NASA is looking for outside partners to collaborate on “mutually beneficial” space projects, as part of an ongoing effort to spread the benefits of government investment in space exploration and science. The agency is offering its spaceflight expertise to companies and non-profit organizations willing to work with NASA in unfunded partnerships that can use that expertise to further their goals in space.
More space programs are set to feel sequestration's effects, particularly on the civilian side as lawmakers responsible for NASA are increasingly—and bitterly—at odds. Last week, Senate appropriators, led by Democrats, recommended $18 billion for the agency for 2014. But despite his stated approval of the legislation, senior Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) voted against the measure in committee because it adheres to Senate Democrats' overall federal budget allocations.
The nine USAF fighter squadrons grounded since April by the 2011 Budget Control Act's automatic sequestration cuts are flying again, but whether they will remain so after September—and whether there will be anyone to fly or maintain them starting
Gerry Fasano has become vice president-strategy and business development for the Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Information Systems and Global Solutions business, Gaithersburg, Md. He will remain general manager for Valley Forge, Pa., operations. He has been the division's product line vice president/general manager. Fasano succeeds Paul Lemmo, who has been named senior vice president-corporate strategy and business development.
Airbus and Boeing led the news, but perhaps the biggest surprise at June's Paris air show as Bell Helicopter's decision to power its new light single with a Turbomeca engine. To fly in 2014, the long-awaited JetRanger replacement will be powered by a 450-550-shp Arrius, the first new Bell to have a French engine.
John Graber has been named CEO of Global Aviation Holdings Inc., Peachtree City, Ga. He was president of CHC Helicopter Services and had been president of ABX Air.
Ali Bahrami has become vice president-civil aviation and Mary Jane Mitchell assistant vice president-acquisition policy for the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association. Bahrami was manager of the Transport Airplane Directorate of the FAA Aircraft Certification Service. Mitchell has held numerous positions within the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.
The Defense Department is mobilizing 40 new cyberteams for both offensive and defensive missions in cyberspace, Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says. “The teams are . . . in addition to the [National Security Agency's],” he says, adding that the Pentagon is trying to create “another set of people” associated with the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command. A total of about 4,000 cyberexperts will eventually make up the 40 teams. Like Special Operations Command troops, he says, those with cybersecurity expertise are hard to find and take a long time to train.
Philippe Duhamel (see photo) has been named CEO of France-based ThalesRaytheonSystems. He succeeds Jack Harrington. Duhamel has been CEO of Thales Raytheon Systems SAS.
ATR estimates airlines will buy 1,340 turboprop airliners with 90 seats during the next 20 years, which sounds like a good market. But it could be a cramped one. If all five of the aircraft proposed for the segment go ahead, each will average a production run of fewer than 300.
“Warming Trend” (AW&ST July 8, p. 26) reports that the U.S. Navy is starting work on a Block III AIM-9X missile to gain increased range. Wouldn't it be easier (and cheaper) to start with the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile and just replace its radar seeker with the AIM-9X IR seeker? Asheville N.C.
While Aviation Week's annual Top-Performing Airlines (TPA) study is the most extensive comparison of global airline strength, there is still one type of carrier that it does not include. The study only covers publicly traded companies, which means the TPA rankings exclude the large Middle Eastern carriers such as Emirates. So Aviation Week has run a separate analysis of Emirates to estimate where it might fit in the rankings if it did meet our criteria.
Earl L. Wiener, known to many as a founding father of aviation human factors, died on June 14 at his home in Menlo Park, Calif., after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 80.
NASA is undertaking an aggressive investigation of a spacesuit leak that allowed an estimated 1-1.5 liters of water to seep into the helmet and spacesuit of European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 16 spacewalk outside the International Space Station. The planned 6-7-hr. excursion was cut short after roughly 90 min.
Swelling aircraft orderbooks are prompting questions about whether deliveries could inflate airline capacity too much in coming years. But Boeing maintains that a supply overload is unlikely to occur, and it has identified a set of metrics it says proves that market conditions justify the size of the current backlog.
Five years after General Electric launched its initiative to penetrate the small turboprop market with the acquisition of Czech engine maker Walter and the development of the H80, the company is midway through its first full year of production and poised to bolster its line-up with studies of additional variants.
Actually, the historical landing of an unmanned aircraft on a carrier deck is no big deal (AW&ST July 15, p. 25). U.S. Navy aircraft land routinely on carriers with no control input from the pilot on board. Automated landings have been around for quite a few years. And other military and commercial aircraft have had automated landing systems for decades in which the pilot on board merely monitors things “just in case.”
Carbon in its many forms is transforming manufacturing, from electronics to structures. Aerospace uses carbon in fiber form, but new nano-structured materials are emerging that promise improved properties and expanded applications.
