Derco Aerospace Inc. will plan for and manage spares and repairs for the U.S. Navy's fleet of H-60 helicopters as a subcontractor to Maritime Helicopter Support Co., a joint venture with Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. This year, the Milwaukee-based company will support abut 250 H-60s. Derco officials expect about $45 million in revenues during the 31-month span of the contract. Derco was selected by Sikorsky Support Services Inc., in July to provide maintenance repair and overhaul for the Navy's T-34C-, T-44- and T-6A-series fixed-wing training aircraft.
747, Creating the World's First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation by Joe Sutter, with Jay Spenser Smithsonian/HarperCollins, Hardcover, 288 pp., $26.95, ISBN: 0060882417
Lockheed Martin plans to begin extensive airborne evaluations of the F-35's mission systems in 2007 using a Boeing 737-300 modified into a unique Cooperative Avionics Test Bed (CATBird) to reduce development risk. The 737-300 is undergoing extensive modifications by BAE Systems in Mojave, Calif. The jet was previously owned by Lufthansa German Airlines and was purchased by Lockheed Martin specifically for conducting concurrent testing of mission systems for the F-35, says Doug Pearson, vice president for the F-35 Integrated Test Force.
The Brazilian government has rolled out its first Mirage 2000C fighter. France has been working with Brazil to train air and ground crews as part of a package that includes 12 refurbished airplanes from French inventory. The jets, which replace Mirage III fighters, will operate from a base near Anapolis, Brazil. France currently has its own Mirage 2000s deployed to Brazil to take part in the multinational Cruzex III exercise.
USAF Brig. Gen. Stephen P. Mueller has been named deputy director for operational capability requirements/deputy chief of staff for air, space and information operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. He has been chief of staff of the Joint Warfare Center, Supreme Allied Command for Transformation, Stavanger, Norway. Mueller will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. (select) Philip M. Ruhlman, who has been deputy director of Air Force studies and analyses, assessments and lessons learned at USAF Headquarters. Ruhl- man will be followed by Brig. Gen.
A serendipitous collision between two galaxy clusters at an angle that presents its profile to Earth has given astronomers what they believe is the first clear evidence that dark matter--the most likely explanation for much of the extra gravity in the Universe--actually exists. By contrasting superheated gas radiating in the X-ray spectrum with the mass distributed across the so-called Bullet Cluster, astronomers have been able to show that the gas--normal matter that can be "seen" by NASA's Chandra X-ray space telescope--isn't in the same place as the cluster's mass.
Udai Dhawan has become vice president of SkyWorks Capital, Greenwich, Conn. He was director of corporate planning and mergers and acquisitions for Sabre Holdings/Travelocity.com.
So the Pentagon is looking for a robust counter-insurgency operations (COIN) aircraft (AW&ST Aug. 21/28, p. 36)? Tell Boeing to dig up the drawings for the Douglas XA2D Skyshark. The original was ruined by an unreliable engine, but a newer and better turboprop probably can be found. It was an improvement over the AD (A-1) Skyraider, so it should be able to meet the Pentagon's requirements. Keep the same basic design, and make it from aluminum, to keep the costs down. They can even keep the name--Skyshark. It still sounds cool.
Carl A. Marchetto has been named executive vice president/general manager of the Space Systems Group of the Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va. He succceeds Jack M. Danko, who will be retiring. Marchetto has been corporate senior vice president/chief operating officer of the Eastman Kodak Co.'s Digital and Film Imaging Systems unit.
The FAA has issued a supplemental type certificate to Sierra Industries for its Stallion conversion of the Cessna Citation 500/501SP equipped with more powerful Williams FJ44-2A engines, each rated at 2,300 lb. thrust.
Test pilot USAF Col. Todd Markwald's assessment of the C-5M engines--"the aircraft felt like it was made for this engine more so than the old ones"--was correct (AW&ST June 26, p. 18). The CF6-80 was the "engine of choice" by Lockheed when the "B" model and "A" re-wing were being designed. General Electric had to reopen the TF-39 production line. Compared to the Boeing 747, the C-5 was nearly always short on power. It's too bad the engines are going to be held to 50,000 lb. of thrust instead of the normal 60,000.
AT LEAST ONE "HIGH-RISK" FACTOR could impede the FAA's Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast program: Aircraft operators might delay installing the needed avionics to interact with the proposed nationwide ground-based network. If this happens, and operators resist any proposed FAA mandates to equip their aircraft, ADS-B implementation could slip as well as the associated benefits, according to Vincent Capezzuto, manager of surveillance and broadcast services for the FAA.
