Senate appropriators are scolding the Defense Dept. for alleged waste, fraud and abuse in Iraq-related contracting, and the Democratic-led panel is calling for “collars and dollars” from the Bush administration to show that the Pentagon is doing its job. Senate Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) wants more arrests, more indictments and more funds recovered from contractors found to be abusing war-related contracts.
Peter Davis has become head of corporate finance and Peter Negline senior vice president-research and product development for Singapore-based BOC Aviation . Davis was managing director for transport and logistics for DBS Bank Ltd., while Negline was an executive director and head of regional transportation research for JPMorgan Securities.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week suggested the U.K. role in southern Iraq would be “fundamentally changed” early in 2009, fueling speculation of major reductions in the number of British personnel deployed in Iraq. In a report published last week on operations in Iraq, the House of Commons Defense Committee suggests: “The security situation in Basra (in southern Iraq) has been transformed in the past six months and the U.K. is helping the Iraqi Security Forces become self-sufficient and effective.”
Inmarsat says it has broken off talks initiated this month with Harbinger Capital Partners that could have led to a takeover proposal from the U.S. hedge fund (AW&ST July 21, p. 18). The discussions were focused on the regulatory processes relating to a possible offer, says the London-based mobile satellite service operator, but no offer or indication of a potential offer price was made.
MTU has secured a role on the GE38 turboshaft to be used on CH-53K helicopters for the U.S. Marine Corps and is also seen as a strong candidate for powering a future European heavy-lift rotorcraft program. MTU has taken an 18% stake in the venture, under which it will deliver the power turbine module, as well as part performance license maintenance, final assembly and maintenance activities for the powerplant.
Lena Olving has been named executive vice president of Saab , effective Dec. 1. She will succeed Erik Lowenadler, who will be retiring. Olving has been senior vice president-process and operational excellence at the Volvo Car Corp.
The Russian government is embarking on a further round of industry consolidation, with far-reaching consequences for the defense sector. The implications of the restructuring for Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. have also yet to be played out. Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, has issued a decree allowing the handover of the state’s stake in over 400 companies to Russian Technologies, itself a comparatively recently created state-controlled industrial corporation.
The U.S. Air Force recently found that nuclear launch codes were left unsecured while an intercontinental ballistic missile crew was “topside” at one of the remote silos at Minot AFB, N.D., on July 12. The classified data was in a locked container, but the crew had fallen asleep. USAF officials concluded the data was not compromised because “access to the [missile alert facility] was continually controlled by Air Force Security Forces and the codes had been superseded and were unusable,” according to a service statement.
In Greek mythology, there was no greater warrior than Achilles. Strong and cunning, he had been protected from birth against all forms of injury—except for one vulnerable heel. In the end, that weakness was exploited and became his downfall. Advanced communications continues to be one of the U.S.’s greatest technological strengths, and we have equipped our military with unparalleled skills and resources to provide this advantage in battle. But, like Achilles, there is a key vulnerability in most communications satellites.
Pierre Sparaco expresses concern about U.S. nationalist statements regarding the selection of the EADS candidate for the Air Force tanker, while Europeans do not respond in kind. Perhaps that is based on the history of the Europeans sometimes thwarting American foreign policy while the U.S. has been a reliable supplier of aircraft to Europe since World War II.
The number of avionics companies offering synthetic vision is growing. At EAA’s AirVenture 2008 in Oshkosh, Wis., this week, Avidyne Corp. plans to show synthetic vision on its Entegra line of integrated cockpit systems for the first time (left image) while L-3 Avionics will be showing its new SmartDeck integrated system (right).
Mars Phoenix scientists continue to analyze what they believe are very interesting results from the second wet-chemistry experiment with a soil sample scooped from the Martian tundra at the beginning of July. Testing has taken longer than expected, and may lead to more tests before the Phoenix science team is ready to announce results, which could come as early as mid-August, NASA says.
You reported that escalating fuel prices have caused some airlines to ground their MD-80s (AW&ST May 26, p. 58). If those airlines are actually selling the MD-80s, profitable carriers such as AirTran, that use the Boeing 717, should buy those MD-80s and re-engine them with the latest in fuel-efficient powerplants. Surely, the airframes, which represent a particularly efficient design, have many more years of useful life.
