The North Carolina Global TransPark in Kinston, where Spirit AeroSystems established its factory to make composite fuselage and wing assemblies for the Airbus A350, has signed its first tenant supporting that operation. CrateTech Inc. will provide custom packaging for Spirit's shipments to its St. Nazaire assembly facility in France.
In the mid-1990s, the U.S. government decided to merge its military and civilian polar-orbiting weather satellite programs, because they shared a number of similarities. The combination of future weather-satellite systems into a single program, designated the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess), was justified as a cost-saving measure. Consequently, military-civilian weather satellite ground control stations were integrated into NOAA facilities at Suitland, Md.
The independent organization that NASA selected to run National Laboratory work on the International Space Station may be off to a slow start, but outside “pathfinders” on the ISS are demonstrating ways to use its unique environment that already fall outside traditional government methods.
Embraer has finally secured government approval to assemble Embraer Legacy 600/650 business jets in China, extending a relationship that existed with the ERJ 145 using the Harbin Embraer Aircraft Industry Co. joint venture with Avic. The first aircraft is to be delivered next year. Embraer initially considered moving some E-Jet assembly to the site, but China balked because of its own ARJ21 program. Concurrently, ICBC Financial Leasing Co. announced a firm order for five Legacy 650s with an option for five more. The lessor is the launch customer for Chinese deliveries.
Astronaut Don Pettit is a real Mr. Fixit, and that is just fine with the scientists who trust him to run their experiments on the International Space Station.
Joseph Hough is the new program manager for HTF7000 service and support operations at Dallas Airmotive. He was director of new business, sales and customer services for Consolidated Turbine Support.
XCOR Aerospace will use its planned two-seat suborbital Lynx spaceplane to train crewmembers for missions the Excalibur Almaz startup hopes to fly to low Earth orbit and beyond with surplus Russian hardware. Under an agreement signed in London June 20, XCOR will tailor flight profiles for Almaz crews. Based on the Isle of Man, the company plans to use Russian reentry vehicles and larger Salyut-type to mount human space missions.
As NASA mission planners wait with bated breath for the Mars Science Laboratory to scream into the Martian atmosphere at hypersonic speed on Aug. 5, deploy its braking parachute, fire its retro-rockets and lower the Curiosity rover by tether to a soft landing, thoughts are again turning to exploring the red planet from the air.
USAF Lt. Gen. Mark F. Ramsay has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as director of force structure, resources and assessment for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He has been commander of the Eighteenth Air Force of Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. Ramsay will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. Darren W. McDew, who has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general. He has been commander of the Air Force District of Washington, Joint Base Andrews, Md. Maj. Gen. Thomas W.
NASA has opened a new technology transfer web portal where entrepreneurs, managers and others can look for new publicly funded technology to commercialize. The site, at http://technology.nasa.gov, includes a searchable database of NASA patents available for transfer to the private domain, and links to agency specialists trained to help make the shift.
The Russian fleet of commercial helicopters is still a Soviet legacy, consisting mostly of outdated and aging models. Russian models will most likely continue to dominate the heavy-class category, but foreign rotorcraft manufacturers will gain market share with lighter models.
Consolidation in the aerospace and defense supply chain can be big news when it involves publicly traded companies as prominent as United Technologies and Goodrich.
NASA plans to launch an exterior Earth-observation platform to the International Space Station under a cooperative agreement with Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., which builds the flight releasable attachment mechanism manufactured by Huntsville, Ala.-based subsidiary Teledyne Technologies Inc. The Multi-User System for Earth Sensing (Muses) is due for delivery by the end of 2014 and expected to provide precision pointing and other accommodation for high-resolution digital cameras and other Earth sensors.
“Sagas of Valor” by Anthony Velocci, Jr., is excellent. The article postulates that due to the changing dynamics of combat flying, it is less likely that an aviator will be in a situation that meets the criteria for MOH consideration. One might also speculate that changes in rules of engagement (ROE) have unfavorably impacted aviators, although I believe trained and motivated aviators will do whatever is necessary, regardless of the ROE.
It was refreshing to read about the Medal of Honor aviators in “Sagas of Valor” (AW&ST May 28, p. 54). However, at least one MOH awardee was conspicuous by his absence—U.S. Navy Vice Adm. James Stockdale from the Vietnam War era. In addition to being awarded the MOH, Stockdale received two Distinguished Flying Crosses. The DFC was established in 1926 to recognize military aviators who distinguished themselves by heroism or extraordinary achievement in flight.
