The announcement by Airbus Group that it was putting €2 billion in defense and space businesses up for sale is an important milestone not only for Airbus but also for European A&D.
Paul Kahn (see photo) has been appointed president of Airbus Group UK. He was president/CEO of Thales Canada. Kahn succeeds Robin Southwell, who has left the company.
If signed, the deal with an undisclosed customer would allow UrtheCast to develop two sensors, a high-resolution, dual-mode optical/video camera and a high-resolution dual-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that will be capable of imaging simultaneously in L and X bands.
Penny-pinching politicians and those who reject the evidence that human activity is changing Earth’s climate are making it hard for scientists to continue providing the data from space needed to monitor and try to manage the effects of inaction
When a Qantas A380 landed at Dallas/Fort Worth for the first time, it marked the latest escalation in the hotly contested market between North America and Australasia.
Brian Kratt has been named president of Private Jet Services, Seabrook, New Hampshire. He was CEO of Language Scientific and had been vice president-sales and marketing at Black Dragon Software.
Jim Tait (see photo) has become vice president-sales operations and analysis for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Georgia. He was director of financial planning and analysis.
Tarik Reyes (see photo) has been named vice president-business development for the integrated air and missile defense division of the Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp . ’s Information Systems Sector. He was director of the civil information solutions unit within the sector’s civil division.
Matt Hand (see photo) has been appointed director of scheduling for Kansas City, Missouri-based Executive AirShare. He was director of crew resources for Minneapolis-based Endeavor Air.
Michael C. Ford has been named vice president-global diversity and employee rights for Chicago-based Boeing, effective Oct. 17. He has been vice president-global diversity and inclusion for Hilton Worldwide. Ford succeeds Ozzie Pierce, who was interim vice president after the retirement of Joyce Tucker. Pierce will continue as director of equal employent opportunity compliance.
NASA selected Boeing and SpaceX to take U.S. astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) as a way to stop paying Russia $76 million a pop for seats (and training) in the Soyuz capsule after early 2018. But even in this era of cooling relations between the countries, it doesn’t mean astronauts will stop flying Soyuz. And cosmonauts probably will fly in the new U.S. vehicles, to restore the “dissimilar redundancy” in ISS crew transport that has been missing since the space shuttle retired.
Production of Boeing 737s is expected to rise to an unprecedented 52 per month in 2018. The company, which already announced plans to increase the production rate to 47 per month in 2017, hinted last month that the even higher assembly rate was being considered in response to market demand. Once established, the new rate means more than 620 aircraft a year will be built, roughly equivalent to the cumulative production for the first 13 years of the 737. Boeing has a firm order backlog of more than 4,000 737s: over 1,700 for 737 NGs and 2,294 for the 737 MAX family.
As part of ongoing moves to streamline its defense and space business, Boeing is moving the majority of its service and support-related work from Washington State to Oklahoma City and St. Louis. The move will take around three years and affect about 2,000 employees principally working on service and support of the E-3 AWACS, 737 Airborne Early Warning & Control and F-22 combat aircraft. Boeing says up to 900 jobs could be added in Oklahoma and 500 in St. Louis, and that further work will be moved to Jacksonville, Florida, and Patuxent River, Maryland.
The U.K. Royal Air Force has stood down one of its AgustaWestland EH101 Merlin squadrons and handed over the aircraft to the Royal Navy. The former RAF Merlin Mk3s will replace Westland Sea King Mk4s that were the backbone of the Commando Helicopter Force but are due to be retired in March 2016. The RAF’s 78 Sqdn. stood down on Sept. 30 at RAF Benson with the handover, while the RN reactivated 846 Naval Air Sqdn. (NAS).
Blackpool International Airport in the U.K. has announced that commercial flights could end by the middle of October if a buyer is not found for the loss-making facility. The airport owner, infrastructure company Balfour Beatty said Sept. 29 that if no buyer can be found before Oct. 7, airport operations will end on Oct. 15. The airport currently has flights to resort destinations in Spain and Turkey with U.K. low-cost airline Jet2 and flights to Ireland and the Isle of Man by Aer Lingus and Citywing.
Miami-based Eastern Air Lines, which is not yet flying, has confirmed its order for 20 Mitsubishi Aircraft 92-seat MRJ90 regional jets. Deliveries are due to begin in 2019, about two years after the MRJ enters service. Mitsubishi now has orders for 191 MRJs, which should increase to 223 when Japan Airlines confirms an order for 32 covered by a letter of intent. In addition, customers hold options and purchase rights on another 184 MRJ90s. Eastern will use the name and livery of the historic but unrelated U.S. airline that closed in 1991.
Esterline Technologies’ roughly $200 million acquisition of Barco’s aerospace and defense display unit is likely the former’s last major addition for about two years as it implements a multiyear cost-cutting and restructuring program, Canaccord Genuity analysts believe. The deal, announced last week, merges Barco’s display operation into Esterline’s avionics and controls business.
The British Army’s Watchkeeper UAV has finally been deployed to Afghanistan, only months before the U.K. ends combat operations there. At least two of the Thales-built Watchkeeper platforms have been deployed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province. Watchkeeper is expected to return to the U.K. following the handover of Camp Bastion to the Afghan government, which is expected before year-end.
