Ed Boyington (see photos) has been named vice president/general manager, Bill Beard vice president-plans and operations and Bob Dawson vice president-business development of the Aviation and Logistics business line for DRS Technologies , Herndon, Va. Boyington was president of L-3 Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., while Beard was its vice president-operations. Dawson was director of business development for L-3 Communications Integrated Systems, Waco, Tex.
Dassault Falcon Jet has been forced to cut 200 jobs at its Little Rock, Ark., completions plant. But thanks to long backlogs and the company’s policy of paring back subcontractor workload first, the job cuts—which represent about 10% of Little Rock staff—have been significantly lower than at other bizjet makers, says President/CEO John Rosanvallon. Dassault expects to deliver 70-80 aircraft this year—including at least 30 7Xs—and about that number for the next two years. The company delivered 72 aircraft in 2008.
Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin University of Bielefeld (Bielefeld, Germany)
Hans J. Weber contradicts Pierre Sparaco, in his column “Leveling the Playing Field,” by pointing out the “indirect support” Airbus receives through the European Commission Framework Programs (AW&ST Oct. 19, p. 8; Sept. 21, p. 49).
General Electric and Avic System Co. will form a Chinese avionics company to improve the U.S. company’s prospect of winning work on the Comac C919 transport. The business will develop and market “fully integrated,” open-architecture avionics and services for commercial aircraft programs, according to GE. The immediate focus is to jointly bid as suppliers for the C919, tentatively scheduled to enter service in 2016 as a new-technology narrow-body seating 156 passengers in standard configuration. The joint venture is based in China but will target the U.S.
The FAA says researchers in the U.S. and Europe are working to develop standards for approaches to communications, navigation and surveillance so aircraft flying over the Atlantic will require only one set of avionics to interact with two air traffic control systems—the FAA’s Next Generation Air Transport System and the Single European Sky ATM Research Program (Sesar). The FAA says it has more than doubled funding requested for research and development in Fiscal 2010 compared to Fiscal 2007.
USN Capts. Robert Hennegan and William G. Sizemore, 2nd, have been selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half). Hennegan has been appointed deputy commander for global strike and integration of U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt AFB, Neb. He was deputy chief of legislative affairs for the Transition Team Task Force in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon. Sizemore has been named chief of Naval Air Training, Corpus Christi, Tex. He was chief of staff for the Naval Air Force for the U.S. Pacific Fleet at San Diego.
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden plans to travel to Beijing next year for potentially historic talks that could lead to the sort of human-spaceflight cooperation with China that already marks the U.S. relationship with Russia. The way there is far from clear, however, and much work remains before U.S. and Chinese astronauts fly together in space.
For the inspiration behind the next generation of avionics, just look around you; it is to be found in the consumer electronics we use every day. The touchscreen interactivity and broadband connectivity of today’s smart phones and laptops is poised to enter the flight deck.
Martin T. Stanislav has become vice president-finance and business operations of the Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin Corp. ’s Information Systems and Global Services. He succeeds Jeffrey D. MacLauchlan, who is now the corporation’s vice president-mergers and acquisitions. Mark R. Bostic, who is vice president-accounting, will be acting controller.
Delta Air Lines and its SkyTeam partners are willing to pump $700 million into Japan Airlines, which the transport minister now says might be allowed to go bankrupt and forced into a reorganization. The offer from SkyTeam, which aims to lure the Japanese carrier away from Oneworld, consists of $500 million in non-voting equity capital and $200 million in loans secured against JAL’s assets, says Delta President Edward Bastian.
The China National Aero Technogy Import and Export Corp. says it has been approached by several prospective customers for its L-15 Falcon supersonic trainer, which was shown for the first time outside China at the Dubai Airshow last week. The advanced jet trainer version is to complete flight tests at the end of 2010 and the lead-in fighter trainer in late 2012.
