An unmanned RQ-21A intelligence-collection aircraft flies off the USS Mesa Verde amphibious transport dock during testing last July. As trials wrap up in preparation for the U.S. Marine Corps to declare initial operational capability for these Insitu Blackjacks this fall, early models not cleared for shipboard use arrived last month in Afghanistan to begin operations supporting troops there. Insitu photo by Tim Brown.
T he last Western company to combine broad aero-engine and airframe businesses was Bristol, which the British government forced to split in the 1950s; the propulsion activities eventually were subsumed by Rolls-Royce.
H ow do you combine two recognized industry benchmark flight-deck designs into an even safer hybrid while including novel features and margins for growth for the air traffic environment of the 2030s and beyond?
Renowned NASA research pilot and aeronautical engineer William Dana died on May 6 in Sun City West, Ariz., following a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 83. During his 48-year career at NASA’s Armstrong (formerly Dryden) Flight Research Center, he logged more than 8,000 hr. in over 60 different aircraft, although he is best known for his long association with flight-testing the North American X-15 high-speed research aircraft and numerous lifting body designs.
Prof. Colin Pillinger, the British scientist behind the U.K. attempt to land the Beagle 2 spacecraft on Mars has died. He was 70. Pillinger was at home in Cambridge when he suffered a brain hemorrhage and fell into a deep coma. His death was announced on May 8. Pillinger began his career in space research working on NASA’s Apollo program analyzing samples of moon rock. Later, he became research fellow at Cambridge University and then at The Open University, before becoming professor in interplanetary science there.
After two years of pretending that congressionally mandated spending cuts would disappear, the Obama administration finally made an attempt to acknowledge them in its fiscal 2015 budget. Now lawmakers seem to be wishing and hoping to reduce deficits while protecting military gear.
The first of 36 F-16IQ fighters for Iraq began flights tests at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant on May 7. The first aircraft is a Pratt & Whitney F100-229-powered two-seat F-16D Block 52. Iraq ordered ts F-16s in two batches, in 2011 and 2012: 12 two-seaters and 24 single-seat F-16C Block 52s.
A headline in the April 28 issue (p. 12) incorrectly termed the origin of rocket engines powering the Antares launch vehicle. The engines were built in the former Soviet Union and were modified by Aerojet Rocketdyne.
Aerospace manufacturers may not be voicing concerns, but financial analysts and others following the sector continue to eye potential headwinds over Russian-based titanium supplies, especially as U.S. and European sanctions over events in Ukraine inch toward affecting Western bottom lines. “[In] the event that the conflict with Russia continues to escalate beyond the usual administrative posturing between Russia and the West, [the] Russian titanium supply may be under threat,” notes Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts.
Don Andrews (see photo) has been appointed acting aviation practice director for RS&H Inc., Jacksonville, Fla. He succeeds William Sandifer, who is now an executive at Raleigh-Durham (N.C.) International Airport. Andrews has been vice president/manager of regions in the firm’s Houston office.
