Though the U.S. Air Force remains at odds with Congress over its plans to prematurely terminate the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk Block 30 program, the service is making plans to deploy its younger cousin, the high-flying Block 40 aircraft, as soon as possible to support the war in Afghanistan.
Thierry Baril (see photo), chief human resources officer of EADS and Airbus, has been named human resources director of the year by the Hudson, Le Figaro Economie and Cadremploi Group. The award highlights the importance and strategic contribution of human resources directors to company development.
Ahmed Metwalli has joined Dynatech/MPX Holdings on Long Island, N.Y., as senior vice president-planning and business development. He was president of API in Memphis, Tenn.
USAF Col. Nina Armagno has relinquished command of the 30th Space Wing at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to its vice commander, Col. Keith Balts. Armagno has been named commander of the 45th Space Wing at Patrick AFB, Fla.
Chris Clark has joined Millennium Space Systems, Torrance, Calif., as a project manager. He was director of NASA and civil programs at Spectrum Astro and General Dynamics.
Europe's industry is marshaling its arguments to defend proposals seeking a substantial increase in funding for aeronautics research even as the recession-hit region scales back once-ambitious plans to boost government support for R&D to increase competitiveness. Proposals are being finalized for a follow-on to Europe's Clean Sky public-private research program that would increase funding to €3.6 billion ($4.7 billion) from €1.6 billion, with half to come from the European Commission (EC) and half from industry and academia.
Comac's eight-year schedule for developing the C919 158-seat airliner has always looked doubtful, even though it was at least two years longer than Bombardier gave itself for the technologically similar CSeries. It is looking even more questionable now that the first flight has been delayed by up to a year.
Test pilots working for Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic expect to expand the SpaceShipTwo flight envelope rapidly this year, and to reach the edge of space before the end of December.
Ana Luisa Ramirez (see photo), a systems engineering manager in the Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Targeting Systems Div. at the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Baltimore campus, has been named Woman of the Year by the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation. She is a founding member and has held leadership positions within the Northrop Grumman One Adelante Hispanic employee resource group. She is on the board of U.S. Hispanic Youth Entrepreneur Education, which introduces high school students to opportunities in scientific and technical fields.
The Russian aerospace industry hoped the revamped Tupolev Tu-204SM would serve as a bridge until launch of the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) MS-21 narrowbody in 2017, but it still does not have a single order, despite its recent certification by aviation authorities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Most of Doug Parker's executive team, as expected, will be joining him in Fort Worth when he takes the reins of the new American Airlines in the third quarter. US Airways President Scott Kirby, CFO Derek Kerr, COO Robert Isom and Executive Vice President- People and Communications Elise Eberwein will retain their roles at the new American, while Executive Vice President-Corporate and Government Affairs Steve Johnson will cede his role to Will Ris, who is senior vice president-government and regulatory affairs for American.
Randy Sloan (see photo) has been named senior vice president/chief information officer and Craig Maccubbin chief technology officer of Southwest Airlines.
Airline leaders cannot be accused of wishful thinking in their optimistic assessment of the industry's outlook. Clear signs are emerging that the sector is past the bottom of the latest trough in the cycle and on the way up again. These indicators have led the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to lift its 2013 profit forecast for the global airline industry to $12.7 billion, thanks partly to anticipated easing of oil prices and the average load factor exceeding 80% for the first time.
Saab is pulling its JAS 39E Gripen out of Canada's fighter reevaluation, having “decided not to take part”—for now. The next-generation Gripen was among candidates to replace the Lockheed Martin F-35A as Canada's future fighter. “Our conclusion is that the conditions were not yet ripe for us to act,” says Saab spokeswoman Karin Walka. Faced with mounting controversy over its original decision to join the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program as an international partner, Canada has embarked on a “seven-step plan” to re-evaluate its fighter choice.
When Lockheed Martin began developing the F-35 in 2001, several technologies needed for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to succeed were far from ready. One was a revolution in helmet-display technology. The goal was to combine the functionality of head-up and head-down displays and a helmet-mounted cueing system into a single helmet for the F-35 pilot. But Vision Systems International (VSI), a Rockwell Collins/Elbit Systems joint venture, encountered some thorny issues while maturing the technology.
On any given morning, groups of US Airways Airbus A330s head west out of various European countries on North Atlantic tracks that ultimately lead to Philadelphia International Airport.
Yves Leclere has been appointed adviser to the chairman of Paris-based Safran, Jean-Paul Herteman. Leclere has been executive vice president-transformation. Other appointments effective July 1 are: Jean-Pierre Cojan, executive vice president-strategy and transformation, who was executive vice president-strategy; Eric Dalbies, vice president-strategy who was vice president-information technology; and Olivier Horaist, deputy director for European and international relations who was chairman/CEO of the Hispano-Suiza division and head of executive management at Safran.
Gary Northam, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's Prescott (Ariz.) Campus, has been named the next Aviation Accreditation Board International president.
With troubles on its eastern borders, it is perhaps no wonder that Turkey wants to keep a close eye on its frontiers. Turkey sees unmanned aerial vehicles as the ideal platform for this important role but has been frustrated by export controls which have prevented the country from being able to buy the U.S.-built armed General Atomics Predators and Reapers it has long desired.
The recent Viewpoint on UAVs and civil threat is an excellent description of the mire pit into which the future of the small UAV and the FAA are sinking. It is unreasonable to force the FAA to find a magic way to design the integration of unmanned aerial systems into the NAS, just as it is unreasonable to have the FAA design the way forward for industry to adopt additive manufacturing, or any new industry-side sea change. For the FAA, UAV integration is almost a conflict of interest. Be careful what you ask for.
