U.S. and international interest in heavy-lift helicopters could cause the order book for the Sikorsky CH-53K to swell. But the near-term focus for program officials is on fully defining the developmental rotorcraft. The U.S. Navy, which manages the CH-53K development and procurement for the Marine Corps, has just signed the system design-and-development contract with Sikorsky for what is expected to grow into a $4.4-billion program that should lead to eventual procurement of 156 CH-53Ks to replace aging CH-53Es.
NASA wants its new Crew Exploration Vehicle and related launcher to be 10 times safer than the space shuttle it will replace, but the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) already sees a slight de-emphasis of safety within NASA's Exploration Systems organization as it firms up CEV plans. "My sense is that safety hasn't fallen off the table for sure, but is not as prominent" in the requirements and design process as it was before, says ASAP panelist Dan Crippen.
Karen Manos has been appointed a partner in the Washington office of the law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. She was head of the government contracts practice at Howrey LLP.
John Stenbit, the Pentagon's first chief information officer, came up with the vision for network-centric warfare, and it falls to the current CIO, John Grimes, to implement it. In Pentagon lingo, Stenbit's job was a piece of cake, and Grimes's is to "take that hill." In the latter case, the "hill" might as well refer to Capitol Hill. Vietnam veteran Grimes has visited troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, and now feels weight on his shoulders to make information operations more efficient and effective, quickly.
FlightSafety International has won FAA Level D certification for its first electric motion and control-loading full-flight simulator for commercial aviation training. The unit will be used to train pilots flying the Cessna Citation Sovereign business jet.
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USAF Maj. Gen. (select) David J. Scott has become director of the Special Operations Center for Networks and Communications at U.S. Special Operations Command, MacDill AFB, Fla. He was deputy commanding general of USSOC's Joint Special Operations Command, Ft. Bragg, N.C. Scott will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. (select) Eric E. Fiel, who has been director of operations at Headquarters Air Force SOC, Hurlburt Field, Fla. Fiel will, in turn, be succeeded by Brig. Gen. (select) Michael W.
Seoul has given the green light for the acquisition of 245 new utility helicopters to be developed by Korea Aerospace Industries. The project to build eight-metric-ton helicopters, known as the Korean Helicopter Program, will be marketed in cooperation with Eurocopter and other Western suppliers selected late last year (AW&ST Dec.19/26, 2005, p. 134).
After long months of rework to modify software and equipment bay structural elements, the first flight model of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for International Space Station resupply is ready to begin an extensive test campaign. The space tug will begin acoustic trials at the European Space Agency's Estec engineering center in the Netherlands in May, followed by thermal-vacuum testing in August, says Alan Thirkettle, head of the development department at Estec.
Key decisions in Italy on defense and aerospace acquisition and industrial policies are in flux after the very narrow win of the leftist coalition led by Romano Prodi in Italy's general election.
The USAF-led Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2006 begins live-fly exercises Apr. 22 at Nellis AFB, Nev. Each of the U.S. military services will participate as well as forces from the U.K., Canada and Australia.
Controllers are beginning to raise the JCSAT-9 telecommuncations satellite to its geostationary orbit and position it at 132 deg. W. Long., following its successful launch Apr. 12 on a Sea Launch Zenit-3SL. Liftoff from the Sea Launch Odyssey floating pad came at 7:30 p.m. EDT. The launch vehicle's Russian-built Block DM upper stage placed the satellite in its proper geostationary transfer orbit for acquisition of signal at Uralla, Australia, at 9:16 p.m. EDT.
QANTAS AIRWAYS IS EMBRACING THE USE OF RNP PROCEDURES, and Naverus has just completed the development of an RNP RNAV approach for the airline in 22 days for Runway 16R at Sydney's Kingsford Smith International Airport. The new procedure overlays the ILS at the airport to allow Qantas to minimize delays during a scheduled ILS maintenance outage. The airline learned of the planned outage on Feb. 14, just two weeks before it began, and the RNP RNAV approach was certified and operational by Mar. 8.
