Mary Glackin has been named deputy undersecretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere as part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration . She was acting director of the National Weather Service.
Airplanes saturate New York’s airways and airports. Southern California is heading for a capacity crunch. Chicago’s modernization of O’Hare will not be enough for the growing Great Lakes region.
A team from the University of North Dakota’s UND Aerospace is developing a resource manual to guide airport and airline employees coping with traumatic events. The team comprises three UND Aerospace professors and representatives of the university’s psychology and medical units. The National Academies selected the UND team over three competitors and awarded a $299,416 contract to it under the Transportation Research Board’s Airport Cooperative Research Program.
Boeing and Russian VSMPO-Avisma alloys manufacturer clinched a deal for deliveries in 2011-15 of rolled titanium worth $1.25 billion, which reportedly covers almost 35% of Boeing’s demand for titanium. Earlier last year Boeing and VSMPO established an equally owned joint venture to manufacture titanium components for the Boeing 787 in Russia, in a facility that is to be fully operational by 2011.
Raytheon has completed initial testing of command and control capability for the Navy’s missile-firing, Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. A single tactical control system can control two dissimilar air vehicles simultaneously. The company is developing the next-generation C2 system for unmanned aircraft, which will control stealthy and non-stealthy UAVs in the same airspace.
Boeing won an $8.7-million U.S. Air Force contract to provide parts for full-rate production of Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems for F-16s in Turkey and Greece and F/A-18s in Australia. Honeywell was awarded a $21-million contract add-on for full-rate production of 354 advanced multi-purpose displays for new and retrofitted U.S. and Australian F/A-18E/Fs and EA-18Gs. Boeing also won a $16.6-million contract add-on for procurement of nine Harpoon lightweight canister rounds for Turkey.
John R. Landon (see photo) has been appointed vice president-missiles within the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s government relations organization in Washington. He was deputy assistant Defense secretary for command, control, communications, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and information technology acquisition.
The U.S. Navy is exploring alternative ship platforms to host a sea trial of the MQ-8B because of continued delays in the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), which was to house the unmanned rotorcraft. The Navy hopes to reach initial operational capability with the Fire Scout in early 2009. The first two LCS are expected this year, but work by Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics on additional ships was canceled last year, leaving the Fire Scout vehicle without an official landing platform.
The two aviation conglomerates that China created out of its state industry in 1999, Avic I and Avic II, may re-merge their commercial aircraft businesses. An Avic 1 vice president says the two companies probably will “undertake consolidation and cooperation.” The talks are supposed to be exploratory; other officials say an agreement may be announced in March. The aim is to help the industry prepare for the production of a large commercial aircraft, which may turn out to be a small widebody, according to earlier reports.
NASA will skip a launch window for Mars for the first time in a decade in 2011 because of a delay in the selection process for the next Mars Scout mission forced by an undisclosed conflict of interest on the board that evaluates Scout mission proposals. The conflict was discovered in November, when NASA reviewed concept study proposals from the two Scout mission finalists. The evaluation board of members chosen from NASA, industry and the science community was disbanded and an entirely new board formed.
Boeing closed out 2007 with a rush of orders as it headed for what is likely to be a record year. The largest order, for 100 aircraft, was a formal confirmation from Dubai Aerospace Enterprises of a handshake deal announced at the Dubai air show last November. At list prices, the order is worth $10.9 billion and comprises 70 737s, 15 787s, 10 777-300ERs and five 747-8s. The 747-8 order was a milestone for the new airplane, which will debut next year, because it pushes total commitments to 103. All but 20 of them were for freighters.
Russian Space Agency head Anatoly Perminov says he harbors some doubts about Europe’s willingness to cooperate on Russia’s Crew Space Transportation System (CSTS), and its ability to finance a role in the system. “Most likely it would be necessary to develop a special agreement in this matter,” Perminov told reporters late last month, following an early December meeting between RSA and European Space Agency specialists.
Israeli-built Heron 1 long-endurance, medium-altitude unmanned aircraft are being used in Turkey’s military operations against militant Kurds along the border with Iraq, according to reports from the Middle East and Europe. Such aircraft would provide real-time electro-optical and communications surveillance of armed Kurdish groups and their command and control operations during raids into Turkey. The U.S.
