NASA has cleared Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) through two more of its Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) milestones, so the company's modified Dragon cargo carrier can begin pad-abort testing as early as this year. The U.S. space agency accepted the SpaceX human certification plan, which outlines everything the company plans to do to prepare for human spaceflight. That includes tests, demonstrations, analyses, inspections, verifications and training events, NASA says.
Pascal Picano has been named Dublin-based head of marketing for the Apollo Aviation Group. He was an executive with the International Lease Finance Corp.
When EasyJet confirmed its latest order for a total of 135 Airbus A320s and A320NEOs at the Paris air show, the airline was quick to point out a few of the deal's most important aspects. Flexibility of future fleet size and pricing that management considers to be very favorable to the airline, combined with EasyJet's track record for growth and profitability, make the plan look like a winning formula.
GeoMetWatch, a startup that is building on its engineers' experience developing an unflown government hyperspectral weather sounder to produce commercial weather hosted payloads, has entered a Space Act agreement with NASA to exchange data from orbit for surplus hardware and calibration services. Under the deal, NASA will receive data from the Sounding and Tracking Observatory of Regional Meteorology (Storm) instrument when it begins flying on AsiaSat 9 late in 2016.
Boeing has selected BAE Systems to provide the spoiler control electronics for the 737 MAX, firm configuration of which is on track for completion this month. The move to fly-by-wire spoilers is designed to improve handling characteristics, reduce weight and lower maintenance costs, and is one of the few major systems changes for the aircraft family which enters service in 2017. The control electronics award is BAE's first win on the MAX and the company's first contract since the Partnering for Success program was rolled out by Boeing.
The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee wants the Air Force and Army to report whether the planned retirement of 1970s-era A-10s and the introduction of so-called fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s actually leaves a gap in close-air-support (CAS) for U.S. ground personnel.
Allegiant Air achieved the highest score overall in Aviation Week's annual Top-Performing Airlines study, which ranks 71 airlines from around the world. A wide range of raw data is fed into complex formulas to provide a nuanced assessment of carriers' financial performance. The nine-page TPA feature begins on page 40. The Allegiant MD-80 photo on the cover was taken by Erik Simonsen.
Ed Senen has become president of L-3 Aviation Recorders, Sarasota, Fla. He succeeds Michael Smith, who is retiring. Senen has been vice president and general manager for the Americas for Thales Avionics. Pedro Forte has become sales manager for new business development, covering Latin America and repair management programs. He was an account executive at Pan Am Academy in Miami.
The new Pacific scenario, as outlined in “Pacific Punch,” fails to mention the obvious possible inclusion of the past-testing-stage Landing Pad Dock vessels such as the USS New York (LPD-21) and her sister ships. This would probably be a far more definitive first step in this strategy. New York, N.Y.
If an airline could mix the petabytes of performance data that aircraft generate with Big Data analysis—and control the weather—that could be operational nirvana. Then fuse that with maximizing the customer experience—and save millions or billions of dollars—and you have near-utopia.
Recently, conditions at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) were: visibility 10 mi., 56F, broken clouds at 1,100 ft., and the wind down the runway about 12 kt. In other words, near perfect. And yet, arriving flights were delayed more than 2 hr. because the two main runways at SFO are too close together for parallel IFR (instrument flight rule) approaches. Essentially SFO is a visual-flight-rule-(VFR)-only airport for parallel arrivals. Under easy instrument conditions, arrival capacity is halved.
In “Balance of Risk” (AW&ST May 27, p. 24) Boeing Vice President Mike Gibbons says that the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet is now low-observable. Does the U.S. Defense Department have a new definition of low observable that is different than the one that has been used for low-observable aircraft and missile programs for the past three decades?
Steve Walters has become general manager of GE Aviation's mechanical systems business. He was product leader for GE Aviation's nacelle and aerostructures activities and had been president of Nexcelle.
Changes have been made to methodology and categories, and prior year results have been restated to reflect this. Scores represent the composite of six performance categories. The categories and their contributions to total score are: Liquidity (15%), scored from metrics measuring cash and equivalents; implicit borrowing capacity computed from a percentage estimate of unencumbered asset collateral to debt; and unrestricted cash reserves per available seat-mile.
At its Peebles Training Operation in Ohio, GE Aviation has begun certification testing of its 16,500-lb.-thrust Passport engine for the Bombardier Global 7000/8000 series of executive jets. An initial run of more than 3 hr. reached 18,000 lb. of standard-day, sea-level takeoff thrust. Testing is to include 4,000 ground hours and 8,000 cycles and will involve eight engines and one core, leading to flight tests next year and certification planned for 2015.
New aircraft with new engines may be the news after the Paris air show, but low-cost carriers are still bargain-hunting for leases. Boeing Capital Corp. says more than 150 of the 169 717s sold between the 110-seater's service entry in 1999 and the end of its production in 2005 are still operating. In a new round of leases, Boeing placed five aircraft each with Australian regional carrier QantasLink, which already flies 13, and with Spain's Volotea, which started flying in spring 2012 with a network built around the 717. It now flies 10.
Across Eastern Europe, governments are trying to modernize their militaries in the face of the economic downturn afflicting their trading partners to the west. For years, countries like Romania and Bulgaria have remained heavily reliant on the Soviet era-built fighters and aircraft handed to them during the 1970s and '80s. And while most were keen to join NATO, the real focus has been on entering the European Union to benefit from the investment that membership brings. Air arm modernization has been put on the back burner, at least until now.
Philip F. Milazzo (see photos) has been appointed CEO and Rick Rosenjack COO of HM Dunn Aerospace, Euless, Texas. Milazzo was president/CEO of PAS Technologies and had been senior vice president-operations. Rosenjack was vice president/general manager of PCC Aerostructures.
