Shri P.V. Deshmukh has become officiating chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., Bangalore, India, in addition to his current post of managing director of its MiG complex.
John Farenish has joined Washington law firm Venable's government contracts practice. He was general counsel of the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Contract Audit Agency.
Rick Saggar (see photo) has been appointed country manager for the U.K. and Ireland at Gulf Air. He was director of the airline business group at Hahn Air.
Nick Godwin has been named managing director of London-based Commsoft. He was business development director and will retain that post's responsibilities. Commsoft founding co-director Gary Pollack will become chairman. Director James Stock will be technical director and director David Puse project director for the Oases product. Julian Beames will become business operations manager. He was a regional manager.
Chris Murvine (see photo) has joined Phoenix Heliparts, Mesa, Ariz., as lead inspector and director of training. He was senior maintenance instructor for MD Helicopters.
Andrew Gale has been named CEO and Dennis Nolan CFO at Numet Machining Techniques, Old Greenwich, Conn. Gale was CEO of Veridiam and Nolan senior VP and general manager of U.S. operations for Rockwood Services Corp.
Steven Schell has joined Houston-based Landmark Aviation as general manager of its Norfolk (Va.) International Airport location. He was general manager for Atlantic Aviation's Burbank, Calif., facility, and also held roles at Raytheon Aircraft Services, United Beechcraft and Hangar One.
Douglas Kennett has been selected to receive the 2011 Lauren D. Lyman Award for achievement in aerospace communications, given by the Aerospace Industries Association, Arlington, Va. He was a USAF public affairs officer for nearly 30 years and was spokesman for U.S. forces in the U.K., director of media relations for the U.S Air Force and director of Defense Information at the Pentagon.
Raymond J. Juzaitis (see photo) has been appointed president of the board of managers of the Las Vegas-based National Security Technologies, succeeding Stephen M. Younger, who retires in January. Juzaitis heads the department of nuclear engineering at Texas A&M University.
Tay Tiang Guan, deputy director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, has been elected to a three-year term on the board of governors of the Flight Safety Foundation.
With a few weeks to go, Airbus has formally topped its revised order intake target for 2011, with 1,521 booked in the first 11 months. But the aircraft maker also—again— added to its cancellation total for the year, with Kingfisher's dropping of two A340-500 orders bringing the total to 143 units. Airbus parent EADS had put the gross-order target at 1,500, although Airbus COO for customers, John Leahy, says the full year total could be 1,650-1,700. Airbus has already announced commitments to reach that level, although those contracts remain to be finalized.
Boeing and the leadership of the International Association of Machinists (IAM) are counting the 74% approval of a four-year contract by machinists in voting on Dec. 7 as a victory. The vote gives Boeing labor peace with its most militant union until September 2016. It assures machinists of jobs in Renton, Wash., building the 737 MAX.
The Europe-based air traffic management subsidiary Northrop Grumman Park Air Systems has received a temporary certification by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its NOVA 9000 airport surface movement guidance and control system. The company is the only supplier of this system to obtain a CAAC certification—a prerequisite to site acceptance and operation at airports or en route into the country.
The long-running saga over the sale of F-16s to Iraq came to an end on Dec 5 when Lockheed Martin was awarded a $835 million foreign military sales contract to provide 18 aircraft. The Defense Department contract covers 12 F-16C and six F-16D Block 52 aircraft, plus spares and support, and runs through to May 2018. The work is expected to keep the production line in Fort Worth running through 2015 and is the first firm F-16 order taken by Lockheed Martin for more than a year.
The Russian defense ministry has ordered 55 Yakovlev Yak-130 advanced jet trainers from the Irkut Corp. The deliveries should start in 2012 and last through 2015. “The Yak-130 procurement by the air force will bring the pilots' training to the required level and prepare them to operate the new-generation combat aircraft,” says defense minister Anatoly Serdyukov. The Yak-130 has a glass cockpit and a re-programmable fly-by-wire system that can replicate the characteristics of various Russian advanced fighters, including the Sukhoi T-50 fifth-generation aircraft.
The Defense Logistics Agency has awarded Northrop Grumman a $76 million sole-source contract to deliver spare assets in support of the U.S. Air Force B-2 bomber.
Engineers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore demonstrated a technique adapted from medicine that may help satellite controllers effect delicate repairs on operational spacecraft. Modifying a da Vinci medical console typically used by surgeons, graduate students Tian Xia and Jonathan Bohren were able to control an industrial robot 30 mi. away at Goddard Space Flight Center. The console included a 3-D eyepiece and motion feedback for “touch” sensitivity, and may lead to techniques for spacecraft repair and refueling.
Blue Origin, the secretive Seattle startup working on a commercial crew-delivery spacecraft under NASA's Commercial Crew Development seed-money effort, has signed an agreement with the agency to test a thrust chamber assembly at the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The BE-3 engine's combustion chamber and nozzle will be hot-fired at the center's E-1 test stand.
Safran's Sagem unit and MTU Aero Engines plan to set up a joint venture to work on safety-critical software and hardware for military and civil aircraft, including the TP400 turboprop powering the Airbus Military A400M airlifter. The operation should be up and running next year with aviation applications.
General aviation manufacturers are enduring one of the deepest and longest recessions in memory, resulting in massive layoffs, slowed production and cancelled new designs. Excepting Gulfstream, Bombardier and Dassault—whose ultrajets still find favor among blue bloods, blue chips, movie stars and moguls—those who make, maintain or serve general and business aviation aircraft have been in a bad way since Lehman Brothers turned out the lights in 2008. And things are not expected to get appreciably better any time soon.
NASA's Kepler planet-finder has finally found a planet in the habitable zone around its Sun-like star that is neither too hot nor too cold, but just right for water to remain in the liquid state believed necessary to sustain life. Unfortunately, the orbiting probe's primary mission is drawing to a close just as its worldwide science team begins to narrow in on the best way to find the truly Earthlike extrasolar planets most likely to sustain life, and when funding for extended missions at the U.S. space agency is running dry.
The NextGen air traffic modernization initiative loses a powerful cheerleader with the departure of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt, who resigned last week after he was charged with driving while intoxicated in a Virginia suburb of Washington. NextGen backers in Congress say Michael Huerta, Babbitt's deputy and the new acting administrator, will continue advocating strongly for the big-ticket program despite a tough budget environment.
