U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Patrick J. O’Reilly has been nominated for promotion to director from deputy director of the Missile Defense Agency and for promotion to lieutenant general.
Patrick S. Cheatham (see photos) and Andre C. Montoya have been appointed principal directors and Theodore J. Muelhaupt associate principal director at The Aerospace Corp. ’s Chantilly, Va., facility. Michael W. Fortanbary and Graham S. Arnold have been named principal directors at the Huntsville, Ala., office. Cheatham will head the Sensors, Signals and Electronics Subdiv. of the Electronics and Sensors Div. He was director of the division’s Sensor Engineering and Exploitation Dept. within the division.
Jim Gallagher (Director, Aircraft Health and Trend Monitoring System Program)
Frank Sligar’s comments regarding the level of technology in today’s aircraft, along with the pilot’s inability to detect when something operated by a computer is not working correctly, are valid when the only information being used is the aircraft Crew Alerting System (CAS).
Pratt & Whitney has established strategic university partnerships with Georgia Tech, Penn State and Virginia Tech, strengthening its relationships with these institutions and their highly ranked engineering programs. Pratt & Whitney will partner with the universities on fundamental research initiatives that support the design and development of propulsion systems used in commercial and military aircraft, and emerging technology and environmental programs.
The U.S. Air Force has awarded a contract to provide add-on armor kits for the C-5 to Qinetiq North America’s Technology Solutions Group. The company already provides armor for USAF C-17s and C-130s.
Senior management at Russia’s United Aircraft Corp. concede that a delay in first delivery of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 is increasingly possible. Two aircraft were due to be handed over in November and December. Alexey Fyodorov, head of United Aircraft Corp., says: “Without a doubt, the delivery schedule looks very tight now. I don’t exclude that [deliveries] could be postponed over a delay in certification tests.”
Japan Airlines was to add its code Mar. 30 to six additional routes served by China Eastern between China and Japan. The routes will give the two carriers joint services to 13 Chinese cities on 36 routes. Of the 318 flights scheduled per week, Japan Airlines will operate about 180 to 10 Chinese airports. The two airlines have had a code-sharing agreement since September 2002 and launched a reciprocal frequent-flier program last month.
The National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita (Kan.) State University is conducting research into fluid ingression damage mechanisms in composite sandwich structures widely used in the aerospace industry. NIAR is performing the work under the FAA’s Center of Excellence for Composites and Advanced Materials (Cecam), which validates the research, testing, certification and technology transfer of composites used in aircraft construction. John S.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. has ruled that the township of Tinicum, Pa., may not impose a privilege fee on airlines flying out of Philadelphia International Airport. The fee was created by the township after it failed to reach a deal with the City of Philadelphia on past-due property taxes. Airlines were against the fee, noting that the Anti-Head Tax Act prohibits the imposition of taxes, fees and charges by state and local jurisdictions on airlines and other airport users.
Squabbling over budget cuts in the Mars program apparently led Alan Stern, NASA’s hard-charging associate administrator for science, to resign from the agency Mar. 25. Stern declined comment on his abrupt move, but it came right after Administrator Michael Griffin countermanded an order from Stern’s Science Mission Directorate to trim $4 million from the budget of the long-lived Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs), Spirit and Opportunity. Stern, who retained his post as principal investigator on the New Horizons Pluto-flyby mission when he took the headquarters job on Apr.
Japan Airlines plans to add its code to six more routes operated by China Eastern between China and Japan. The additional code-shares will give the two carriers joint services to 13 Chinese cities on 36 routes.
Delta and American airlines were returning MD-80s to normal operations late last week after the carriers voluntarily grounded them for wiring rechecks—and to make certain the aircraft were in full compliance with an FAA airworthiness directive.
Gulfstream’s gambit to one-up Bombardier’s Global Express at the top of the business jet line will rely heavily on new technology developed by European propulsion, systems and aerostructures suppliers.
Lockheed Martin expects to develop 4,000-5,000 new lines of software code to fix a problem in its Space-Based Infrared System (Sbirs) satellites bound for geosynchronous orbit. Rick Ambrose, vice president of surveillance systems, says the first Sbirs satellite displayed a potential timing problem among its onboard processors. If certain functions don’t synchronize correctly, the timing issue could prohibit use of the safe mode that shuts down all but essential systems until the satellite receives commands from the ground in the event of an on-orbit problem.
The U.K. and France say they intend to forge a “joint industrial strategy for complex weapons,” one of a number of defense initiatives that emerged from an Anglo-French summit on Mar. 27, between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The aim is to provide renewed impetus to bilateral defense cooperation between the two countries. A communique from the summit also stated the two countries are to “pursue a common approach to in-service support” for the Airbus Military A400M.
NTSB investigators plan to conduct a ballistic trajectory analysis to help them locate a 4 X 5-ft. wing panel that separated from a US Airways Boeing 757 on Mar. 22. The composite panel, from the trailing edge of the upper side of the left wing, broke loose and struck several rear windows, cracking the outer pane of one. The safety board says the inner pane was not damaged, and pressurization of the aircraft was not compromised.
Undeterred by the turmoil surrounding potential industrial partners, Airbus officials are moving forward in defining the A350, with further supplier decisions and important configuration changes due soon. One of the latest design alterations is a shift to a 5,000-psi. hydraulics system. The baseline design used 3,000-psi. hydraulics, but the higher-pressure system allows for lighter and smaller pipes and actuators, improving fuel efficiency.
Turkmenistan Airlines has ordered two Boeing 737-900ERs and one 737-700. Boeing also added two 737 orders to its unidentified-customer list but said one 737 order has been withdrawn. The changes raise Boeing’s net 737 order list for 2008 to 184 aircraft and its total for all airplanes to 286.
J. Michael Loomis of Fort Wayne, Ind., has been elected president of the Washington-based National Transportation Safety Board Bar Assn. He succeeds Tony B. Jobe of Madisonville, La. Other new officers are: vice president, Mark T. McDermott of Washington; secretary, John S. Yodice of Washington; and treasurer, Christa Hinkley of Dallas. Regional vice presidents are: Gregory Miller of Anchorage, Alaska; Kent S. Jackson of Shawnee, Kan.; Jeffrey R. Small of Coraopolis, Pa.; Gregory J. Reigel of Hopkins, Minn.; Paul A. Lange of Stratford, Conn.; Robert F.
Designs to follow the stealthy F-35 are already being defined and to some extent described by Lockheed Martin’s competitors. Boeing was first out of the gate in February in discussing a follow-on fighter with wider-spectrum stealth. The company simultaneously floated to potential customers the idea of buying fewer Joint Strike Fighters and skipping to an even more advanced sixth-generation combat aircraft.
The final report on Adam Air Flight 574 cites deficiencies in airline oversight, maintenance and pilot training as factors in the crash that killed 102 people—and its findings are helping to reinforce a growing belief that Indonesian carriers are unfit to fly. Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee released its findings on Mar. 25. On Jan. 1, 2007, Flight 574 departed for Surabaya-Juanda Airport on Java from Sulawesi Island’s Manadao-Sam Ratulangi Airport.
The U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is seeking more flexibility and discretion to better regulate airports and respond more quickly to market changes. Agency officials told the Competition Commission (which is in the midst of a market inquiry into CAA’s U.K. airports) that its regulatory framework has not changed in 20 years. There's a clear case for reform, but airport investments and service quality improvements will still need to be paid for, according to the CAA.
Robert Burkhardt, director of the Engineer Research and Development Center’s Topographic Engineering Center, Alexandria, Va., has become the Army ’s first geospatial information officer.
