Regarding your editorial “VH-71: Spending To Save” (AW&ST June 8, p. 58), what performance characteristics would be required of the future combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) helicopter that the VH-71 does not have?
Two months after taking up the job—barring a last-minute funk in London—the new Eurofighter chief will sign a Tranche 3 production deal, an agreement his predecessor had been trying to secure for more than a year. Warnings of spiraling costs resulting from a production gap—in case of no agreement by early 2009—have proved premature. Senior management from Eurofighter partner-company BAE Systems has always been privately sanguine that obtaining consensus by the third quarter of 2009 would still avoid a halt in the production lines.
American Soda Machines (ASM) customizes beverage machines. Some of the “re-made to order” dispensers are located in hangars. The three primary classifications or styles of soda machines are sliders, round and square tops. While the company restores and sells all three, square tops provide the best “canvas” for customization. Several makes and models of square top machines are available. The Vendo company’s 1960s- era box is a compact 53 X 27.5 X 21.5 in. and can vend either bottles or cans. ASM can create just about any theme requested. American Soda Machines, 5138 E.
Norway’s parliament has approved the start of negotiations to purchase up to 56 Lockheed Martin F-35As, but the Defense Ministry must return in spring 2011 to seek authorization to negotiate a final contract. Norway hopes to sign a deal by 2014, allowing deliveries to begin in 2016. Norway’s Kongsberg has signed an agreement with Lockheed to cooperate on integrating its anti-ship Joint Strike Missile on the F-35. The ministry awarded a contract for the first phase of development in April.
The U.K.’s Defense Manufacturers Assn. last week approved a proposed merger with the Society of British Aerospace Companies, the final clearance required for the deal to proceed. The aim is to launch the merged organization in October.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Pentagon office are expected to decide by mid-June who will lead the next attempt to buy new aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force. Gates also said June 9 that regardless who leads the acquisition effort, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief in the Office of the Secretary of Defense or the Air Force, he was further leaning toward asking the deputy Defense secretary to watch the competition.
Kurt Sutterer, president of Midcoast Aviation Inc., has become chairman of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn. He succeeds Dennis Keith, president of Jet Solutions. James Miller, executive vice president of Flight Options, has been elected vice chairman. Three new members have been elected to the board of drectors: Todd Duncan, chairman of Duncan Aviation; Kenneth Forester, CEO of Meridian Air Charter; and Mark Willey, CEO of Bridgeford Flying Services.
The “Amazon” stair climber is designed to aid in getting passengers of reduced mobility on and off aircraft. It can move up and down aircraft stairs—without the need for manual lift—safely, quickly and comfortably, according to the company. The device can be kept indoors close to the gate or can be stored on board. The 74.8-lb. device can offload 352 lb. With its two IATA-approved-for-inflight batteries it can climb 300 steps without recharging. Its 14.5-in.
It was a great surprise to see an Airbus design proposal for its next narrow-body airplane that has the elegance of DC-9/MD-80 wings but not as nice a fuselage (AW&ST May 4, p. 37). I only hope Airbus can build such a good airplane. I was lucky to work as a consultant to two Mexican airlines, one operating Boeing 727-200s and the other MD-80s. I studied structural maintenance costs for both types. The difference was 5-1 in favor of the MD-80, without considering crew costs and the fact that the MD-80 outlived the 727 by at least 10 years.
The coming months will mark a critical period for the Tiger attack helicopter as France prepares to deploy it to Afghanistan and French special operations units get their first model, while Germany steps up efforts to bring the rotorcraft into service. French defense minister Herve Morin this month confirmed the combat assignment would go ahead. “The helicopter is ready to be engaged,” says French army Col. Pascal Point, who oversees helicopter programs at the Joint Staff.
A new pilot plant in Barcelona, Spain, will demonstrate and test regenerative life-support system technologies that could one day be used to recycle waste products and provide food, water and oxygen for long-term exploration missions on the Moon or Mars. The plant, dubbed Melissa (for Micro-Ecological Life-Support System Alternative) and inaugurated on June 4, is located within the School of Engineering at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
When one looks back over the last hundred years in aerospace, we can only be bewildered. When the Wright Brothers made their breakthrough flight over the shores of North Carolina, could they even imagine that hundreds of people would be getting into a Boeing 777 or an Airbus A380, and move across the globe every day, safely, economically, and at minimal cost to the environment—or, at the same time, we would go to space and the moon? It would have been hard to believe.
