Last week, a fresh set of calls urged Congress to address the nation's financial situation. Executives from Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems and EADS North America are proceeding with pre-election plans to warn thousands of workers that they might be laid off early next year. Two former Treasury secretaries, one Republican and one Democrat, said failing to address America's debt problem has dire economic and foreign policy implications. And Moody's rating agency now says the nation's long-held AAA rating hinges on congressional budget negotiations. Sen.
India is awaiting assurances from its troubled partner Russia that it will be prepared for India's second mission to the Moon, the Chandrayaan-2, in 2014, the country's top scientist says. Russia, which is reviewing its space mission program after the recent failure of an interplanetary mission with China, will provide the lander while India builds the lunar orbiter and rover for Chandrayaan-2. The Indo-Russian lunar venture, will be launched by India's heavier rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. Separately, the Indian Space Research Organization on Sept.
Competition in business aviation's ultra-long-range and super-midsize segments heated up as Gulfstream Aerospace earned FAA type certification for its 7,000-nm-range G650 on Sept. 7, just days after receiving FAA and CAA Israel certification for the 3,600-nm-range G280. Both aircraft are positioned at the top of their respective classes, but the market potential for each appears to be markedly different.
Francesco Caio Title: CEO, Avio Age: 55 Birthplace: Naples, Italy Education: Engineering degree from Milan Politecnico and MBA from INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France.
The retirement of the last Concorde in October 2003 was good news in Wichita, since it transferred the title of World's Fastest Civilian Aircraft to the swept-wing Citation X, a coup for Cessna, whose earlier jets suffered years of jeers as '“Slowtations.” When Gulfstream announced that its new Mach 0.925 G650 would take speed honors, then-Cessna Chairman Jack Pelton said the Citation had more to give and would.
Roy Furhrmann has been named VP-management and operations of the Metropolitan Airports Commission of Minneapolis-St. Paul. He was director of its Environment Department.
In light of the recent “Curiosity” cover story and coverage on the young Jet Propulsion Laboratory staff that helped to bring the mission about (AW&ST Aug. 20, p. 28), I've reevaluated my stance on the progress of U.S. spaceflight programs. By the mid 1960s, I was convinced humans were in space to stay and that we would continue to reach out and explore. In the intervening years, I have seen our manned space activities become stalled in Earth orbit because a large bureaucracy cannot afford (literally and figuratively) to take chances.
Altan Buyukyilmaz (see photo) has been named executive VP-commercial affairs at Turkish Technic of Ankara and Istanbul. He was CEO of BH Airlines and has been VP-sales and marketing of Turkish Airlines.
There's a commonly held notion that Bill Lear was the last person to launch a successful, start-from-scratch company that builds FAA-certified aircraft. That's erroneous, as evidenced by rotaryman Frank Robinson, founder of his own eponymous outfit. But he's certainly the exception. As is Alan Klapmeier, who co-founded Cirrus Aircraft with his brother, Dale, in 1984.
On AviationWeek.com, Air Transport Editor Andrew Compart writes about Delta Air Lines' and AeroMexico's plan for a new MRO facility in Mexico: Rich Wyeroski is skeptical: We are fools to let this happen. Maintenance in Mexico is safe with no potential for terrorism? If you believe this, there is a bridge in N.Y. I would like to sell you. Osroff responds:
As Airbus's new CEO, Fabrice Bregier, and COO, Gunter Butschek, make major changes to the aircraft manufacturer's organization, the company's position within the EADS group has been strengthened. Two Airbus executives, Butschek and COO for Customers John Leahy, have been added to EADS's executive board, which now has 13 members including CEO Tom Enders.
U.S. airlines will continue to drop 50-seat regional jets from their operations; that is a certainty. Higher fuel costs have made them unprofitable on many routes, and the clauses in pilot union contracts that severely restricted the major carriers from outsourcing the flying of larger RJs have largely evaporated. Delta Air Lines has vowed to shed another 200 of them by 2015; American Eagle seems poised for a purging.
Giorgio Zappa (see photo), former chief operating officer of Finmeccanica, has become CEO of Italian aerospace company Vitrociset. He succeeds Antonio Bontempi, who will remain head of operations. Gen. (ret) Mario Arpino is retiring as chairman.
Ike Song (see photo), vice president-situational awareness systems at Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Navigation Systems Div., Falls Church, Va., has been named to the National Association of Asian American Professionals 100.
The Irish commercial aircraft MRO industry is positioning itself for growth, as Ireland's economy slowly recovers from its own financial crisis and the global economy falters
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Antonio L. Elias is one of three executives of the Orbital Sciences Corp., Dulles, Va., to be promoted, effective Sept. 10. He will become executive vice president/chief technical officer of the Advanced Programs Group (APG) and has been its executive vice president and general manager. Frank L. Culbertson will be promoted to APG executive vice president/general manager from senior vice president-human space systems. And, Christopher C. Long will be promoted to senior vice president from vice president for national systems in APG's National Security Space Div.
A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 with a Centaur upper stage lifted NASA's twin Radiation Belt Storm Probe mission spacecraft into orbit Aug. 30 from Cape Canaveral on a two-year mission to study high-energy particle fluctuations within Earth's Van Allen radiation belts. The $686 million mission is expected to investigate how the belts respond to solar activity and influence space weather. The two 1,400-lb. probes were developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory as part of NASA's Living with a Star initiative.
