USN Adm. (ret.) Walter F. Doran (see photo) has been appointed Navy service executive for Raytheon, based in Arlington, Va. He was commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet and had been assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
I just finished reading the Contrails article "Three-Engines-Out Ditching" (AW&ST Jan. 9, p. 53). As an EC-121 pilot from 1972-76, I flew Lockheed Super-Constellation Gs like the one in the story, as well as the radar D and T models of the Super G for the U.S. Air Force. As I read the story, I was anticipating the next emergency that was going to pop up, and indeed it did. What a joy it was to read a story that was accurate and very believable.
S.G. Cowen & Co.'s recent annual investor conference featured the usual lineup of big guns--plus one company that can literally lay claim to that label. Smith & Wesson Holding Corp., the well-known but moderately sized U.S. handgun maker, promoted an ambitious plan to expand into the defense and homeland security markets.
Aerospace and defense is leading other industries in the implementation of product lifecycle management (PLM) software and processes, according to Bernard Charles, president and CEO of Dassault Systemes in Paris. While the auto industry led the world in the move to 3D digital mockup of products a decade ago, aerospace is moving ahead of auto manufacturers with PLM--a combination of software and processes that carries a product from design through manufacturing and the rest of its life cycle.
European government and industry leaders are setting near-term funding and policy benchmarks in an attempt to breathe life into the European Union's flagging military research and technology spending program. But while officials are urging prompt action, the relatively low financial requests being put forward have some industry officials frustrated.
MEANWHILE, IN THE U.S., officials of the Airports Council International-North America slammed what they say is a "severe budget cut" in the President's request released Feb. 6 that will hamper U.S. airports' ability to grow. ACI-NA says the budget request calls for a decrease in the FAA's Airport Improvement Program funding to $2.7 million, from the $3.7 billion for Fiscal 2007 legislated three years ago. This is about $765 million below 2006 and comes at a time of record passenger and cargo traffic.
Rolls-Royce pre-tax profits climbed by 49% to 584 million pounds ($1.016 billion) on the back of the buoyant commercial aircraft market. Its 2005 preliminary results show sales for the group totaling 6.6 billion pounds, with an order book of 22.9 billion pounds. Commercial engine sector sales grew to 3.51 billion pounds, a 470-million- pound increase over 2004. Rolls booked orders for 246 of its Trent family of engines, valued at $3 billion. International Aero Engines, in which Rolls-Royce has a 32.5% share, snagged orders for 600 engines worth $1.5 billion.
An article in the 2006 Aerospace Source Book (AW&ST Jan. 16, p. 179) mentions "the surprise cancellation of the (Lockheed Martin) Joint Common Missile." This statement was based on the Office of the Secretary of Defense's decision not to fund the program in Fiscal 2006. However, in its Fiscal 2006 Appropriations Conference Report dated Dec. 18, 2005, Congress earmarked $30 million for JCM research, development, test and evaluation, which will keep the program alive for at least another year.
France has completed the first test firing of its upgraded ASMPA nuclear cruise missile. The MBDA missile, to be fitted on Rafale fighters starting in 2008, was fired from a Mirage 2000N flying testbed.
Senior defense industry executives are giving a thumbs-up to President Bush's Fiscal 2007 budget request, but caution that it could undergo major changes before a final appropriation clears Capitol Hill. The $439.3-billion budget that Bush submitted last week would boost top-line military spending by 7% over the budget approved by Congress last year and is missing some of the draconian program cuts that investors had worried about for more than a year.
On the strength of an order from All Nippon Airways, Boeing is launching a 5,510-naut.-mi. variant of the 737 that was inspired by the Boeing Business Jet. Called the 737-700ER, it combines the fuselage of a -700 with the wing and landing gear of a 737-800. A -700's normal range is 3,365 naut. mi. but with up to nine auxiliary fuel tanks, the -700ER can travel more than 2,100 naut. mi. farther.
