Damon Hylton and James Garzia have been appointed vice presidents of Seabury APG , Tysons Corner, Va. Hylton was senior director of market planning and sales distribution for Hawaiian Airlines, while Garzia was manager of network planning for US Airways.
Cessna Aircraft Co. flew its Citation CJ4 business twinjet for the first time May 5 at Wichita, Kan. Test pilots Dan Morris and Dave Bonifield flew the C4 for more than 2 hr., checking systems operations and handling qualities, and performing a sustained climb to 16,000 ft. Two other CJ4s production prototypes are being built for the certification program, and both are scheduled to fly late this year. The first airplane will be used for avionics and systems work, and the second for FAA function and reliability flights.
British Airways CEO Willie Walsh says delays in completing work to Heathrow Terminal 5 “compromised” testing of the site prior to its opening. With hindsight, he says he regrets not postponing the Mar. 27 opening, which resulted in hundreds of canceled flights and baggage chaos. Walsh told the British Parliament’s Transport Committee last week that the airline and BAA, which was responsible for the construction, did discuss postponing the opening.
A biomass-derived replacement for 100LL aviation gasoline has been unveiled by Swift Enterprises, a West Lafayette, Ind.-based company cofounded by Purdue University Prof. John Rusek. Claimed to be cleaner and cheaper, the 100-octane unleaded fuel comprises pure hydrocarbons synthesized from bio feedstocks such as sorghum. Rusek says ground tests in an aircraft engine indicate increased range compared with low-lead avgas, and Swift is negotiating a cooperative agreement with the FAA for more rigorous tests of its fuel.
Within a year, the Army will have a firmer plan of how to proceed with two experimental efforts: building a small satellite for tactical use and building a high-altitude, long-loiter tethered platform for intelligence collection. Lt. Gen. Kevin Campbell, director of the Army’s Space and Missile Defense Command, says these efforts are driven to provide more access to ground commanders of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and communications capabilities.
Testing of Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan demonstrator will transfer by October to the new flight test center being built by Pratt & Whitney Canada at Mirabel, outside Montreal. GTF flights on P&W’s Boeing 747SP testbed are to begin by July at the company’s test center in Plattsburgh, N.Y., which is set to close in October when operations are transferred to the C$90-million ($89.5-million) Mirabel facility. A second 747SP is being modified to replace P&WC’s Boeing 720 flying testbed in second-quarter 2009.
Pedro Ferraz Pereira has been named director of internal communications for Brazil-based Embraer . He was director of corporate communications for North America and has been succeeded by Christine Manna. Ferraz follows Rosana Silva Aguiar, who is now a human resources executive.
Brian E. George has become deputy director of cost, price and finance in the U.S. Defense Dept. Office of the Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon and Timothy J. Harp director of acquisition for the deputy assistant secretary for command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and information technology.
IntercooledIn an intercooled engine, air exiting the low-pressure (LP) compressor is cooled before entering the high-pressure (HP) compressor using bypass air scooped into a set of heat exchangers nested around the engine core. The cooled air has lower combustor entry temperatures, thereby lowering flame temperatures which, in turn, reduce NOx emissions. The overall thermodynamic efficiency is also improved because the relative temperature rise in the combustor is bigger for a given turbine entry temperature (TET).
Unmanned aircraft also are having a rough month. USAF crashed another missile-firing MQ-1 Predator that was flying out of Ali (formerly Talil) AB, Iraq, on May 2. Mechanical failure is suspected. In Florida, USAF and police are looking for a Raven UAV that ignored commands and flew off into the Ocala National Forest on May 6.
Various forms of unsteady or pulse detonation combustion in the future could feature turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) engine concepts that form part of NASA’s ongoing studies into highly reliable, reusable launch systems.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Price T. Bingham (Melbourne, Fla.)
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley’s bright idea of surveying aircraft, including the new KC-45A tanker, as possible platforms for the MP-RTIP radar is only the latest example of Air Force leadership looking for excuses not to support the Joint Stars program (AW&ST Apr. 28, p. 30).
