Thirteen U.S. Coast Guard aircraft in Corpus Christi, Tex., and Houston were being readied to relocate to a staging position for response to Rita once the storm passed. Relief aircrews and aircraft from around the U.S. began arriving in staging areas in Texas late last week. An additional four HH-60 Jayhawk helicopters were pre-staged in San Antonio. Meanwhile, the Defense Dept. assigned six heavy-lift helicopters to Ft. Sam Houston, and six heavy-lift helicopters at Fort Worth, for search-and-rescue support.
Marta Bohn-Meyer, chief engineer for NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, was killed on Sept. 18, when her Giles G-300 aerobatic aircraft crashed during a practice routine near Oklahoma City. She was 48. The only woman to serve as an active crewmember on the Mach 3-plus SR-71 Blackbird--flying high-altitude, high-speed research missions for NASA--she also was a world-class competition aerobatic pilot.
There's a big problem with NASA's exploration plan. It's the same approach as Apollo: mostly disposable spacecraft, on big NASA-proprietary boosters, flown a few times a year by a standing army of workers--but on a significantly slower schedule.
Graham Love (see photo) has been appointed CEO of U.K.-based QinetiQ. He had been chief financial officer and will be succeeded by Doug Webb, who was group financial controller. Love succeeds Sir John Chisholm, who is now executive chairman, in turn succeeding Dame Pauline Neville-Jones. Sir David Lees, who is a former chairman/CEO of GKN, will be deputy chairman/senior independent non-executive director. Phil Odeen has become CEO of QinetiQ North America. He was CEO of BDM and TRW as well as chairman of Apogen Technologies, which has been acquired by QinetiQ.
Rolls-Royce is getting ready to start assembly of the first Trent 900 for A380-lead customer Singapore Airlines, even as engineers look for ways to boost engine performance further. Next month will also see a new build standard of the Trent 900 take flight, which has been slightly changed from the much earlier configuration installed on the sole A380 test-flight aircraft. The four Trent 900s so far have topped 10,000 cycles as part of the more than 80 flights.
Robert Jamison has been named deputy administrator of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration. He held the same position at the Federal Transit Administration.
USN Capt. (ret.) G.R. Allender (Severna Park, Md.)
Regarding RAF Wing Cdr. Jim Lawrence's comments in "Reexamine P-8A's Mission" (AW&ST Aug. 8, p. 8), the P-3C has external and internal sonobuoy launching capabilities.
Frank J. Cepollina, deputy associate director for Hubble Space Telescope development at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., has won the International Society of Logistics' 2005 Jack H. Williams Space Logistics Award. It recognizes Cepollina's work in developing Hubble servicing concepts before its launch in 1990 and then leading coordination of those missions in orbit by the space shuttle.
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) Oct. 18-20--MRO Europe. Estrel Hotel & Convention Center, Berlin. Nov. 8-10--MRO Asia, Suntec City, Singapore. Nov. 14-16--A&D Programs & Productivity Conference, Phoenix. PARTNERSHIPS Oct. 10-12--HeliAsia. Shangri-La Hotel, Bangkok. Oct. 25-27--ARA '05. Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore.
USN Capt. Christopher Flood (see photo) has become vice commander of the U.S. Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tenn. He succeeds USAF Col. Vince Albert, who will be director of the center's support division. Flood was director of operations and has been succeeded by USAF Col. Jeff Smith (see photo).
Idris Jala (see photo) has been named managing director/CEO of Malaysia Airlines, effective Dec. 1. He has been vice president of Shell Malaysia Gas and Power and managing director of Shell Middle Distillates Synthesis. Jala succeeds Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan, who has retired.
The troubled Franco-U.S. relationship, long dogged by the acrimonious dispute over the Iraq war, finally appears headed back to normalcy. At the U.S. Embassy here last week, new U.S. Ambassador Craig Stapleton and top military officials declared that France and the U.S. are now ready to turn the page.
