Aviation Week & Space Technology

Andy Frost has become chief commercial officer and Tom Wright the Dallas-based vice president-sales for North America for Germany-based Signalhorn. Frost has been vice president-strategic business development. Wright was vice president for NewSat of Australia, vice president of United Networks in Kuwait and sales director for Comstream of San Diego.

John Hurley (see photo) has been appointed chief technology officer for Ryanair. He held a similar position with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt plc.

Henry Lisboa has become territorial director for Latin America for Dallas Airmotive. He was director of sales for Heli-One.

Bill Rossi (see photo) has been appointed Singapore-based vice president-sales and acquisitions for Nordic Aviation Capital. He was Asia-Pacific sales director for Embraer.

Brian Campbell (see photo) has been named vice president-global sales for StandardAero Business Aviation, Tempe, Arizona. He was vice president-worldwide aftermarket MRO sales for Beechcraft and had been an executive for Honeywell Aerospace.

Brian Campbell (see photo) has been named vice president-global sales for StandardAero

Greg Paxson has become Part 135 director of maintenance for Sun Air Jets, Camarillo, California. He succeeds Dave Anderson, who is now Part 145 accountable manager.

Talha A. Zobair (see photo) has been appointed vice president-tax for the Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp. He was senior tax counsel and director of global taxes for Raytheon.

Overall, Iron Dome missile deflection proves effective through 50 days of conflict

The Moon is the next world for humanity to explore and turn into a new home—even as we push out into the deeper ocean of space. -Forty-five years ago, a few of us wandered her surface, yet we turned away, not realizing the importance of what we had done—or what could be done. Now it is clearly time to return and, by learning how to live there, to prepare ourselves to plant the seeds of humanity on the red sands of Mars.

MDA is finally crafting procurement strategy for new kill vehicle

SLS cleared for full development, but risk assessment may push first launch back to late 2018

The Pentagon will increasingly rely on direct and “indirect” competition in acquisition

Push comes to pull in NASA space tech

I greatly enjoyed the highly detailed “Road Map” ( AW&ST Aug. 25, p. 36), outlining the new Rolls-Royce turbofan strategy. Now all three engine manufacturers have plans in place to develop engines that offer lower noise and double-digit improvements in fuel burn—a boon for the flying public.

How Northrop Grumman’s bomber bid nearly derailed before it was even submitted

Indonesian defense budget to allow continued spree

Japan sets technology plan to build aerospace industry

Increasing number of airlines see great benefits in letting passengers handle their own baggage

The A380 was tapped to help capacity-strapped airports, but could it end up hurting them?

Flight controllers interrupted the intermittent release of 28 Earth-observing cubesats from the International Space Station’s (ISS) Japanese Kibo lab module following a spontaneous deployment of two of the small satellites. The commercial NanoRacks Small Satellite Deployer Mechanism was powered down after the Aug. 23 incident, in which two Planet Labs Flock 1B cubesats were spontaneously ejected. The satellites are being tracked and do not pose a collision threat to the ISS, NASA spokesman Dan Huot says.

A version of this article appears in the September 1 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

A version of this article appears in the September 1 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology.

The Scaled Composites-developed SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane conducted a cold-flow pressurization test of the vehicle’s modified rocket motor system during a glide flight at Mojave, California, on Aug. 28. The flight, which followed release from the White-KnightTwo carrier aircraft, is a prelude to the imminent start of powered flight tests using a new plastic-based rocket motor fuel.

The U.K. Royal Navy’s last Invincible-class aircraft carrier, HMS Illustrious, has been decommissioned. The 22,000-ton ship, which has been used as a helicopter carrier since the withdrawal of the Harrier GR9 fleet in 2010, was formally retired during a ceremony in Portsmouth on Aug. 28. The ship’s helicopter-carrying role will now be undertaken by HMS Ocean, which has just undergone a 15-month £65 million ($108 million) refit which included upgrades to the flight deck, hangar and aviation facilities. The U.K.