U.S. Navy Rear Adm. (lower half) Robert V. Hoppa has been named director of U.S. Africa Command, based in Stuttgart, Germany. He has been deputy chief of staff for intelligence at International Security Assistance Force Headquarters and deputy director for operations and support for United States Forces-Afghanistan.
JetBlue Airways on Sept. 18 said company President Robin Hayes will succeed Dave Barger—who has been with the carrier since its founding—as CEO in mid-February, making him the third leader in the airline’s short history. Hayes, a former senior executive at British Airways, was named president last year and had been chief commercial officer.
FAA, under fire by industry and lawmakers alike for lengthy delays and uncertainty surrounding its approach to certifying new products, is rolling out a process that is designed to eliminate what was once a lengthy backlog of projects. To manage its resources, FAA nearly a decade ago adopted a sequencing approach that would permit new projects to go forward only when the agency was certain it could line up all its resources for certification.
The airport in Midland, Texas, is likely to become the first facility serving both scheduled airline flights and commercial human spaceflight under an FAA spaceport license announced Sept. 17. XCOR Aerospace plans to use the facility as the initial runway launch and landing site for its two-seat Lynx suborbital rocketplane. The license type is the first for a commercial-service airport.
Apparently the all-private venture to build a new U.S. rocket engine does not meet the needs of some members of Congress. In a letter to President Barack Obama sent the same day that the United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin announced plans to build a replacement for the Russian RD-180 (see page 26), a flock of House members note that their legislative chamber wants to appropriate $220 million to do the same thing with government funds.
Australia and France are preparing to join the U.S. in an international air campaign designed to “disrupt and degrade” Islamic State forces in Iraq. Australia is sending F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, KC-30 aerial refueling tankers and its new E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning aircraft to the United Arab Emirates in preparation for military operations while France completed reconnaissance flights in northern Iraq on Sept. 15 using Dassault Rafales equipped with Thales Reco NG pods.
Embraer has mated the wing and fuselage of the first prototype KC-390 tanker/transport. First flight is planned by year-end. Powered by two International Aero Engines V2500-E5 turbofans, the KC-390 is scheduled to enter service in 2016 with the Brazilian air force, which is funding development and placed a $3 billion order for 28 aircraft in May. Final assembly is underway at Embraer’s Gaviao Peixoto plant in south-central Brazil.
Aerospace and defense analysts at Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services do not expect the recent announcement of increased U.S. military efforts to defeat the Islamic State to result in a spike in demand for defense contractors during the next 6-12 months. Still, those moves—combined with others involved with other geopolitical crises—likely will influence the debate about defense spending levels and “could effectively raise the floor” for U.S. defense budgets in fiscal 2016 and beyond.
After several months of speculation, Boeing has given the strongest indication yet that it is considering a further increase in production of the 737 to 52 aircraft a month. The manufacturer has so far committed to hit a rate of 47 per month in 2017 and is currently at 42 aircraft. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner said the company’s “focus today would be around a 52-a-month rate in [737 production] somewhere in that 2018 time frame.” Conner added that “. . .
After several months of speculation, Boeing has given the strongest indication yet that it is considering a further increase in production of the 737 to 52 aircraft a month. The manufacturer has so far committed to hit a rate of 47 per month in 2017 and is currently at 42 aircraft. Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Ray Conner said the company’s “focus today would be around a 52-a-month rate in [737 production] somewhere in that 2018 time frame.” Conner added that “. . .
Pentagon acquisition chief Frank Kendall’s review of the much-delayed U.S. Navy Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) system is now slated for early October after having been shifted numerous times. The program has drawn scrutiny for its requirements prioritized around continuous intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and limited strike capabilities to the fleet. Some believe the Navy should focus more on penetrating—or stealthy—strike.
A classified U.S. government mission dubbed CLIO reached its target orbit Sept. 16 in a mission from Cape Canaveral that forced a delay of the first flight test of NASA’s planned Orion crew exploration vehicle. Liftoff of the Atlas V 401 from Space Launch Complex 41 came at 8:10 p.m. EDT. United Launch Alliance says the spacecraft—reportedly built by Lockheed Martin on an A2100 bus for an undisclosed federal agency—achieved “accurate delivery” to orbit.
The U.S. Navy has contracted with Kongsberg Defense to test-fire its Naval Strike Missile from a Littoral Combat Ship. The tests have been requested by the Navy to show whether the weapon can engage a surface target at ranges of 100 nm. Tests will be conducted before the end of September from the USS Coronado.
GKN Aerospace will deliver parts for the development version of Pratt & Whitney’s first PW1900G geared turbofan for the Embraer E190-E2 regional jet in 2015 following the signing of a risk-and-revenue-sharing agreement worth up to $2.5 billion between the two manufacturers. The deal gives GKN a 7% share in the PW1900G and builds on a relationship about the geared turbofan extending back to 2006 when Pratt enrolled what was then Volvo Aero in the development of the first technology demonstrator. GKN acquired Volvo Aero in 2012.
The U.S. Navy’s first Triton MQ-4C unmanned intelligence aircraft has arrived at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, to begin flight-testing after its first cross-country flight.
Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services cut its overall grade on U.S.-based Sequa’s debt a notch to “B-,” citing deteriorating profitability and “several” quarters of weakness in the commercial aerospace aftermarket. But S&P said the debt’s outlook was stable, as credit metrics should start to improve in 2015 based on increasing revenue from improving contracts with OEMs. Sales for Chromalloy, the company's largest segment, fell 13%.