Marc Garneau is one of three aviation pioneers who have been named as 2008 inductees to Canada ’s Aviation Hall of Fame , which is part of the Reynolds-Alberta Museum, Wetaskiwin, Alberta. Garneau was an astronaut and president of the Canadian Space Agency. The other inductees will be the late Frederick Kearns, former president/chief executive of Canadair Ltd.; and the late Hubert Pasmore, founder of Fairchild Aircraft Ltd. (Canada).
Northrop Grumman researchers have produced and demonstrated a transistor that has a maximum frequency of operation of more than 1,000 GHz. The device is an indium phosphide-based High Electronic Mobility Transistor, which is projected to provide a generational leap in military and commercial applications. NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory validated the transistor’s ultra-fast speed, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency supported development that centered initially on a submillimeter-wave imaging focal-plan technology program.
China Lake (Calif.) Naval Air Weapons Station has opened its new 2,200-ft. airstrip strictly for unmanned aircraft operations. The base will be home for many of the shore-based tests and experiments including validation of takeoff and landing of stealthy, unmanned aircraft from a carrier that now depends on radar to know where aircraft are during bad weather and at night. The test work also will focus on operating manned and unmanned aircraft in the same airspace. Two Raytheon Cobra UAVs flew the first missions from China Lake on Dec. 13.
Pratt & Whitney aims to slash handling times for engines with an overhaul shop it and China Eastern Airlines have begun building in Shanghai. The plant, which will handle only CFM56 engines, will be Pratt & Whitney’s first major overhaul facility in China. “This was a very, very logical move for us to make” in developing an Asian strategy, says James Keenan, general manager of Pratt & Whitney’s engine maintenance business.
China’s first lunar probe, Chang’e 1, will face its next challenge Feb. 21, when an eclipse will leave it without solar power for 5.5 hr. and freeze its systems at extremely low temperatures. Up to now, the spacecraft and the ground-based system that directed it into lunar orbit have performed at least as well as designed, according to official statements.
European military planners will meet again on Jan. 11 in another attempt to secure commitments for helicopters and other assets required for a European Union mission to Chad and the Central African Republic to support refugees from Darfur. If agreement is reached, the EU could give a go-ahead for the mission as early as Jan. 28. The initial requirement needed to launch the operation is four transports and eight helicopters.
Scott Kuechle has been promoted to executive vice president/chief financial officer from senior vice president of the Goodrich Corp. , Charlottte, N.C. John Grisik will be retiring as executive vice president-operational excellence and technology, effective Mar. 31. He will be succeeded by Jerry Witowski, who has been president of the Electronic Systems segment. Following Witowski will be Curtis Reusser, who has been president of Goodrich’s Aerostructures Div.
NASA has hired Zero Gravity Corp., which operates a Boeing 727-200 as a microgravity entertainment ride for paying customers, to provide the microgravity flights for NASA personnel and experiments. A one-year, $4.7-million contract started Jan. 1, and has four one-year options that could bring the total to $25.4 million. Flying out of Johnson Space Center in Houston and Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the Las Vegas-based company’s pilots will simulate microgravity by flying parabolic profiles.
Russia’s stake in EADS has moved to state-owned Bank of Development (known also as Vnesheconombank, VEB) from privately controlled Vneshtorgbank. The latter initially bought the 5% holding and sold it for more than $1.4 billion. This year, VEB is expected to sell its stake in the United Aircraft Corp., which is becoming the umbrella company for Russian aerospace.
The U.S. Air Force’s newest fighter, the stealthy F-22, achieved its first intercept of a Russian Tu-95MS Bear H aircraft late last year. The Russian aircraft did not penetrate U.S. airspace or “come close” during the Nov. 22 mission, according to Maj. Allen Herritage at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, where the interceptors are based.
Fuel prices and the “resulting impact on the credit climate for airliners” forced MaxJet to take the “drastic measure” of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 24, according to CEO William D. Stockbridge. The Dulles, Va.-based low-fare, all-business-class carrier launched operations November 2005 with Boeing 767-200 service between New York JFK and London Stansted. MaxJet is considered a “boutique” carrier—an airline that targets a specific group of passengers and markets with luxury services at a lower fare compared to a major carrier.
