Boeing is winding down work on equipping its A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter with the BAE Systems Argus-IS wide-area surveillance sensor for deployment to Afghanistan, after the U.S. Army issued a stop-work order following the crash of an aircraft carrying the gigapixel electro-optical camera on a test flight.
All carriers in the Top-Performing Airlines (TPA) study are now scored using a single algorithm. Prior-year results have been restated to reflect this. The scoring methodology represents a composite of five performance categories (and their contribution to total score):
Your recent articles on power-airframe integration were informative and accurate, but incomplete (AW&ST June 4/11 pp. 41-63). Power-airframe integration will change the calculus of aircraft design significantly, but the benefits enabled need not take decades to realize. Modifying existing aircraft types with a new fuselage featuring fully mature, off-the-shelf Boundary Layer Control (BLC) suction hardware can create more fuel-efficient airliners in mere years.
Michael A. Ward has been appointed senior general manager of the maintenance facility at William P. Hobby Airport in Houston. He was CEO and president of EAS Completions.
News that Airbus is close to announcing it will set up a final assembly plant for its A320 jet in Mobile, Ala., is reverberating across the aerospace industry. The move would give the European airframer a manufacturing beachhead in rival Boeing's home market (p. 33). And French labor unions can't be pleased: Workers in southern, non-union U.S. states don't expect 35-hour workweeks and eight weeks of vacation per year, and can be laid off more easily when hard times hit.
Rick Larsen has joined , Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., as associate VP-marketing, corporate and alumni relations in the Institutional Advancement Div.
Frank Morring, Jr.'s “War Stories” commentary (AW&ST June 4/11, p. 21) spurred a memory of John Glenn. Shortly after his record July 16, 1957, supersonic transcontinental flight in a photo-reconnaissance Vought F8U-1P Crusader (redesignated RF-8A in 1962), the Crusader was the highlight of several air shows, including an aerial display at Masters Field in Miami in 1957.
When Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) was riddled with program missteps and uncertainty five years ago, it tapped talent from its defense side. The man who became the leader of that change, Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO and President James Albaugh, defied skepticism to meet a set of tough goals. Last week, Albaugh unexpectedly announced his retirement, but the company did not have far to look for a successor. A hometown boy and 34-year BCA veteran, Raymond Conner, was standing in the wings.
Canada-based MDA Corp.'s $875 million cash purchase of Palo Alto, Calif.-based Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) in June gives the world's largest manufacturer of commercial telecommunications satellites a parent that takes the long view when it comes to the space industry. MDA already enjoys access to U.S. government business in support of Air Force, Navy, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and intelligence community programs. Although SS/L is not known for working with U.S. agencies, it could see a boost in government work.
Sometimes it is useful to take a look back to gain a keener focus on the future. In a commentary in the 2009 Top-Performing Airlines (TPA) feature, I stated:
Jean-Marc Crescent has been appointed VP-global account sales and Joost den Hartog VP-Europe for . Adam Phillips has been promoted to VP for Northeast Asia from general manager for France. He will be succeeded by Robert Chad, who has been the GM for Abu Dhabi sales. Chad's successor will be Joseph Chamoun. Juan Torres and Remco Althuis have been named general managers for Brazil and China, respectively.
Astrium Services started in 2003 in the wake of a U.K. Defense Ministry decision to outsource secure satellite telecommunications to the private sector. Since then, CEO Eric Beranger has turned the division of European aerospace giant EADS into a high-stakes bet on government outsourcing for key space activities, taking privatization of satellite communications and remote-sensing services further than any other company in the industry and in some cases assuming big risks with little or no government backing.
Boeing has taken another step to strengthen its manufacturing and technology ties in Brazil by allowing Embraer to tap its marketing expertise for the KC-390 medium-lift transport, Brazil's largest defense procurement program and Embraer's most ambitious effort to sell a military aircraft abroad.
