A recent letter (AW&ST Nov. 25, p. 8) misstated the developer and supplier of the primary navigation system for the SR-71. It was Northrop's Nortronics Div., not Honeywell.
When the European Commission set out its first proposals to bring aviation into the existing European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for stationary sectors in September 2005, airlines warned it would be difficult and contentious, and advised against the noble ambitions. Almost a decade later, airlines can safely say: “We told you so.”
Bombardier Aerospace has appointed Raymond Jones as senior vice president for sales, marketing and asset management for Bombardier Commercial Aircraft, effective immediately. He succeeds Chet Fuller, who will leave the company at the end of the year. Jones has been vice president for worldwide strategic accounts for Bombardier Business Aircraft.
Vadim Ligay is one of three Russian Helicopters executives who have been promoted to deputy CEO. He has been CEO of Kazan Helicopters. The others are: Vyacheslav Kozlov, who has been first deputy managing director for economics and finance at the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant and will oversee Russian Helicopters' finance and economics department; and Vladimir Kudashkin, who was chief of staff at the parent Rostec State Corp. and will be head of legal affairs and corporate governance.
The FAA has decided NASA astronauts can be allowed to engage in operational flight functions up to and including piloting a commercial space vehicle for aborts, emergency response, and monitoring and operating environmental controls and life-support systems during FAA-licensed commercial space launches and reentries. But astronauts beware: Training to become employable by commercial providers may force a take-it-or-leave-it proposition to either commit to remaining an astronaut, or commit to pursuing a career as a commercial space pilot.
China Southern Airlines employees have again been implicated in corruption, with the airline confirming that four executives are under investigation. But industry officials say around 10 China Southern staff members have been arrested, including two executives of the airline's marketing management committee. So far, the accused have not been found guilty by any court. If they are, it will be the third time since 2006 that major corruption has been unearthed at China Southern.
Jim Mull Lockheed Martin Quality Assurance (ret.) (Marietta, Ga. )
I see from reading “Quality Questions” (AW&ST Oct. 7. p. 30), about the Lockheed Martin F-35, that little has changed in the way major manufacturers' programs are being managed. The focus on reducing scrap and rework percentages misses many real underlying problems.
Catherine Gridley (see photo) has been named vice president-business development for Herndon, Va.-based Technical Services sector of the Northrop Grumman Corp. She was vice president of DynCorp International's aviation business and had been president of customer services at General Electric Co. Aviation Systems.
NASA will seek an opportunity to participate in the European Space Agency's (ESA) next two large astrophysics missions, including the launches of a new-generation X-ray telescope and a gravitational wave observatory. “Both a large X-ray observatory and a large gravitational wave observatory are prioritized recommendations of the [2010 astrophysics] decadal survey, and so we are pursuing an opportunity to contribute and partner on ESA's observatories,” says Paul Hertz, head of NASA's Astrophysics Div.
Amy Butler (Washington), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
In December 2011, Iran proudly displayed on state television a stealthy U.S. unmanned aircraft it claimed it had downed while conducting reconnaissance overflights. The trophy was a Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, an aircraft publicly acknowledged by the U.S. Air Force two years earlier.
Jan. 21-22—MRO Latin America. Rio de Janeiro. Feb. 4-6—MRO Middle East. Dubai. Feb. 10—Air Transport World's 40th Annual Airline Industry Achievement Awards. Pan Pacific Singapore Hotel. March 4-5—Defense Technology and Affordability Requirements. Washington. March 6—Aviation Week's Laureate Awards. Washington. April 8-10—MRO Americas. Phoenix. You can now register ONLINEfor Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/events or call +1 (212) 904-4682.
This week's National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) hearing on Asiana Airlines Flight 214 is more than a deep dive into why a Boeing 777 crash-landed at a major U.S. hub on a near-perfect summer morning. It is the continuation of an escalating discussion on—as the NTSB puts it so well in its press advisory on the hearing—“pilot awareness in highly automated aircraft.”
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) launched its first Falcon 9 v1.1 mission to geosynchronous transfer orbit Dec. 3, marking the Hawthorne, Calif.-based startup's entry into the commercial launch market and positioning it to unseat United Launch Alliance (ULA), the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture that launches most NASA, U.S. Air Force and intelligence community missions. Liftoff occurred at 5:41 p.m. local time from SpaceX Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. The two-stage, liquid-fueled Falcon 9 sent the Orbital Sciences Corp.
In an unprecedented move, the United Launch Alliance (ULA) is planning to resource its industrial base at a level beyond the number of rocket orders placed by the Pentagon.
Recent launches of two converted Soviet-era ballistic missiles have reaffirmed the vehicles' presence in the market for lofting small satellites, a sector once reserved for research and technology demonstrations that is seeing increased demand for commercial applications, including optical and radar imagery and communications.
To call launch market upstart Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) a change agent would not be an overstatement. The company is bursting onto the scene with the stated goal of CEO Elon Musk to break the monopoly for U.S. national security launches now held by the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V and Delta IV rockets. Air Force officials say they are already seeing ULA take measures to become more efficient and reduce cost (see page 43). And SpaceX is infusing the market with new manufacturing and design techniques.
If Lockheed Martin can build the SR-72, it will be a technological marvel. However, with states dependent on computers for all defense functions, the U.S. would be better served by spending the money on cyberwarfare, which can locate and disable or destroy military installations at the speed of light—quite a bit faster than Mach 6. Denver, Colo.
Serving up a most unlikely exception in a town where “Nay!” prevails, the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration have said “Yea!” to the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013, benefitting manufacturers of general aviation aircraft.
Chris van Gend has become Singapore-based manager of engineering for Asia for Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty. He was head of the Asia-Pacific hub for Catlin's energy and construction businesses.
Reader Robert Owen puts forth that the world has changed as an argument for retiring the A-10 (AW&ST Nov. 25, p. 8). Well the world may have changed, but the aircraft is still relevant.
Scott Webster has been named chairman/CEO/managing director of MBDA Inc., Arlington, Va. He succeeds Jerry Agee, who is retiring. Webster has been a member of the board of directors and was a co-founder of the Orbital Sciences Corp.
For years, space industry pundits have been forecasting a coming boom in the small-satellite market. The key question now is not so much the size of the business opportunity, but how best to unlock its full potential.
PhoneSat 2.4, one of the record 29 nanosatellites launched last month on a Minotaur rocket from Wallops Island, Va., as part of the U.S. Air Force ORS 3 mission, has radioed controllers at Ames Research Center that its systems are all “go.” The 1-kg (2.2-lb.) cubesat incorporates the innards of a Stock Nexus S smartphone with the Android operating system in NASA's second demonstration that off-the-shelf cell-phone technology can operate in orbit.