Arinc may be sold for up to $1 billion by its airline owners, reports The Wall Street Journal. Arinc of Annapolis, Md., provides communications links to airlines in a way similar to that of Geneva-based SITA, which is also owned by a consortium of airlines. SITA sold off the communications infrastructure it owns in 1998, earning a $768-million windfall for its airline owners, but still provides communications services to the airlines.
Also, Eurocopter gained a 10-million-euro ($12-million) contract for delivery of 12 secondhand Bo-105s to Albania as part of the country's ongoing drive to ready its armed forces for entry into NATO. Intended for S&R, emergency medical and VIP transport services, the aircraft will be modernized to the Bo-105 E-4 standard with assistance from Germany, donor of the helicopters. That country is expected to ship the helos between the end of this year and 2008, and provide pilot training. The award includes integration of EMS, SAR and VIP hardware.
Cindy Szadokierski has become vice president-O'Hare operations of United Airlines. She was vice president-corporate real estate and has been succceeded by Ajay Singh. He was managing director of United's business transfor- mation office. Roger E. Peterson has been appointed San Francisco-based manager of flight operational engineering.
Allen Novick (see photo), vice president-marketing intelligence and support for Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis, has won a Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award from Purdue University. Novick was cited for technical and managerial leadership in the production of commercial aircraft engines, and for his commitment to bettering industry in Indiana. He also is cofounder of the Indiana Advanced Aerospace Manufacturing Alliance.
British Airways needs to work out its underfunded pension problems during the financial year just begun, but it expects a near-term setback in the form of a newly launched update of the three-year-old actuarial study that found a 928-million-pound ($1.62-billion) shortfall. BA believes the new study will uncover a bigger gap for the company, its unions and the pension trustees to deal with, says Commercial Director Martin George.
Potential bidders to build the upper stage of NASA's planned Crew Launch Vehicle meet this week at the Michoud Assembly Facility, where the space shuttle external tank is built, for an update on the competition. Plans call for the upper stage to be built in the government-owned plant in New Orleans as well, using lightweight aluminum-lithium alloy stocks originally purchased for the shuttle tank. NASA will choose separate contractors for the stage's production and avionics, with the production request for proposals expected before the end of this year.
Raytheon and EADS LKF in Ottobrunn, Germany, will share further production of South Korea's Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM) ship defense weapon. Raytheon's piece of the deal--a 50/50 split with the MBDA-owned manufacturer, according to a U.S.-German agreement through NATO--is worth $17.4 million for 30 RAM Block I tactical guided missile round packs for use on the helicopters, aircraft and surface ships for the South Korean navy.
LynuxWorks has received an FAA Advisory Circular AC20-148 acceptance letter so embedded system software developed for avionics systems with the Lynx0S-178 real-time operating system can be reused on other system designs. LynuxWorks says this will reduce the time and cost of developing avionics software.
Era Helicopters of Lake Charles, La., is equipping its fleet of Agusta, Bell, Eurocopter and Sikorsky rotorcraft with Iridium satellite communications systems. Sky Connect, a reseller for Iridium, sold Era 75 of its Sky Connect Tracker systems with options for 50 more. Tracker provides real-time know- ledge of aircraft, ships and vehicles, plus voice communications capability.
Robert Q. Fugate, the technical director at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Starfire Optical Range (SOR) at Kirtland AFB, N.M., has won the Air Force's Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award to mark his retirement after 35 years of federal service.
Airbus is buying composite tooling from Spanish supplier M. Torres to help build the A350, the next program it plans to put into production. The company is already a tools supplier on the A380. The multi-million-euro contract (the exact value is not being disclosed) is for several automatic tape layer machines and flexible tooling systems for production of the A350 composite wing. The equipment will be installed at Filton, in the U.K., and at an Airbus Germany site in Stade. The tools will be used for manufacture of the wing skins, spars and stringers.
