For several years, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association's (GAMA) annual “State of the Industry” presentation has been a sobering affair. The global fiscal crisis that began in 2008 continued to throttle the industry long after others were well into recovery. The measures are startling. In 2008, GAMA companies delivered 3,970 aircraft—1,313 of them business jets—but by 2012 the totals were down by more than 50%, with just 672 business jets out the door.
Two retired NASA astronauts died recently—Dale A. Gardner, who helped capture two satellites in orbit and return them to Earth in 1984, and William R. Pogue, who logged 84 days on the first U.S. space station, Skylab, in 1973-74. Gardner, who died Feb. 19 in Colorado Springs, was 65. Pogue, who was 84 and died March 4, had been living in Cocoa Beach, Fla. The causes of the deaths were not disclosed.
Tony Osborne's “Fueling Question” (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 37) underscores that prudent routine mission planning should have had that helicopter safely back on the ground at Glasgow City Heliport within 30 min.—fuel still in the tanks—not flying around at night over a densely populated city with one low-fuel light blinking and the other steady on. If this was a seasoned crew, something else must have distracted them. That is where investigators should be looking.
Following its recent decision to pursue large geared-turbofan designs for next-generation engines in the 2020s and beyond, Rolls-Royce has announced plans to expand its aerospace research and technology capabilities in Dahlewitz, Germany, with construction of a new testbed for power gearboxes.
The U.K. government has selected Honeywell's SmartPath ground-based augmentation system to complement a standard ground-based instrument landing system (ILS) at a new airport being built on St. Helena island. The British territory is in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,100 mi. from the African mainland and 700 mi. from the nearest diversion airport. St. Helena is in the process of building its first airport, slated to be operating in 2016 and opening the island to tourism. The facility will have a single 5,085-ft.-long, 150-ft.-wide runway.
Right now, the majority of aviation development in India is like the tango; two steps forward, one back, stop and gaze at your partner, wait for applause, then repeat.
The British Army has been cleared to begin flying the Thales U.K. Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system (UAS). The long-delayed UAS received its initial release to service documentation from the U.K. Military Aviation Authority on March 5. British Army pilots may now begin training flights with the system in segregated airspace over the Salisbury Plain Training Area in southern England. An interim contingency deployment capability for Watchkeeper is expected to be ready by the end of 2015.
Rostislav Belyakov, who headed the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau from 1969 to 1997, died of an unspecified illness in Moscow on Feb. 28. He was 94. Belyakov joined the bureau in 1941, two years after its establishment, and became its deputy chief designer in 1957. He was appointed general designer after the bureau's founder, Artyom Mikoyan, suffered a stroke in 1969.
The next SpaceX Falcon 9 to fly will carry lightweight landing legs just above its nine Merlin rocket engines, as the company begins working toward a vertical-takeoff-and-landing variant that could change the commercial launch services game again (page 48). For now, the Los Angeles-based upstart is focused on its heavy launch manifest this year that includes 6+ commercial missions and four space station cargo resupply runs for NASA. SpaceX photo.
Certainly one of the more remarkable business aviation developments of 2013 is behind this statistic: 137 twin turboprops were delivered, a 45% increase over 2012. What happened? Beechcraft happened. All but two of those airplanes were King Airs.
Slowly, steadily Japan is building its naval aviation strength, and with it a latent capacity for local power projection. A third helicopter carrier, launched in August, is due for commissioning in 2015, while a sister ship is planned and probably under construction. In December, Japan decided to take the first steps toward increasing its amphibious capability, which will likely produce at least two ships larger than the current three, with full-length flight decks.
NASA officials say they are not planning for a disruption in the International Space Station (ISS) operations growing out of the U.S.-Russian confrontation over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, because the partnership that controls the ISS is solid.
The recent turmoil in the Crimean peninsula is adding fuel to Elon Musk's argument against using the Atlas V rocket to launch military satellites. The Lockheed Martin-designed rocket uses a Russian RD-180 engine, and in the context of Russian intervention in Ukraine last week, the outspoken SpaceX CEO suggested to lawmakers in a recent congressional hearing that Russia is a potentially unreliable partner that cannot be considered a long-term source for a U.S. company launching national-security assets.
Art Lofton, Robyn De Wees, Calvin Pennamon, Gerard Spivey and Gregory West (see photos), all Northrop Grumman Corp. employees, received top awards at the annual Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA) STEM Global Competitiveness Conference. An additional 15 Northrop Grumman employees were recognized as BEYA Modern-Day Technology Leaders. They were cited for dedication to community service, educational leadership, and technical and professional contributions.
Billy Martin has been appointed senior research scientist and director of the Electromagnetic Energy (EME) Lab at the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University. He was principal engineer and EME group supervisor at the Cessna Aircraft Co.
Bryce Wiedeman has become president and Kevin McHenry vice president-sales of Airborne Systems North America, Pennsauken, N.J., which was recently acquired by their employer, Transdigm Group Inc. Wiedeman was president of Avionic Instruments, a Transdigm subsidiary, and McHenry was vice president of Transdigm and had been president of subsidiary Adams Rite Aerospace.
Keith Marshall has become chief executive of PremiAir International Group UK. He was executive vice president in the electronic warfare and battlespace divisions of Selex Galileo and had been a senior executive vice president with Northrop Grumman. Trevor Jenkins has been promoted to managing director of the PremiAir Aerospace team. He has been a technical director of B/E Aerospace and head of composite materials and processes at Airbus UK.