The editorial “Spaceflight and Mr. Augustine” (AW&ST May 18, p. 62) says Norman Augustine was the chairman of a 1990 study of space policy “whose participants laid the intellectual cornerstone of the Moon-Mars exploration strategy that will be examined.”
Matt Cowan has been appointed Tampa, Fla.-based Southeast U.S. marketing manager for the Universal Avionics Systems Corp. He held similar positions at Cirrus Aircraft and Avidyne.
Scott A. Moore has been named to the board of directors of the Washington-based National Business Aviation Assn. He is chief pilot/director of aviation for Luck Stone, Manakin, Va.
Mike Stolarik has been named president/chief operating officer of Qinetiq North America , McLean, Va. He was president of Qinetiq North America’s Mission Solutions Group. Mark Greenfield has been appointed director of aerospace training for Qinetiq in the U.K., which operates the Empire Test Pilots’ School. He was head of flight safety training organization Ultimate High.
After completing what Raytheon calls a series of “crucial” tests of Rockwell Collins data link bound for its Small-Diameter Bomb II (SDB II) design, officials are looking ahead to flight tests of the two-way, encrypted system on a UH-1 helicopter. Rockwell Collins encountered problems meeting schedule for the data link’s application into the Harpoon Block III weapon; this was a key reason why the Navy terminated the Harpoon upgrade earlier this year. Despite that setback, Raytheon officials say recent hardware-in-the-loop tests of the data-link technology were successful.
Amid the global economic turmoil, the U.K. is facing key decisions for its aerospace business—both civil and military—which will fundamentally influence the sector’s fate. Defense Ministry officials may already be preparing for a strategic review as part of broader work feeding into the latest spending planning round, PR10. Alongside near-term funding needs, the work may also provide a vehicle to identify procurement options to inform what is now viewed as an inevitable post-election defense review.
When Space Exploration Technologies needed to purchase a couple of overhead cranes to lift its Falcon 9 rockets at the company’s new Florida launch site, the bids came in at about $2 million. Too expensive, decided Brian Mosdell, director of SpaceX launch operations at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and he talked to the vendors to find out why the price was so high.
The prototype of Switzerland’s Solar Impulse long-duration, solar-powered aircraft will be unveiled June 26. Conceived in 2003 and inspired by Bertran Piccard’s around-the-world balloon flight in 1999, Solar Impulse is designed to take off and remain aloft for several days with no fuel other than its wing-mounted solar cells. The aircraft will serve to demonstrate the design’s flightworthiness and ability to fully recharge batteries during the day to permit night flying. First flight is scheduled for 2010.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. David L. Mann has been appointed commanding general of the 32d Army Air Missile Defense Command, Ft. Bliss, Tex. He was commanding general at the White Sands Missile Range, N.M. Brig. Gen. Warren E. Phipps, Jr., has become deputy commanding general of the 101st Airborne Div., Ft. Campbell, Ky. He was deputy commander/assistant commandant of the U.S. Army Aviation Center, Ft. Rucker, Ala.
As the world’s aviation and aerospace community gathers again in Paris, against a backdrop of worldwide economic distress, it’s a good time to ask if the industry’s globalization has been as successful, and as worthwhile, as predicted.
Kansas State University’s Aviation Dept. at Salina will develop mission planning for its unmanned aerial systems (UAS) program under a grant from the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research effective through March 2012. The university’s Applied Aviation Research Center will establish the Aerial Systems Technology Evaluation Center that will include mission planning, payload analysis, air vehicle operations and data analysis, says Kurt Barnhart, principal investigator.
Sens. John Ensign (R-Nev.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) have introduced legislation to loosen federally imposed restrictions on Reagan Washington National limiting most nonstop service to markets within 1,250 mi. of the airport. The lawmakers, who hope to attach the measure to the FAA reauthorization bill, note it is supported by US Airways, which has a big presence at both National and Las Vegas’s McCarran Airport. Under their proposal, airlines that use a National slot to serve large hub airports would be able to fly to any airport.