SES will invest in satellite broadband startup O3b, providing further credibility to the Google-backed global high-speed Internet access project. O3b intends to employ satellites to bring broadband backbone and backhaul capacity to Internet providers serving the hundreds of millions of people around the world who are unserved or underserved by terrestrial networks (hence its name, which stands for “the other 3 billion”).
Douglas Barrie (London), Andy Nativi (Edinburgh, Scotland), Robert Wall (Dubai)
The results of a still mainly classified U.K. program are spurring the Defense Ministry and industry to pursue a novel design of active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar for the Eurofighter Typhoon. The AESA design is already earmarked for the Saab Gripen NG.
Astrium and its new smallsat affiliate, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., have secured preliminary agreements to supply an optical remote-sensing satellite system to Vietnam and a communications satellite to Sri Lanka. The two companies recently teamed to supply a remote-sensing satellite system to Kazakhstan. The communications satellite sale would be the first for SSTL’s new GMPT geostationary comsat bus.
Airbus Military is ramping up preparations for first flight of the A400M transport aircraft, including achieving power-on with the four TP400D turboprops simultaneously several days ahead of schedule.
Seven states and the European Commission have signed a Multilateral Statement of Policy regarding the implementation of bilateral air service agreements. The signing marks an “historic achievement that will set the foundation for a financially sustainable global aviation industry,” says Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of the International Air Transport Assn. (IATA). Signing the pact along with the EC were Chile, Malaysia, Panama, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the U.S.
Tracy Robinson has been appointed vice president-quality for the Cessna Aircraft Co. , Wichita, Kan. She was director of paint and interior operations and succeeds Brad Thress, who has been named vice president-customer service.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. (ret.) John W. Holly (see photo) has become vice president of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. ’s Missile Defense Systems, Huntsville, Ala. He was the corporation’s vice president-Huntsville operations. Honors and Elections
They went looking for water where water should have been and found it. But there are such strong hints of organic chemicals and metals from the south pole crater impacted by NASA’s Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (Lcross) mission that it is likely to be a science treasure trove for years.
Dec. 1-2—Aerosolutions’ Business Convention for Aeronautics, Space and Defense. Palais de Congress, Bordeaux, France. See www.aerosolutions-bordeaux.com Dec. 1-3—FAA International Runway Safety Summit. Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington. Call +1 (202) 385-4789 or see http://events.aaae.org/sites/091107 Dec. 1-5—Langkawi (Malaysia) International Maritime & Aerospace Exhibition. Mahsuri International Exhibition Center. See www.lima2009.com.my
Next year will be pivotal for Airbus and Embraer as they map out their product strategies, and engine makers will have a lot riding on the outcome of those discussions.
This autumn, China and the U.S. began moving toward greater cooperation in space. As China lifted a little more of the veil covering its space program, U.S. officials expressed a greater desire to work together in exploring space. Presidential science adviser John Holdren floated the idea of increased cooperation in human spaceflight last spring. The Augustine committee raised the idea again, and Presidents Barack Obama and Hu Jintao pledged to deepen space cooperation last week (see p. 33).
Europe’s Rosetta probe is en route to the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko after swinging past Earth Nov. 13 to pick up one last slingshot gravity boost for the trip. As it approached its closest pass just south of Java, the spacecraft used its narrow angle camera to collect this image of Earth’s southern limb, with parts of South America and Antarctica visible at a range of 350,000 km. (217,500 mi.) and a resolution of 6.5 km./pixel. The maneuver boosted the spacecraft’s speed by 3.6 km/sec., as planned.
The National Center for Advanced Materials Performance (NCAMP) has chosen Cytec’s 5320 medium-toughness out-of-autoclave prepreg system and Cytec’s 5276-1 high-toughness prepreg systems for its latest material qualification program. Funding is provided by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory.
Two U.S. Navy E/A-18G Growlers conduct a vertical maneuver over California during the operational evaluation period for the test aircraft. This phase of trials culminated in a Navy decision in September to declare the new electronic warfare system operational, and the Growler will first be deployed next year onboard an aircraft carrier abroad (see p. 48). Boeing photo by Ted Carlson.
