Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee (NTSC) on May 14 issued pilot-related “immediate” safety recommendations to Lion Air as it continues to investigate the April 13 crash of a Boeing 737-800 at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali (AW&ST April 22, p. 11.) The aircraft touched down in water just short of Runway 09, following a non-precision VOR/DME instrument approach.
Steven J. Cortese has been appointed executive vice president-Washington operations for DRS Technologies. He succeeds Phillip M. Balisle, who is retiring. Cortese has been senior vice president-government relations and corporate communications at ATK.
Four years after interest all but died in a new generation of midsize, long-range business jets, Honeywell is refreshing plans to develop a new or derivative engine for the sector amid signs of a coming market revival.
The South Korean defense ministry has ensured production of the Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) T-50 series until at least 2016 with an order for about 40 units of the FA-50 light-attack variant. The move helps keep alive the T-50's chances of filling the U.S. Air Force's T-X program. With the latest order, KAI's T-50-series production rate looks likely to rise from an average of around one unit a month.
Airbus has completed a round of lightning tests for the A350. They lasted around three days and included lightning-strike simulations and measurements of voltage and current levels on several metallic harnesses. The current injection was much lower than in the case of an actual strike, but results are being extrapolated. Airbus has embedded metallic foils in the composite fuselage to ensure sufficient conductivity.
I would like to heartily endorse reader Lawrence Wasserman's comments about poor service on U.S. carriers (AW&ST April 29, p. 10). In recent years I have opted to book foreign airlines (Qatar Airways twice and Korean Air once to Asia last year alone) over U.S. carriers because the foreign ones typically provide a lot more “mores,” including comfortable seating, adequate legroom and attentive flight attendants.
The U.S. State Department says Raytheon will pay $4 million in civil penalties and another $4 million to make remedial self-improvements to resolve “hundreds” of civil violations of the Arms Export Control Act and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR).
The tempo of new turboprop airliner and engine development is, by its very nature, slower than that of the turbofan-powered jetliner. Although confined to a niche market, turboprops have set such a high benchmark for efficiency since the 1990s that they have made themselves irreplaceable. Added to this, the overall lower volume of production and turnover in regional turboprops have made it tough to close the business case for expensive step-change replacements.
“Executive Expectations” (AW&ST March 25, p. 40) notes that the Gulfstream G650 costs about $65 million—a hefty price tag to ensure that an “I want my life back” pond prince can arrive an hour or two behind his ego. Surely there must be a Laureate award in that for someone. Miami, Fla.
The U.K. Royal Air Force (RAF) has carried out its first strike in Afghanistan using a General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper flown from a ground control station in the U.K. Defense officials would not provide details on the April 30 strike, but the engagement comes just days after the Defense Ministry confirmed the commencement of Reaper control operations from RAF Waddington. Until then, all U.K. Reaper operations had been flown from Creech AFB, Nev.
Robert D. Starr has been promoted to senior vice president/CFO from vice president/treasurer of the Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., effective July 1. He will succeed William C. Denninger, who plans to retire.
Space shuttle astronauts Curt Brown, Eileen Collins and Bonnie Dunbar have been inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Brown flew on six missions. Collins is the first woman to pilot and command a shuttle, and Dunbar was a mission specialist and payload commander.
China's aero-engine development effort keeps looking bigger. It turns out that four indigenous high-bypass turbofans are being developed, not two, as previously thought. A major turboshaft, exhibited two years ago, is now revealed as a candidate engine for a new tactical airlifter, the Y-19. And an engine is in the works for a medium-large transport helicopter in the class of the AgustaWestland AW101.
Cameron Dryden and Jamesha Parks (see photos), both Northrop Grumman Corp. Aerospace Systems employees, received top awards at the 39th annual National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) conference. The awards recognize excellence among technical professionals, corporate, government and academic leaders, and university and pre-college students. Dryden received the NSBE Distinguished Engineer of the Year award. He is the systems and services business area manager, developing and manufacturing electro-optical and opto-mechanical equipment for industry and government.
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Composite airframes were important in defense systems before the Boeing 787 made them a household word. The basics of building even 80-ft.-long single-piece composite wingboxes have been conquered. The challenge now is to increase manufacturing process rates and reduce production costs, a subject of interest to everyone working in the field, whether on military or commercial programs.
Honeywell Aerospace expects to grow rapidly in India using a strategy of “manufacturing in India, for India,” to support the country's drive for organic manufacturing. Pritam Bhavnani, president of Honeywell Aerospace India, discussed the company's plans with Aviation Week's Jay Menon. AW&ST: What new initiatives will Honeywell pursue in India?
Daniel Bangs has been appointed general manager of the U.K.-based Doncasters Group's Storms Forge in Farmington, Conn., and New England Airfoil Products division in Springfield, Mass. He succeeds Tony Dalby, who has resigned.
The aborted merger of EADS and BAE Systems last year reignited talks about a long-awaited wave of consolidation among prime aerospace and defense (A&D) contractors. After all, Europe still has four major shipbuilders, four missile manufacturers and three combat aircraft primes, while the larger U.S. defense market has essentially two players in each of those categories. The speculations were underpinned by a basic but deeply erroneous assumption: “Bigger is better.”
Jennifer L. Vogel has been named to the board of directors of American Science and Engineering Inc., Billerica, Mass. She is a former senior vice president/general counsel/secretary/ chief compliance officer of Continental Airlines.
