While 2011 was a tumultuous year for Australian airlines, enough challenges remain to make 2012 another pivotal period. Australian carriers certainly had a bumpy ride over the past 12 months—even by the volatile standards of the global airline industry. For some the upheaval was intentional, but for others the year was marked by unwelcome setbacks that are affecting their 2012 plans.
An Airbus decision to shift A320 wing work to Korea Aerospace Industries is drawing fire from the U.K.'s Unite labor union representing workers at the Broughton facility where the work has been done. Unite, in a statement, says workers were told on Jan. 10 that the bottom wing skin production work would shift to KAI. No job cuts loom as a result, with Airbus committing to shifting the affected personnel to other work.
Boeing's progress toward producing two aircraft per day from its Renton, Wash., 737 factory has reached another milestone with the rollout of the first aircraft on a 35-per-month cycle. Renton's parallel final-assembly lines are scheduled to reach a combined rate of 42 aircraft/month in the first half of 2014. With 21-22 production days per month, that rate equals about one aircraft per day from each of the two lines. The last time Boeing increased its rates was in 2009.
Israel is considered a world leader in electronic warfare, but the country's military analysts fear that for the first time in 40 years new Russian air defense systems could have an edge over the Israeli air force (IAF). In the last two years, the Syrian army has deployed Russian Pantsyr-SE1 (SA-22 Greyhound) guns and missiles, short- to medium-range air defense systems and the medium-range Buk-M2 (SA-17) systems. Moscow is still denying constant Syrian requests to procure the S-300PMU (SA-20) air defense system.
Olivier Gillot has been named senior VP-strategy, marketing and sales of the MRO unit of Industria de Turbo Propulsores, Zamudio, Spain. He held sales and business development positions within the Safran and Thales groups.
Ivy Chee has joined the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok as director for Asia. She was regional business development manager at Wego Pte in Singapore. Honors And Elections
Operational satellite networks that routinely monitor Earth's climate in the same way meteorological satellites watch the weather today will be extremely useful as the links between human activity and long-term environmental conditions become better understood, and perhaps more dangerous. It is an opportunity the aerospace industry cannot afford to pass up, given its unique ability to address climate-change issues.
Carlos Graziani (see photo) has been named general manager of Houston-based Landmark Aviation's Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport location in Florida. He was operations manager for Atlantic Aviation in Tucson, Ariz.
In early 2008, Avic I, as it was called then, announced it was setting up an airline that would buy its regional airliners, a move that had many industry watchers perplexed. To any trenchant doubter of China's future in civil aeronautics, it must have seemed that the product—the 50-60-seat MA60 turboprop—was so uncompetitive that Avic I could only sell it to itself.
Despite its programmatic progress and status as an acquisition reform program for the U.S. Air Force, GPS III—as with any other Pentagon project—is under the microscope and could be subject to funding cuts. The budget environment at the Pentagon gives new meaning to the term “capture team,” which is used to describe the group assigned by a company to win a program. Many contractors say they feel they are in a perpetual “capture team” mode, constantly fighting not only to win programs, but to keep them once they have won the contract.
Richard Ziskind has been appointed VP-sales and marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Dynamic Airways. He was director of marketing at Omni International.
Frank Morring, Jr.'s “What's Next For Deep Space Crew Vehicle” drew varied reactions, most of them pessimistic. Coastal Ron says: I think the multi-purpose crew vehicle is destined to be a $8 billion lifeboat, which is probably way overpriced. I know the original Orion was part of [then-NASA Administrator] Michael Griffin's “Apollo on steroids” approach to returning to the Moon, and from that uninspired perspective, an upsized Apollo capsule made sense for the short Moon trips it was to do.
Boeing's decision to close its Wichita defense plant is a story of too much factory capacity and not enough work. The 2013 closure raises concerns about the future of the company's more than 2,100 employees as jobs shift to facilities in other states.
Sensing continued financial pressure even in the well-protected electronic-warfare domain, the U.S. Navy is slicing through red tape to streamline acquisition of its prized Next Generation Jammer (NGJ).
USMC Lt. Col. (ret.) Paul E. Damphousse has been named executive director of the Washington-based National Space Society. He was chief of advanced concepts for the National Security Space Office and the Defense Department executive agent for space.
Thank you for naming United Technologies Corp. Chairman/CEO Louis R. Chenevert your 2011 Person of the Year (AW&ST Jan. 2, p. 42). As a worker for an aerospace manufacturing operation in India, I must say that during Chenevert's shop tour of our facility in 2008 it was clear he was a hands-on leader who understood the nuances of operations and manufacturing. All workers in these tumultuous economic times must embrace the basics of competence and excellence. Chenevert personifies those qualities.
Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate most likely to support reductions in defense spending, ranks third in terms of donations from defense industry employees. Paul might want to end the war in Afghanistan, scrap all aid to foreign governments and see Pentagon spending tumble by $1 trillion, but the Texan with Libertarian tendencies strikes a chord with the defense industry's techno-geek workforce.
Guiseppe Coccon is the new senior VP-communications at Avio Group, Turin, Italy. He was communications and media relations director at the Barilla Group.
Bart LaGrone (see photo) has been appointed VP-airborne early warning and battle management command control programs at the Bethpage, N.Y., facility of Northrop Grumman. He was deputy integrated project team leader for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program.
The uncontrolled reentry of Russia's stranded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft presented a moving target to satellite trackers just days before pieces of the botched Mars mission were expected to fall to Earth.
