Orbital Sciences Corp. hopes to conduct the first hot-fire test of its Antares launch vehicle in mid-October following the rollout of the rocket to the new launch pad at Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va., later this month. The facility is being developed by Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority and includes a horizontal integration site that now houses the test booster for the upcoming 29-sec.-long static test firing, as well as the first Antares to be used for a NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services demonstration flight.
Oct. 9—MRO IT Europe. Amsterdam. Oct. 9—Aircraft Composite Repair Management. Amsterdam. Oct. 9-11—MRO Europe. Amsterdam. Oct. 30-31—Engine MRO Europe. Paris Nov. 6-7—A&D Programs. Phoenix. Nov. 13—Engine MRO Asia. Singapore. Nov. 14-15—MRO Asia. Singapore. Jan. 22-23—MRO Middle East. Dubai, United Arab Emirates. You can now register ONLINEfor Aviation Week Events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/events or call +1 (212) 904-4682.
Sept. 24-25—Malta International Airshow 2012. Malta International Airport. See www.maltaairshow.com Sept. 24-28—55th Annual Airlines for America's Nondestructive Testing Forum. Seattle Airport Marriott. Sept. 26-29—Society of Experimental Test Pilots' 56th Annual Symposium and Banquet. The Grand Californian Hotel, Anaheim. See www.setp.org/annual-symposium-banquet/56th-symposium-a-banquet-informat… Sept. 27-28—Aerospace Summit Global Supply Chain. Palais Des Congress, Montreal. See www.aeromontreal.ca/summit2012\
Boeing says the all-inclusive contract proposal it presented last week to the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) will “more than offset some increased health insurance cost-sharing” that the 23,000 employees represented by the union are being asked to pay. The company says the net effect will mean pay increase averages of more than 3% for engineers and 2% for technical workers over the proposed four-year contract. The two sides are scheduled to convene again on Sept.
Tom Owen has been appointed senior VP-Americas of Cathay Pacific Airways. A 17-year veteran of the airline, he has been country manager in Canada and India and general manager in Hong Kong.
Tim Brady, dean of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, has been appointed to the board of director of the National Association of Flight Instructors.
Andrei Reus, who has been general director of state technology company Oboronprom Corp., has been appointed chairman of Moscow-based Russian Helicopters.
Malaysia's aviation market is set to undergo its biggest shake-up in years, and it could get bloody: Indonesia's largest low-cost carrier, Lion Air, aims to establish an affiliate airline in Malaysia, taking the challenge to AirAsia and potentially sparking a costly price war. Lion Air's first overseas affiliate carrier, Malindo Airways, will operate domestically and internationally. The aim is for Malindo to have a fleet of 50-60 aircraft in 10 years, says Lion's president director, Rusdi Kirana.
With the U.S. election looming, the last thing anyone wants to say in public is that the Pentagon's biggest program is further from finishing its tests than it was supposed to be four years ago, that nobody agrees exactly how far away it is, and that—11 years after the program started—none of the three service operators has set an initial operational capability (IOC) target date.
An article on Neil Armstrong in the Sept. 3/10 issue (page 32) misstated the date of the Jan. 27, 1967, Apollo 1 fire and referred to alarms on the Apollo 11 lunar module, Eagle, with the command module's name, Columbia. Also, details of Gemini 8's early return to Earth were omitted. After the pilots disengaged the primary maneuvering system and used the reentry system to regain control of the spacecraft, flight rules dictated that they deorbit.
It was the annoying stuff they learned about in the wheel and brake business that prompted Rich Brown and Jason Rayman to start Blackbird Design two years ago as a specialty tooling supplier. The annoyance was the time and effort wasted applying and then stripping out masking tape that is needed to protect sensitive areas from being repainted as the overhaul is completed.
Integration has been the key target for Airbus over the past five years. But as the aircraft manufacturer has found out, this has slowed down decisions. Now the challenge is to speed up again, and new CEO Fabrice Bregier already has a plan.
Emily Richard (see photo) has been promoted to assistant VP-strategic communications and external affairs from director of corporate communications and government relations of the Metropolitan Nashville (Tenn.) Airport Authority.
It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.
On our Ares defense blog, Associate Managing Editor Jefferson Morris posted a Northrop Grumman video of its X-47B in action, noting that it is well worth a look. Readers concur:
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.
Kim Chan (see photos) has been named VP-Asia of Zurich-based Jet Aviation and Stefan Benz VP of the company's maintenance, repair and overhaul, and fixed-base operation services in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Chan was a senior manager at HNI International, and Benz was VP-MRO sales for Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
A prototype vertical-takeoff-and-landing (VTOL) suborbital launch vehicle under development by Masten Space Systems crashed Sept. 11 during a flight test at Mojave, Calif. Masten Business Development Director Colin Ake says the Xaero rocket was preparing to make a vertical landing and was around two-thirds of the way through its mission when the accident took place.
I have a question about a photograph that ran in The World section (AW&ST Aug. 13, p. 17) that depicts a short-takeoff-vertical-landing (Stovl) F-35 dropping a 1,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munition during weapons testing. Why spend the money on a stealth aircraft with an internal weapons bay if you are going to hang non-stealthy AIM-9 missiles on the wings?
