The House Appropriations defense subcommittee added $480 million to the Joint Strike Fighter research and development account to fund continued work on the alternate engine for the F-35. The Pentagon argued against funding the alternate engine for fear it would reduce the focus and resources necessary for the program of record. Lawmakers also add $200 million to the development account to address “unfunded information assurance requirements” driven by Defense Dept. policy updates, the committee’s report says.
Alan and Dale Klapmeier, brothers and co-founders of the Cirrus Design Corp., have received the the Dr. Godfrey L. Cabot Award from the Boston-based Aero Club of New England . The award recognizes contributions to advance and foster aviation or spaceflight. The Klapmeiers were cited for introducing thousands of pilots to the joys and benefits of general aviation and helping reinvigorate the GA industry with Cirrus aircraft.
This won’t make the Russians happy. Boeing has won an $80-million contract to conduct activation planning of a European-based Missile Defense Complex as part of the Ground-based Midcourse Defense program. Work will be done at Huntsville, Ala., and the unnamed European site. The company also conducted first flight July 25th of the initial one of four C-17s being built for the Canadian Defense Forces. The aircraft is to be delivered Aug. 8. Boeing also was awarded a $28.3-million contract from the Navy for V-22 spare components.
No mention was made in the article on DayJet (AW&ST July 2, p. 54) of employees’ compensation packages, specifically the “25 pilots with roughly 600,000 hours flight time.” That is an amazing figure in an article full of amazing figures, and would mean these pilots have an average of 24,000 hr. of flight time each. I have flown for 40 years—in military, civil and airline operations—and have more than 18,000 hr. DayJet must be paying very high salaries with superlative benefits to attract these highly experienced pilots.
Germany appears to be moving closer to joining the Italian-led Vega light launcher program, following issue of a study contract to EADS Astrium last week.
The report on the converted DC-10 that clipped treetops while dropping fire retardant (AW&ST July 2, p. 20) correctly notes that turbofans do not spool up quickly, and result in a less agile aircraft. However, the implication that turboprops are quicker to spool up is wrong; they suffer from the same limitation. That said, the powerplant on a firefighting turboprop normally operates at a constant RPM, and a near-instantaneous increase in power can be obtained by coarsening the propeller pitch without the need to accelerate the rotating mass.
WestJet founder Clive Beddoe has opted to relinquish his role as CEO to the airline’s president, Sean Duffy, effective Sept. 4. The transition will occur about a year after Beddoe named Duffy to succeed him. Beddoe says his new responsibility as executive chairman “more accurately reflects the role I have been progressively fulfilling for the past eight months, as I have handed more responsibility to Sean Duffy and our executive team.”
Fernando Caralt has been named to the board of directors of Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc. , South St. Paul, Minn. He is president of CIMSA Ingenieria de Sistemas.
Airline seating configurations remain well below the standard ratings published by manufacturers. Only a few months after Airbus downgraded the A380’s basic capacity to 525 passengers from 555, Qantas officials say the airline will install 450 seats. The carrier’s decision to install a premium economy class of 32 seats on the upper deck partially explains the spacious nature of the layout. The upper deck will also feature 72 business-class seats that can extend to serve as beds, while the lower deck will have 14 first-class seats and 332 in economy.
Richard G. Matthews (see photo) has become vice president-aviation products/site manager for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s St. Augustine (Fla.) Manufacturing Center. He is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel who was vice director of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB. Matthews succeeds Steven Timmerman, who will be retiring in December.
Frederick A. Boorady, technical principal at Aerojet in Gainesville, Va., has received the Reston, Va.-based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics ’ 2007 Wyld Propulsion Award. He was recognized for multiple contributions to the development of numerous liquid propulsion technologies as well as developing and fielding multiple liquid propulsion systems. Frank W. Steinle, senior engineer at the Aerospace Testing Alliance at Arnold AFB, Tenn., received the 2007 Ground Testing Award.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is launching the second of three studies on U.S.-China trade relations. This go-round will provide an in-depth assessment of the trade relationship and the causes behind the huge U.S.-China trade imbalance. The study will also examine the extent of Chinese intervention to promote investment, employment and exports. Case studies will be included in areas where government intervention is prevalent including the aircraft, semiconductor and telecommunications sectors.