The U.S. Navy’s push for a common data link to network its existing weapons is making friends of rivals. Raytheon and a Boeing/Lockheed Martin team are vying for the U.S. Air Force’s 250-lb. Small-Diameter Bomb II program, designed to kill moving targets. And, part of SDB II’s design will depend upon the weapon’s data link capability. Though Raytheon had decided to use the Rockwell Collins Strike Common Weapon Data Link system in its SDB II offering, the company is actually working closely with Boeing to manage its development.
Hundreds of stakeholders who use the European air traffic system agreed on the objectives of the Sesar master plan outlined at a meeting in Rome. However, there will be many challenges to meet if the new approach is to succeed. Roy McNulty, the chairman of the British Civil Aviation Authority, says the Single European Sky ATM Research (Sesar) program is now in a good news, bad news situation. The master plan provides a clear road map with which to move forward, but “now we have to make it all happen.”
The German military is shopping for nine new single-engine helicopters for its Army Air Corps School at Bueckeburg. The rotorcraft would be used for initial student training before pilots move on to using the EC135. Performance requirements include 3.5 hr. of endurance and speed exceeding 80 kt.
The Transportation Security Administration will have to submit to Congress an assessment of best practices for issuing biometric credentials to airport workers, under a bill introduced by the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) called the measure “legislating smart security,” because it will require a comprehensive plan before airports begin using biometric identification for its workers. But, the bill does not require airports to implement the systems.
Samuel Abbate (see photos) has been named vice president-wireless technologies/program manager for the New York wireless program of the Northrop Grumman Corp. , Doug McVicar vice president for the company’s support of the Virginia Information Technology Infrastructure Partnership and Edward Sturms vice president-infrastructure solutions.
Robin Hayes has been appointed executive vice president/chief commercial officer of JetBlue Airways . He was executive vice president-Americas for British Airways.
As Boeing keeps pressing in the political battle over the Air Force’s choice of an EADS/Northrop Grumman to provide its next aerial refueler, it takes solace in congressional support for its C-17 airlifters. The House Armed Services Committee this week is expected to authorize almost $4 billion for 15 more, but officially unrequested, C-17s. The additional aircraft would fill immediate transport and combat-support needs, lawmakers believe. But they may not believe Boeing was wronged in the tanker decision.
General Electric is joining with NASA to revive studies of its long-abandoned GE36 unducted fan, or “open rotor” and is simultaneously launching a next-generation CF34 technology effort as part of a pressing drive to develop families of fuel-saving engines.
In April, Southwest Airlines was caught in a maintenance mess when the FAA proposed a $10.2-million fine for flying airplanes that did not comply with an airworthiness directive. While the agency’s enforcement policies continue to generate concern in Congress, last month’s traffic numbers indicate the issue is settled among passengers. Southwest reports it flew 6.3 billion revenue passenger miles in April—a 5.7% increase compared with a year earlier. Load factor was 72.6%—up slightly from 72.3% in April 2007.
Carl Weimer, technical manager for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., has received the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, for his work on the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (Calipso) mission, which is dedicated to studying the impact that clouds and aerosols have on the Earth’s climate. He is credited with leading development of the satellite payload, and continues to support the mission as additional scientific rewards are realized.
Era Corp., a small, innovative air navigation technology company that helps airports and ATC organizations modernize air traffic surveillance, caught the interest of SRA International, which is branching out from its mission of supplying information technology to the U.S. government.
Another bill the White House has threatened to veto has stalled in the Senate. Failure to bring the FAA reauthorization bill up for a vote means Congress will have to pass another extension for the agency. FAA fee-collecting authority, which expired at the start of Fiscal 2008, on Oct. 1, 2007, has been extended four times; the latest extension ends June 30. Republicans balked at Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s plan to pass the long-delayed bill loaded with non-aviation matters. Sen.
General Electric is in the midst of the largest commercial engine production build-up in its history as it meets spiraling demand across the board that by 2010 will be close to hitting the 3,000-engines-per-year mark, more than double that of 2005. These figures do not even fully include the continuing sales success of the CFM56, produced by the GE/Snecma CFM International partnership. Nearly 1,360 CFM56 engines are expected to be produced in 2008, all the cores of which are made by GE at the rate of up to one every 4 hr.
