The B-52, F-14 Tomcat and F/A-18 Hornet aren't the family's old station wagons as each is an instrument of war. If through the advancement of aviation technology, each one can give the U.S. an unfair advantage, it is something the U.S. will always pursue. The B-52 remains operational only because of technological breakthroughs with GPS-guided bombs and long-range cruise missiles that allow it to operate beyond the range of surface-to-air missiles.
Xavier Sahut D'Izarn (see photos) has been appointed vice president/general manager of France-based Safran subsidiary Snecma's Military Engine Div. Jacques Serre has been named vice president/ general manager of the Space Engine Div. and Bruno Pasini vice president-human resources. D'Izarn has been director of large commercial engine programs. He succeeds Jean-Luc Engerand, who is now chairman/CEO of Snecma Propulsion Solide. Serre has been his division's deputy operating director.
China appears to be inching back into the commercial launch market, following the orbiting of Chinasat 6B late last week. The 38-transponder C-band spacecraft, built by Thales Alenia Space, lifted off from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China on July 5, on board a Long March 3B booster. It was the first commercial launch by Long March since Apstar VI, also built by Thales Alenia, last year.
Avic I and Avic II units are among Chinese firms receiving $500 million in contracts from Boeing for civil aircraft components. BHA Aero Composites, a Boeing, Hexcel and Avic I joint venture, also got more work.
A German decision to reduce funding for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance program risks precipitating its collapse. An "extraordinary meeting" is to be held next week to discuss the crisis.
The British Parliament's Defense Committee last week raised concern over "whether the [air force's] current transport and tanker fleet can provide the level of availability required between now and when . . . new aircraft come into service." The air force's aging C-130K Hercules is to be replaced by the A400M beginning in 2011, while the L-1011 Tristar and VC-10 tanker/transport fleets are due to be replaced by the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft also in 2011.
Hasso Niemann, a retired NASA scientist whose instruments probed the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn's largest moon, Titan, has received the first Al Seiff Memorial Award. The award honors researchers for contributions to the understanding of atmospheres of planets or moons through the use of high-speed probes that enter those atmospheres.
Military officials say body counts aren't a good way to assess progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, so it was odd when Pentagon briefers touted the number of insurgents killed, prisoners taken and weapons discovered recently. A three-week operation is sweeping parts of Baghdad and surrounding provinces where Al Qaeda has had the time and freedom "to develop elaborate defenses," said Army Brig. Gen. Perry Wiggins, the Joint Staff's deputy director for operations. Wiggins said U.S. and Iraqi forces captured 500 of the enemy and found more than 50 major weapons caches.
U.S. Strategic Command, with headquarters at Offutt AFB, Neb., now has a network-centric warfare capability that allows users to create pictures of critical events on their computers and simultaneously share them with others. Lockheed Martin's User-Defined Operational Picture is to shorten decision cycles through real-time connectivity and increased computing power for global strike, missile defense and information operations.
David Henze has become CEO/president for U.S. operations and Mike White chief operating officer of SkyLink Air and Logistic Support USA Inc., Dulles, Va. Henze was an IBM Corp. business development executive. Mike White was president of Trade Network Consultants.
The first Embraer Phenom 100 undergoes ground vibration test (GVT) at the manufacturer's Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, facility prior to first flight of the very light jet. The purpose of the GVT, in which an aircraft is suspended from the ceiling of the test facility with elastic cables, is to validate the aeroelastic model of the aircraft, according to Embraer. Flight controls are evaluated for flexibility, and the cables and brackets are tested with a full surface load on the ailerons, rudder and elevator.
The U.S. Air Force is conducting aerodynamic tests of a 2% model of a blended-wing-body (BWB) design at the Arnold Engineering Development Center near Tullahoma, Tenn. The object of the tests is to provide data to help evaluate the BWB's flight characteristics at higher Mach numbers than those applied to the same model earlier this year at NASA Langley Research Center's National Transonic Facility in Hampton, Va.
A framework for the follow-on development of Saab’s JAS 39 Gripen appears secure. Sweden’s parliament has approved a 4.1-billion-krona ($595-million) budget that the country’s government is considering using to upgrade 31 older Gripens to the new JAS 39C/D standard and to launch a rolling technology demonstrator program for the small fighter. Saab is awaiting a formal green light from the government, which it expects in the autumn, says President/ CEO Ake Svensson.
Denny Raitz, who is associate technical fellow for lifecycle support for Boeing, has received the Leonard Ross Award from the Aerospace Industries Assn. Raitz was cited for his efforts to create a guidebook used by program managers to identify specific functionalities needed in an electronic technical manual. That tool is now a part of the S1000D specification, which establishes standards for civil and military vehicles and equipment.
Investigators are seeking clues to the June 25 crash of a PMT Air Service Antonov An-24 in mountainous terrain in southern Cambodia that killed all 22 people on board. The aircraft (Reg. XU-U4A) departed Siem Reap-Angkor Airport for Sihanoukville Kompong Som Airport. At about 10:40 a.m. local time, the An-24 crashed into Phnom Damrey Mountain at 1,640-ft. altitude, according to preliminary reports which did not indicate if the aircraft was equipped with terrain warning devices.
Richard H. Heist has been appointed senior vice president/provost/professor of engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He was dean of the School of Engineering/director of the Nucleation Laboratory/professor of chemical engineering at Manhattan College in New York.
Brian Elson has been named director of legislative affairs for the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. He was associate director of governmental affairs in the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Transportation Dept.
Should airlines tell the world what the next commercial transports must look like? In other words, do they know enough about cutting-edge technology, including new propulsion modes, to assert that Airbus, Boeing and their peers need to pursue further innovations in the field of environmentally friendly aircraft? Or should only the marketplace issue such requests?
In the classic television series Star Trek, the Starship Enterprise speeds around the galaxy on blue light propulsion beams, then maneuvers into orbit around many different worlds before zooming off again to do more exploration. Such science fiction becomes fact here as the $446-million NASA Dawn mission is readied for liftoff on an eight-year, 3-billion-mi. journey to the protoplanets Vesta and Ceres (see cover).
Arianespace is gearing up for a fresh assault on the commercial launch market, following a basketful of buys and orders from the Paris air show. But archrival International Launch Services is not far behind. Taking advantage of a long shutdown at Sea Launch and uncertainty over the introduction of its Land Launch derivative, Arianespace announced four new launch contracts--one of two Arabsat 5s, a Thor 6, a Rascom 1 and an Insat 4G--plus a five-unit multiyear agreement with SES clinched in the runup to the show.
The juggernaut that is the FAA reauthorization effort has rolled past another congressional milestone, but in doing so it picked up a controversial amendment that threatens to draw a White House veto.
Regarding the article "Dueling Dates" (AW&ST June 11, p. 23), NASA is dealing from a position of strength now that it has Orion program funding and is blackmailing us taxpayers.
The U.S. Coast Guard has no one but itself to blame for the humiliating treatment it is suffering in Congress as a consequence of its failures in handling the $24-billion Deepwater program, which is aimed at modernizing the agency with fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, cutters and smaller ships.
