The final attendance tally for the annual EBACE, held in Geneva May 4-6, was 11,174, besting the previous year’s by 257 people and establishing it as the third-best draw in the event’s 10-year history.
Roy Tharpe, who is president of the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Space Gateway Support contract for interim protective services for security, fire and emergency management, has received the Dr. Kurt H. Debus Award from the National Space Club Florida Committee . The award, which is named for the Kennedy Space Center’s first director, recognizes achievements and contributions in Florida to American aerospace efforts.
China could send its first female astronaut into space in as little as two years, after including two women among its new class of seven military pilots selected for spaceflight training. The women—both military transport pilots selected from among 15 female candidates—will join five male fighter pilots for 2-3 years of training in the Shenzhou spacecraft that already has taken six of their countrymen into orbit. The new astronaut class members all have an average flight time of 1,207.7 hr., according to Chinese press reports.
Jim Noonan (see photo) has been named vice president-business operations for the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. , Wichita, Kan. He was vice president-sales operations for StandardAero.
By 2035, three decades after the Concorde was retired, demand and technology could come together to make economically and technically viable a supersonic airliner with 100+ seats. But substantial new technology will be needed to ensure such an aircraft meets sonic boom, noise and emissions requirements.
Michael Sheehan (see photo) has been appointed president/CEO of Thales Communications Inc. , Clarksburg, Md. He succeeds Mitch Herbets, who will be retiring. Sheehan was a senior executive with Cobham’s avionics business. Honors and Elections
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from states with Boeing work is proposing a Fair Defense Competition Act that would require the Pentagon to apply penalties to EADS North America’s latest bid for $35-billion worth of work building aerial refuelers for the U.S. Air Force. The proposal, spearheaded by Kansas sons Sen. Sam Brownback (R) and Rep.
Regarding Dale L. Jensen’s letter concerning the “inefficient” performance of SSME and RS-68 (AW&ST April 19, p. 8)—he believes erroneously that specific impulse (ISP) is a measure of energy available. Actually, it is a measure of how much the potential energy of propellants has been transformed into kinetic energy of exhaust gases, which depends on expansion ratio (pressure ratio). Thermodynamic efficiency is maximum when nozzle exit pressure matches outside pressure. In boosters and main engines, expansion is limited by (high) outside pressure.
Frances Fiorino (Washington ), Robert Wall (London )
The airliner was less than a year old, the airline’s safety record pristine, and the weather good, yet Afriqiyah Airlines Flight 8U771 crashed on approach to Tripoli, Libya, killing 103 of 104 people onboard. And Libyan and French accident investigators are now combing wreckage and mining data from flight recorders to find out why.
One of China’s original astronauts will join two Europeans and three Russians in a long-term Martian mission simulation planned to begin in Moscow in early June. The 520-day activity, known as Mars 500, will take place in a sealed environment that includes mockups of an interplanetary spaceship, a lander and an ersatz view of the Martian landscape. The various modules, located at the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow, will provide 550 cubic meters of living space for the simulation, intended to replicate a real Martian mission.
Mergers and acquisition activity in the aerospace and defense industry is bouncing back to pre-recession levels as lower prices and a better economic outlook lure buyers. PricewaterhouseCoopers counted 68 A&D transactions in the first quarter of 2010 worth $5.1 billion. That was more than four times the value of transactions in the first quarter of 2009, and returned M&A activity to its level in the third quarter of 2008.
Concerns about the long-term effects of weightlessness on astronauts’ health have taken many forms. A common one is their need to exercise while in orbit to counteract losses of bone density and muscle mass. Now a science team headed by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and NASA Ames Research Center is posing a different question, but one untidy housekeepers will understand: What about scum? That is, what affect might microbes in a biofilm—or, more prosaically, scum—play over time?
The FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive (AD) that would require operators of Sikorsky S-70A/-70C helicopters to conduct an ultrasonic test inspection for cracks in the tail gearbox output bevel gear. If a crack is detected, the directive calls for replacement of the gear before further flight. The FAA says three gear-cracking incidents—one of which resulted in separation of the tail rotor from the helicopter—prompted the proposed AD, which is aimed at preventing tail rotor separation and loss of control of the aircraft.
Jetstar Airways, the low-cost arm of Australia’s Qantas Airways, will operate long-haul flights out of Singapore’s Changi Airport by year-end and is looking to serve cities in North Asia, Australia and Southern Europe. While the destinations have not yet been determined, the plan is to inaugurate the first route in December, to coincide with the delivery of the first of two Airbus A330-200s to be based in Singapore. A second route will follow when the second aircraft arrives in early 2011.
Laurie Leshin has become deputy associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. She was deputy director for science and technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
India’s efforts to revamp its military rotorcraft inventory continue with further requests for information now hitting the streets, while the rerun of its light reconnaissance helicopter program may be entering the final stage. The navy is in the market for 50 light utility helicopters, and the coast guard is looking for 30 platforms—a mix of medium and light models. Requests for information on the programs were issued this month—although in the coast guard’s case, this is its second effort to jump-start the procurement.
Troubled Satelites Mexicanos has a new lease on life, following an agreement by bondholders to provide funding for a new spacecraft. The 64-transponder C-/Ku-band satellite, christened Satmex 8, was ordered on May 10 from Space Systems/Loral. SS/L also indicated, in first-quarter results released last week, that it had been authorized to proceed on another high-power spacecraft from an unidentified long-standing customer not yet revealed.
BAE Systems is searching for innovative ways to move some of the 100+ used BAE146/Avro RJs in its portfolio, and its Explorer One is certainly among the most evocative concepts. Conceived by Design Q, a British company specializing in yachts, sports cars and VIP aircraft, the design features a plush executive interior, but is distinctive for the patio deck that slides out from the aircraft’s floor and is accessed by passengers through a wide freight door that swings open overhead.
Israel is growing increasingly concerned about the deployment of Syrian-made M-600 missiles in Lebanon that are capable of accurately striking any point in Israel.
Reader Dale L. Jensen overlooks the fact that the same engineers designed and developed the space shuttle main engine (SSME) and the RS-68, and in both cases optimized them for the application. The SSME is a reusable engine that fires from sea level to orbit (basically like a single stage to orbit). The Delta IV that uses the RS-68 is a single-use multi-stage vehicle in which the RS-68 fires only at low altitude while the upper-stage engines are used only at high altitude.
Further underscoring Europe’s growing importance as a business aviation user, Bombardier has officially opened a business aircraft service center at Amsterdam’s Schiphol International Airport. The 45,639-sq.-ft. hangar can accommodate eight Learjets, four Challengers and two Global business jets. At the moment, it is authorized to service the Learjet 40, 45 and 60 and Challenger 604 and 605 but expects further certification for work on the Challenger 300 and Global family by Sept. 1.
Janis Pamiljans (see photo) has become vice president of the U.S. Navy Unmanned Combat Air System program at the Northrop Grumman Corp. in San Diego. He was vice president/program manager of its aerial refueling tanker program.
Arianespace has contracted to launch Hughes Network Systems’ Jupiter, a high-power bent-pipe high-speed Internet access satellite intended to make the corporate-broadband specialist more competitive in the consumer and small business markets. The 6-metric-ton spacecraft is to be orbited in the first half of 2012. Meanwhile, Intelsat selected International Launch Services to orbit Intelsat 22, a 6.4-metric-ton spacecraft under construction at Boeing that will carry a pioneering milsat payload for the Australian defense forces (AW&ST May 3, p. 20).
Toray Industries inked a long-term contract with EADS to directly supply carbon-fiber preimpregnated (prepreg) materials, mainly for Airbus aircraft, for a 15-year period. In the past, EADS received prepregs through third-party suppliers, which built the lightweight sheets and/or strips from material supplied by Japan-based Toray. Carbon-fiber demand, stagnant since 2008, has been showing signs of recovery.
