A 1:11-scale model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's D8 “double-bubble” airliner concept undergoes testing in NASA Langley Research Center's 14 X 22-ft. wind tunnel to measure the drag benefit from fuselage boundary-layer ingestion by very-high-bypass engines embedded in the tail. The 13.4 ft.-span model was made using additive manufacturing. NASA Langley photo by George Homich.
A series of U.S.-India military sales agreements worth billions of dollars are nearing completion, on the heels of a meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A $1.2 billion deal to buy six Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft (see photo) for the Indian air force (IAF), to bring its fleet to 12, has been inching forward all year. The Indian Defense Acquisition Council issued final clearance for the sale this month and the contract is expected to be signed by year-end.
An industry-government advisory group has prioritized capabilities in the FAA's NextGen program to help the agency realign its spending in an austere budget environment. The RTCA's NextGen Advisory Committee, chaired by Alaska Airlines CEO Bill Ayer, found that its priority list was similar to those compiled by earlier panels that had looked at streamlining and boosting the air traffic management overhaul effort. But this time the ramifications are more dire for programs further down the list.
There have been many times in my career when I have realized (in smack-on-side-of-head mode) that the answer to a question that nobody will answer today is in the notes from last month or a few years ago. This might sometimes be a good approach for the Pentagon to take. I wrote here two weeks ago (AW&ST Sept. 16, p. 16) about Russia's impressive new radars, quite clearly designed to detect and defeat stealth aircraft. But short of a doomsday bomb, there is no ultimate weapon, and I noted that these big complexes—“Aegis on wheels”—are not invulnerable.
Ma Xingrui, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells the 64th International Astronautical Congress that his country is ready to join the International Space Exploration Group (ISEGC), an organization of space agencies that is developing roadmaps for human exploration of the Solar System. “I don't see any problem with that,” he tells a questioner at the Beijing gathering. “If the organizer of the multilateral effort would like to invite China to be a part, of course we are willing to participate in it.
Bill Darbe has been named director of dealer programs for Satcom Direct, Satellite Beach, Fla. He was head of aftermarket sales and charter accounts for Aircell.
I was rather surprised to read Textron's choice of name—Scorpion—for its speculatively proposed light attack/reconnaissance jet. I was under the impression that unless an airplane was a follow-on product of the same manufacturer, e.g., Corsair II, Thunderbolt II, etc., its name was generally “used up” once it had been assigned. Given that, Northrop's 1950s-era F-89 Scorpion should have prevailed.
Jerry Redondo has been appointed vice president-operational excellence for the electronics and aerostructures businesses of Ducommun Inc., Carson, Calif. He was group vice president-operations, global supply chain, quality and operational excellence at Crane Aerospace and Electronics, and had been director of operations and global supply chain for the Control Systems Div. of the Aerospace Group of the Parker Hannifin Corp. Honors And Elections
“Data Driven” (AW&ST Sept. 2, p. 36), is another example of why I have been a decades-long subscriber. The online digital material is icing on the information cake! But close reading of the above-mentioned article and the online case studies, left me with questions: Perhaps pilot monitoring is a peripheral variable in this serious problem. It seems more likely that simultaneous variables—pilot selection and training come to mind—play a larger part.
Harvey J. Nathan (see photo) has been appointed assistant general counsel for government contracts and government relations of the Northrop Grumman Corp., Falls Church, Va. He was vice president-contracts for EADS North America and had been a deputy general counsel for the U.S. Defense Department.
Electric propulsion is already here, albeit on a small scale, and now NASA is looking ahead to the technology that would be required to power a regional aircraft in 10-20 years or a narrowbody airliner in 30-40 years. But the agency intends to start small, with tests to first understand, then model the behavior and efficiency of electric propulsion system components. These will feed into ground, and potentially flight, tests of a distributed propulsion system that would be closely integrated with the airframe.
Climate change is fueling a race for once-inaccessible Arctic resources, but the rapidly thawing ice poses a growing risk of accelerating global warming by releasing huge stores of eons-old carbon into the atmosphere. Unmanned aircraft are beginning to play a key role in monitoring the changes in these vast and remote areas.
While campaign promises must always be viewed cautiously, it appears that the overthrow of Australia's Labor government will benefit airlines in a few key areas. Most notably, the new Liberal-National Coalition government has signaled that it will throw out a carbon tax that has been severely hurting airline profits.
Managers at NASA are preparing for a possible government shutdown at the end of the month if Congress cannot find a way to continue funding. “A lapse would mean that a number of government activities would cease due to a lack of appropriated funds,” writes David Radzanowski, Administrator Charles Bolden's chief of staff.
Robert Hosozawa (see photo) has become vice president-business management for the Herndon, Va.-based Integrated Logistics and Modernization Div. of the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Technical Services Sector. He was director of business management for the B-2 Spirit program at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems.
Pointing to the lack of enough international orders and uncertainty caused by U.S. military budget cuts, Boeing plans to close its long-running C-17 production line in 2015, the company announced. Boeing will discontinue the line after completing the last of 22 C-17s for international customers. The decision will have an impact on about 3,000 jobs, many of them at the airlifter's Long Beach, Calif., final assembly facility but also in St. Louis; Macon, Ga., and Mesa, Ariz.
