Max H. Mitchell has been appointed CEO of the Crane Co., Stamford, Conn., effective Jan. 1. He will succeed Eric C. Fast, who plans to retire. Mitchell has been president/chief operating officer.
Michael Kriedberg has been named chief commercial officer for Aircastle Advisor, Stamford, Conn. He was executive vice president-aviation financing operations at GE Capital Aviation Services.
A recent Viewpoint “NASA's Rocket To Nowhere” (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 66), epitomizes a policy that has delayed, canceled and contributed to wasted funding. The article states that NASA should again change priorities based on negative assumptions that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Instead of figuring out how to cancel the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle and Space Launch System, let's put our efforts into making them work.
Today's message is that the Joint Strike Fighter is doing better. It is true, but better than what? The people selling the message were telling us in 2008, 2009 and 2010 that JSF was doing fine, and it most certainly was not.
If South Korea builds its proposed KF-X stealth fighter, it will need to export it. So one key question hanging over the much-delayed project is whether the country can build the aircraft cheaply enough and attract adequate demand. Another is whether South Korea can build it at all.
I disagree with reader Capt. Jim Walton that “Joe Q. Traveler just wants to fly . . . for free” (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 8). What this “Joe Q.” wants is a “service” industry that provides actual service. I'm willing to pay a reasonable fare, but I am not willing to have my wallet emptied for every add-on the airlines can dream up. Treat me like a person, not a dollar sign. Offer a seat which is not shrunk beyond belief. And train airline personnel to remember that customers pay their salaries and should be accorded a modicum of dignity and respect.
Denis Sauvage has been appointed vice president/general manager of the Aero Technologies subsidiary of the Miami-based Aero Maintenance Group (AMG) of Air France Industries-KLM Engineering and Maintenance. He will also head the MRO department of Air-Pro. Sauvage was director of operations at Aero Technologies. Chris Adams has been named head of sales and marketing for AMG. He was head of sales and marketing development at Tronair Inc.
For most of the Cold War, Britain built or tried to build large fighters and strike aircraft that it believed were needed to face the Soviet threat. France consistently built smaller, cheaper fighters that it could export. So whereas English Electric and its successor company made 338 powerful Lightning fighters, which had an empty weight of about 13 metric tons (29,000 lb.), Dassault made 1,401 contemporary Mirage IIIs, which were half as large.
Fresh off its first successful flight with the new Antares liquid-fueled medium-lift rocket (see page 16), Orbital Sciences Corp. has won contracts to build two Explorer-class scientific spacecraft, one to search for extra-solar planets and the other to study how atmospheric and space weather affects the ionosphere. Both will be based on Orbital's LEOStar-2 spacecraft bus and are scheduled for separate launchings in 2017.
In his recent Viewpoint, “Not Even Close: The Better Choice for LAS” (AW&ST April 15, p. 58), Fred George identifies “significant differences” between Beechcraft's AT-6 and Embraer's Super Tucano aircraft, both competing for the hotly contested U.S. Air Force (USAF) Light Air Support (LAS) bid. However, his opinion of those differences ignores significant facts and badly misuses others in an attempt to substantiate his view.
USAF Maj. Gen. William J. Bender has been appointed deputy director for operations in the Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq, U.S. Central Command in Baghdad. He has been commander of the USAF Expeditionary Center of Air Mobility Command (AMC) at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and is swapping positions with Maj. Gen. Frederick H. Martin. Maj. Gen. Paul T. Johnson has been named director of operational capability requirements/deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and requirements at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. He has been deputy U.S.
India, whose plans to spend billions on modernizing its military have caught the eye of weapons makers around the world, is issuing new rules designed to reduce its dependence on imports. “The only way forward for the country is rapid indigenization of defense products, with both the public and the private sectors playing pivotal roles in this endeavor,” Defense Minister A.K. Antony says. Increased indigenization is important for the armed forces so they have access to reliable supply chains, he says. India purchases 70% of its defense goods from foreign companies.
Matt Perkins, CEO of Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd., has been elected vice chair of the U.K. Industry Association for Space. He succeeds Stuart Martin, formerly of Logica/CGI, who is CEO of Satellite Applications Catapult.
