The Australian government has given a green light to the competition to buy either the Sikorsky/Lockheed Martin MH-60R or the NH Industries NH90 as its new maritime combat helicopter, as it looks to replace aging Seahawks and meet a requirement left open with the cancellation of the Seasprite program two years ago.
Patrick Champagne (see photos) has been appointed vice president-cockpits and systems integration, James Palmer vice president-aviation products and Jean-Michel Comtois vice president-marketing and sales for Esterline CMC Electronics of Montreal. Champagne was vice president-engineering, while Comtois was vice president-military aviation. Palmer remains head of commercial services and customer support.
Diamond Aircraft has handed over its first DA42 multi-purpose platform to Aurora Flight Services to support the latter’s effort to build the Centaur optionally piloted vehicle (OPV) derivative of the aircraft. Aurora Flight Sciences believes that in an unmanned configuration, the DA42 can deliver 26-hr. endurance. The first OPV is expected to be ready for customer delivery before year-end .
Robert J. Lamond and Ronald D. Wolf have been named vice presidents of AerSale Inc. , Coral Gables, Fla. Lamond was senior sales director for commercial engines for Kellstrom Industries, while Wolf was vice president-quality at Volvo Aero Services. Honors and Elections
Sukhoi has progressed to cold-soak trials for the Superjet 100, with aircraft SN95004 having been dispatched to the Yakutsk airport last week to validate that the regional jet c an withstand the harsh operating environment. The trials are part of the Superjet certification process, which calls for completion of Russian type certification in July and that of the European Aviation Safety Agency in November.
Fred Towers, services review program manager for Universal Weather and Aviation Inc., has received the annual Outstanding Achievement and Leadership Award from the Washington-based National Business Aviation Assn. (NBAA) . The award recognizes individuals who have shared business aviation industry expertise, provided extraordinary service, exhibited leadership and made substantial contributions to the scheduling and dispatching function. Towers was cited for work on the NBAA’s Schedulers and Dispatchers and International Operations committees.
In Orbit incorrectly stated the acronym for the External Payload Carrier being studied by NASA for heavy suborbital experiments (Feb. 22, p. 18). The correct acronym is XPC.
USN Vice Adm. Harry B. Harris, Jr., has been named commander of the Sixth Fleet/commander of Striking and Support Forces NATO/deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe/deputy commander of U.S. Naval Forces Africa/Joint Force maritime component commander Europe in Naples, Italy. He was deputy chief of naval operations for communication networks at the Pentagon.
Honeywell is offering to upgrade Bell 407 light single-turbine helicopters with the HTS900 turboshaft, the engine originally planned for the canceled Bell 417. The company has teamed with Calgary, Alberta-based Eagle Copters to develop the aftermarket upgrade, called the Eagle 407 HP. The 1,000-shp.-class, digitally controlled HTS900 is expected to provide a 26% increase in power over the 407’s Rolls-Royce M250, increasing hot-and-high performance and reducing fuel consumption by 10%.
Italian aerospace research agency CIRA is poised once again to attempt a second transonic drop test with its recoverable Unmanned Space Vehicle (USV), intended to investigate hypersonic reentry and transatmospheric flight. The 140-sec. flight, involving a new test vehicle, Pollux, will be considerably more complex than the first flight in 2007 with the Castor vehicle, which was destroyed when the three-stage chute failed to deploy correctly. Pollux was initially due to fly in 2008 but was delayed because of technical issues and management changes.
Thales listed a number of disparate orders at last week’s Heli-Expo in Houston. Among them were Blue Hawaiian Helicopters’ installation of the French company’s 160-amp. starter generators for its entire fleet of Eurocopter AS350B2s and EC130B4s; Sikorsky’s choice of the TopDeck integrated avionics suite for its new S-76-D; and Eurocopter’s decision to install Thales’s Integrated Electronic Standby Instrument on it range of light and medium helicopters, which include the Ecureuil family—EC135, EC145 and EC155—and their military derivatives.
