Civil Service jobs at NASA considered eligible for commercial outsourcing took a big jump this year under Administrator Sean O'Keefe, rising to 39% of the total full-time-equivalent (FTE) positions from 23% in 2001. With an FTE count of 19,005 in 2002, that means 7,405 jobs at NASA are considered not to be ``inherently government functions'' in O'Keefe's judgment. The figures, first reported to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in June and released Sept. 5, are considered preliminary and subject to revision.
Business aviation operators are banking on a code of good practice introduced earlier this year to help improve and harmonize their operations and prevent the spread of conflicting or superfluous rules in different parts of the world.
David A. Kier has been appointed vice president/managing director for missile defense and Thomas J. Jurkowsky vice president-media relations for the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. Kier was vice president-advanced systems and BM/ C2/C program manager. Jurkowsky was vice president-communications and public affairs for the company's Naval Electronics and Surveillance Systems.
Alan Moore has been named executive director for advanced engineering for Matcom, Alexandria, Va. He was director of airway facilities for the National Airspace System at the FAA.
Coming down to the wire in its attempt to regain financial stability without Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, UAL Corp. turned last week from short-term leadership to its CEO of the future--Glenn Tilton, a 32-year veteran of the oil industry. Tilton succeeds John Creighton, who became chairman and CEO last October on an interim basis and said in May he wanted to retire. Tilton also took the title of president, held by Rono Dutta. Announcing the succession Sept.
Since the enactment of defense procurement reforms in the mid-1980s, the fundamental tone of the U.S. government's relationship with the defense industry has oscillated between partnership and contentiousness. These shifts typically have coincided with budget levels, with tension increasing as funding goes down. This makes a recent government decision concerning the ill-fated, $52-billion A-12 aircraft development program all the more puzzling. The Navy is demanding that Boeing Co.
Government subsidies to carriers that provide essential air service (EAS) to as many as 114 communities have tripled since 1995, reaching $113 million this year. The trend will likely persist as cash-strapped airlines continue to drop unsubsidized routes and retire turboprops in lieu of more expensive regional jets, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO). Per Congress' request, the GAO recently reviewed the EAS program and came up with some ideas on how to keep long-term costs in check.
Hamilton Sundstrand has received a contract worth a potential $70 million from the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command for advanced flight control computers for UH-60 helicopters.
Flying through the air is not always done with the greatest of ease. Finding--and filling--business aviation jobs offer unique challenges, and an improved hiring process is helping operators attract and retain top-caliber flight crews for the expanding 15,000-aircraft fleet. ``Certainly, there is no shortage of good candidates,'' said Bob Blouin, NBAA senior vice president for operations. ``What we are seeing is graduates from the Embry-Riddles and UNDs [University of North Dakota] of the world and applicants from within the corporate community.
In order to make large, commercial engines burn hotter and more efficiently, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like General Electric, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce are now requiring that certain large, forged disks be cooled in such a fashion that the rim of the disk exhibits different mechanical properties than the center of the disk. It is a technical capability that has resulted in patents on zonal cooling processes from two of the world's major providers of forgings--Wyman-Gordon and Ladish Co.
Speaking of that Narita runway, Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport will ask the Ministry of Finance for 7.3 billion yen ($61 million) in the fiscal 2003 budget to extend it to 2,500 meters as originally planned. However, neighboring landowners and farmers whose lobbying led to the original shortening are still opposed. So a battle is brewing.
Fluent, the maker of computational fluid dynamic software, is using the Internet to rent out its software running on a supercomputer. Fluent's Remote Simulation Facility is aimed at highly parallel simulations or concurrent execution of many simulations, and sees the customer as needing occasional surge capacity or periodic execution of a large model, but not so frequently that they want to develop their own capability (www.fluent.com/software/rsolve/index.htm). The company says the Internet link is highly secure.
BAE Systems has received a $58-million work order to develop and produce 42 ALR-56C(v) radar warning receivers for South Korea's F-15K fighter program.
The world market for general aviation and utility aircraft deliveries is forecast to grow by about 27% in the next five years, to 2,100, with production steadily declining in the second half of the decade. That's according to a new study by Forecast International/DMS, an aerospace and defense market research firm in Newtown, Conn. The outlook for turboprops is brighter, thanks to recent changes in operating regulations that have led to increased use of single-engine models. As a result, shipments of those aircraft are forecast to rise in the 2006-11 period.
Don Burtis (see photo, p. 11) has been promoted to vice president from director of avionics and electronics for the Eclipse Aviation Corp, Albuquerque, N.M.
USN Reserve Cdr. Thomas L. Egbert has become commanding officer of U.S. Navy Strike Fighter Sqdn. 204 (VFA-204). He succeeds Cdr. Barry Behnfeldt. Egbert was executive officer and also is a pilot for American Airlines.
Jaiwon Shin has become deputy director for aeronautics at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He was chief of its Aviation Safety Program Office.
The U.S. Special Operations Command hopes to make its helicopters just a bit harder to detect. Army special ops pilots fly terrain-hugging flight profiles to avoid detection by radar and to give an adversary scant time to counter an attack. But the radar altimeter that's relied on to fly low is also a vulnerability because it emits a potentially detectable signal. Now the Pentagon wants to upgrade some of its AN/APN-209 radar altimeters to give them low-probability-of-intercept and low-probability-of-detection (LPI/LPD) features.
The TC-350 series of low-profile, surface-mount temperature compensated crystal oscillators (TCXO) is available from 1-80 Mhz. The series was developed for military radios and has found use in commercial off-the-shelf applications for traditional military OEMs looking for better reliability and support. The TCXO's temperature stability, coupled with low aging rate and small surface-mount package, helped place it in communications applications such as wireless communications and portable test equipment.
Sergio Vetrella has been elected president of Cira, the Italian aerospace research center, for a second three-year term. He is president of the Italian space agency.
Gene Colabatistto has been appointed president of Solutions at Space Imaging of Denver. He was president of the Spot Image Corp., Chantilly, Va., and succeeds Kass Green. Neal Carney has been named CEO of Spot Image, succeeding Colabatistto. Carney was senior vice president/ chief operating officer for Spot's U.S. operation.
Gulfstream Aerospace is introducing a ``premium interiors'' initiative that will standardize the range of flooring and furniture options available to customers, allowing green aircraft to be completed more quickly and efficiently, and on a more predictable schedule. The company is now pioneering the concept on its GIV and GV business jets and will apply it to its G200 aircraft in 2003. Extension of the initiative to G100 aircraft will follow at a later date.
Michael Grimes, who has been CEO of Stewart & Stevenson Services Inc. of Houston, also will be president of the Power Products Div. Richard Wiater, who has been senior vice president, has been named division chief operating officer.
