Connie Whitton (see photo) has been named assistant vice president-strategic initiatives for the Syracuse (N.Y.) Research Corp. She was an executive coach and equity partner for Productivity Leadership Systems. Stephen Duning has been promoted to assistant vice president-electronic warfare from site director in Dayton, Ohio, and Jack LoSecco to assistant vice president-software engineering from product and service area director for defense and intelligence programs.
U.S. Air Force Materiel Command at Hansom AFB, Mass., awarded Raytheon a $21.8-million contract for modifications to the Joint Environmental Toolkit (JET) program for next-generation weather systems. JET provides environmental intelligence and tailored network-centric solutions supporting warfighters on base in deployed operations. The contract covers Increment 2 of the program, focused on integration, consolidation and potential replacement of meteorological operational capabilities. JET engineering development and integration is based at Raytheon’s Omaha, Neb., site.
Boeing subsidiary Insitu has provided the FAA with a Scan Eagle system for research to help develop recommendations for integrating unmanned aircraft into the U.S. airspace system. The system, including two Scan Eagle small unmanned aircraft, has been delivered to the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center near Atlantic City, N.J., under a cooperative research and development agreement. The FAA will fly the unmanned aircraft in restricted airspace over the Warren Grove Gunnery Range as it works to develop air traffic management procedures for UAVs.
Looking to initial at-sea trials in 2011, Lockheed Martin is assessing the handling qualities of the Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant following the June 6 first flight of the F-35C.
Loss of South Korea’s second KSLV-1 launch vehicle, apparently to an explosion 137 sec. after liftoff, bodes ill for Russia’s space launch plans as well. South Korean officials say the vehicle’s Russian-built first-stage engine was to blame for the June 10 failure. That engine—the Energomash RD-151—is a variant of the RD-191M engine planned for the first stage of Russia’s Angara 1.1 launch vehicle now in development.
Schiebel’s remotely operated video enhanced receiver (Rover) has been tested and integrated onto the company’s Camcopter S-100 rotary-wing unmanned aircraft system. The integration enhances the flow of information to users on the ground. The integration “will greatly improve the field commander’s situational understanding and decision-making process,” says Neil Hunter, managing director of Schiebel. With a Rover system transmitter-equipped S-100, the UAV operator and ground units are seeing the same image.
Dassault Aviation and Thales say they would be open to cooperation on BAE’s Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle if it could ensure European independence in this rapidly growing segment. French armaments agency DGA recently indicated that it was entering discussions with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems to acquire Predator vehicles to complement its fleet of EADS Harfangs in Afghanistan.
Mark Thibault (see photos) has been appointed Hong Kong-based director of product support programs and Pete Buresh sales director for Africa for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. , Savannah, Ga. Thibault was director of maintenance/director of flight operations/chief operating officer for Metrojet Ltd. of Hong Kong. Buresh was a senior sales engineer.
NetJets, Berkshire Hathaway’s problematic fractional aircraft ownership program, is consolidating NJI Inc., which operates the company’s Gulfstream large-cabin fleet, with NetJets Aviation in Columbus, Ohio. Most NJI functions will move from Savannah, Ga., and South Carolina to Columbus, according to NetJets Chairman and CEO David Sokol. Pending regulatory approvals, the consolidation is to be completed in October. NetJets posted a loss of $711 million in 2009, but hopes to be profitable this year.
Regional airline veteran Dick Fontaine, president and CEO of Rocky Mountain Airways, is “testing the waters” for financial support of a proposed regional carrier based in Denver, using Bombardier Dash 8-Q200 and -Q300 airplanes. Initially, service would be confined to Colorado and Wyoming. From 1982-2002 Fontaine held senior management positions with a number of regional operators including Mississippi Valley Airlines, GP Express, Simmons Airlines, Great Lakes Aviation and Alliance Airlines.
EADS is exploring options for cooperating with Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, as the European company closes in on key decisions for its commercial aircraft strategy.
