Sabena Technics' maintenance facility in Bordeaux, France, is performing heavy check and repair work on two Afriqiyah Airways Airbus A330s. Several aircraft in the Libyan operator's fleet suffered damage during recent conflicts. Philippe Rochet, Sabena Technics' executive vice president of airframe services, says the MRO sent a maintenance task force of 10 engineers to Libya to prepare the aircraft for ferry flights to Bordeaux.
The space agency challenges the logic of asking experts for their honest opinions, reminding scientists on the NASA Advisory Council that they are “temporary” government employees when in formal session, and as such required to support—at least in theory—the Fiscal 2013 NASA budget proposed by President Barack Obama. The budget would gut the joint Mars exploration program with the European Space Agency. NASA science chief John Grunsfeld is not keen on having his independent advisory body turn into a lynch mob.
Like miners hitting a rich vein, Boeing struck gold when it began delivering Boeing 777s almost 17 years ago. Now, with advanced 777X derivatives under study for service entry around 2019, the manufacturer is looking to protect the family for the rest of the decade with a set of interim upgrades.
The FAA has granted 330-min. extended-range, twin-engine operations (ETOPS) approval for the Boeing 787's upgraded General Electric GEnx-1B Performance Improvement Program (PIP) engine (see related story, p. 52). Confirmation, which follows last year's 330-min. ETOPS clearance of the baseline GEnx-1B last year, comes as Boeing completes certification flight-testing of the GE-powered 787. The FAA is expected to confirm certification of the aircraft by the end of March.
Lisa Donnan has been appointed VP and customer executive for strategic capabilities and technology at TASC, Chantilly, Va. She is an advisory board member of the Volgenau School of Engineering at George Mason University, Fairfax, Va.
ViaSat-1 undergoes preparations for an October 2011 launch atop an ILS-Proton rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan. Built by Space Systems/Loral, the all-Ka-band ViaSat-1 is the highest-capacity satellite in the world. It delivers 140 Gbps of bandwidth, providing 100 times the throughput of conventional Ku-band spacecraft and more capacity than all current North American satellites combined.
General Dynamics has named Phebe Novakovic president and COO, positioning the 54-year-old as the front-runner to succeed Chairman and CEO Jay Johnson. Novakovic has been a senior executive at the company since 2002 and last headed the Marine Systems group.
New chief executives, like political leaders, traditionally are given a 100-day honeymoon period when they take the helm. For incoming EADS CEO Tom Enders, the honeymoon has ended 100 days before he even takes office.
March 19-21—International Academy of Astronautics/American Astronautical Society's Conference on Dynamics and Control of Space Systems. Hotel Ipanema, Porto, Portugal. See www.astrodynamics.org.pt/ March 19-22—Introduction to Aeronautics. National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Va. Call +1 (970) 887-3155 or see www.practicalaero.com March 21-22—Avionics Europe 2012 Conference and Exhibition. MOC Event Center, Munich. Call +44 (199) 265-6619 or see www.avionics-event.com
Nelson Ford has become chairman of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, West Sacramento, Calif. He is president and CEO of consulting firm LMI and had been undersecretary of the U.S. Army.
The official Chinese military budget exceeds $100 billion annually for the first time, but don't take that number too seriously. The figure Beijing cops to each year is only a fraction of its actual defense spending. It is more useful to tea-leaf readers trying to divine the message being sent than it is for analysis of year-to-year trends. Personnel costs are proportionally much larger than for Western nations. Still, U.S. lawmakers note, China is extending a buildup in new stealth aircraft, electronic warfare, cyberwarfare and naval fleets.
EADS appears to be rethinking its push of the Talarion unmanned aircraft, after a prolonged period of unsuccessfully trying to get Germany and other European countries to back its development. EADS continues to fly its Barracuda unmanned aircraft demonstrator and, this year, plans another flight-test campaign in Canada. But that does not mean EADS has made its peace with the decision in France and the U.K. to back the BAE Systems/Dassault Aviation Telemos unmanned aircraft for their future medium-extended long-endurance system.
China's new medium space launcher, the Long March 7, should fly late next year, entering service in an initial version capable of lifting 13.5 metric tons (30,000 lb.) to low Earth orbit, making it significantly larger than current Chinese rockets. The launcher will have four boosters, says Shen Lin, the principal engineer at manufacturer CALT, adding that China is also planning new upper stages.
For portions of the U.S. defense industry, China's military rise is viewed as an opportunity. As Beijing develops and fields more advanced defenses, the U.S. plans to respond with new spending on air, naval, missile defense and cyberforces. Indeed, this was underscored by the U.S. strategy pivot to Asia that was unveiled in January. But China's rise could also pose three challenges to U.S. defense companies in ways that may not be currently appreciated or understood.
Ryan O'Toole has become a director in the Aerospace-Defense-Government Group of Los Angeles-based Houlihan Lokey. He was a director at Lazard Freres & Co.
The call by carriers to standardize composite training certification, techniques and material mounts by the minute, with the Boeing 787 an operational fait accompli, and the Airbus A350 waiting to take wing.
When Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Washington last year, he unveiled with great fanfare $19 billion worth of purchases for Boeing 737 and 777 jets. There was only one catch: The aircraft had actually been ordered between 2007 and 2009. The central government in Beijing has long used its requisite sign-off on orders by Chinese airlines as a tool to further its political agenda, doling out—or withholding—big-ticket purchases at opportune moments.
Planetary scientists in the U.S. and Europe are smarting from a $226.2 million cut in NASA's requested funding for robotic Mars exploration. That drives the final nail in the coffin of a joint Mars effort with the European Space Agency and obscures the future of Mars exploration in general.
Shanghai Aviation Services Co. signed a two-year maintenance agreement with LOT Polish Airlines for Boeing 767-300 heavy maintenance. This is the first agreement between the two companies.
The promise that high-bandwidth satellites can bring fast, cheap Internet to the masses will be put to the test in 2012 as a new generation of Ka-band spacecraft enters service in the U.S. and Europe, with plans to expand into Russia, Australia and Latin America.
In a speech to the Wings Club in New York last month, Bombardier President/CEO Pierre Beaudoin defended the Canadian aircraft manufacturer's new CSeries against “naysayers,” including the ones who have raised questions about the supposed “slow” order uptake for the 100-145-seat aircraft.
