Multiple articles discussed the comet Siding Spring and its close approach to Mars ( AW&ST Sept. 8, pp. 38-39) including coverage of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile evolution (Maven) and Mangalyaan orbiters, but only a very brief mention of MRO—Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter—and no mention of the Odyssey. Those two have been in orbit around Mars for a combined two decades.
If the KF-X survives while production of older European and U.S. aircraft winds up, then next decade it may be the only alternative to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning as a fighter engineered for compatibility with Western weapons and communications
Startup helicopter manufacturer Marenco Swisshelicopter put its SKYe SH09 single-engine light helicopter through its paces on Oct. 2. The aircraft was maneuvered in hover in a series of five test flights that lasted about 20 min. at the company’s test facility at Mollis, near Zurich, with chief test pilot Dwayne Williams in charge. The delayed flight comes 10 months after the rollout of the initial prototype on Nov. 28, 2013.
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.
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.
Sierra Nevada Corp. is underscoring its position as a potential human spaceflight provider for a global market, despite its rejection by NASA as one of two commercial operators to fly astronauts to the International Space Station.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Metals giant Alcoa is continuing its push into Indiana and the aerospace business, with the formal opening last week of “the world’s largest” aluminum-lithium plant in Lafayette. The company says its cast house there, next to its extrusion plant, can produce more than 20,000 metric tons of aluminum-lithium annually. The $90 million facility is capable of making aluminum-lithium ingots big enough “to make any single-piece component on today’s aircraft,” says Alcoa.
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.
Airbus this month closed its takeover of the former optronics subsidiary of Carl Zeiss. Airbus had held 75% ownership but in October 2012 moved to take over the remainder. The 800-person unit, previously known as Cassidian Optronics, with headquarters in Oberkochen, Germany, now will be called Airbus DS Optronics. It designs and produces optronic, optical and precision-engineered products for satellites and UAVs.
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.
Australia has contracted with BAE Systems to upgrade the launcher subsystem of the Nulka naval defense system, with the aim of ensuring the hovering-rocket decoy can remain in use despite the obsolescence of some parts. Nulka, an Australian product that BAE calls “the world’s most effective soft-kill anti-ship missile defense,” is in service on more than 140 vessels in the U.S., Canadian and Australian navies. Unlike reflective chaff and transmitters suspended under parachutes, Nulka decoys are designed to to lure anti-ship missiles away from targeted ships.
With EASA certification now in place for the A350-900, Airbus is shifting gears to prepare for first delivery of the aircraft and a steep production ramp-up.
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.
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.
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.