NASA and Lockheed Martin will continue shuttle external tank work at the Michoud Assembly Facility near New Orleans, instead of shifting some work to the Kennedy Space Center. The plan follows a determination that Michoud buildings, lightly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, offer a faster return to critical tank activities. Hundreds of Michoud employees remain homeless, and NASA is working with other federal and state agencies to obtain new housing for them. Operations will begin with a minimum workforce as affected families sort out their individual needs.
Conflicts where a few soldiers will dominate state-size battlefields are being planned into the development of the U.S. Air Force's high-demand arsenal of unmanned aircraft. Also part of the new formula will be stealth, directed-energy weapons and new reserve combat units.
In a few years, there will be a new type of remotely piloted aircraft operator, dedicated to a career of specialized combat flight operations, and in a decade, the numbers of unmanned vehicles participating in Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force's premier air combat exercise, may equal those with aircrews on board.
Air traffic in Canada rose 3.9% in July compared with the same month in 2004, according to air navigation service provider Nav Canada. Fiscal year-to-date traffic is up 5.1%.
The machinist strike that has shut down Boeing's commercial aircraft production lines is providing a much-needed breather to some aerospace suppliers. Banc of America Securities analyst Robert Stallard says demand from Boeing and aftermarket customers was so robust that Precision Castparts Corp., a leading metals supplier, was struggling to obtain the material needed to fill orders. The strike "has allowed some relief," he writes. While some Boeing suppliers have resorted to layoffs, Stallard sees little long-term damage unless the walkout, which began Sept.
The FAA has issued an emergency airworthiness directive covering Boeing 777 flight control software, following a recent incident in which an aircraft pitched up to stall speed at high altitude. A Malaysian Airlines 777-200 was carrying passengers from Perth, Australia, to Kuala Lumpur, when it pitched up near the top of climb, gave conflicting signals to the crew and reached a dangerously low airspeed. Problems kept appearing down to the approach back to Perth, but the crew was able to make a safe landing.
The big airframers love China. During Aviation Expo China 2005 last week, Boeing elaborated on its projections for the Chinese market, which it ranks as its largest outside the U.S. over the next 20 years. The company foresees demand for 2,600 new aircraft worth $213 billion, with single-aisle jets accounting for 65% of the total, intermediate twins at 22%, regional jets at 11% and large transports at just 2%, or 73 units.
Delta Air Lines plans to add $3 billion in annual earnings through 2007 to the $5-billion increase through 2006 it was preparing before entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 14. CEO Gerald Grinstein said the company will target $970 million from U.S. Bankruptcy Court restructuring, including debt relief, lease rejections and changes, facility savings and fleet changes; $1.1 billion through improvements in revenue and network productivity; and $930 million from pay and job cuts plus productivity improvements.
Dave Ford, Director (FAA Oceanic and Off-Shore Services, Washington, D.C.)
Your article on Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures got it wrong (AW&ST July 11, p. 44). ATOP is a huge success for the FAA and the industry we serve. The FAA has met all of its baseline date and dollar commitments to Congress. Several points in the article are not correct or are misleading. Lockheed Martin won the competition based on best value to the government. Nav Canada chose not to compete, so the Canadian system that your article mentioned was not an option.
The Dassault Group should soon be selling its shares in Thales, and Finmeccanica may soon be buying, as all three analyze likely French government moves and recent weapons sales.
The internal debate over which variant of the F-35 Britain will procure will finally be played out in the coming months as the Defense Ministry aims for a key decision on its next-generation aircraft carrier in March 2006. While the ministry has provisionally identified its preference for the short take-off and vertical landing Lockheed Martin F-35B, some factions disagree.
Angela Gittens has been named to the board of directors of JetBlue Airways, effective Sept. 30. She is vice president-airport business services for the HNTB Corp. and was director of the Miami-Dade County Aviation Dept.
