The U.S. Navy's Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) effort has garnered lots of headlines for the innovations it represents, but the service is trying to use the program to prod the acquisition world into new thinking. And while seemingly bureaucratic, the new approach might just help the Navy land its desired Uclass fleet even as the military and intelligence sectors enter a long-term austere budget environment.
Gregory Gicca has become director of marketing for Verocel, Westford, Mass. He has been director of safety and security product marketing at AdaCore and Green Hills Software.
Leaks of classified information from former Booz Allen Hamilton and U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have given the NSA a world-class public-relations headache. Private citizens are reeling too, having not yet grasped the extent to which digital communications were potentially subject to state scrutiny. As the U.S. continues communications surveillance as a tool to fight terrorism, it faces both in-house and international data-privacy concerns. That struggle will also present new challenges for industry.
Did a ghost TWA flight drop in to Terminal A at Reagan Washington National Airport just in time to be caught by a photographer for Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in “Dark Skies” (AW&ST July 29, p. 17)? Or was it merely Photoshop and an active sense of nostalgia? Wilmette, Ill. (The reader is correct—Ed.)
Russia is re-arming a fleet of modern new helicopters, including the fearsome-looking Mil Mi-28 Night Hunter, seen here in a photo taken by Chris Lofting at a celebration of the Russian air force's 100th anniversary in 2012. Russia's aerospace industry is hoping such hardware will revive the sector (see page 45). Elsewhere in this issue are reports on cybersecurity, beginning on page 48, and on delays in China's C919 transport program (see page 39).
At some point, mainland China will need more than three international hub airports. Funneling the international traffic of a country of 1.3 billion people through Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou will not make sense forever, and even now the geographical distribution of the three is awkward. The hubs, each the base of one of China's three biggest airlines, are on the eastern and southern periphery of China's main population zone, so the country lacks a central or western gateway.
Science managers have conceded failure in attempting to restore the Kepler Space Telescope to full functionality, and will focus on what the telescope can do with only two of its four reaction wheels working. Designed to find extra-solar planets by detecting the faint flicker in light from distant stars when a planet passes in front of it, Kepler lost its pointing accuracy when a second wheel failed in May. A system-level performance test Aug. 8 concluded the situation cannot be fixed, and mission managers are now evaluating responses to an Aug.
Capt. (ret.) Elliot M. Cannon (Paso Robles, Calif. ), United Parcel Service (Paso Robles, Calif. )
In reference to “Fired Up” (AW&ST July 29, p. 46), which deals with the September 2010 crash of UPS Flight 6 from Dubai to Cologne, Germany, what makes anyone think a video recording would have done any good in a cockpit filled with “continuous toxic smoke”?
Speaking of austerity, the full effect of the 2011 Budget Control Act and its annual sequestration limits is likely to force the Pentagon to take a major near-term hit in its research, development and procurement accounts for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1.
Graeme Burnett (see photo) has become senior vice president-fuel optimization for Delta Air Lines and chairman of subsidiary Monroe Energy. He was president of Total Petrochemicals and CEO of the Petrochemicals and Refining Div. for the U.S.
Finally, NASA is rolling out a new “strategic vision” for aeronautics that focuses civil aviation research on six themes. But with no new money, work that does not align with the main thrusts will be reduced. The strategy is based on understanding emerging global trends, including new competitors for U.S.
Leslie Chen has been named Singapore-based vice president-marketing for Northern Asia for CIT Aerospace. He was vice president-Asia for the Aviation Capital Group and had been a regional sales manager at Thales Aerospace Asia.
Rob Weiss has been named executive vice president/general manager of Aeronautics Advanced Development Programs (ADP), also known as the Skunk Works, for the Lockheed Martin Corp. He was executive vice president/general manager of the Aeronautics Operations Div. Three other ADP executives were appointed: Al Romig, vice president-ADP Engineering and Advanced Systems; John Larson, vice president-ADP Operations and Production Programs; and Ron Bessire, vice president-Program and Technology Integration.
The Russian aerospace industry's ambitious strategic goal is to return to its Soviet-era position in domestic and international markets. But achieving that goal is not easy. The defense sector, which survived the 1990s and early 2000s thanks to export contracts, is consolidating its gains with the help of big orders from the Russian air force. The civil segment, backed by massive government subsidies, is trying desperately to win back a market lost to foreign manufacturers.
Michel Abella (see photo) has been named president of GE Aviation-Aircelle joint venture Nexcelle. He was director of programs at Nexcelle and had been A380 nacelle program director at Aircelle. Abella succeeds Huntley Myrie, who is now head of nacelle products at GE Aviation.
As a new phase of ship-borne testing of the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter gets underway on the amphibious assault vessel USS Wasp, British shipbuilders are assembling the ski-jump launch ramp on HMS Queen Elizabeth—the first of two new JSF-dedicated aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy.
For decades, cryptography has been the domain primarily of binary computing, and communications via an encryption-decryption cipher key. Conventional algorithms such as Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA), and Pretty Good Protection still provide a high degree of cybersecurity.
John H. Schmidt (see photo) has been appointed Chicago-based managing director of Accenture's North American aerospace and defense practice. He was a senior executive with the company's communications, media and high-tech industry clients.
Christopher J. Lutat and S. Ryan Swah (Memphis, Tenn. )
The question, “Has Automation Trumped Airmanship?” (AW&ST July 15, p. 22) seems to presuppose that the two are in some way distinct skill sets. This is a dangerous and false point of view. Separating the two is to deny a training and operational reality that dates back at least to the introduction of Sperry's “Gyro Stabilizer” in the first part of the last century.