When Boeing opened a 42-acre factory here for its 747 in 1968, the Guinness Book of World Records ranked it as the planet’s biggest building by volume. As the company’s widebody jet stable expanded, the factory’s roofline spread across nearly 100 acres (9.9 hectares/4.3 million sq. ft./399,000 sq. meters). However measured, the building retains its top Guinness billing. And yet, inside its walls space can be at a premium.
USAF Col. (ret.) Michael Gallagher (Hillsboro, Ore.)
Insanity! The only other words that describe maintaining two engine designs for one military airframe are greed and arrogance. After an intense competition, the Lockheed Martin design for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was selected and is now in production, but corporate America and its allies in Congress, in defiance of the Defense Department and a deficit that threatens the republic, fight on to keep an unnecessary second engine design alive. Thoughtful people should be afraid when someone of Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s stature can’t put an end to wasteful spending.
Finnair is becoming the launch customer for the A321 winglets after Air New Zealand in November launched the winglet upgrade on the A320. The Finnish carrier has decided to swap two A330-300 orders (due for delivery in 2012-13) for five A321ERs with the winglets to come off the line starting in 2013. Finnair plans to phase out its Boeing 757s. The winglet upgrade should yield a 4% fuel burn edge over standard A321s. The move is a shot in the arm for Airbus, which is promoting the A321 as a logical Boeing 757 replacement.
Jade Cargo has selected Boeing’s Airplane Health Management (AHM) system to monitor its fleet of six 747-400 freighters. The performance monitoring and custom alerting and analysis modules transmit airplane performance and consumption data to help carriers improve airplane fuel efficiency, flight-planning and maintenance scheduling. AHM system alerts and notifications are sent to airline staff through the MyBoeingFleet.com portal. Boeing is also supplying Italy-based cargo operator Cargoitalia with a newly converted MD-11 freighter through a long-term lease.
James Huddle, director of advanced projects in the Advanced Technology and Strategic Applications organization at the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Navigation Systems Div., Woodland Hills, Calif., has won the Kershner Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers/Institute of Navigation Position Location and Navigation Symposium Executive Committee. The award, which is named for Richard B.
The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) has set a July 15 deadline for submissions to its pilot fatigue survey. EBAA plans to present the results to the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is writing regulations on pilot flight times for implementation among all EASA members beginning in June 2012. Current regulations vary among states. Historically, rules for business aviators are generally the same as those for airline pilots. EBAA hopes the survey will result in regulations more tailored to business aviation operations.
The trinational Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is once again under scrutiny, and its fate could be determined by a series of political and programmatic developments due to unfold in the coming weeks. The U.S.-German-Italian lower-tier air and missile defense program has been on knife’s edge more than once. And this summer, government officials must confront what it will cost to complete the program, while also deciding how to finance and structure the last few years of the design and development phase.
Boeing is gearing up to start full performance tests of the 787 and is in the planning stages for a service-ready demonstration with launch customer All Nippon Airways.
The implications of the maiden Falcon 9 launch (see pp. 37 and 41) are not being lost on overseas space agencies. European Space Agency director general Jean-Jacques Dordain says there are lessons to be learned from the launch success, even though he notes there is a big difference between the U.S. and European contexts.
Christian Gras (see photos) has been appointed executive vice president-customers and Matthieu Louvot vice president/head of corporate strategy and development for Eurocopter , Marignane, France. Gras succeeds Philippe Harache, who has resigned. He was executive vice president-customer support for Latin America for the Strategy and Marketing Group of parent company EADS. Louvot was an adviser to the French president on industry, energy and transportation. He succeeds Andreas Loewenstein, who is now senior vice president-strategy and development for Paris-based DCNS.
Ad Astra Rocket Co. is assessing a cooperative unmanned rendezvous mission to a yet-to-be-selected asteroid with a spacecraft and scientific payload powered by the experimental Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (Vasimr), according to Franklin Chang-Diaz, the seven-time space shuttle astronaut who serves as the company’s CEO and president.
