Ingemar Andersson has been appointed executive vice president of Saab AB. He has been business manager for Saab Bofors Dynamics and head of Saab International.
Two letters on the age 60 rule need a rational reply (AW&ST June 16, p. 20). Capt. Clifford D. Strat seems to think only those pilots over 58 object to the rule. Through- out my airline career from age 28 in 1965 until age 60 in 1997, I knew quite a few pilots who were against the rule and very few of us made a secret of our feelings.
With their increasing popularity and reliability, unmanned aircraft are being assigned additional and more difficult tasks, but such growth means larger payloads and greater weight in a business where extra pounds equal more expense. Boeing and its partner, The Insitu Group, are trying to be the exception that proves the rule with ScanEagle, a small UAV. They expect the unusual aircraft will drop in price as they sell hundreds, and, they hope, thousands, to military and civilian agencies. Insitu's aircraft would employ Boeing avionics and sensor payloads.
Is Aviation Week & Space Technology in the business of rewriting aviation history? A much bigger ValuJet bought a six-airplane AirTran and changed its name to distance itself from the stigma of ValuJet's 1996 Everglades crash and subsequent grounding. AirTran's Joe Leonard, who also is a former Frank Lorenzo lieutenant, claims the recent Boeing 737 order constitutes "a relaunch of the company." Hmmm.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas J. Keck has been appointed vice president-business development for Raytheon Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz. He held the same position for air combat systems for General Dynamics Decision Systems.
TECHNICAL PROBLEMS Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) has postponed the scheduled February 2004 launch of its Astro-F infrared astronautical satellite to allow more time to fix problems with the spacecraft. Budget constraints will also force ISAS to postpone the launch of its Selene lunar surveyor and its Solar-B solar observation missions from the summer of 2005 to the summer of 2006. The Planet-C Venus surveyor will slip from early 2008 to early 2009 for the same reason, ISAS said. Meanwhile, the institute has started 24-hr.
Rick Maloney has been appointed dean of the College of Aviation at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo. He was vice president-flight operations/system chief pilot for United Airlines.
MINI KILL VEHICLES The U.S. Army plans to narrow the field of contractors working on the miniature kill vehicle (MKV) project, with an eye to hover testing a demonstration system in 2005. The Army Space and Missile Defense Command, since early last year, has been working with Science Applications International Corp., Schafer Corp. and Lockheed Martin on different MKV designs. The hover-test articles the winner would have to provide should be of the same configuration as eventual flight-test kill vehicles, the Army stressed.
The Pentagon's ambitions to add a boost-phase-intercept (BPI) element to its missile defense architecture have run into choppy waters. Congress is threatening to slash funding, while an independent scientific group is questioning the feasibility of the multibillion-dollar endeavor.
NEW TEST CENTER Smiths Aerospace opened a purpose-built test facility in the U.K. last week to develop and qualify actuation systems for the F-35B variant of the Joint Strike Fighter. The test center is associated with actuation equipment for the Rolls-Royce liftfan for the short-take-off vertical-landing version of the aircraft.
Union sources say the French government plans to transform Paris Airport Authority ADP into a limited company in which the government will retain a 51% share. The change is to be announced at the end of July.
SOLDIERING ON As part of the U.S. Army's evolving Future Combat Systems (FCS), prime contractors Boeing and SAIC have added 15 partners to the umbrella modernization projects that should provide new ground equipment, unmanned aircraft and other surveillance, reconnaissance and communications tools. Among the newly named participants are BAE Systems, working on integrating communications between air vehicles; Northrop Grumman, involved with sensor procurement and integration for air vehicles, and Textron Systems developing unattended ground sensors.
Robert Pugh has been selected as a fellow by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Kirtland AFB, N.M. The fellows program recognizes AFRL's military and civilian scientists and engineers for their research and development accomplishments or technical program management. Pugh is associate chief scientist of AFRL's Space Vehicles Directorate.
John Alp (see photo) has been named general manager for the Brisbane (Australia) Training Centre of Seattle-based Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training. He was regional general manager of CAE Australia.
Itzhak Beni (see photo) has become president/CEO of Israel-based Tadiran Electronic Systems Ltd. He remains president/CEO of Tadiran Spectralink Ltd. and a director of Dekolink Wireless Ltd.
ETHIC CLEANSING Boeing moves to stanch criticism of its corporate ethics by naming former U.S. Sen. Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.) to lead an independent review of its policies and procedures on the handling of competitive information. The Air Force and Justice Dept. are investigating whether Boeing misused proprietary information from Lockheed Martin in the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program (AW&ST June 16, p. 74).
Ken Stackpoole (see photo) has been named director of government relations for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. He has been special assistant to the president and director of flight training.
TERRIFIED The new chief of Central Command, Army Gen. John Abizaid, confirms from the Pentagon that at least two U.S. aircraft had man-portable missiles fired at them in Iraq during the last two weeks. In fact, the general said he was on the flight deck of a C-130 that had warnings of an incoming missile. "The guy made a hard right bank, and we fired off all of our flares," Abizaid said. "These guys were from the Oklahoma [Air] National Guard, and they actually thought it was fun.
BOMBARDIER RECREATIONAL PRODUCTS division is in the final stages of developing its new Rotax 936 V-6 engine for aviation applications. The engine can burn aviation gasoline or motor fuel, and features a single overhead camshaft, electronic-controlled single-lever power control, electronic ignition, an all-aluminum crankcase and water cooling. According to Bombardier, the baseline, naturally aspirated engine is rated at 220 hp.; a turbocharged version produces 300 hp. The company has flown the engine for more than 120 hr.
HUMAN RATING Future human-rated NASA spacecraft must include crew escape capabilities throughout the flight profile, including reentry, under new guidelines issued by the agency's Office of Safety and Mission Assurance.
COST ACCOUNTING Intrigued by renewed congressional interest in a large, ultra-long-endurance (24-hr. or more), very stealthy, unmanned reconnaissance aircraft, specialists who gathered here last week for UAV events said they have been doing some back of the envelope calculations of what the systems would cost. Research and development would run about $1 billion. Adding that to the price of building 12-24 airframes would result in a total program cost of $100-200 million per aircraft, they figure.
Several European air forces flying mid-life-upgraded (MLU) F-16s are acquiring day/night targeting systems that enable precision-guided weapon deliveries, substantially improving their contributions to coalition campaigns. The Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark have equipped their fighters with Lockheed Martin-built enhanced Lantirn targeting pods, and Norway recently contracted for the company's new Pantera pod--an export version of the U.S. Air Force's Sniper targeting system (AW&ST Feb. 5, 2001, p. 60).
NAVY MH-60RS Lockheed Martin has won a contract to begin production of the MH-60R helicopter for the U.S. Navy. The low-rate production (LRIP 2) award includes the initial release of $17 million to purchase components with long lead times. Four engineering and manufacturing development Phase II--and five LRIP I--aircraft have been delivered under the ongoing development program. The second lot is for six MH-60Rs, with ultimate production quantities of 254 aircraft expected. Full funding for LRIP 2 is anticipated in the Fiscal 2004 Defense Dept.
ISS BATTERIES Boeing and a subcontractor, Space Systems/Loral, will share a seven-year, $145-million NASA contract for 40 replacement battery units for the International Space Station. When it is complete, the station will carry a total of 48 of the nickel-hydrogen batteries on four truss sections to provide continuous power to ISS systems when the station's solar arrays are shadowed by the Earth. Boeing is already under contract to supply batteries for one of the truss sections, and the new contract covers the remaining three sections.
