Air strikes in southern Somalia, at least one acknowledged by the U.S., are targeting principal Al Qaeda leaders in the region and troops that fled from the north when Ethiopian forces moved into the war-ravaged country to save the U.N.-backed transitional government.
Airbus has named Didier Evrard as head of the A350 program. Evrard previously worked at missile maker MBDA, where he led stand-off weapons programs when the organization was run by current Airbus COO Fabrice Bregier.
Oksana Bardygula has been appointed vice president-business development for Textura's aerospace and aviation practice in Southern California. She was a junior partner in the aviation practice at Mercer Management Consulting.
After nearly a decade of development and restructuring, Lockheed Martin has finally received the go-ahead from the Missile Defense Agency to begin producing the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system. The $619-million contract includes two Thaad fire units, 48 interceptors, six launchers and two fire control and communications elements. Delivery is scheduled for 2009.
The U.S. Navy oceanographic ship Mary Sears is helping Indonesian accident investigators locate the Adam Air Boeing 737-400 that vanished Jan. 1 from radar screens. Despite knowing the last known coordinates of the aircraft, searchers as of Jan. 10 had not yet located wreckage.
Delivery of six aircraft last month confirmed that European turboprop-maker ATR met its target to ramp up production. The EADS/Finmeccanica joint venture has been bolstered by a surge in orders resulting from high fuel prices that have made the turboprops more attractive than their small regional jet rivals. The close-out deliveries included an ATR 42-500 to Pakistan International Airlines and one to Finncomm Airlines. Two ATR 72-500s went to Kingfisher Airlines, while Air Caraïbes and Air Deccan received one each.
Larry B. Lehmann entered the U.S. Air Force in 1966, served in Vietnam, and is still involved in a 40-years-and-counting aviation career. He has done it all--repairing, flying, selling and recruiting. "Aviation is my love, second only to my faith and family," he says.
Goodrich Corp. announced Jan. 9 that it has been contracted by EADS unit Airbus to provide nacelle and thrust reverser systems for all versions of the European manufacturer's recently launched A350XWB. According to Goodrich, the contract is expected to generate about $10 billion in original equipment, service and spare part revenues over 20 years. The company's main competitor in this market is Aircelle, part of French group Safran.
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NASA will trim from the bottom to accommodate a half-billion-dollar hole in its expected funding this year, halting or shrinking low-priority programs to keep top-dollar efforts like the Orion crew exploration vehicle and International Space Station assembly on track. With scant hope for a loophole in the year-long continuing resolution ordered by the new appropriations chairmen in the Democratic 110th Congress, Administrator Michael Griffin says his choices are clear.
