The Inside Business Aviation column featuring the Corporate Angel Network in the July 14 issue (page 28) contained an erroneous web address for the organization. The correct address is: www.corpangelnetwork.org
Sweden has decided not to make a formal offer of the Saab JAS 39E/F Gripen to Denmark because Sweden believes its neighbor’s requirement is loaded in favor of the Lockheed Martin F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. The Swedish FXM defense export agency announced on July 21 that it would not bid, leaving the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in a contest against the F-35A. The decision follows “a comprehensive assessment that the state and the industry have made together,” according to FXM Director-General Ulf Hammarstrom.
T hough it was apparently a ground-based air defense system that shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 (see page 23), shorter-range man-portable air defense systems (Manpads) are still a top concern for the TSA. Administrator John Pistole lists the threat of Manpads to arriving and departing flights at foreign airports as among his top aviation security concerns. The U.S. has good control of airport perimeter security, but not all foreign airports have assessed the vulnerabilities of their airports, he says.
With attacks on Israel so intense that the FAA temporarily banned U.S. airline flights to Tel Aviv, the U.S. is looking to speed production of the Iron Dome system credited with protecting the Israeli populace from Hamas rocket strikes. Congress has already recommended doubling the administration’s $176 million request for Iron Dome, suggesting another $175 million to offset the costs of starting U.S. production of the system. Now Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has asked Congress for still more funding: $225 million to produce components for the Rafael system.
An Ariane 5 ES rocket is scheduled to launch Europe’s fifth and final Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV-5) to the International Space Station July 29, after commercial launch services provider Arianespace performed additional checks on a subsystem inside the launcher’s Vehicle Equipment Bay (VEB). Previously slated to launch July 24, liftoff is now scheduled for 8:44:03 p.m. local time from Europe’s Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana.
NASA wants information on the possible use of privately owned spacecraft orbiting Mars to relay data back from future rovers as a commercial service. With its final planned scientific orbiter scheduled to reach Mars in September, the agency issued a request for information seeking ideas for private spacecraft that would collect data from unspecified future robotic missions to Mars and relay it back to Earth, perhaps with high-bandwidth laser communications links.
Sierra Nevada Corp. and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plan to work together to find potential uses—and alternative launchers—for the U.S. company’s Dream Chaser lifting-body commercial crew and cargo spacecraft. Under a “memorandum of cooperative understanding,” Sierra Nevada and JAXA will study “potential applications of Japanese technologies and the development of mission concepts for the Dream Chaser spacecraft,” the company says.
India says the offer of Dassault Aviation for transfer of technology in the medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) deal is fully compliant to the specified requirements and negotiations are progressing to finalize the purchase of 126 Rafale fighters. The Indian air force hopes the deal will be completed during the fiscal year that ends March 31. “If that happens, we will probably start receiving the aircraft from late 2016 or early 2017,” says an air force official. For MMRCA, the defense ministry has been in contract negotiations with Dassault for about 20 months.
It is all but certain that NASA’s heavy-lift Space Launch System (SLS) will miss its first flight, scheduled for the end of 2017. NASA is 90% sure the 70-ton SLS will be delayed and thinks it will need $400 million to cover the estimated six-month slip.
Giovanni Spitale (see photo) has been appointed president of Unison Industries, Jacksonville, Florida. He was general manager for GE Aviation’s Flight Efficiency Services and was its global C919 program leader in Shanghai.
Christina Johansson has become chief financial officer of Zurich-based SR Technics. She succeeds Angelo Quabba, who is leaving the company. Johansson was vice president-finance at the Poyry Energy Business Group of Switzerland.
Sean I. McCormack has been named vice president-communications for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes , succeeding Mark G. Hooper , who plans to retire Sept. 1. McCormack has been Boeing’s corporate vice president-communications for government operations in Washington. Anne C.
Kevin Weiss (see photo) has become vice president-human resources for L-3 Communications of New York. He was senior vice president-human resources for for L-3 Aerospace Systems.
Terry Lutrick has been appointed sales manager for California, Nevada and Arizona, and Ed Henry sales manager for the Mid-Atlantic U.S., both for West Star Aviation, East Alton, Illinois.
During the Farnborough International Airshow this month, Israel Aerospace Industries CEO and President Joseph Weiss talked with Paris Bureau Chief Amy Svitak, about plans to expand the company’s presence in the global space sector with exports of remote-sensing and communications satellites.
The recent interview of Boeing CEO James McNerney ( AW&ST July 14, p. 62) was disappointing, especially compared with SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s vision. It sounded like Boeing was ready to throw in the towel. If there is ever going to be a breakthrough in science, technology, flight and whatever is beyond, it will come from outside of our two traditional airframe manufacturers. SpaceX? Possibly, but it could emerge from an entity none of us know of yet.
Frank Morring, Jr.’s “Exploration Election” ( AW&ST June 23, p. 18) deserves careful attention. The 2016 presidential election may result in establishing a dismal NASA strategy that will endure for years.
Perhaps reader Donald Peterson ( AW&ST July 21, p. 9) has confused the current Orion space capsule with the 1950s/60s era Project Orion, an interstellar spacecraft powered by detonating atomic bombs and riding the blast waves, which is, I’m fairly certain, what reader Jeremiah Farmer was referring to ( AW&ST June 30, p. 8). A 1968 study by Freeman Dyson (ow.ly/zt7jm) calculated possible speeds of up to 10,000 kps., thus making a one-way trip to Alpha Centauri take ∼90 years, with no slowdown at the other end.
Reader Kenneth Madl spoke eloquently of “Lockheed’s Earlier ‘Magic,’” ( AW&ST July 21, p. 8). But I would like to offer one small correction: The Direct Lift Control on Lockheed L-1011s used the spoilers, not the slats, to vary the lift on the wing on landing approach. If landing flaps of 33 or 42 deg. were selected, the spoilers would deploy approximately 25% and modulate up or down, depending on yoke or autopilot pitch input.
