Martin Dugan has been named to the board of directors of Empire Airlines , Hayden, Idaho. He is a founding principal of Structured Finance International and was senior director for commercial aviation at CIT.
Michael Manella has become vice president/general counsel for McKechnie Aerospace , Irvine, Calif. He was assistant general counsel for Meggitt-USA Inc.
During his long Senate career, former Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) fought for the F-35 alternate engine program and famously changed Washington’s thinking about the war in Iraq when, returning from a fact-finding trip, he said strategy there appeared to be going “sideways.” Now the retired lawmaker is sounding a warning about the national security threat posed by global warming.
U.S.-based AAR Corp. has signed a letter of intent with SuperJet International to provide aftermarket support for Sukhoi’s Superjet 100, which should be certified later this year. As part of the support network, AAR will provide heavy maintenance, modifications, refurbishments, and line and field service maintenance, repair and overhaul.
Prof. Robert Owen (AW&ST June 15, p. 14) cites a number of factors for the declining interest in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education and careers. He then encourages us to continue refining our understanding of this problem.
Combatant commanders are having more of a say in this year’s Quadrennial Defense Review, says Adm. Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. Pacific Command. “[They] just didn’t have as significant a role in previous QDRs. [By contrast] I’ve been back [to Washington] three times for the singular purpose of participating in a two-day session chaired by the [Defense] secretary and the [Joint Chiefs of Staff] chairman. I can see changes as the QDR unfolds. [Changes in] day-to-day operations in the Pacific have not been significant.
Wall Street analysts have always had favorite aerospace CEOs. For several years it was Frank Lanza, who delivered stellar returns to shareholders as he built up L-3 Communications Holdings. Rockwell Collins Inc. CEO Clay Jones has long been held in high regard by investors. But this year it will be hard to top Precision Castparts Corp.’s (PCC) Mark Donegan— especially after the earnings performance the company delivered last week.
While a contract is imminent between the British Defense Ministry and Eurocopter covering a Puma life extension, a question mark hangs over a similar proposal for the Sea King Mk. 4.
As airlines find more to like in the technology that brings Internet connectivity into the cabin, they are still searching for ways to get reluctant passengers to pay for it. “Customers want to be connected and they want it to be free,” Doug Murri, senior manager of technologies for flight operations at Southwest Airlines, told a recent World Airline Entertainment Assn. (WAEA) workshop on connectivity issues.
The Pentagon has notified prospective bidders that the long-awaited draft request for proposals for the Air Force’s KC-135 replacement competition is now planned for release in mid-September—with a formal draft likely to follow in October. If this schedule holds, selection of the winning replacement refueling tanker design could occur in mid-2010. That is roughly a six-month slip from earlier plans for the program. A previous Air Force attempt at a KC-X competition included a purchase of 179 tankers worth an estimated $35 billion.
People flock to Oshkosh for three reasons: airplanes, airplanes, airplanes. Despite hard times, more than a half million from 70 nations will attend the show—their passion to explore new technology as strong as their desire to see industry recovery.
General aviation industry presents only “limited and mostly hypothetical threats to security” and does not require increased TSA regulatory oversight, says a May report from the Homeland Security Dept. Office of Inspector General. Since 9/11, GA aircraft have been viewed by government as vulnerable to terrorist use. Consequently, the TSA imposed stringent security restrictions on general aviation operations, from light aircraft to business jets.
Douglas Barrie (London), Michael A. Taverna (L'Aquila, Italy, and Paris)
Europe’s ability to secure approval of a Mars lander mission may be in doubt, despite the likelihood of a helping hand from NASA and the opening last week of a new European Space Agency center in the U.K. to support robotic exploration.
The Senate vote terminating funding for the F-22 Raptor “doesn’t change a thing” about the tactical advantages offered by the stealth fighter’s advanced systems, a senior Air Force intelligence officer tells Aviation Week, adding: “I think history will bear out the F-22 advocates’ position when all the dust settles.” The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter “is not an F-22 by a long shot,” he says.
More than four weeks after the 11th-hour cancellation of the maiden flight of the 787, Boeing’s leaders are not providing basic details about how the problem of a failed wing test will be corrected and when the new jet will fly.
Lockheed Martin nabbed the second of two $10-million awards for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile program. The project is designed to field a weapon for the U.S. Navy as soon as possible. The first award went to Lockheed’s missile facility in Orlando, Fla., with the second for its Grand Prairie, Tex., location. The initial, nine-month contracts will support preliminary design and risk reduction. Another, 27-month phase could follow for refinement of missile design and flight tests. Procurements could begin in Fiscal 2010.
Prof. Claudio Bruno University of Rome (Rome, Italy)
I have been in aerospace since 1968 as a graduate student at Princeton University and now I am teaching aerospace subjects in Rome. Better education and training, early selection of bright young people, inspiration and so on are all well and good, but the salaries of aerospace engineers do not compare to those in other professions, and their careers are subject to the vagaries of industrial politics, with the inevitable program cancellations, layoffs, etc.
Former Cessna Aircraft Co. Chairman and CEO Russ Meyer has been inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame . Other 2009 inductees are astronauts Eileen Collins and the late Edward White as well as the late actor Jimmy Stewart.
A Russian submarine-fired Volna rocket is due to launch the European Space Agency’s Experimental Reentry Testbed (Expert) next year, under an €18-million ($25-million) full-scale development contract with Thales Alenia Space for the atmospheric reentry demonstrator. Intended to study critical reentry aerothermodynamic phenomena, the reduced-scale capsule-shaped vehicle will be released from an altitude of 100 km. (62 mi.) and perform a suborbital ballistic reentry at an entry speed of 5 km./sec.
Switzerland is proceding to fit its F/A-18Cs with Raytheon’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared pod. The Pentagon has awarded Raytheon a $41-million contract to purchase 14 of the pods for the Swiss government. Switzerland last year acquired one pod as part of a $51-million contract the U.S. Navy placed with Raytheon to also buy 18 targeting pods to be used on Australia’s F/A-18Fs. Delivery of the Swiss systems is to be completed by early 2011.
U.S. air traffic controllers are meeting new requirements for reporting operational errors, for example, when proper aircraft separation is not maintained. Effective last week, a controller’s identity will be known only at the facility where the event took place and omitted in error reports sent to FAA headquarters. The controller would face disciplinary action and retraining only when necessary. The new procedure allows the FAA to move away from its blame-and-punishment culture and focus on identifying and remedying safety issues.
Regarding your pilot report on the TBM850 (AW&ST June 15, p. 138), it is a fine plane and the order book reflects that. However, to compare it with the Cessna Citation Mustang or Embraer Phenom 100 very light jets is misleading. They offer twin-engine redundancy, Fadec engine controls and 10,000-ft.-higher cruise capability. The price differential is not great. People buy multi-engine airplanes for a reason. The risk of engine or systems failure with the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A is low, but must be considered.
MTN Satellite Services, a global VSAT network operated by SeaMobile, has concluded a multiyear capacity deal with SES Americom-New Skies to provide mobile broadband, broadcasting and phone service to commercial and military vessels operating in the Indian Ocean. The capacity, equivalent to one and a half transponders, will be provided by NSS-12, an 88-transponder Ku-band spacecraft to be launched to 57 deg. E. Long. this fall.
The Japanese government has its worries—North Korean ballistic missiles, advanced Chinese fighters and cruise missiles, as well as disputed islands and a dearth of bases and modern aircraft to protect them. These problems are coupled with a military force structure that cannot expand and a defense budget that is unlikely to grow.
