Raytheon's Mark E. Russell and James A. Horkovich have been named fellows of the Washington-based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). Russell is VP-engineering, technology and mission assurance. He has published peer-reviewed papers on active, electronically scanned arrays, as well as radar systems, missiles, photonic technology, solid-state transmitters and communications systems. Horkovich is chief engineer of the collaborative weapons project in the Advanced Missiles and Unmanned Systems product line at Raytheon Missile Systems.
For a country with one of the world's most immediately pressing defense problems, South Korea spends a lot of money on weapons with wider applications. Its ambitions for power-projection capability reaching far beyond the Korean peninsula are becoming increasingly obvious. Indeed, the defense ministry has, perhaps unintentionally, brought the issue into focus with a rare public discussion of its indigenous land-attack missiles, especially a cruise missile program that has been flying under the radar of Western public attention.
U.S. Navy Vice Adm. (ret.) Daniel P. Holloway (see photo) has been named VP-customer relations for Huntington Ingalls Industries shipbuilding division, Pascagoula, Miss. He was director of military personnel plans and policy on the staff of the chief of naval operations.
ATR delivered its 1,000 aircraft on May 3. Aviation Week data show that ATR 72-family aircraft represent 56% of the world's 60-plus-seat turboprops in scheduled service. As regional airlines renew their fleets with larger turboprops and regional jets, the market is split: Many U.S. operators are simply trying to survive while others around the world thrive. ATR photo.
William Clarey (see photo) has become Mid-Atlantic sales director for Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. He succeeds Bill McLeod, who was promoted to VP-Central U.S. sales. Clarey was the Pacific Northwest sales director for Hawker Beechcraft.
Kevin Worthington (see photo) has joined Dallas Airmotive as engine manager for several Midwest U.S. states. He was a sales representative for Duncan Aviation's Battle Creek, Mich., facility.
Russian Helicopters has unveiled a revamped Kamov-designed Ka-62, its entry into the competitive medium twin-turbine market. The version presented at the HeliRussia 2012 show in Moscow is powered by two 1,680-shp Turbomeca Ardiden 3G turboshafts, driving a five-blade main rotor and shrouded tail rotor.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has demonstrated an open payload architecture for the Predator B unmanned aircraft, working with Selex Galileo and Cobham Aviation Services, which is responsible for through-life support for Royal Air Force MQ-9 Reapers. To prove the concept of incorporating a separate mission management system to enable installation of “sovereign” payloads by other system integrators for different customers, an MQ-9 has been flown over the Pacific carrying a Selex Seaspray 7500E surveillance radar—tracking land, littoral, maritime and air targets.
Ask Laurie Price, director of aviation strategy at the Mott McDonald consultancy, what an ideal European regional airline looks like and he will say: It should be well-established in niche markets with a significant share of public service obligation (PSO) routes. And it should have a strong relationship with one of the region's major airlines as a complement for the base network.
Having seen signs of recovery in the business aircraft market come and go, nobody is ready to crack open the Champagne just yet, even though there are new indicators that life may be returning to key segments underpinning business jet sales. “April was a very good month for us,” says Embraer CEO Frederico Fleury Curado. The question now is whether that momentum can be sustained. The U.S., in particular, is a region where sales prospects are mounting, he points out.
The Republican-run House may be calling on the Pentagon to pursue an East Coast site under the contentious Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) missile defense system, but Senate acquiescence is far from assured and White House dislike is a certainty. The chairman of the Democratic-run Senate Armed Services subcommittee dealing with missile defenses is dismissing the House idea as election-year politics. “I'd want to know what the threat is that would not be prevented in Europe and what the costs would be,” says Ben Nelson (D-Neb.).
With A&D executives growing increasingly worried about the budgets of the Pentagon, NASA and other agencies come next January, President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) are returning to their stances in last year's federal debt-ceiling battle. And that means the chances of stopping the massive automatic budget cuts still looming from the last debt debate are becoming much slimmer.
Will radar become the sensor of choice for everything from landing in rotor-blown sand to tracking people through cloud cover? Does millimeter-wave radar have the potential to displace electro-optical/infrared as the preferred source of full-motion video for surveillance and targeting?
May 26 marks the 50th anniversary of a historic event that occurred on Test Stand 1-A, at Edwards AFB, Calif. On that not-so-faraway day, the NASA-funded, Apollo Saturn F-1 rocket engine was fired for its flight duration of 2.5 min. As someone who was involved in its development and testing, I recognize this is was just one of many milestones during the F-1 program conducted by North American Aviation, Rocketdyne Div.
The In Orbit column “Commercial Cooperation” by Frank Morring, Jr. (AW&ST May 7, p. 21) describes the ATK Astrium “Liberty” Launch System. I cannot be alone in remarking the resemblance between the Liberty and the late and unlamented Ares-1 LV. Designers of the Liberty at both ATK and Astrium would do well to begin by studying the long laundry list of problems being studied by NASA prior to Ares-1's cancellation. Not least on this list would be the vibration induced in the upper stage and payload by the five-segment solid rocket booster.
Air India is scheduled to take delivery in late May or early June of the first of 27 Boeing 787s it has on order, followed about a month later by receipt of the first 787 to roll off a new assembly line in South Carolina. But who will fly the new jets when they arrive?
Tom White has been promoted to executive VP-operations from senior VP-technology and air traffic management at Passur Aerospace, Stamford, Conn. Renee Alter was promoted to VP-airports from regional sales director. Bill Leber has joined the company as VP-air traffic innovations. He was research analyst, principal and senior manager for business development at Lockheed Martin's Collaborative ATM Practice.
Malaysia Airlines' (MAS) turboprop carrier, Firefly, began operations in April 2007 and since then has experienced double-digit growth year-on-year. It also prides itself on having higher profit margins than the global industry average.
Qatar Airways' negotiations to buy the Bombardier CSeries are on hold as the airline deals with other expansion issues. During the EBACE business aviation show in Geneva last week, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker pointed to fielding plans for the Boeing 787 and Airbus A380, A350 and A320NEO. As a result “we have, at the moment, delayed our further negotiations for the CSeries.” The negotiations could resume in 6-12 months, he notes.
John M. Stone, (see photo) has been promoted to institute engineer in the Space Science and Engineering Div. at Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He was the instrument suite electrical system engineering lead for its magnetospheric multiscale mission.
Growing interest in small satellites and the problem of how to launch them affordably could provide hypersonic system developers with a long-awaited first step on the way to reusable, routine access to space.
Here is a regional airline with Chinese characteristics—one that is growing so fast that it is rapidly picking up mainline characteristics. In just five years, the company has evolved from operating Dornier 328s to Embraer ERJ 145s, then Embraer 190s and now Airbus A320s. By mid-decade it plans to take the remarkably non-regional step of introducing widebodies for intercontinental services. A freight subsidiary is also in the works.
It has been almost 50 years since Mariner 2 became the first space probe from Earth to return scientific data from another planet. The swarms of ever-more-sophisticated robotic spacecraft that followed have changed our view of the planets around our Sun in ways that seem incredible today. On Aug. 27, 1962, when Mariner 2 lifted off for Venus, many scientists believed Earth's sunward neighbor was a steamy jungle planet beneath its clouds. Data from the two-channel microwave radiometer on Mariner 2 quickly disabused everyone of that notion. Passing within 22,000 mi.
