Known as an engineer’s engineer and a leader committed to continuous investment in the future of his corporation’s workforce, Ronald D. Sugar was honored as the first recipient of the Aviation Week Laureate for Workforce Commitment. Sugar is chairman emeritus of the Northrop Grumman Corp.
High-energy lasers have made significant advances in the past year, notably the shootdown of a ballistic missile target by the Airborne Laser (ABL) testbed in February. But while chemical lasers can be enormously powerful—megawatt-class in the case of ABL—doubts surround their usefulness as weapons.
Anthony J. Reardon, who has been president/chief operating officer of Ducommun Inc. of Los Angeles, is now also CEO. He succeeds Joseph C. Berenato, who remains chairman. Dean M. Flatt has been appointed to the board of directors. He is retired president of the Honeywell International Aerospace Project.
Elinor Smith Sullivan, an aviatrix who set altitude and speed records and was known as the “Flying Flapper,” died of kidney failure on Mar. 19 in Palo Alto, Calif. She was 98. Smith took her first airplane ride at age 6. A few months after soloing at age 15, she set an altitude record of 11,889 ft., At 16, she became the youngest licensed pilot on record and had Orville Wright finalize her Federation Aeronautic Internationale license.
Satellite communications operators think the U.S. government’s new national broadband plan could help stimulate satellite broadband and mobilesat services, but say its impact will be limited and in some cases even detrimental to industry growth.
U.S. airlines and the Defense Department are hoping a strategic alliance will accelerate the availability of alternative fuels, helping both of them meet aggressive goals for increasing energy security and reducing environmental footprint. Under the alliance, signed on March 19 in Washington, the Defense Energy Support Center (DESC)—the Pentagon’s fuel buyer—and the Air Transport Association are forming three joint teams to tackle key challenges to developing a domestic supply base for alternative fuels.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices were little changed in March, holding firmly within a price range established in February. EUAs for delivery in December 2010 closed at €13.18 ($17.59) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on March 22, compared with €12.77 on Feb. 22. The intra-month price range in March was from €12.90 to €13.55.
The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) director, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly, is living up to his reputation as a taskmaster. Last week, he announced at the Eighth Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference that he is withholding funding from at least one contractor for shoddy work, but he did not name names. Coleman Aerospace, owned by L-3 Communications, is the culprit, according to a missile defense program insider.
Amid a major political rift between Israel and the U.S., the Israeli air force has signed a contract to buy three Lockheed Martin C-130J transport aircraft. Under the $210-million contract, the aircraft will be delivered in 2013-15 and replace three of Israel’s C-130E/Hs, some of which are more than 40 years old.
Lufthansa is determined to win the right to compete with Alitalia on the domestic “golden route” linking Milan Linate Airport with Rome Fiumicino Airport. Under an Italian government decree, Alitalia won a three-year monopoly on the route. The action is unfair according to Lufthansa Italia chief Heike Birlenbach, who argues that the government should open competition to several airlines. To that end, Lufthansa is now exploring legal grounds upon which it could win approval to operate from Linate.
Glynn Germany has become space weather technical lead for the Space Control and Remote Sensing Unit of the Ball Aerospace and Technologies Corp. , Albuquerque, N.M. He was interim director for the Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.
Embraer expects aircraft deliveries to decline this year, with the regional jet and executive aviation businesses still suffering from reduced demand. Still, the Brazilian aircraft maker sees positive developments. Management says fourth-quarter 2009 airline investment activity suggests order intake will be higher this year than the 23 regional jets booked in 2009.
Neal Blue discusses the desire for wideband down at higher rates, “which is undetectable and therefore doesn’t require encryption” (AW&ST March 1, p. 52). He restates this assertion in a discussion of stealth and future generations of UAVs. Blue adds that radar and infrared detectability do not “count too much.”
Intelligence agencies and military cyber-commands are at the tipping point in their switch from surveillance at the speed of electricity to combat at the speed of light, and parsing messages sent via high-volume fiber optics is a key to this transformation.
USAF Col. Michael J. Moran (see photo) has been named commander of the Space Development and Test Wing at the Space and Missile Systems Center, Kirtland AFB, N.M. He was commander of the Atlas Systems Group at Los Angeles AFB.
Sikorsky is to establish a UH-60/S-70 Black Hawk helicopter training center in Colombia, at Melgar AFB, to provide pilot training for the country’s armed forces as well as other military customers in Latin America. To be equipped with a full-motion simulator, the center will be structured as an offset program and intended as the launching point for development of maintenance, repair and overhaul services, and a training center for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, says Sikorsky Aerospace Services.
General Electric is optimistic that tests of an improved turbine will show it is on target to close the 787’s fuel-consumption performance gap, revealed during evaluations of the initial GEnx-1B engine.
Negotiators try to put the best face on the long-awaited second stage of U.S.-EU open skies deal signed last week. But the agreement delays resolution of contentious issues with promises of movement later—on U.S. restrictions on foreign ownership and control of U.S. airlines and on Europe’s tough standards on aircraft noise. Washington vows to try to get Congress to raise the current 25% legal cap on non-U.S. ownership of voting stock in American carriers.
Israel-based Elbit Systems’ subsidiary, Elisra Electronic Systems, received contracts to supply airborne and ground electronic warfare systems to an unnamed customer in Asia. The aggregate value of the deal is $147 million for the systems, which are slated to be delivered over the next three years.
While Washington and Moscow are on the brink of agreeing on a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), Russia continues to exercise elements of its nuclear triad. The treaty is expected to call for further reductions in the numbers of both warheads and delivery platforms. But, given the comparatively small size of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, whether a reduction is feasible remains to be seen.
Douglas Barrie (London), Robert Wall (Woodford, England)
London will spend at least $2 billion on two big-ticket intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) projects, to enter service in 2014 and 2015, but the pending defense review could undercut efforts in this important area.
Japan Airlines will abandon freighter operations from October, relying instead on airliner bellies for its cargo business. The end of freight-only flights will cut about a quarter of Japan Airlines’ cargo capacity, but the airline says it will keep serving almost all of the destinations where it handles cargo.
For Israel’s chief of military intelligence, “cyberspace has become the fifth dimension of warfare, following land, sea, air and space.” The nation has long had its hand in this secretive mission area, but Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin’s comments are the first public acknowledgment of just how serious the Israeli military views the domain.
In an attempt to meet its April target for an A320 reengining decision, Pratt & Whitney says Airbus is actively brokering a solution to break the impasse over development of a potential International Aero Engines (IAE) version of the geared turbofan involving Rolls-Royce.
Douglas Barrie (London and Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Robert Wall (London and Washington)
A potential U.S. Marine Corps requirement for a low-cost, laser-guided, air-to-surface weapon and the development of 30-50-lb.-class air-to-surface glide munitions for unmanned aerial vehicles are central to MBDA’s near-term ambitions in the U.S.
