4,300 Number of jet engines that GE Aviation plans to produce annually by 2020, up from 2,800 in 2010. 242 Number of new jobs that GE Aviation plans to create in North Carolina. The company unveiled plans to build an advanced ceramic matrix composite plant in Ashville.
S. Ramadorai has been named chairman of New Delhi-based Air Asia India. He is a former CEO of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. Tata Sons Ltd. Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has been named the airline's chief adviser and Mittu Chandilya as CEO.
Though late to sign on to the network of nations purchasing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, Israel will be the first international customer to operate the fifth-generation fighter, according to Steve O'Bryan, Lockheed Martin's vice president for F-35 program integration and business development. The first F-35I combat squadron is expected to achieve initial operational capability in 2018.
The automatic U.S. budget cuts known as “sequestration” went into effect on March 1, but the sky has not fallen as far as investors and traders are concerned. There is no pure defense stock-price index but shares of the largest U.S. defense primes have outperformed both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average since March 1. Small and mid-size stocks have also performed well and even the major U.S. defense services contractors—Booz Allen, CACI, ManTech and SAIC—have seen their shares appreciate more than broader market indices.
A Trans States Airlines Embraer ERJ 145LR that slid off the end of a runway after landing in Ottawa in June 2010 became the impetus for Canadian regulators to publish guidance on how to cut grooves into runway pavements.
The U.S. Defense Department is close to wrapping up a Counterfeit Prevention Policy to minimize the introduction of counterfeit parts into the supply chain, according to the White House's new Joint Strategic Plan for Intellectual Property Enforcement. The policy follows guidance the Defense Department issued due to a mandate in the fiscal 2012 defense authorization act. Already, the Defense Logistics Agency is requiring an advanced type of DNA markings on high-reliability microcircuits, and offering to reimburse contractors that use the technology.
Boeing and Airbus have backlogs bulging with orders and would like to see production rates increase. The question is can their supply chains meet the schedule and quality marks needed. “We have to think through whether we want to go for higher rates,” Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said as the Paris air show got underway last week. Airbus is in the same cautious position of not wanting to let its desire for higher rates exceed its supply chain's capacity. Still, the pressure to get aircraft out the door faster is relentless.
Pratt & Whitney Chief Operating Officer Paul R. Adams and engineer Scott Beecher have been inducted into the University of Connecticut's Academy of Distinguished Engineers. Adams received the 2013 Distinguished Engineering Leadership Award for his career accomplishments and dedication to the future generation of engineers. Beecher won the Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, which is presented to University of Connecticut School of Engineering alumni for contributions to the engineering profession.
Within the next couple of months, the U.S. Navy/Northrop Grumman X-47B Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) team plans to wind up the program by recovering one of the two air vehicles on an aircraft carrier in a Navy test range area 100 mi. off the Virginia coast.
Last week's delivery of a Superjet 100 to its first Western customer—Interjet—was to be celebrated as the international breakthrough for the Russian-build regional aircraft. But now Finmeccanica, Sukhoi's partner in the Superjet International joint venture, is threatening to pull out.
In pictures of Saturn 5 liftoffs I have noticed that the main engines at the end of the exhaust-bell have a dark gaseous extension of perhaps 8 ft. before you see flame glow. I have never been able to find out why. Can any of the brain trust of engineers who have worked on this program offer a firm explanation? All close-up liftoff pictures of the bottom of the rocket show this dark effluent, seemingly blocking out the bright light of the hot exhaust. At that point of the exhaust, I cannot imagine any unburnt hydrocarbons that have not ignited.
With all the talk of the potential of electric and hybrid propulsion to revolutionize general aviation, it is easy to forget that light aircraft have largely missed out on one of the most fundamental advances in aeronautics—the jet engine. Now, after 15 years of work, a French company is getting close to beginning certification work on a small turbofan aimed at replacing piston engines in light aircraft. And it is fitting such a venture should be French, because the SIPA S.200 Minijet, flown in 1952, was the first jet-powered light touring aircraft.
