Andreas Meisel (see photos) has been named CEO/general manager and Chai Weixi general manager of Air China and Lufthansa joint venture Ameco Beijing . Olaf Albrecht has become senior director of marketing and sales, succeeding Jan Butzmann, who is now manager of Ameco Beijing Engine Services. Thomas Kuhn has been appointed manager of aircraft overhaul.
Thales is seeking to leverage its growing role as a commercial and military transport cockpit and cabin integrator to carve out a similar position in the business aviation world.
Readers have expressed their worries about the logistical burdens of counter-rotating propellers and gearboxes on the Airbus Military A400M (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 9; Aug. 18/25, p. 12). Controllability of the airplane with powerful engines and huge propellers following a propulsion system malfunction must have been a greater safety-related worry for Airbus, though. The huge propellers on each wing rotate in opposite directions to each other, down in-between.
Deputy Air Force Undersecretary for Space Gary Payton says the U.S. is “one launch vehicle failure away from having gaps,” in its overhead imagery collection capability. This is one reason cited for the need for expediency in moving forward with the Broad Area Surveillance Intelligence Capability program, which aims to procure one or more 1.1-meter commercial imaging satellites for use by the Pentagon. The spacecraft are needed to eliminate “possible gaps we may have three to four years from now,” says Vice Adm.
Dassault Systemes has released Isight for Abaqus, a new product from Simulia, the company’s brand for realistic simulation that leverages technology from recently acquired Engineous Software. It is an add-on product for Abaqus FEA software that provides design exploration and optimization technology, which enables designers and engineers to perform rapid trade-off studies of real-world behavior. The software allows a user to explore thousands of design options in a realm of competitive choices.
Virgin Galactic and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have signed a letter of intent to explore the use of Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket and its White Knight Two airborne launcher to carry a series of instruments for climate research and other needs. The first of the instruments would supply data on atmospheric composition, particularly CO2 and other greenhouse gases, to fill gaps in the data chain and help calibrate satellite measurements.
Split procurements and leveraging technology investment from potential export customers are being touted as the Eurofighter partners try to conclude negotiations for the third production run. The option of being able to phase procurement of their Tranche 3 numbers has been discussed as one means of easing budgetary pressure. The U.K. and Italy in particular have been struggling with funding issues.
Robert Clare has become Wichita, Kan.-based director original equipment manufacturer marketing for the Universal Avionics Systems Corp. He was manager of Central U.S. marketing.
This year’s Defense Dept. performance based logistics (PBL) awards have been won by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney and the U.S. Air Force for readiness rates of the F-22; a Raytheon/U.S. Navy team for the ALV-67(v) Radar Warning System; and a General Dynamics/U.S. Army team for the AN/TSQ 221 Tactical Airspace Integration System program for air traffic control and battle command. The awards recognize government-industry partnerships at the system, subsystem and product levels.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the FAA’s plan to auction flight slots at New York-area airports is on shaky legal ground. The FAA argues the slots are intangible property that it has the right to sell or lease. But the GAO maintains the FAA “lacks the authority to auction arrival and departure slots, and thus also lacks the authority to retain and use auction proceeds.” As expected, the Transportation Dept.
Ten years after Russia’s Zarya module became the first element of the International Space Station to reach orbit, the partners who invested billions to build the orbiting microgravity research facility are beginning to shift from station assembly to operations.
Russian investors are showing a penchant for American light jet aircraft manufacturing. In July, Russia’s Industrial Investors and Kaskol Group bought equal shares in Adam Aircraft of Colorado for a combined $10 million through AAI Acquisition, their Delaware-based holding set up for purchase of the bankrupt maker of the Adam 700 very light jet. On Sept.
Space Exploration Technologies expects to increase payload capability of the Falcon 1 following the successful demonstration flight of a launch vehicle from the Pacific island of Omelek in the Kwajalein Atoll on Sept. 28.
HGH Infrared Systems has introduced IR Revolution 360, a 20-deg. vertical, 360-deg. horizontal field of view panoramic infrared vision system. The sensor contains approximately 3 million pixels. It’s an advanced thermal imager that delivers extremely high-resolution imagery via the head that scans a full rotation per second. Other features include auto detection and tracking, a motion alarm and an area-of-interest zoom. The detector is based on mercury cadmium telluride (HgCdTe) imaging technology and operates in the 8-12-micron wavelength—the long-wave infrared region.
