Stuart McSorley (see photo) has become director of quality for Circor Aerospace, Corona, Calif. He was quality manager at Triumph Aerostructures' Vought Commercial Div.
Chuck Gray, deputy associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, has been named acting associate administrator. He succeeds Ed Weiler, who has retired from the agency after 33 years.
Patrice Charmey has been appointed sales director in Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States for Daher-Socata, Tarbes, France. He was sales director at RUAG Aviation.
Donna Hrinak has been named president of Boeing Brazil, based in Sao Paulo. She was VP-global public policy and government affairs for PepsiCo and had been corporate affairs director for Latin America and the EU at Kraft Foods.
Steve Fuhr has been promoted to president and CEO from VP and director of business development of SkyTrac, Kelowna, British Columbia. He succeeds Kathleen Wallace, who remains chairman.
Dennis Gillespie has been appointed planning leader for HOK Aviation + Transportation Group of Los Angeles. A 10-year company veteran, he has worked on projects at New Doha International Airport, Indianapolis International Airport and Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco. Keith Hui has become director of the Asia-Pacific region, based in Hong Kong. He has led modernization programs at Salt Lake City, Honolulu and Kona, Hawaii, international airports.
Dwayne Williams has joined Aero Dynamix, Euless, Texas, as a night-vision goggle specialist. He was director of flight operations at Bell Helicopter Textron.
Scott Neal (see photo) has been named to succeed Larry Flynn as senior VP-marketing for Gulfstream Aerospace, Savannah, Ga. He was VP for the Central U.S. and has held executive sales positions for the South Central and Northeast U.S.
Joakim Landholm has joined Stockholm-based SASScandinavian Airlines as head of the Commercial Department. He was chief operating officer at RSA Scandinavia.
Joakim Landholm has joined Stockholm-based SASScandinavian Airlines as head of the Commercial Department. He was chief operating officer at RSA Scandinavia.
Benjamin S. Lambeth (see photo) has become a non-resident senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. He was a senior research associate at the Rand Corp.
Robert Knebel has been named VP-executive aircraft sales for the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean at Embraer Executive Jets, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. He has held various sales and general management positions with Gates Learjet, Securaplane and Cessna Aircraft.
David Birtwistle, senior VP-business development of Balfour Construction, has been elected to the board of the Washington Airports Task Force, Dulles, Va. Other new board members are: Kenneth E. Gazzola, president and CEO of FlightLogix and former executive VP and publisher of Aviation Week; Jonathan Genn, executive VP and general counsel of Percontee Inc.; and John Milliken, partner in the Venable law firm and former chairman of the Virginia Port Authority board.
John Jackson (see photo) has been elected to the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Los Angeles-based Global Business Travel Association. He is VP-sales and marketing for the Americas at Korean Air.
Guy Hachey is making a big bet on a shaky industry. The president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace is planning to invest more than $1 billion annually during the next few years on new aircraft, technology, facilities and maintenance support. While the largest chunk will be used for the new CSeries commercial jet, Bombardier also is putting considerable sums into the beleaguered business jet market for projects such as the Learjet 85, Global 7000 and 8000 derivatives, and the Global Vision cockpit (see p. 55).
The Hawker Beechcraft AT-6 light attack and armed reconnaissance aircraft, designed to meet the U.S. Air Force's Building Partnership Capacity needs including those of the Afghanistan air force, continues to move through its end-to-end weapons validation testing with the launch of four 500-lb. GBU-12 Paveway II precision-guided bombs last week, says Derek Hess, director of the AT-6 program for Hawker Beechcraft.
Thales's Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft program and BAE Systems Falcon communications effort have made enough progress to avoid being among the first to be put on the U.K. defense ministry's new “Projects of Concern” list, but the Valiant Jetty failed to dodge the political bullet. Running four years late and £92 million ($141.6 million) over cost, the program awarded in 2003 to Amec failed to show progress since coming under scrutiny initially a few months ago by the newly created Major Projects Review Board. The Valiant Jetty is being built for Astute Class submarines.
The Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-MAX unmanned rotorcraft is headed in November for a six-month deployment to support operations in Afghanistan. The helicopter was selected after a demonstration in Yuma, Ariz., in August. Two helicopters will operate from a central base with support personnel distributed at areas that will receive cargo, according to U.S. Navy officials. Results from the Yuma trials validated that K-MAX is capable of delivering 6,000 lb. of cargo daily over a five-day period; roughly 3,500 lb.
Embraer has recorded orders for six E-190 100-seat-class aircraft with six options from GE Capital Aviation Services. First delivery is set for the fourth quarter of 2012. Gecas has 93 E-Jets on lease with 15 airlines plus two that were ordered during the Paris air show for an unnamed South American carrier.
Iberia next summer plans to launch a Madrid-based subsidiary, Iberia Express, to fly short- and medium-haul routes. The move was approved Oct. 6 by the board of Iberia parent company International Airlines Group. Iberia Express initially will fly four Airbus A320s and is expected to operate at a lower cost than the mainline carrier, which loses money on its short-haul flying. The plan is likely to meet union opposition because the plan is for Iberia Express aircraft to be taken from the mainline fleet flown by lower-wage pilots.
Sacramento (Calif.) International's $1.03 billion Terminal B is operational, raising the airport's annual capacity to 16 million passengers and giving it three times as much space as the old Terminal B. The 740,000-sq.-ft. facility has 19 gates.
NASA's Dawn spacecraft has moved closer to the surface of the proto-planet Vesta, one of the oldest known objects in the Solar System. The survey craft arrived at Vesta in July and observed from a 1,700-mi.-high orbit before beginning a spiraling descent in August and stabilizing in a 420-mi.-high altitude mapping orbit around Sept. 30, almost exactly four years after its launch on a Delta II from Kennedy Space Center. At the end of October, the spacecraft will be commanded to approach even closer—to a 110-mi.-high orbit in just4 hr.
Space Exploration (SpaceX) could be facing a further delay to its NASA cargo resupply demonstration flight of the company's Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft planned for December. The demonstration docking with the International Space Station could slide into early 2012. Although integration of Falcon 9 and Dragon appears on track at SpaceX's facility adjacent to SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral, program sources indicate the schedule may be suffering the domino effect of delays from the failed Russian Progress 44 ISS cargo resupply flight in August.
The first Ilyushin Il-476 prototype is starting to come together. Earlier this month, a barge transported the center wingbox and wing on the Moscow River past the Kremlin on their way to Zhukovsky for final assembly by United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) subsidiary Aviastar-SP. The next step will be static testing at TsAGI Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute.
Airbus has a commanding lead over Boeing when it comes to order intake for the year, but the two manufacturers are about even in deliveries. Through September, Airbus had booked 1,179 gross orders, with 141 cancellations. Counting firm orders and deals announced but not yet signed, Airbus is on a pace to beat its 2007 record-order year of 1,458 units. Boeing has 531 gross orders and 105 cancellations, well off the 1,244 orders it signed in 2007.
