A third of the British Army’s WAH-64 Apache pilots are breaking the ministry’s so-called harmony guidelines as a result of the demands of operational deployment. The Apache is being relied on heavily in combat operations in Afghanistan. The Joint Helicopter Command’s guidelines are “for crews to serve four periods at home for every one in theater,” says Bill Rammell, the minister for the armed forces. Rammell adds: “Apache pilot harmony is improving constantly as more pilots are trained and become available for deployment.”
Nick Stanage has been named president of the Hexcel Corp. , Stamford, Conn. He was president of the heavy vehicle products unit of the Dana Holding Corp.
Directed Energy Systems, a subsidiary of Boeing’s Spectrolab business unit, has launched a 3D camera that is one-third the size and uses one-tenth the power of comparable systems for military and commercial applications. A company-funded research effort, the camera has been tested on a Boeing AH-6 Little Bird helicopter and trailers. Cube-shaped, it includes advanced sensors from the federally funded Lincoln Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boeing says the camera is suitable for mapping, tracking targets and seeing through foliage.
The second satellite for Germany’s Satcom BW Stage 2 military communications satellite network—Comsat Bw-2—has entered integration for a Mar. 24 Ariane 5 ECA launch. The mission—the second of the year for the Ariane 5—will also send aloft a commercial telecom spacecraft, Astra 3B. Comsat Bw-1, Germany’s first dedicated military telecom satellite, was orbited on Oct. 1 (AW&ST Oct. 12, 2009, p. 36). Arianespace was earlier selected to launch OverHorizon-1, a 3.2-metric-ton Ku-band spacecraft intended to provide two-way broadband communications for vehicles on the move.
Cessna Aircraft’s Independence, Kan., facility delivered its 9,000th single-engine piston airplane, a 182T, on Mar. 4. The plant, built after passage of the General Aviation Revitalization Act in 1994 resolved long-term product liability concerns, produces the Skyhawk, Skylane, Stationair, Corvalis and Corvalis TT singles and Citation Mustang light twinjet.
Mathew J. Joyce (see photo) has been named vice president/program manager for Ground-based Midcourse Defense for Lockheed Martin Space Systems , Huntsville, Ala. He was the company’s vice president/program manager for the missile element of the Missile Defense Agency’s Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system.
A vast divide separates tactical electronic attack from aircraft and cyber attack at the strategic level, says a senior U.S. Air Force electronic warfare specialist, complaining that “contractor hype” is blurring the line. “Most of what is described as combining jamming and cyber is nothing more than the subtleties of smart jamming,” he says.
Jeff Miller has been appointed vice president-communications of the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. , Savannah, Ga. He succeeds Robert Baugniet, who has retired. Miller was head of Blake-Miller Communications and had been vice president-corporate communications at Galaxy Aerospace before it as acquired by Gulfstream parent General Dynamics. Dan O’Malley has been named director of operations for new product development. He was manager of the facility in Mexicali, Mexico. Jeff Toline has become director of service at the Appleton, Wis., facility.
Detailed images collected over time from Mars orbit are giving scientists more clues to work with as they decipher what’s happening on the active surface. Data from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, combined with in-situ imagery from one of the surface rovers, have produced at least a theory of why some dunes on the planet are moving and some aren’t.
New forecasts by the FAA add weight to airline claims that they are emerging from the worst downturn the industry has ever seen. The agency predicts that although U.S. passenger demand will begin a slow recovery this year, the severity of the recession has set long-term growth targets back by several years.
A bid for an aviation record has flown into controversy even before engine start. Riccardo Mortara, head of Swiss aircraft charter firm Sonnig, plans to depart Geneva on Mar. 19 in the company’s 30-year-old Sabre 65 aiming to establish a new eastbound circumnavigation speed mark for that aircraft class. The Sonnig team says the mark to beat is 67 hr., 1 min. set by the late Steve Fossett in the Virgin GlobalFlyer in 2005.
Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders in his annual letter Feb. 27 that NetJets lost a “staggering” $711 million in 2009. He also admitted the fractional aircraft provider’s debt soared to $1.9 billion from $102 million when Berkshire Hathaway acquired it 11 years earlier.
I would disagree with the letter from John Jogerst on “America’s Ongoing Space Role” that space travel to low Earth orbit is at the maturity stage of 1930s air travel (AW&ST Mar. 1, p. 8). We are struggling with nearly 40-year-old technology to finish the space shuttle missions this year. While the follow-on program and its “Apollo on steroids” approach was hardly innovative, at least we were aiming higher than 200 mi. above Earth for the first time since Apollo 17.
The U.K. Defense Ministry last week formally accepted the BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4, clearing the way for training to begin. Clearance had been expected in December. The Royal Air Force is to receive MRA4s, which eventually will replace Nimrod MR2s that will be withdrawn from service at the end of this month. The first MRA4 production aircraft, PA04, is at BAE’s Warton site, while PA05 was flown for the first time from the Woodford manufacturing site on Mar. 8.
Since a test program began last June, the U.S. Navy says it has shipped thousands of pounds of rhenium, a prime component in turbine blades and stators, that was reclaimed from out-of-service General Electric F404 and F414 engines. The reclaimed precious metal will be used in new engine parts.
Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines last weeksecured U.S. Transportation Dept. authorization to offer service between Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Barranquilla, Colombia. Spirit expects to launch service this summer.
JUDGE ROSEMARY Collyer OF the U.S. DISTRICT court for the District of Columbia has directed the FAA to make available for press scrutiny previously confidential aircraft registration numbers, which the agency had sequestered under the decade-old Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program. Judge Collyer’s Feb. 26 decision was in response to Freedom of Information Act requests filed by Pro Publica, an investigative news organization. The ruling does not permit disclosure of real-time or historical flight data, or operator names.
German aerospace center DLR says it will soon initiate detailed design of an experimental broadband satellite as part of an effort to place German industry at the forefront of satellite telecommunications. The country is already underwriting a number of satcom projects through the European Space Agency (ESA), notably a small telecom bus initiative, Small Geo, and a laser data relay to permit near-real-time download of imagery from low-Earth-orbit satellites. The first SmallGeo mission, Hispasat’s AG1, was contracted to Germany’s OHB Technology last June.
Walt Sirmans (see photos) has become chief operating officer and John F. White vice president-human resources for Sabreliner of St. Louis. Sirmans was vice president-aerostructures programs at GKN Aerospace, also in St. Louis, while White was a human resources executive with Crane Merchandising Systems.
Regarding your In Orbit item on suborbital heavy lift (AW&ST Feb. 22, p. 18), I was reminded of my involvement with the OV-1 (Satar) “payload pod” program in 1965-71, when General Dynamics-Convair built and launched several dozen small satellites (with integral solid-propellant rocket motors), into low Earth orbit using the excess capability of U.S. Air Force Atlas E/F boosters.
USAF Brig. Gen. Otis G. Mannon has been named vice commander of Air Force Special Operations Command, Hurlburt Field, Fla. He was commander of the 82nd Training Wing of Air Education and Training Command, Sheppard AFB, Tex. Mannon has been succeeded by Brig. Gen. Darryl W. Burke, who was vice commander of the 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) of Air Combat Command, Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz.
The U.K. plans to kick off competition for a medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle in the third quarter, with funding for this phase of the program recently approved.
A recent uptick in global demand means airline losses in 2010 will be less than expected, and even 2009 losses are being revised downward, according to the International Air Transport Assn. IATA has cut its 2010 net loss estimate to $2.8 billion in its latest industry forecast, down from the $5.6-billion deficit it was predicting in December. Last year’s loss is now expected to be $9.4 billion, versus the earlier estimate of $11 billion.
