Space Exploration Technologies Inc. isn't the only space-services company in Hawthorne, Calif., looking for ways to cut launch costs. Established in 1984, tiny Microcosm Inc. has found a way to make strong, lightweight tanks for space applications that it says can handle high pressure as well as the low temperatures needed to hold cryogenic propellants. That capability could come in handy as some new space entrepreneurs look to pressure-fed propulsion systems to loft their payloads.
Beechcraft hopes to sign up a launch customer for the AT-6 light-attack aircraft by year-end, having flown the first production aircraft on Aug. 20. “There are a couple of customers we are working with,” says Russ Bartlett, president of Beechcraft Defense Co., describing negotiations as “very mature.” One customer is looking for around 24 AT-6s and the other a “similar or higher” number, he says.
Brent Bowen has been named dean of the College of Aviation at the Prescott, Ariz., campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He was head of the Aviation Technology Department at Purdue University. Bowen succeeds Gary Northam, who will be the next president of Aviation Accreditation Board International. He will continue teaching safety courses at Embry-Riddle.
USAF Brig. Gen. Gregory S. Otey has been named director of nuclear support at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va. He has been director of U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Liaison to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Otey will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. James C. Vechery, who has been deputy director of strategic plans, requirements and programs at Air Mobility Command Headquarters, Scott AFB, Ill.
A 5% decline in fuel expenses enabled the U.S. airline industry to turn a modest profit in the first six months of 2013. Trade group Airlines For America reports the 10 largest carriers posted a collective net profit of $1.6 billion on revenue of $72.8 billion, up from a $1.2 billion profit in the first half of 2012.
The National Press Club in Washington presented its annual Michael A. Dornheim Award to Bart Jansen of USA Today for stories on air turbulence, airport security and the widely different regulations on passenger cell phone use around the world. An honorable mention went to Alan Levin of Bloomberg News for articles about air traffic controller problems, errors that lead to airliners taking off when overweight, and how leaded gas in general aviation accounts for the majority of lead emissions in the U.S.
Sierra Nevada conducted a captive carriage test flight of the Dream Chaser engineering test article on Aug. 22 at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, Calif., in preparation for the start of approach and landing free-flight tests in September. The test, which saw the space vehicle lifted over the dry lakebed at Edwards below a Sikorsky S-64 Skycrane, follows completion of tow tests earlier this month.
Aerospace and defense companies large and small plan to hire in 2013. While much of the hiring will replace workers leaving for retirement or a new opportunity, the numbers also include some all-new jobs and new skills.
As a war-weary nation grapples with how to cut military spending and a dysfunctional Congress allows meat-ax budget cuts to fall on the Defense Department and NASA, one might expect that the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) industry's best and brightest talent would be heading for the exits. Indeed, one-in-five A&D professionals under the age of 35 submitted resignations in 2012, up from 12% the year before. The good news: most left to go work for another aerospace company.
The Latam Group of LAN Airlines and TAM Brazil is delaying deliveries of 21 narrowbody and one widebody aircraft until the end of 2015. That will save $1.1 billion in investment spending, or 17% less than what was planned when TAM and LAN merged a year ago. The decision is part of a strategy for tighter capacity control.
While USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Thomas McInerney may have the correct figures to support is position—using business jets to fix military readiness—as stated in a recent Viewpoint (AW&ST July 29, p. 54), I am not sure he has included all the costs of using business jets as companion trainers. The biz jets would be yet another complex system requiring initial and recurring training to be operated safely. It would not be a system that the crews are already trained on.
Cathay Pacific Airways plans a leadership transition in March, with Chief Commercial Officer Ivan Chu taking over from CEO John Slosar, who will become chairman of Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. and other Swire Group companies. Current Chairman Christopher Pratt plans to retire.
When a spacecraft is bound for another planet, examining it up close and personal is a rare opportunity. Senior Editor Frank Morring, Jr. (left) and Los Angeles Bureau Chief Guy Norris did just that with the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution spacecraft during its final stages of integration at Lockheed Martin's facility in Littleton, Colo. Now in preflight preparation at Kennedy Space Center, Maven is scheduled for launch in a 20-day window that opens Nov. 18.
Rachael Seidler, an associate professor in the Psychology Department and School of Kinesiology at the University of Michigan and associate director of the neuroscience graduate program, has been named to lead the Sensorimotor Adaptation Team, one of seven integrated scientific research teams funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute. She will be helping to coordinate the studies of scientists at eight institutions working on five projects, including her own.
Doug Brittin has been appointed secretary general of The International Air Cargo Association. He has been division director for air cargo for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