Bell Helicopter and Rolls-Royce are looking into the potential for retrofitting the Model 206B JetRanger light turbine single with the RR500TS turboshaft and jointly evaluating third-party suppliers to develop supplemental type-certificate kits to replace the Rolls M250 engine now powering the helicopter. A growth version of the 300-shp. RR300 that powers the Robinson R66 light helicopter, the 475-shp. RR500, would offer more takeoff and hot-and-high power, and longer overhaul intervals, than the M250. The engine is scheduled for certification in 2011.
Launch of Europe’s CryoSat-2 ice-monitoring mission, scheduled for Feb. 25, has been delayed due to concern about the second-stage steering engine on its Dnepr rocket, according to the European Space Agency. Engineers worry the fuel-reserve margin on the spacecraft—which will fly in a highly inclined orbit at 88-deg. latitude in order to maximize coverage of the poles—is not as large as specified.
Boeing recently completed the second of a three-phase industrial participation program for the Peace Eagle 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control aircraft project for the Turkish air force. The company states that the second step was finished on time and exceeded this phase’s $270-million requirement by $21 million. Phase 1 was completed in 2006 and plans are on track to fulfill all three phases of the overall $930-million initiative for Turkey’s Ministry of National Defense.
Jo Lary, president of Pavement Consultants, and Randy Pope, associate vice president of Burns & McDonnell, have been elected Airports Council International–North America representatives to the ACI World Business Partner Board.
A dark energy mission, an extra-solar planet-finder and a solar probe remain in contention for the medium-sized mission portion of Europe’s Cosmic Vision 2015-25 science program.
European governments signal they have reached an agreement in principle with industry over how to restructure the Airbus Military A400M airlifter, and are provisionally targeting a signing ceremony for Mar. 8 in Paris, according to the French defense ministry. However, adjustments are still possible and industry has signaled it still wants to make sure some issues are clarified.
One piece of technology from NASA’s canceled Constellation Program that may find a role in whatever comes next is the pad-abort system for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. Even if Congress goes along with the White House plan to cancel Orion, future commercial vehicles are likely to use the same sort of solid-propellant escape tower to pull a crew away from a failing launch vehicle.
Terry Arden has been named CEO of LMI Technologies Inc. , Delta, British Columbia. He succeeds Len Metcalfe, who will continue as chairman. Arden was chief technical officer.
William C. Bodie has become president of Houston-based Kellogg Brown and Root ’s North American government and defense business. He was vice president-defense programs at DFI International and had been U.S. Air Force communications director.
Congratulations to the Obama administration for keeping NASA’s program appetite within a politically supportable budget, one that seems to represent the U.S. public’s support for space programs. The Constellation Program is unnecessary; travel to low Earth orbit (LEO) has reached a level of maturity comparable to 1930s air travel, making it time for NASA to focus on exploration and give industry the task of lofting payloads to LEO.
The centrist leaders of the Senate’s Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee are calling on the Obama administration to reverse proposed cuts to the Coast Guard’s budget in Fiscal 2011, specifically by using money that has been proposed for U.S.-based terrorist trials instead. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), the panel’s chairman, and Susan Collins (Maine), the ranking Republican, say the budget request would drop the Coast Guard’s funding by $75 million below last year’s budget and reduce the number of uniformed personnel by more than 1,100.
Burt Rutan admits it’s surprising, coming from a dyed-in-the-wool commercial space pioneer like himself, but he has qualms about NASA’s plan to turn U.S. human space access over to commercial vehicles. “No question, it would be good to see commercial companies quickly succeed at orbital access and to take that capability beyond low Earth orbit,” he tells an aide to Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) in an e-mail message. “However, I am fearful that the commercial guys will fail; i.e.
Two big battles in Europe between airlines and their unions have hit a brief lull. After initiating a four-day strike, Lufthansa’s pilots union called it off to re-enter negotiations with the airline, at least until Mar. 8. Meanwhile, British Airways cabin crews voted to authorize a strike, but are waiting to give talks time to advance.
