The CSeries family of medium-range airliners may end up meeting the same fate as the short-lived Boeing 717. So says Bryan Bedford, the CEO and chairman of Republic Airways Holdings, the CSeries' largest customer. Bedford's remarks seem rather curious, particularly since one would expect him to be touting the aircraft. Republic placed a firm order in February 2010 for 40 CS300s for delivery starting in 2015. The U.S. group said the aircraft would be assigned to its carrier Frontier Airlines.
Abraham Karem, founder of Karem Aircraft and a pioneer in aeronautics, has been named a recipient of a 2012 Navigator Award, given by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, Arlington, Va. His successes include developing the Predator UAV and the predecessors, Amber and Gnat.
Paper airplanes—not the kind schoolboys fold and toss, but rather the detailed imaginings designers hope will one day take full form and ply the world's airways—could be bound into a thick volume of dreams unfulfilled. Most are quickly forgotten, but a few are so bold in concept and their backers so stubborn that, however unlikely, they might someday actually take flight.
Pinnacle Airlines, the third-largest holding company for U.S. regional airlines, is citing a “race to the bottom” among the country's regionals as a major contributor to its filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month.
Gregory Keeley has become VP-defense and homeland security policy at Washington-based TechAmerica. He has held senior staff positions in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. Peter Kaminskas is VP-business development. He was director of membership at Business Software Alliance. Meryl Hickman is the new director of member relations.
Wanda M. Austin, president and CEO of The Aerospace Corp., has won the 2012 Horatio Alger Award, given by the Washington-based Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans. The award, which includes lifetime membership in the society, is presented to individuals who overcame challenges early in their lives and achieved success in their fields.
The photo of the muzzle blast (AW&ST March 5, p. 33) is reminiscent of a photo taken in the mid-80s at the Maxwell Labs Green Farm Electric Gun Test Facility (GFEGTF) in San Diego. It showed a then-world-record-setting blast of almost 9 mega-joules of muzzle energy. The GFEGTF was also instrumental in developing electro-thermal gun technology, using electrical power to enhance conventional gun performance.
Diamond Aircraft has completed the first flight of its DA52. The 5-6-seat aircraft is powered by two 180-hp AE300Es built by sister company Austro Engine. The Austrian company's chairman, Christian Dries, and head of flight testing, Ingmar Meyerbuch, were in the cockpit for the 1-hr. flight from Wiener Neustadt, taking off at 2:30 p.m. local time on April 3. The flight involved landing gear retraction and saw the aircraft reach 12,000 ft. at its cruise speed of 190 kt.
The government is already struggling to overcome technical and procedural hurdles to expand the use of UAVs in civil airspace. The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are teaming up to make sure policymakers craft privacy rules for UAVs before they take flight.
A U.S. Navy F-35C flies near NAS Patuxent River, Md., where the design is being fine-tuned in a flight-test program designed to prepare the aircraft for flight training. Ultimately, the stealth aircraft will move onto large-deck aircraft carriers, including the new Ford-class design, along with F/A-18F precision-strike, EA-18G electronic-attack, E-2D early-warning and unmanned-strike aircraft. Naval Aviation coverage begins on p. 46. Lockheed Martin photo.
Rudy Toering (see photo) has become VP-business development at FlightPath International, Alliston, Ontario. He was an executive at CAE in the Pilot and Maintenance Training Standards Div.
The Antonov An-148 regional jet has never been the kind of industrial darling of the government as the Sukhoi Superjet 100, and it has faced many challenges in development. Ironically, now that the program is reaching operational highs, its prospects are at their bleakest. A weak order backlog is drawing into question the Ukrainian-Russian program, developed by Antonov's Kiev-based design bureau and built under license by Russia's VASO plant. But VASO officials are not ready to throw in the towel yet.
Along with expanded missions and larger force structures, U.S. Pacific Command has a new chief, Adm. Samuel Locklear, 3rd, who most recently oversaw NATO-led operations in Libya and commanded the U.S. Navy in Europe and Africa. Locklear's new problem set will not be smaller, but it may be significantly different. He will face two daunting issues: China and cyber. Sometimes they will be the same problem and sometimes not.
That rearming after last year's NATO-led air war in Libya would bring some short-term financial benefits to weapons makers has been clear. Now, they are looking to build on those successes to generate additional business.
“Droning On” (AW&ST March 19/26, p. 37) highlighted the increasing remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) demand for satellite bandwidth and indicated that video is the predominant bandwidth consumer. The ground segment, another video-dominant user of satellite bandwidth, vies with RPAs for the same resources. Further, the use of small-aperture satellite terminals mandates the need for high-performance satellites.
After validating assumptions on the manufacturing cost and efficiency of laminar flow, Boeing says it is proceeding with a baseline design that will apply the technology to the horizontal and vertical stabilizers of the 787-9, but not the wing. “We did it where it is most practical,” says Chief Project Engineer Mike Sinnett, who accompanied ZA003, the third 787-8 flight-test airplane, to its presentation at Chile's Fidae air show here in late March.
Delta may be suing the Export-Import Bank for helping foreign competitors to buy Boeing aircraft, but a new deal will add to the Atlanta-based carrier's bottom line, the bank's president says. Just about a month before the bank is expected to hit its lending cap, it has announced an $84.8 million loan guarantee to the Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol for engine maintenance services in Atlanta by Delta TechOps.
Sharon Pflieger (see photo) has been appointed director of organizational effectiveness for Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. She was manager of organizational development.
Bell has received a U.S. Army contract for non-recurring engineering on a “new-metal” cabin for the OH-58D Kiowa Warrior, with the first new-production cabin to be delivered late in 2014. Although the new cabin is planned only for wartime-replacement aircraft converted from OH-58As, restarting airframe production is a key element in Bell's strategy to meet the Army's Armed Aerial Scout requirement to replace the OH-58D.
Denis Coleman (see photo) has joined TruTag Technologies of Honolulu as senior scientific adviser. An inventor and entrepreneur, Coleman co-founded Symantec and helped start 13 other companies.
As technologies mature and delivery dates for many new products near, the cabin interiors and inflight entertainment (IFE) supply chain must deliver on many its promises—and soon. A host of new services particularly in the IFE world are being installed on aircraft worldwide and, with broadband Internet and communication applications becoming widely available, the key question is whether passengers will use the new services to the extent expected.
Congressional Editor Jen DiMascio's piece in the Aerospace Daily & Defense Report about the influx of counterfeit parts from China, and the U.S. government's attempt to put an end to this, elicited a heavy response, parts of which include: 123xyz wondering:
Boeing will roll out the second 787-8 destined for Air India from its new South Carolina assembly plant this month, marking another step in that state's expansion as one of the American South's rising stars in aviation manufacturing.
Boeing Defense and Space deliveries in the first quarter were marked by the rising number of CH-47 Chinook completions, with 10 new-build helicopters handed over in the first quarter compared to seven, this time last year and two in 2010. The slowdown in C-17 deliveries saw just two aircraft handed over versus three for the previous quarters, while this year also marks the first delivery of a P-8A Poseidon in a first quarter.