Ronald D. Sugar, Ph.D., is chairman and CEO of Los Angeles-headquartered Northrop Grumman Corp. This article is excerpted from an address on U.S.-U.K. defense cooperation he delivered Feb. 2 in London to the Royal United Services Institute.
NASA has modified its order for the big external tanks that carry cryogenic propellant on space shuttle missions to accommodate retirement plans for the shuttle in 2010. But the order still provides enough hardware to launch all of the International Space Station modules supplied by its international partners and to send astronauts to service the Hubble Space Telescope one more time. An order for 35 tanks signed in 2000, when NASA thought it would be flying shuttles at least until 2020, has been trimmed to 18.
Eutelsat is studying the limited deployment of a digital audio radio service in Europe as a possible predecessor to a full-fledged system at the turn of the decade--yet another sign of interest in the fast-growing satellite radio field.
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY HAS TAKEN DELIVERY OF TWO CESSNA SKYHAWKS EQUIPPED WITH GARMIN G1000 FULLY-INTEGRATED, ALL-GLASS FLIGHT/AVIONIC SUITES. THE AIRPLANES ARE PART OF THE OHIO UNIVERSITY'S PROGRAM TO UPGRADE ITS FLEET OF TRAINING AIRPLANES. IN OTHER COLLEGIATE AVIATION NEWS, THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA'S JOHN D. ODEGARD SCHOOL OF AEROSPACE SCIENCES HAS ACQUIRED FOUR SINGLE-ENGINE CIRRUS SR20S FEATURING GLASS COCKPITS FOR USE AS ADVANCED TRAINERS. UND HAS A FLEET OF 120 AND 2,100 STUDENTS WHO FLY MORE THAN 110,000 HR. ANNUALLY, ACCORDING TO THE UNIVERSITY.
Big boosts have gone to sustaining the U.S. Air Force's C-130J fleet with contracts of $164 million for Lockheed Martin and $72.6 billion to Rolls-Royce for logistics, program management and spares.
Air One has won an important round in its legal battle to avoid Alitalia taking over Volare. Last week, a tribunal in Rome sided with Air One's request to bar Alitalia from the auction because it received state aid. Alitalia is appealing.
You can now register ONLINE for Aviation Week Events. Go to www.AviationNow.com/conferences or call Lydia Janow at +1 (212) 904-3225/+1 (800) 240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada Only) Apr. 5-6--U.S. Defense Dept. Budgets and Programs Conference, Arlington, Va. Apr. 25-26--MRO Military Conference, Phoenix. Apr. 25-27--MRO USA Conference & Exhibition 2006, Phoenix. May 16-17--MRO Military Europe, in conjunction with ILA air show, Berlin. Sept. 19-21--MRO Asia Conference & Exhibition, Xiamen, China.
I can understand Jerry Bradley's frustration about being selected for a personal search while traveling non-revenue. I had similar thoughts until I realized there's a reason for the search. Thanks to the less restrictive dress code for non-revenue travel, airline employees now blend in better with the rest of the passengers. If an employee was to produce an airline ID to the TSA screeners in the hope of ending a pre-departure search, more attention to his/her status as an employee might be brought to the attention of an observant hijacker.
The U.S. Air Force is battling internally as planners struggle to draft a request for information (RFI) that will determine several key requirements for a new tanker.
SOUTH KOREA'S CIVIL AVIATION SAFETY AUTHORITY has certified the Enstrom 280FX, F28F and 480B helicopters, and Brazil has added the 480B to its list of approved aircraft. Enstrom Helicopter Corp., based in Menominee, Mich., manufactures piston- and turbine-powered rotorcraft.
The European Commission and Eumetsat have concluded a preliminary agreement outlining their respective responsibilities and roles in creating a pallet of operational services based on the Global Monitoring for Environ- ment and Security network. The accord lays out near-term areas of cooperation, principally involving the start-up of trial services in 2008, and forms a basis for a final agreement.
