Jan. 13-17—22nd AIAA/ASME/AHS Adaptive Structures Conference, 52nd AIAA Aerospace Sciences Conference and AIAA Atmospheric Flight Mechanics Conference. All at National Harbor, Md. See www.aiaa.org/EventDetail.aspx?id=18410, 18405, 18406 Jan. 14-17—National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference. New Orleans. See www.nbaa.org/events/sdc/2014/ Jan. 22-24—Fifth Decennial AHS Aero-mechanics Specialists' Conference. Holiday Inn at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco.
Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is going out with a bang. The staunch foe of the Chinese government on human-rights and national-security grounds says he will not seek reelection in 2014, but before he goes, he wants President Barack Obama to drop plans to capture an asteroid and nudge it into lunar orbit. With China's landing of a small rover on the Moon (see page 45), Wolf warns that a new space race is at hand. “[W]hether we like it or not, the U.S.
Nick L. Stanage has been named chairman of the Hexcel Corp., Stamford, Conn. He will continue as president/CEO. As chairman, Stanage succeeds David E. Berges, who will be retiring on Dec. 31.
Israel's Urban Aeronautics has completed untethered, automated test flights of its AirMule vertical-take-off-and-landing unmanned aircraft as it prepares for mission demonstrations next year. The 1,000-kg (2,200-lb.) ducted-rotor air vehicle conducted several short flights that included vertical takeoff, flight to a specific location and back to a vertical landing, the company says. A second prototype is planned to fly in the second half of 2014 and is likely to be powered by an uprated Turbomeca Arriel 2 turboshaft.
Spencer Dickerson is among four executives at the Alexandria, Va.-based American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) with new positions. He is now senior executive vice president-global operations/secretary to the board of directors. He remains head of the U.S. Contract Tower Association and the International Association of Airport Executive programs.
Alexandre de Gunten, business development officer for the Flight Support Group of the Heico Corp., Hollywood, Fla., has received the 2013 Federico Block Award from the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA). De Gunten was recognized “for transforming [ALTA] into a powerful and well-recognized voice for commercial aviation in the region.” The award is given to a person who advances the interests of the aviation industry in Latin America and the Caribbean. Block was the late longtime chief executive of Grupo Taca.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has demonstrated a sense-and-avoid system on its Predator B unmanned aircraft. The test demonstrated short-term collision avoidance and longer-term self-separation, the company says. The company-owned Predator B was equipped with three sensors with which to detect and track cooperative and non-cooperative aircraft. The flights included two intruder aircraft.
After more than a decade of design work and pathfinder fabrication, the lightweight five-layer sunshield that will keep the sensitive infrared detectors on the James Webb Space Telescope at 40K is in deployment testing at prime contractor Northrop Grumman.
Honeywell is in hot pursuit of a new family of cockpit aids to help airline pilots better manage the takeoff and landing phases of their flights. The avionics maker is close to rolling out a takeoff-roll acceleration-monitor software upgrade as part of its enhanced ground proximity warning system (Egpws), and is in the midst of researching a more comprehensive landing-and-takeoff performance monitor upgrade that will include a dedicated display area on the primary-flight or navigation displays.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) James E. Bradley (Westmoreland, Kan. )
“Problem Solvers” (AW&ST Dec. 2, p. 49) mirrors my experience as a software test engineer for a major aerospace manufacturer. The article discusses chronic delays in complex programs that are largely blamed on the test community. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) George Mueller is correct when he states, “There is a belief [in government] that development, test and evaluation and operational, test and evaluation communities are culpable for this.”
Chafik Hilal has been named managing director for the Middle East, Turkey and Africa, effective Jan. 1, for Rockwell Collins, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He will succeed Yves Gallety, who is expected to retire at year-end. Hilal has been head of the company's government and military business interests in the region and had been director of commercial systems business development for Southern Europe and Africa.
Launch of a Cygnus spacecraft may be delayed while engineers troubleshoot a cooling system pump failure on the International Space Station (ISS). The U.S.-led ISS mission management team (MMT) deferred a go/no-go decision on the planned Dec. 18 launch after a faulty flow-control valve forced a shutdown of non-critical systems tied to one of the station's two external cooling loops.
A major development project has been launched at Honolulu International Airport that will add capacity and allow Hawaiian Airlines to dramatically improve the efficiency of its main hub. The multi-phase project involves the construction of new cargo and heavy-maintenance facilities for Hawaiian Airlines, with their relocation allowing for taxiways to be widened. This in turn will improve access for larger aircraft to a new passenger terminal that will be built when the other facilities are finished.
In the Up Front column “Driving for Double Digits” (AW&ST Nov. 25, p. 14), Kevin Michaels reports that a focus on Boeing's and EADS's drive for greater profitability is likely to receive scant sympathy from a large number of suppliers who invested heavily and bore the financial brunt of excessive delays on two very high-profile programs. I doubt if any one of them came out of those debacles in a good financial condition. I wonder what payment guarantees suppliers will be requiring from the two primes in future negotiations.
China's efforts to break into the commercial remote-sensing (RS) market suffered a setback Dec. 9 when an RS satellite built in a joint project with Brazil failed to reach low Earth orbit following launch atop a Long March 4B rocket from the Taiyuan space center, according to Brazil's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. The rocket carrying the CBERS 3 satellite malfunctioned after liftoff and failed to deliver the satellite to its intended Sun-synchronous orbit at 770 km altitude, the ministry says.
The first of four new all-Ka-band satellites Boeing built for London-based fleet operator Inmarsat is en route to its supersynchronous orbit following launch Dec. 9 on an International Launch Services (ILS) Proton M/Briz M rocket. Based on Boeing's 702HP spacecraft bus, the Inmarsat-5 F1 is part of Inmarsat's $1.6 billion investment in a new Global Xpress constellation of mobile broadband communications spacecraft, including a fourth Inmarsat-5 satellite ordered in October to add redundancy and provide additional capacity.
Iraq has ordered 24 light attack fighters based on the Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) T-50 supersonic trainer, with deliveries due to be completed by 2017. The order, including training, is valued at $1.1 billion, but KAI says supporting the single-engine aircraft over 20 years, also in the contract, will take total revenue beyond $2 billion.
Didier Nicoud (see photo) has been named vice president-engineering for Safran subsidiary Aircelle, Le Havre, France. He succeeds Eric Masse, who has taken another position within Safran. Nicoud was deputy vice president-engineering in the systems engineering segment of the Turbomeca subsidary.
In many ways, the House-Senate budget passed by the House last week represents the most common denominator in U.S. legislating. For starters, it does not do much beyond avoiding another self-inflicted “doomsday” scenario set in motion earlier by most of the same lawmakers. It runs only two fiscal years, the current 2014 and then 2015, and is focused mainly on avoiding additional so-called sequestration budget cuts from biting beyond the level imposed in March.
Didier Verte (see photo) has become vice president-sales for Africa and the Middle East for Air France Industries/KLM Engineering and Maintenance. He was general manager of engine customer services.
The fuselage and wings for the first 767-2C to be adapted into a KC-46A for the U.S. Air Force's aerial refueling tanker program have been joined at Boeing's Everett, Wash., facility.
Michael Fraser (see photo) has been named vice president-strategy and business development of Artel, Herndon, Va. He was executive vice president-satellite communications products and services of iDirect Government Technologies and had been vice president/general manager of the Surveillance & Reconnaissance Systems business of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems Div.
