Mooney Airplane Co. intends to immediately start deliveries of its M20 TN Acclaim now that the single-engine piston aircraft has won FAA certification. The Acclaim, which replaces the Bravo on Mooney's product line, is powered by a 280-hp. Teledyne Continental TSIO 550-G turbo-normalized engine and has 237 KTAS at its 25,000-ft. service ceiling. With optional 130-gal., long-range tanks, the Acclaim has a range of up to 1,615 naut. mi. at a 200-kt. cruise speed. The Garmin 1000 avionics package is standard.
IN A NEW ALLIANCE BETWEEN FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL and Garmin International, FSI will become the preferred online trainer for Garmin's panel-mounted avionic products. Initially, training will center on the G1000 system that's installed in increasing numbers of single- and twin-engine airplanes, including the Cessna Citation Mustang lightweight jet.
GE Aviation has renamed its Learning Center in Evendale, Ohio, to honor Brian H. Rowe. He was president/CEO from 1979-93 and retired as division chairman in 1995 after 38 years with the company. Among Rowe's accomplishments were leading development of the CF6, GE's first commercial high-bypass engine; helping to form CFM International, a 50/50 joint company of GE and Snecma of France; and launching the GE90 engine.
In a "Houston, we have a solution" mode, the Greater Houston Partnership of the area's business community has a campaign underway to promote industry expansion. Chairman Drayton McLane notes that the aerospace sector is a logical target for what the region already has to offer, pointing to the Johnson Space Center and the engineering and physics graduates of Rice and the University of Houston as invaluable resources.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the cost of Space Radar alternatives varies wildly, from as little as $26 billion to as much as $94 billion, according to a newly published report. Space Radar will be a topic of debate next month as the new Congress reviews the Pentagon's Fiscal 2008-13 budget request. Space Radar concepts have been crafted, reformed and consistently cut or terminated by Congress in recent years, and the program faces an uphill battle to gain support.
Canadian Forces Brig. Gen. (ret.) Dwayne Lucas has been appointed vice president/general manager for products and engineering for Cascade Aerospace, Abbotsford, British Columbia. He was director general of aerospace equipment program management for the Canadian National Defense Dept.
Air Force experience with the F-22 Raptor has been favorable (see p. 46), but the service's acquisition program is an "excellent example" of what can go wrong in a program that fails to match requirements with resources and takes on "a number of new and unproven technologies," Government Accountability Office chief David Walker says. Walker pinpoints failure to "capture the appropriate technology, design and manufacturing knowledge" at the right time during development as the cause of a 10-year delay in getting the new aircraft to the warfighter.
Hisdesat says Belgium, Germany and an undisclosed country have signed up to use Spain's XTAR-EUR and Spainsat military communications spacecraft. Belgium will use a fixed portion of the satellites' X-band capacity for an unspecified period, with a right to use additional "on-call" capacity at an agreed price. Germany is thought to have contracted for bandwidth to supply interim milsatcom needs, notably in Afghanistan, until the country's own Satcom Bw 2 system is ready in 2009. Denmark, Spain and the U.S. State Dept.
Scientists studying the shapes of 75 radar-dark patches in the northern hemisphere of Saturn's moon Titan are leaning toward the theory that an Earth-like evaporation/condensation process is the most likely source of methane in the moon's atmosphere, rather than some sort of cryovulcanism that ejects the gas from reservoirs beneath the surface. Low radar reflectivity suggests a very smooth surface.
Chad Sweet has been named chief of staff for the U.S. Homeland Security Dept. He was special assistant to Secretary Michael Chertoff and deputy chief of staff. Paul A. Schneider has been confirmed as undersecretary for management and Donald H. Kent, Jr., has been promoted to assistant secretary for legislative affairs from deputy assistant secretary.
With the opening of thrice-weekly services from Beijing to Lagos, Nigeria, China Southern Airlines has begun the first flights by a Chinese airline to an African nation. Nigeria, with its rich oil deposits, is China's second-largest African trading partner. As they search for new deposits of natural resources, Chinese investors are focusing more attention on Africa. Bilateral trade between China and Africa has an average annual growth rate of 23.6%. The carrier's route makes a stop in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, underscoring its role as an increasingly important hub.
