Young people seem to be getting the message that engineering offers opportunity: 84,000 U.S. students graduated from universities in 2012 with engineering degrees. That is up 12% from 73,000 just six years ago, according to the National Academies. And despite the downturn in the economy and in federal spending, the aerospace and defense industry continues to provide at least some of that opportunity.
Denis Ilin (see photo) has been appointed executive president of Russia-based AirBridgeCargo Airlines. He was head of aviation business development for the Basic Element financial and industrial group and had been AirBridge's senior vice president-strategic marketing and sales.
Mitsubishi Aircraft has again extended the development schedule for its MRJ regional jet, this time by about one-and-a-half years, with first delivery now due in the second quarter of 2017, nine years after the program was launched. The first flight, previously planned for the last quarter of this year, now is not expected until the second quarter of 2015.
Sept. 3-6—39th European Rotorcraft Forum. Moscow. See erf2013.org/ Sept. 5-8—China Helicopter Exposition. See www.helicopter-china-expo.com/ Sept. 9-12—Fifth Boeing/Northrop Grumman/Elysium Joint Global Product Data Interoperability Summit. Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, Chandler, Ariz. See www.gpdisonline.com Sept. 10-12—AIAA Space 2013 Conference and Exposition. San Diego. See www.aiaa.org/SPACE2013
With future budget reductions all but implemented, the chief of naval operations is underscoring the Navy's major defense acquisition priorities. Adm. Jonathan Greenert says the Navy will deliver the first-of-class USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) aircraft carrier in fiscal 2015 and maintain and modernize carrier air wings by fielding more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets, E/A-18 Growlers and E-2D Hawkeyes.
James P. Sohan has been named director of public safety for the Louisville (Ky.) Regional Airport Authority. He is a retired major in the Louisville Metro Police Department.
It pays to be the new guy, according to data gathered for the 2013 Aviation Week Workforce Study. Pay for new college graduates rose by 3.4% between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In the aerospace and defense industry, the increase was slightly lower, at 3.2%. Companies with fewer employees worked to retain their workforces, awarding pay increases on average of 4.1%.
The recent rebranding of EADS into Airbus is a superb example of how to justify a top management decision with some strategic rationale that really does not exist. There was clearly an issue with the EADS brand. The name was poorly recognized internationally, but that problem had less to do with the brand itself than with the underlying dynamics within the group.
Graham Warwick's Leading Edge article “Location, Location” (AW&ST Aug. 5/12, p. 16) presents a key to the way forward in passenger and cargo aviation. Until now, the path was fragmented and murky. But this configuration could work. Open fans (misnamed open rotors) have serious safety problems such as losing a blade. And their above-the-tail mounting can result in trim drag losses, drag and weight from very long struts, and a fratricide potential that makes certification difficult.
With the fog of war lifting from the combat-driven acquisition of UAS, unmanned systems are facing a new level of scrutiny inside the Beltway. The latest example is growing pressure from congressional auditors for Pentagon leaders to ensure the armed services' myriad UAS follow so-called open systems architectures, ultimately making them more affordable and less dependent on original manufacturers.
One hundred years ago, the University of Michigan hired Felix Pawlowski to teach the first U.S. students the subject of aeronautical engineering. Preparing a generation of engineers to build and assure the safety of a country's fledgling airline and aircraft industry was a daunting task. Today, the industry faces a similar challenge in laying the path to develop the nation's next generation of cybersecurity professionals.
Bombardier's first CSeries flight-test aircraft, FTV1, moved closer to first flight when it emerged from the paint shop at the Mirabel plant near Montreal on Aug. 22, having earlier begun low-speed taxi tests. These followed completion of thrust-reverser and stationary high-power runs of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans. FTV1 has also completed aircraft-in-the-loop testing during which it was “flown” on the ground in a simulated flight environment to validate systems integration.
Bill Gattle (see photos) is among three executives to be promoted at the Harris Corp. Government Communications Systems Div., Palm Bay, Fla., to vice president/general manager of national programs from vice president-aerospace systems programs. Also promoted are: Ed Zoiss to vice president/general manager of defense programs from vice president-C4ISR electronics programs; and Carl D'Alessandro to vice president/general manager of civil programs from vice president-strategy and business development. Jon Reed has been named to succeed D'Alessandro.
Deepak Sharma has been promoted to company technical director of the London-based AJW Group from technical director of the AJW Aviation Div. Ruslan Nurislamov has been named Moscow-based vice president-business development of integrated aircraft support services in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States for AJW Aviation. He was general manager for Lufthansa Technik for Central Asia.
