At the end of a president's first term in office, a Cabinet-level changeover is expected. But revelations of now-former CIA director David Petraeus's extramarital affair, the delay of Gen. John Allen's nomination to become the next commander of European Command, and a war on Capitol Hill over the Obama administration's handling of events in Benghazi, Libya, in September are overshadowing President Barack Obama's efforts to replenish the team who will lead spending on military and intelligence assets.
Benoit Beaulieu (see photo) has joined Montreal-based Esterline CMC Electronics as VP of human resources. He was VP of human resources, organizational effectiveness, information systems and technologies at L-3 Communications MAS (Canada). Honors and Elections
A decade of wake turbulence research, analysis and testing by aviation authorities, academia and industry already is finally paying concrete dividends in Memphis. Starting at 6 a.m. on Nov. 2, Memphis (Tenn.) International Airport and its chief tenant, FedEx, began using the FAA's re-categorized wake turbulence separation criteria (Recat) for all airport operations.
James A. Morrison (see photo) has been promoted to CEO of Partner Jet, Mississauga, Ontario, succeeding Ian McDougall, who has retired. Morrison had been managing director.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has approved head-up displays (HUD), which lower the landing minimums at seven instrument landing system-equipped airports, for Chinese carriers. An additional 58 airports are to be approved for HUD use in the next two years. The CAAC's “China HUD Application Roadmap” calls for 10% of all HUD-capable aircraft in service to be equipped with the new displays by 2015. Rockwell Collins says it is in talks with Chinese carriers about retrograde fits of HUDs on Boeing 737NG series aircraft and making HUDs standard on new orders.
NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman whipped up a Thanksgiving dinner analogy to describe the shuffling of safety areas on the board's annual “Most Wanted” list of 10 transportation safety improvements. The NTSB has bumped three aviation items off the list—professionalism of pilots and air traffic controllers, human fatigue and preventive safety efforts—due in part to improvements made. But it kept two others that have not improved—general aviation safety and airport surface operations (previously called runway safety).
Decisions that determine whether a program can be successful are often made before the contract is even won. But conceptual design is still more art than science, practiced by talented engineers without the sophisticated, integrated tools available for development and manufacturing.
As its customers prepare for a big shift to satellite navigation, Boeing has brought larger-format, 787-style electronic instrument displays to the 737 MAX's cockpit, enabling easier upgrades as airlines adapt to evolving air traffic control requirements.
Ferio Pugliese has been named executive VP of Calgary, Alberta-based WestJet and president of WestJet Encore. He will continue to have responsibility for WestJet's people and culture.
Massimo Bellizzi (see photo) will become director general of Rome-based air traffic management provider ENAV, effective Dec. 1. He has been head of ENAV's Operative Area.
Chris Kubasik's rise through the upper ranks of Lockheed Martin could not have been better scripted by the Chinese politburo. Since joining the U.S. defense giant in 1999, the onetime partner at accounting giant Ernst & Young was rotated through a succession of senior management positions, including chief financial officer and leader of the company's Electronic Systems business. Two years ago, Lockheed Martin telegraphed that Kubasik would be the successor to Chairman and CEO Robert Stevens by naming him president and chief operating officer.
The center of gravity in the large civil jet market may be shifting to Asia, but do not write off the U.S., top forecasters from Boeing and Airbus told the Aero Club of Washington last week. Randy Tinseth, vice president for marketing at Boeing Commercial Aircraft, says that while replacements will account for 70% of sales in the U.S. during the next two decades, the mega-market will not be surpassed by faster-growing regions.
Mark Maybury U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist Age: 47 Career: Maybury was previously executive director of the Information Technology Div. of Mitre Corp. Education: B.A., Mathematics, College of the Holy Cross; M.A., Philosophy in Computer Speech and Language Processing from Cambridge University, England; MBA, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Ph.D., Artificial Intelligence, Cambridge University.
Nan Bouchard will become VP and general manager of Boeing's C-17 program and Southern California consolidation, effective Jan. 1. She is VP of the Boeing Defense Space/Security (BDS) program management function. Leanne Caret will be VP and general manager of a consolidated vertical-lift division within the BDS Boeing Military Aircraft (BMA) business unit, managing the AH-64 Apache, H-47 Chinook and V-22 Osprey programs. She is VP of the H-47 Chinook program. Jean Chamberlin will be VP/GM for the BDS program management function.
The Senate shot down another attempt to shore up the nation's cyber defenses legislatively last week. Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee and others insisted that the bill included important information-sharing provisions that went beyond what can be done through executive order, a version of which was signed in October. The bill's failure opens the door for that order to move forward.
Cascading, nationwide power outages. Communications in shambles. Breakdowns in the supply of water, food, medications and gas. Military operations crimped by failures in civilian infrastructure. Weapons blunted by tailored countermeasures. The most recent alarm about the worst-case scenarios of cyberwar was sounded by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta in October. Addressing business leaders in New York, Panetta invoked both Pearl Harbor and 9/11 in talking about “a destructive cyber-terrorist attack [that] could virtually paralyze the nation.”
With eight launches on its manifest next year, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is looking forward to a busy 2013. In addition to a joint investigation with NASA into the cause of a Falcon 9 engine failure on the rocket's first cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) last month, SpaceX is gearing up for a second cargo resupply mission to the ISS on March 1, getting ready to debut a more powerful Falcon 9 in the first half of next year. Despite the Oct.
Nov. 28-29—American Astronautical Association's National Conference. Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. See www.astronautical.org Dec. 3-5—Worldwide Business Research's Defense Logistics. Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Va. See www.wbresearch.com/defenselogisticsusa Dec. 3-5—University of Westminster Aviation Seminar. “Air Transport Business and Management.” London. Call +44 (203) 506-6559 or see www.westminster.ac.uk/airtransportshort
Lockheed Martin is to upgrade the avionics in U.S. Navy C-130Ts in the first application of an open-systems architecture developed by government and industry to cut the time and cost required to field new capabilities. The $30 million cockpit upgrade is the first acquisition to require compatibility with the Future Airborne Capability Environment (FACE), a set of standards designed to ensure software is portable and reusable. The contract for nine C-130T cockpit upgrades will be watched closely, as all U.S.
David Davenport has been promoted to senior VP of sales, marketing and teammate resources from VP at New York LaGuardia Airport-based FlightSafety International.
Even a careful observer could be forgiven for losing count of China's general aviation aircraft projects. Maybe Avic itself has lost count. So here are the latest. Cessna, already negotiating to assemble one or two business jet types at Chengdu, has concluded an almost definitive agreement to assemble the Citation XLS+ jointly with Avic's general-aviation subsidiary, Caiga.