Satoshi Yokota has become executive vice president-technology development and advanced design, Emilio Matsuo senior vice president-engineeering, Mauro Kern senior vice president-airline market, Edson Mallaco head of aeronautical services and Acir Padilha head of customer support, all for Embraer. Yakota was executive vice president-engineering and development. Matsuo was development engineering director, while Kern was vice president-airline market programs.
How analysts appraise a stock depends largely on how they feel toward a company and industry developments, their assessment of risks and the level of confidence in management, among other factors. Reports on Spirit AeroSystems Holdings, a Tier 1 supplier of commercial aviation components and subassemblies, provide a good example of starkly varying viewpoints.
Lockheed Martin is expecting a contract from the MDA to continue studying an air-launched variant of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missile interceptor, according to Mike Trotsky, director of the company's air and missile defense group. An earlier study examined use of PAC-3 on the F-15, and MDA is considering this capability for homeland defense against cruise missiles or short-range ballistic missiles. A contract, estimated to be worth about $3 million, will cover preparation work for a demonstration.
MARKET FOCUS Spirit AeroSystems stock has analysts all over the map 10 NEWS BREAKS U.S. agencies and GE aiding Indonesian probe of vanished Adam Air 737 17 First Eclipse 500 very light jet delivered to customer 18 Scientists have theory about 75 radar-dark patches on Saturn's moon Titan 19 Inflight broadband communications ser- vice for Euro bizjet operators takes off 20 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS Europe's Neuron UCAV poised to enter design phase 22
The Dec. 22 landing of the space shuttle orbiter Discovery demonstrated a capability of which the new Orion crew vehicle will have little: operational flexibility. From its final orbit, Discovery controllers had the option to put the vehicle into Edwards AFB, Calif., in the West, Kennedy Space Center in the East and, in a pinch, any of a dozen airfields in between. Orion will come in on a ballistic trajectory, subject to the vagaries of thrust misalignments and winds aloft. On a bad day, the error ellipse for a landing at Edwards could extend from Mexico to Oregon.
Eurocopter's Australian Tiger program is on budget and running smoothly after a bumpy start, as the EADS unit executes its plan to take over a national market that U.S. contractors once ruled. With the NH90 now holding the whole order for Australian Army troop-lift helicopters, the company may be just one competition away from dominating the core of Australia's planned rotary-wing fleet, leaving rivals with slim pickings.
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are taking advantage of the long-duration lifetimes of NASA's two Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) to test software that may be used in the advanced rover the U.S. agency plans to send to the Red Planet in 2009. Capabilities uploaded to the flight computers on board the rovers Spirit and Opportunity--both of which have operated about three years on the surface--include image recognition, which will boost the efficiency of valuable communications time and give the rovers more autonomy as they move toward a target.
Russian strategic missile developer Raduga is showing a radically re-configured variant of its Kh-55 nuclear-armed cruise missile, indicating it has, at a minimum, explored significant modifications as part of the development of a conventional version of the weapon. The acquisition of a conventionally armed, precision-strike cruise missile is a priority for the Russian air force. The Kh-555, the conventional derivative of the Kh-55 (or AS-15 Kent), is intended for use on at least the Tupolev Tu-160 Blackjack and the Tu-95 Bear.
Joseph Fuller, Jr., President/CEO (Futron Corp., Bethesda, Md.)
Hallelujah! It is time for the current space age to end and the next space age to begin (AW&ST Dec. 11, 2006, pp. 24 and 44). Space explorers need discontinuities or breakthroughs that will usher in lower cost, faster time to market and higher performance. Such a transformation is necessary to enable the full scope of the U.S.'s vision for exploration and reap the benefits and rewards of the next space age. At least three challenges must be addressed to enable the next space age:
Capt. Vito M. La Forgia, who is president of the Aeroservice Aviation Center, has received the Wright Brothers Memorial Award from the Greater Miami Aviation Assn. The award is among honors bestowed for contributions to the aviation and aerospace industries in South Florida and the Americas. Other honors were: Corporate Achievement Award to Enrique Cueto, CEO of LAN Airlines Cargo; Juan Trippe Award to Peter J. Dolara, senior vice president- Caribbean and Latin America for American Airlines; Neil Armstrong Award to Peter H.
Tatsuo Nagatomo has become vice president/general manager in Japan for Andersol Inc., East Hanover, N.J. He succeeds Yasuo Okada, who will be retiring.
