Northrop Grumman's newly implemented Integrated Assembly Line (IAL) is now producing F-35 Joint Strike Fighter center fuselages at the rate of one every five days as the company continues to ramp-up toward a target of one per day. The first unit to roll off the IAL was delivered to Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth assembly line on March 16.
That the BrahMos high-speed anti-ship missile is a formidable weapon is not in doubt, but its air-launch suitability remains a question. Now industry is pursuing a dual path to ease those concerns.
Kenya Airways has selected General Electric's GEnx-1B engine for its forthcoming Boeing 787 fleet as the contest with Rolls-Royce heats up over the remaining customers yet to select an engine. The GEnx-1B will power the carrier's nine firm-order 787s and four options. The deal bolsters GE's claim to around two-thirds of the 787 orderbook and underscores the company's bullish outlook as it makes progress with the latest engine performance upgrade work. The uptick in the tempo of engine marketing comes as both GE and Rolls continue to perfect improvement packages.
James G. Brunke and Peter Bull have joined the advisory board of AirVault, Addison, Texas. Brunke is a consultant on commercial and defense aviation, and Bull was executive director on the board of Airclaims.
Relations between Thailand and its neighbors have been improving, but some border disputes with Cambodia and Myanmar remain unresolved. This means intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) will continue to be an important requirement. There were incidents last year in which Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged gunfire near the ancient Khmer temple of Preah Vihear. Thai and Myanmar troops, meanwhile, exchanged gunfire in 2001 along their border, near the Thai town of Mae Sai.
Sal Cipres has been named head of global programs at Smiths Detection, Edgewood, Md. He was general manager of the Edgewood facility and director of global chemical and biological programs.
The major tactical problems that analysts foresee in the Asia-Pacific theater are the anti-access, area-denial (A2AD) environments that could be created by the array of military products that China sells to other countries and incorporates into its own forces.
Boeing's decision to close its Wichita facility by the end of next year may be good for the company's books, but a senior U.S. Air Force official says it adds risk to its ability to execute the KC-46A aerial refueling contract.
Mary M. Miller, VP-industry and government affairs at Signature Flight Support, has been named the recipient of the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Association's Distinguished Service Award. Kenneth C. Ricci, chairman of Flight Options and CEO of Nextant Aerospace, received NATA's William A. Ong Memorial Award.
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.