Russian buyers of Adam Aircraft plan to have the A700 very light jet certified in 2009 and hope to launch mass production a year later. After Colorado-based Adam Aircraft went into bankruptcy, Russia’s Industrial Investors and Kaskol Group bought equal shares of the company for a combined $10 million through their holding of Delaware-based AAI Acquisition, which was set up for the purchase. The deal has now cleared review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, paving the way for investors to spell out their long-term plans.
Airbus has picked Safran’s Sagem Defense & Security Div. to supply the flight data acquisition and security system for the A350XWB wide-body twinjet. The system will rely on technologies developed for the A380 transport and A400M airlifter.
Maarten Uijt de Haag, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology at Ohio University , has won its Institute of Navigation’s annual Thomas L. Thurlow Award for contributions to aviation safety and navigation. Sanjeev Gunawardena, an avionics research engineer who recently obtained his doctorate from Ohio University, received the William E. Jackson Award from the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA).
Bill Bredt has been appointed executive vice president/chief operating officer of Air Canada , effective Aug. 11. He returns to Air Canada after being senior vice president/COO of Jazz Air. Bredt succeeds Rob Reid, who has retired.
Rolls-Royce released interim results last week reflecting the continuing success of its business strategy and solid growth in the commercial aerospace market for the first half of the year. Senior company executives recognize the commercial aerospace sector will not avoid the effects of a general economic downturn and high oil prices, but maintain any impact on the company will be mitigated. The overall order book grew by 17% to £53.5 billion ($105.9 billion), while pre-tax profit was also up to £389 million from £377 million.
NASA has demonstrated the ability to sense a wing’s shape in flight and determine the stresses on its structure in real time, offering the possibility of improving aircraft efficiency and safety by actively controlling wing shape and redistributing loads. The agency is wrapping up flight tests of the Fiber-Optic Wing Shape Sensor on its Ikhana unmanned aircraft, a modified General Atomics Predator B operated by NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif.
The Star Alliance sees harmonization of Africa’s irregular air connections as the formula for improving its presence on the continent. South African Airways is Star’s premier carrier in Africa, and Egyptair is its newest, so the airline group will have entry points at both ends of the continent. The two carriers expect to coordinate their schedules to feed flights into West and Central Africa.
Aug. 4-7—Fatigue Concepts Course: “Fatigue, Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerance. of Aging and Modern Aircraft Structures” Holiday Inn, Melbourne, Fla. And Aug. 11-14-Huntsville Sparkman Center. Redstone Arsenal, Al. Call + 1 (916) 933-5000 or see www.fatcon.com/sched.html Aug. 14-17—Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine’s 2008 Frontiers of Aerospace Medicine Conference. Crowne Plaza, Darwin, Australia. Call +61 (3) 9899-1686 or see www.asam.org.au
No one ever said that designing software to automate the command-and-control centers providing air defense for NATO nations in Europe would be easy. But Thales Raytheon Systems has been developing an enormous amount of computer code over the past nine years to do the job. In fact, the total is 13 million lines of code, more than 10 times what was written to run the Peace Shield air defense system for Saudi Arabia.
Sustaining growth of the worldwide sport aviation movement during the next 10 years depends largely on reducing the cost of flying, developing alternate fuels and defeating user fees, according to Experimental Aircraft Assn. officials.
Profitability for EasyJet is falling, with the airline now only projecting a profit of £110-120 million in the fiscal year ending in September. The airline had projected a profit growth of 20% over last year (£201 million). The airline is suffering from a £185-million increase in fuel costs, only half of which could be regained through additional revenues. The carrier also is limiting capacity growth to 4-6% for the winter season, and signals it may curtail that further if market pressures require such action.
A San Francisco company, a specialist in anti-counterfeiting on the Internet and in more than a half-dozen industries, is working with several aerospace manufacturers to develop an application to protect the security of aircraft parts. Benjamin Jun, Cryptology Research Inc.’s vice president for technology, says the company is looking into embedding a security core in a part’s existing microchip. Verification would come through a device attached to an aircraft computer system or at a maintenance shop.