Keith Packer, former commercial general manager for British Airways World Cargo, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to fix rates for air cargo shipments. In a plea agreement, Packer consented to serve an eight-month jail term, pay a $20,000 fine and cooperate with the U.S. Justice Dept.’s investigation. Packer is the first foreign national and third person charged as part of the Antitrust Div.’s price-fixing investigation.
U.S. Army MSgt. (ret.) R.F. Rzesutek (Tacoma, Wash.)
The QT-2 aircraft was not used to monitor Viet Cong mine laying and if so, no commander in his right mind would send troops out at night, because losses would be great. Troops were put out at dusk in fixed locations to counter enemy movement. The QT-2 was configured with a long probe, to detect the presence of ammonia from large troop concentrations. If you got to go, you go. We were often called out to secure the airstrip from which the aircraft operated.
Like Pierre Sparaco, I miss the days when the Boeing 747 was new and flying was still a pleasure (AW&ST Sept. 8, p. 65). One of the first carriers to operate the 747 was American Airlines. At that time, I was corporate consultant on design, mainly focused on airplane interiors and exterior markings, which I’m pleased to say are still used unchanged. AA’s inaugural 747 flight was on Mar. 2, 1970. Following this, there was rarely a full load and American wanted to do something dramatic to attract passengers.
Once known mainly for its prop-driven aircraft, Cessna has been a leading force in the bizjet sector for more than three decades, pioneering in light and very light jets, moving into the midsize category with Columbus and making a bold pitch at the light sport aircraft segment with the piston-powered SkyCatcher. In the run-up to this year’s National Business Aviation Assn. convention, AW&ST European Editor Michael A. Taverna discusses with Chairman Jack Pelton the evolution of the company and the industry.
The U.S. Air Force’s 20th Expeditionary Special Operations Sqdn. conducted its final operational MH-53 Pave Low mission last month in Iraq. The entire fleet is now retired. The Pave Low provided low-level, long-range infiltration and exfiltration into denied airspace and has been a workhorse for Air Force Special Operations Command. The command’s fleet was once at 39 MH-53s. The CV-22 will now pick up the mission, and command officials are prepping the Osprey tiltrotor for its first deployment outside U.S. borders, to support a joint exercise in Africa next month.
Christopher R. Bidwell has been named vice president-security and facilitation, effective Oct. 13, for the Washington-based Airports Council International-North America . He was managing director of security at the Air Transport Assn. Christopher J. Oswald has been appointed vice president-safety and technical operations, effective Oct. 20. He was a director at the Jacobs Consultancy.
Mike Barger has been appointed senior vice president-fleet operations and Terry Dinterman vice president-technology services for JetBlue Airways . Barger was vice president-JetBlue University. Dinterman was vice president-solution delivery at the CNA Financial Corp. of Chicago. Rob Maruster, who is senior vice president-customer services, now also heads the system operations group.
Aspen Avionics’ new Evolution Weather Receiver will deliver the full suite of satellite weather aviation products featuring graphical inflight weather data, and presents integrated weather hazard data on Evolution multifunction displays (MFDs) and primary flight displays (PFDs). The receiver, made by Heads Up Technologies, is designed to deliver the data-link weather capabilities of Evolution Hazard Awareness built into the Evolution flight display system. It will be available in second-quarter 2009 as an optional upgrade for the Evolution MFDs and PFDs.
Prof. Berndt Feuerbacher, incoming president of the International Astronomical Federation, hopes China can be more closely integrated into the club of spacefaring nations during his two-year term. “I think the federation has already started in this way, and will in the future even more try to bring China into the world community as one of the partners like anybody else,” he said at the 59th International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, where he was elected to succeed James V. Zimmerman of the U.S.
A Russian Dnepr-1 rocket has finally orbited a Thai surveillance spacecraft, Theos, from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, following the resolution of a long overflight dispute between the Kazakh and Uzbek governments. The dispute, which concerned possible downrange damage from the first stage of Dnepr boosters launched from Baikonur, had held up the mission, initially due to be launched in late 2007, for months. The $130-million, 1,500-kg.
A bold move might pay proportionate dividends. The once-flagging ward of the state, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, S.A., best known as Embraer, that evolved to become the world’s third-largest commercial airliner manufacturer, changed its successful course in mid-2005. It was then that the company announced a redirection of a major part of its engineering resources toward developing a line of purpose-built business aircraft.
