Scott Kuechle has been appointed vice president/controller of the Goodrich Corp., Charlotte, N.C. He was vice president/treasurer and succeeds Bob Koney, who has resigned.
NASA's decision to delay the space shuttle's return to flight by at least two months to no earlier than May will give hurricane-weary launch teams and accident recovery engineers more breathing room, but tightens the margins on International Space Station (ISS) support. The launch of the new U.S./Russian Expedition 10 crew to the ISS on a Soyuz from Baikonur Cosmodrome has also been delayed three days to Oct. 14 because of minor hardware problems in Russia.
Japan's fiscal 2005 defense budget, which bets heavily on missile defense, also provides enough money for the military to buy 39 new aircraft, with helicopters representing the vast majority of those acquisitions. Sikorsky's Black Hawk family fares the best in the $2.7-billion aircraft procurement arena. The total $45.3-billion defense budget calls for the company and its Japanese partner Mitsubishi to deliver one UH-60JA rescue helo to the army, nine antisubmarine-warfare SH-60Ks to the navy and two UH-60Js to the air force for search and rescue.
The government of Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt late last week was seriously threatened by controversy surrounding nighttime operations at Brussels-Zaventem airport. The dis-pute erupted in the wake of a DHL Worldwide growth plan in Belgium.
High-level U.S.-India talks in Delhi next week aim to establish mutually acceptable end-user verification processes for space and defense equipment. A joint implementation group is expected to be formed to address technology control issues when U.S. Commerce Undersecretary Kenneth Juster meets with Indian government and industry officials. The talks, which are part of a burgeoning relationship between the two governments, represent the second phase of the Next Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP) initiative.
Hot on the heels of its proposed $595-million purchase of government information technology provider DigitalNet, U.K.-based BAE Systems is continuing its expansion in the U.S. market with a deal to acquire a small but highly specialized contractor to the Defense Dept. and intelligence agencies. BAE Systems said last week that its U.S. subsidiary would pay $88.4 million in cash for Alphatech, a privately held, 322-employee company based in Burlington, Mass.
George L. Bergeron, 3rd, has been named chief technology officer of Metal Storm Ltd., Arlington, Va. He has been senior vice president-product development. Bergeron succeeds company founder Mike O'Dwyer, who will remain a technical adviser, consultant and board member.
Heinz L. Butner (see photos) has been promoted to principal engineer from Delta IV systems director in the Delta IV Program Directorate of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Div. of The Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif. Steve Pavlica and Thomas A. Ramberg have been promoted to principal engineers in the Electronic Programs Div., Chantilly, Va. Pavlica was a director for national satellite systems, while Ramberg was a senior project leader.
Alitalia's emergency rescue plan, which was ratified by union leaders, will be implemented in the next few weeks. The workforce will be cut to 17,300 from 21,000. Flight operations will be separated from ground services.
It doesn't happen often, but the Government Accountability Office has essentially told a congressman to go away. Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the House Government Reform national security, emerging threats and international relations subcommittee, asked for a GAO review of security clearance requirements for maintenance of the presidential helicopter fleet.
AgustaWestland announced it holds more than 20 orders for its Grand light twin, unveiled at the Farnborough air show, including three from offshore operator Houston-based Seacor Holdings Inc. (AW&ST July 26, p. 45). Separately, the company says it delivered two more A109 Power helicopters to the Nigerian navy, in addition to two delivered in July, along with the first of two AB-139s for Namibia.
Aerospace giant EADS is playing a long, and possibly high-risk, hand as it aims to position itself at the developmental heart of European unmanned combat and reconnaissance air platforms. It's also espousing a fundamentally different approach to that being pursued in the U.S.
A group of U.S. and foreign defense and information technology companies aims to bring order to the Pentagon's network-centric warfare efforts. But it will be months before a detailed implementation plan is devised that will provide a glimpse into whether the initiative has a chance at success.
Airbus last week delivered the first A310 Multi-Role Transport Tanker (MRTT) twinjets to the German and Canadian air forces (see p. 15). Four others are ready to be delivered. The European manufacturer and Lufthansa Technik are jointly marketing the MRTT conversion package, an upgraded derivative of an earlier A310-based tanker. The inflight hose-drogue refueling system can be connected to all in-service military fighters.
Bellevue, Wash.-based Esterline Technologies will integrate and provide the majority of engine sensors on the European A400M airlifter under a new agreement through Europrop International GmbH., the consortium developing the TP400-D6.
The parabolic airplane flights that produce weightlessness are not in microgravity. The force of gravity is reduced little at that altitude. "Physics Including Human Applications" by Fuller, Fuller and Fuller states that the force of gravity is reduced only about 10% at the altitude of orbiting satellites. It is reduced less at the altitude of the weightless flights. The students are accelerating toward Earth due to gravity. There is no resistance to the acceleration, so they feel weightless.
Vic Lebacqz, the new associate administrator for NASA's revamped aeronautics research organization, says the "first A in NASA" is doing well under the new priorities. But he makes clear it must support the new space exploration objectives as well as do its traditional "public good" work aimed at making flying safer, more efficient and more environmentally friendly. To support exploration beyond low-Earth orbit, Lebacqz says aeronautics can help develop "system of systems" technology, like control autonomy, that works just as well outside the atmosphere.
The optimistic view of our future by Suzanne D. Patrick, deputy U.S. under secretary of Defense, is heartening; especially since it was presented by the organization that planned so well our undertakings in the Middle East (AW&ST Sept. 13, p. 86).
The structure of a planned Indian purchase of 126 Dassault Mirage 2000-5 fighters from France, which has been in discussion on a bilateral basis for nearly three years, apparently has changed as part of a commitment by the Indian government to make arms procurement more transparent and avoid single-sourcing. The 126 aircraft will replace seven squadrons of older MiG-21s, -23s and -27s. Bids have been received for the Mirage as well as the Saab/BAE Systems JAS 39 Gripen, MiG-29M and Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50.
Cessna Aircraft Co. delivered the first two Model 680 Sovereign business jets last week to customers in Mexico City and Green Bay, Wis. Cessna has an order backlog worth $1.5 billion for more than 100 Sovereigns.
Space tourism came closer to critical mass last week with Sir Richard Branson's new Virgin Galactic venture earmarking $100 million to develop Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne rocket glider into a viable suborbital tour bus.
General Electric modified the configuration of high-pressure turbine blades in the GE-P&W Engine Alliance GP7200 to prevent recurrence of a distressed blade condition which was found during earlier testing at GE's Peebles, Ohio, facility. The engine is competing with Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 for the Airbus A380 powerplant.
EADS Co-CEO Philippe Camus says he expects an agreement on the U.K.'s Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program by year-end, but thinks a contract is unlikely before 2005. He notes that it took 18 months to conclude contract negotiations for Britain's Skynet 5 military satellite communications system, awarded to EADS affiliate Paradigm. The U.K. sent the FSTA team, led by EADS, back to revise its tender after an initial bid was deemed unsatisfactory (AW&ST June 28, p. 35).
The North Atlantic mega-alliance set in motion by the Air France-KLM merger has reached the U.S. Transportation Dept., which will consider in coming months whether to extend antitrust immunity to the newly linked partners.
