 “Rallying for the C-17” (AW&ST June 28, p. 10), if the “auxiliary technologies needed to penetrate highly defended airspace” are so simple, it would make more sense to apply them to the existing fleet of B-1Bs. Unfortunately, the ability to penetrate and survive modern defense systems requires considerable sophistication and attention to detail. Survivability must be an inherent feature of a design rather than an adjunct a la electronic countermeasures.
International operations by Iran’s airlines are being strictly curtailed by safety concerns and political tensions. The European Commission last week tightened its ban on the country’s main airline, Iran Air, when it updated its blacklist of foreign carriers. Two thirds of Iran Air’s fleet can no longer be used for European services. The ban includes the carrier’s six Airbus A320s, nine Boeing 747s and four Boeing 727s. Iran Air can continue serving destinations in the European Union using its 14 Airbus A300s of various variants and two A310s.
Google’s deal to acquire ITA Software for $700 million creates the potential for the search engine giant to shake up airline travel distribution, although Google has not detailed its plans. That leaves airlines, online travel agencies and other players to wonder whether this should be viewed as an opportunity, a source of angst or both.
Stuart Ratcliffe has become vice president-global ATM advisory services within the Commercial Products and Solutions Group of Metron Aviation , Dulles, Va. He was manager of the Central Airspace Management Unit of South Africa’s Air Traffic and Navigation Services. Former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey has joined the board of directors.
James W. Wade (see photo) has been named vice president-mission assurance of the Raytheon Co. , Waltham, Mass. He was head of the Safety and Mission Assurance Office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.
The European Space Agency’s industrial policy committee (IPC) has approved the Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) program, paving the way for the space segment of the €3.3-billion ($4.2-billion) system to be put to contract. The IPC move had been expected following a June 21-22 vote by Eumetsat, which will own and operate the six-satellite network, to go ahead with the project.
Astrophysicists are poring over new data from Europe’s Planck cosmic background explorer for clues to the period in the early universe known as inflation, when the Big Bang theoretically was followed by a period of extremely rapid expansion. The European Space Agency has released the first all-sky image of the universe produced by the spacecraft since its launch last May in a double mission with the Herschel Space Observatory (see p. 44).
Directed-energy weapons and advanced sensors in next-generation combat aircraft will demand power and cooling beyond the capabilities of today’s technology and could prompt a fundamental change in the design of aircraft systems. Keen to avoid the thermal-management “nightmares” that confronted developers of the stealthy fifth-generation F-22 and F-35, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is launching the Energy-Optimized Aircraft program to demonstrate a new approach to generating, storing, consuming and dissipating energy on aircraft.
GKN Aerospace is off to a good start this year with $1.5 billion in new business to help underpin the company’s aggressive expansion plan, which includes doubling sales by 2015.
Cecile Vion-Lanctuit (see photo) has been appointed vice president-corporate communications for France-based Eurocopter . She was head of international media relations.
Obama administration officials consulted potential U.S. space partners before rolling out the revised National Space Policy calling for more international cooperation in space (see p. 20). That includes China, which may open the door to another use of joint space activities to ease strained relations like the U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project of 1975. A State Department official says the policy was previewed to “Russia, China, as well as some emerging space nations, like India” the day of its release.
Europe’s Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer (GOCE) is already yielding critical data on the Earth’s geoid and gravity field, even though the spacecraft, launched in March 2009, has only been in full operation since November and barely two months worth of data have been collated (AW&ST Mar. 23, 2009, p. 18).