Simon Moore has been appointed director of the Private Jets Div. of London Gatwick Airport-based Air Partner . He was U.K. manager of Air Partner Commercial Jets. Moore has been succeeded by Matthew Savage, who has been sales director of Excel Airways. Richard Thomas has been named director of group marketing.
Japan Air Lines has opened two new passenger lounges at Narita International Airport’s Terminal 2 that serves as JAL’s chief international hub. The lounges can accommodate nearly 700 people and feature a self-serve dining area with both buffet-style hot-meal service and breakfast foods. Passengers have access to showers, high-speed wireless LAN connections, and a room designed for families traveling with children.
Space shuttle Endeavour astronauts on the upcoming STS-118/13A.1 mission will try to ensure that the International Space Station is ready to receive the pressurized modules needed to support a full crew of six when the long assembly process ends in a little more than three years. Superficially, the space station won’t look much different when the six Americans and a Canadian depart after at least seven and as many as 10 days docked to the station. But the way will be clear to start making major changes on the next mission in October.
Raytheon won a $201-million contract increase for production of 190 Standard Missile-2 weapons and 121 missile containers for the U.S., Japan, Germany, Spain and Canada by September 2009.
ABX Air Inc.’s board of directors rejected a $7.75-per-share offer made by ASTAR Air Cargo in a public expression of merger interest. James H. Carey, ABX board chairman, said “meaningful synergies” were possible in a merger but the board, advised by Goldman, Sachs & Co., could find no value transferring to ABX shareholders.
The Missile Defense Agency awarded an $80-million contract to Ground-Based Missile Defense prime contractor Boeing for planning work for the addition of sites in Eastern Europe to the system. Talk of adding a radar facility in the Czech Republic and 10 interceptors in Poland sparked ire from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who suspended the decades-old Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty in response to the planning. The contract with Boeing, $3.7 million of which are obligated, allows for detailed site preparation work, including architectural drawings.
Further deterioration of the dollar-euro exchange rate in the second half is expected to depress EADS revenues for the full year by up to 10%, based on 440-450 expected Airbus deliveries, the company says. Combined with a possible earnings hit from the A400M and other programs, it notes, this shows the continued need for streamlining, despite a burgeoning order book (see p. 27). EADS said Airbus orders nearly doubled to 680 aircraft in the first half, permitting the company to post €70 billion worth of new business—almost five times the first-half 2006 figure.
The White House is threatening to veto the Homeland Security Dept. appropriations bill being debated by the Senate because it calls for $2.2 billion more than the $34.2-billion budget request. Democrats say recent events justify the increased spending. They cite Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling” that the U.S. faces an increased terrorist threat this summer. There’s also the most recent National Intelligence Estimate—findings by the 16 U.S.
Barry Hofer has been appointed vice president-facilities and airport affairs for Northwest Airlines . He was vice president-financial planning and analysis and succeeds Jim Greenwald, who will be retiring. Hofer, in turn, will be succeeded by Terry Mackenthun, who has been managing director of financial planning and analysis.
Technical problems with the antenna included in the B-2 radar modernization program are likely to slow production of the system. House Appropriations defense subcommittee members propose a $100-million reduction from the $270.6-million request in the Fiscal 2008 budget, reducing the order from eight to three units. Also, $38 million is reallocated to beef up the radar development account.
Boeing's new X-48B, an unmanned blended-wing-body demonstrator, flew for the first time on July 20th at Edwards AFB, Calif. The 21-ft. wingspan, 500-lb. test vehicle climbed to 7,600 ft. and reached an airspeed of 70 kt. during a half-hour flight. Goals are to reach 10,000 ft. and 120 kt. by the end of the program. Researchers want to test stability and flight control at low-speeds during takeoffs and landings. Later, they will switch emphasis to look at the design's low-noise characteristics.