During the past 10 years, Aviation Week & Space Technology has conducted an annual overview of the Aerospace and Defense (A&D) job market--the skills most in demand, compensation compared with other technological industries and what attracts talented men and women. Over that decade, the workforce has shrunk and then rebounded to more than 600,000 employees, according to the Aerospace Industries Assn. (AIA). Now, the mystifying question is whether the industry faces a looming talent crisis.
Pierre G. Cote, who is president of Montreal-based Bombardier Business Aircraft, has been appointed to the board of directors of the Washington-headquartered General Aviation Manufacturers Assn.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
After crossing swords in Russia and China, EADS and Boeing are now ratcheting up competing efforts to bring India into their respective aerospace orbits.
U.S. network carriers have made great strides in cutting many areas of their cost structures to be more competitive with low-cost carriers (LCCs), but a new analysis shows that's not enough. Network airlines have reduced maintenance costs 6.4% since 2000, adjusted for seat size, but Aviation Week's Aviation Daily and Eclat Consulting found that the low-cost competition has slashed maintenance expenses 17.1%. Basically, LCCs have a 22% maintenance cost advantage over network carriers, up from 8% six years ago.
General Electric has named John G. Rice, formerly president and CEO of GE's industrial business unit, as president and CEO of the company's $47-billion infrastructures business, which includes GE Aviation, its engines unit. He succeeds David Calhoun, who has become chief executive of VNU Group, a $4-billion global media and information company. A 28-year veteran of GE, Rice has headed its energy, transportation and oil and gas units. Lloyd G. Trotter, currently executive vice president-operations, was tapped to succeed Rice. Trotter also was named a GE vice chairman.
As United Airlines worked its way through bankruptcy, it wasn't shrinking everywhere at once. It was expanding its passenger network with the Star Alliance; started Ted, its no-frills subsidiary, and introduced premium services on its Boeing 757s. By the time it exited bankruptcy protection, it actually had added 10 aircraft to its fleet.
The world's first female space tourist is gearing up for her launch to the International Space Station this month, after Japanese entrepreneur Daisuke Enomoto flunked his spaceflight physical. Russian engineers are modifying the Soyuz capsule that will take Expedition 14 to the ISS to accommodate Anousheh Ansari, Diasuke's backup "spaceflight participant." A member of the family that was a major sponsor for the Ansari X Prize, she will accompany Michael Lopez-Alegria and Mikhail Tyurin on the planned Sept. 14 launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Washington-based private equity powerhouse Carlyle Group is recouping some of its investment in Firth Rixson, a U.K.-based aerospace metals supplier, by selling a 36% stake in the company to Lehman Brothers Co-Investment Partners. Financial terms were not disclosed. Carlyle acquired Firth Rixson in 2003 and merged it with Forged Metals, a California company. Six months ago, Carlyle hired Lehman Brothers and Morgan Stanley to examine options for cashing out its investment, including an initial public offering or a sale of all of the company.
USAF Brig. Gen. (ret.) Robert F. McDermott, who helped shape the Air Force Academyduring its early days, died in San Antonio on Aug. 28 after suffering a stroke. He was 86.
Congressional Democrats, long critical of the Pentagon's testing methods for the fledgling missile defense program, welcome support from an unlikely ally: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. During a recent tour of Ft. Greely, Alaska, one of two missile-interceptor bases, Rumsfeld says the ground-based midcourse defense system needs a "full end-to-end" demonstration before he'll be convinced it's ready to shield the U.S. from an incoming ballistic missile like the one unsuccessfully tested by North Korea on July 4.
Investor enthusiasm is usually good news for a company. But some aerospace suppliers are winning attention from a class of investors that gives CFOs heartburn: short-sellers. Short-sellers are hedge funds in the high-risk business of betting that a company's stock price will decline. The funds borrow shares that they don't yet own, and then sell them with the expectation they can purchase the stock back later at a lower price. If the stock goes down, a fund makes a profit--but if the price goes up, the short-seller takes a loss.
Martin Sippel, Head, DLR Space Launcher Systems Analysis (Cologne, Germany)
I am pleased by the debate about methods of returning reusable booster stages to their launch sites (AW&ST July 10, p. 6). Readers Carl Ehrlich and Virgil H. Soule identified critical points of in-air capturing.
