Gregory L. Steiner has been appointed president of the Kaman Corp. ’s Aerospace Group, Bloomfield, Conn., effective July 7. He has been vice president-systems for GE Aviation Systems, Santa Ana, Calif.
Airbus and Boeing should stop stalling and get on with providing customers with much needed replacements for their A320 and 737 families, respectively, urge Air France executives.
There have been years of ongoing debate over how many C-5s and C-17s are needed in the U.S. Air Force fleet. But, it appears pressure is building in the strategic airlift community—literally.
Diehl Aerospace, Liebherr, Safran, Thales and Zodiac have agreed to form a joint venture to provide through-life support for military aircraft. The venture, to be known as OEM Defense Services, will be earmarked in particular for European cooperative programs such as the A400M, Tiger attack helicopter and NH90 transport/frigate rotorcraft, and outsourcing applications.
Finnair and its pilots union have called a ceasefire in their labor dispute. The two sides have an agreement that runs through November and provides a 3.9% pay raise for pilots and increased efficiency for the airline. Talks for a long-term agreement will resume in the fall.
A U.S. government prototype of “network-enabled operations” demonstrated here in a Boeing laboratory shows how old and new ATC systems and military command centers may soon be exchanging real-time data seamlessly, something they can’t do now.
Tom Triola’s letter “Solution for Labor Shortage” (AW&ST June 9, p. 10) says performance should be a priority over demands for pay. But the need to urge local employees to take the pride in their work needed to produce the performance ignores one important element: leadership, or the lack of it. People in the aviation industry will work hard if they think they are all headed in the same direction as their leaders. There is little evidence of anything resembling leadership in the airline industry or FAA; management possibly, but not leadership.
China’s earthquake in May caused the largest one-month dip in the country’s international and domestic air travel since the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic of 2003. Air China, the chief international carrier, saw passenger loads fall 0.8% below last year, and officials blame the earthquake and tighter visa restrictions on travel. Load factors were off 4.5%. One bright spot was premium-seat sales, which were up 1% including a 1.6% increase on routes to the U.S. China Southern, the largest domestic carrier, experienced a 0.1% decline in traffic.
Prof. T. Nejat Veziroglu, University of Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.)
Regarding hydrogen-fueled passenger aircraft, there are two major concerns facing the airline industry: growing amounts of CO2 emissions to the upper atmosphere and continuously increasing jet fuel prices as petroleum sources are being depleted fast. Both of these problems could permanently be resolved by converting to hydrogen.
Increased inspections of wire bundles in airliners that resulted in recent flight cancellations are an outgrowth of more than a decade’s worth of FAA research into the safe transmission of electrical power and new technology developments such as self-repairing wire.
The SAS Group has abandoned plans to sell Spanair after being unable to find a buyer for acceptable financial terms. The sale was part of SAS’s Strategy 2011 restructuring agenda. Iberia, the most likely candidate, walked away from talks several weeks ago. SAS group says it will not try to make Spanair profitable.
Boeing’s chances of ultimately winning work in a recompetition of the U.S. Air Force’s replacement refueler appear unusually strengthened by the Government Accountability Office’s recent findings.
The F-35 recently was designated as the lead platform for airborne electronic attack, says U.S. Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz, deputy executive officer for the Joint Strike Fighter program. Soon after, the director of program assessment and evaluation, Brad Berkson, suggested the Navy act as the executive agent for a next-generation jammer analyses of alternatives. The idea is that a joint effort also will serve the Air Force and Special Operations Command.
Jim Moravecek has been named president of the Engine Alliance , East Hartford, Conn., the joint venture of General Electric and Pratt & Whitney. He succeeds Bruce Hughes, who will return to GE Aviation. Moravecek has been director of the alliance’s GP7200 program for Pratt & Whitney.
The demand for sustainable aviation is here to stay. Today, the green challenge is everywhere, from wishful thinking to innovative projects. There is no longer any doubt that an environmentally friendly airline industry will become a way of life. However, impatience is rampant as the public, in general, doesn’t yet understand that it takes up to a decade to develop, test, manufacture and put into service all-new aircraft and engines. Moreover, no significant technology breakthrough is in sight, making engineering teams’ assignment even more complex.
An international team of researchers has discovered a new mineral in a sample of comet dust collected in the stratosphere by NASA’s high-flying ER-2 aircraft. Dubbed Brownleeite—after Donald E. Brownlee, a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle, who pioneered the study of interplanetary dust particles (IDPs)—the material is a manganese silicide. Researchers using a transmission electron microscope at NASA Johnson Space Center spotted the mineral in a 2003 IDP sample that originated in the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup.
While overshadowed by the latest replacement tanker development, the fall-out from Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne’s dismissal continues to reverberate around the Pentagon. Apparently there was another point of contention between Wynne—a supporter of continued limited production of the Lockheed Martin F-22—and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Wynne favored deploying the Raptor in the Middle East.
The Bush administration and the House of Representatives are headed for a clash over the Fiscal 2009 NASA authorization bill. It adds three space shuttle flights that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) hasn’t cleared, including one that isn’t on the baseline flight manifest. The House voted 409-15 to authorize $20.21 billion for NASA—$2.6 billion above Bush’s request—including $1 billion to accelerate the development of the Orion and Ares shuttle follow-on vehicles.
Robert Wall (Paris), Amy Butler (Washington), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
The repercussions in Europe to a new U.S. Air Force refueler competition could be huge and cascade well beyond defense industrial ties. Access to the European defense market for U.S. companies could be one of the first areas where the GAO decision will leave its mark. One senior U.S. industry official developing business opportunities in Europe says there’s concern that European countries will react by excluding U.S. products for consideration in competitions on their home turf.
I read with interest Virgil H. Soule’s letter “Bring Back Tilt Wing Concept” (AW&ST May 26, p. 12), in which he says the tilt wing had advantages over the tiltrotor concept regarding wing and rotor disc-loading. However, beyond the wing/disc-loading performance discussion, the NASA data gathered in the 1960s by the Chance-Vought/LTV XC-142A experimental prototype identified an obvious fundamental physics limitation of any tiltwing concept, regardless of any new technology, computer-modeling or materials developed since the 1960s.
In an unusual move for a U.K. development program, the Fire Shadow loitering munition will be pressed into users’ hands for trials during its development process to validate the weapon’s concept and gain user feedback before production starts.
Boeing is rethinking its twin-wide-body strategy, weighing whether to move forward with a 787-10 or even to fill that market segment with a member of an entirely new aircraft family.
Bob Fornaro, who has been president/CEO of AirTran Airways , also will be chairman. He succeeds Joe Leonard, who has retired. Arne G. Haak has been promoted to senior vice president-finance/treasurer/chief financial officer from vice president-finance/treasurer. Geoffrey T. Crowley has been named to the board of directors. He is president of Northshore Leasing, Appleton, Wis., and was a founder of Air Wisconsin Airlines.
A move by France to rejoin the NATO military command and reorient strategic policy could come undone if the country does not obtain the stronger European security ties it seeks in return.
If Boeing is celebrating its successful protest of the Air Force’s refueling tanker decision, the menu includes a large helping of humble pie. Boeing raised eyebrows at the Pentagon and all around town with its unprecedented media blitz, complaining about the initial award to its competitor. But in an e-mail circulated to employees, senior officials at Boeing’s defense sector say “this is a time for humility.” The message calls for employees to proceed with “professional decorum in all manner of communications,” from official talks to casual discussions with friends.