The Pentagon's acquisition czar says he is “reasonably confident” that the Lockheed Martin F-35 program's classified cybersystems are “well-protected” from Chinese and Russian hacking, but Frank Kendall is “not at all” confident about unclassified information. “I have determined in general that with the loss of design information that's at the unclassified and insensitive level, I'm going to be putting some policies into place that try to make stronger sanctions . . .
Warren M. Boley, Jr., has become president of the new Aerojet Rocketdyne subsidiary of GenCorp Inc., Sacramento, Calif. Boley has been president of Aerojet since July 2012. Aerojet Rocketdyne was created on June 14, when GenCorp acquired Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. Boley was president of Pratt & Whitney's Military Engines Div. John Schumacher has been named vice president-business relations for GenCorp.
President Barack Obama's Brandenburg Gate call to eliminate up to a third of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has few ardent champions. And the remaining discontent may matter, since the cuts aren't likely to materialize while Obama is still in office. Republicans denounce the plan to reduce beyond the New Start treaty's limit of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads, and promise to set up procedural roadblocks in the Senate.
In a conversation with AW&ST Contributing Editor David Eshel, Brig. Gen. Hagi Topolanski, chief of air staff and deputy commander of the Israeli air force, describes how the IAF is dealing with the evolving threat in the Middle East. He lays out the Air Force's upcoming five-year acquisition blueprint, including plans for the purchase and fielding of the first squadron of F-35I stealth fighters.
Jens Flottau's “Blue Horizons” (AW&ST May 20, p. 44) provided an insightful look into the interesting strategic and operational challenges faced by JetBlue as it pursues the “tweener” strategy, which means leading in the “lifestyle” segment of the market. My perspective as a very satisfied customer is that they have succeeded so far, in no small part due to exercising tremendous discipline in saying “no” to various strategic choices that airlines regularly face.
Preliminary design review (PDR) for the next U.S. heavy-lift launch vehicle is underway and expected to be finished this summer, but work on the crew vehicle that is to ride atop it is lagging slightly. Engineers from NASA and its contractors on the Space Launch System (SLS) started PDR on the initial 70-metric-ton variant of the vehicle, conducting detailed reviews of the design concept. The project, mandated by Congress in the 2010 NASA authorization bill, is on track for a first flight in 2017, according to Todd May, NASA's SLS program manager.
Vietnam has a requirement for long-range maritime patrol aircraft, but is unwilling to buy the aircraft from the U.S. unless it lifts a ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam's ruling Communist Party government.
Too bad readers must delve deep into your June 17 issue to find out how the French have managed aerial firefighting since 1963—keeping 95% of wild/forest fires to less than 12 acres as a result of their ability to strike early. And, in an embarrassing irony, they are using many U.S. aircraft such as the PBY Catalina, early on, and now have nine modified Grumman S-2 Trackers along with 17 other fixed-wing aircraft.
A Lockheed Martin-led consortium developing the Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads) is requesting approval from Italy, Germany and the U.S.—the program's three partners—to expand the scope of its second and final flight test before the partnership is set to expire later this year. A November 2013 trial was slated to pit Meads only against a theater ballistic missile (TBM) threat.
Air shows do more than trumpet commercial transport orders or dazzle visitors with noisy flight displays. They also provide a great opportunity to introduce new ideas and, even better, concepts that could lead to technology breakthroughs. Last week at the Paris air show, Switzerland's Ecole Polytechnique, based in Lausanne, unveiled an all-new concept of modular aircraft—a three-engine flying wing able to carry three Airbus A320-size “capsules.”
Warren M. Boley, Jr., has become president of the new Aerojet Rocketdyne subsidiary of GenCorp Inc., Sacramento, Calif. Boley has been president of Aerojet since July 2012. Aerojet Rocketdyne was created on June 14, when GenCorp acquired Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne from United Technologies Corp. Boley was president of Pratt & Whitney's Military Engines Div. John Schumacher has been named vice president-business relations for GenCorp.
