David Giger, director of Dragon spacecraft development and propulsion for SpaceX, is among three space professionals to receive the 2011 Promise Award from the New York-based Society of Satellite Professionals International. The others are: Bradley Patterson, senior project manager of Intelsat; and Rohit Iyer Seshadri, senior member of the technical staff at Hughes Network Systems. The award recognizes the potential of young satellite professionals to play leadership roles in the industry. Tom Eaton, president of Harris CapRock, received SSPI's Mentor Award.
Nicholas E. Calio is not afraid of a fight. As the White House's legislative affairs director under U.S. President George W. Bush, the longtime Washington insider secured a string of victories on Capitol Hill, including congressional authorization for Bush to wage war on Iraq. And when Calio in January became president and CEO of the Air Transport Association (ATA), he was expected to bring some much-needed vigor to the U.S. airline industry's lobbying organization.
The United Arab Emirates' insatiable appetite for aerospace industry growth continues with the Quest Group's backing of the development of an unusual helicopter concept that would allow passengers and crew to escape in a pod in case of an accident. The Dubai-based family-owned business is putting its money and support behind a Ukrainian tandem helicopter program that could lead to a system being certified in around four years. First flight of a prototype is likely in 2013, with initial production starting in 2014.
Boeing has secured an order from Indonesia's Lion Air for 201 Boeing 737 MAX aircraft and 29 737 NG aircraft, says the White House. The deal includes options for 150 more aircraft, it adds. The White House issued its statement to coincide with President Barack Obama's visit to Indonesia. LionAir has the world's largest fleet of 737-900ERs.
Turkey's AtlasJet is buying Bombardier CSeries narrowbodies, providing a much-needed boost to the Canadian manufacturer's flagship commercial airliner program. The deal, not yet firm, is for 10 single-class CS300s and five options, and valued at up to $1.18 billion. It is the first pure low-fare airline order for the CSeries, notes Bombardier Aerospace President Guy Hachey, who notes customers have spoken for 262 CSeries aircraft (133 represent firm orders). AtlasJet deliveries would start in the first quarter 2016 and end in mid-2017.
GE Aviation is “not interested” in delivering an engine for Russia's United Aircraft Corp. (UAC) MS-21, GE's president and CEO, David Joyce, told Aviation Week at the Dubai Air Show. He confirmed there have been “some discussions” through the CFM International joint venture as to whether a version of the Leap-X engine could be used. UAC has selected the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G as the only foreign engine to power the aircraft, but industry sources say further negotiations have reached a difficult phase.
Engine Alliance, in combination with Airbus, is adding a 72,000-lb.-thrust rating to the GP7200 engine to the A380 catalogue to offer additional takeoff weight performance on short runways. A software upgrade to the full-authority digital engage control system is due to undergo flight testing in the coming months, with the goal to certify the thrust rating next year. The setting allows 7.5 more metric tons of payload on a 2,500-meter (8,200-ft.) runway or 240 nm more range.
The beleaguered Medium Extended Air Defense System (Meads), managed by a Lockheed Martin-led consortium, has executed its first full flight test. The PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement interceptor—an upgraded PAC-3—executed a complex “over-the-shoulder” maneuver to simulate attacking an airborne target from behind. Intercept was not a mission goal, and the missile executed a planned self-destruct. Passage of this test was a key goal for Meads development.
Elettronica will supply the self-protection system for Italian air force AgustaWestand AW101 combat search-and-rescue-helicopters. The Virgilius system, which will be installed on 11 rotorcraft, includes radar warning receiver/electronic support measure functionality, as well as countermeasures. The latter will only materialize in the second phase of the program, with the addition of a solid-state radar jammer and ELT/ 572 directed infrared countermeasures.
Chinese officials have declared success for the Shenzhou 8 mission of their manned space program, after the capsule—designed for human transportation but unmanned on this occasion—returned to Earth in western China on Nov. 17. The chief objective of the mission was to show that Shenzhou 8 could dock with the Tiangong 1 orbital laboratory, which was also unmanned. The procedure was executed twice. The next two missions in the manned space program, Shenzhou 9 and 10, are due next year. At least one is likely to be manned.
A State Department official said the U.S. will press for several so-called transparency and confidence-building measures (TCBMs) at next year's Group of Government Experts (GGE) on Outer Space TCBMs established by a United Nations General Assembly resolution. Frank Rose, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, told the U.S.
The In Orbit column of Nov. 14 (p. 24) incorrectly identified Mike Houts, the project engineer on NASA's nuclear-thermal rocket environmental simulator at Marshall Space Flight Center.
A lightweight automatic ground-collision-avoidance system (Auto GCAS) that depends on a terrain database of the entire world housed in a smartphone is being flight tested by NASA.
For U.S. regional airlines, the booming business and comfortable profits of the previous decade must already seem like ancient history. Recent developments at Republic Airways and American Airlines suggest that the new challenges they face, in this decade of change and potential upheaval for their industry, are not about to get any easier.
Conventional wisdom typically holds that harvesting “free” energy from the Sun with giant collectors in space does not make financial sense, at least until Earth's finite supplies of oil, coal and natural gas become so scarce that there's no other choice. The conventionally wise usually suggest that it will make more economic sense to rely on wind power and ground-based solar cells for “green” renewable energy.
Look for the rhetoric over deficit reduction to remain red hot. According to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's most recent salvo, $600 billion in additional across-the-board cuts to defense spending over 10 years would mean no more Joint Strike Fighter, no new bomber, no Littoral Combat Ships and no Ground Combat Vehicle program. A congressional “Super Committee” faces a deadline this week to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction, or the $600 billion whack job could be set off. Panetta raised the specter that would lead to kills or delays for major programs.
Seventeen senators led by Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) are asking President Barack Obama to make recovery and destruction of Libya's stockpile of man-portable air defense systems the “utmost” priority. Teams of contractors were sent to Libya to find the Manpads, and last month Army Gen.
NASA again ranks fifth in the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service's annual tally of best places to work in the government, based on a survey of more than 150,000 executive-branch employees. The ranking could not have been timed better for NASA, as the agency has opened recruitment for the 2013 class of astronauts who will fly to the International Space Station and, possibly, Mars. NASA will accept applications through Jan. 27, 2012, and expects to begin training in the summer of 2013.
Fresh from an Oval Office ceremony where President Barack Obama signed an executive order setting “bold goals for agencies to reduce spending on travel,” Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver (back row, center, in photo) heads to Antarctica. Obama's order seeks a 20% reduction by 2013 in the cost of travel, printing, devices like smartphones and laptops, and “swag--the unnecessary plaques, clothing and other promotional items that agencies purchase.” Garver's task in Antarctica, says NASA, will be “to evaluate activities of the U.S.
When manufacturers set out to define a new aircraft, they always say their product decisions are driven by long discussions with airlines. But do the airframers really listen? As Boeing, Embraer and ATR work on defining new aircraft to enter service toward the end of the decade, Airbus is experiencing how dangerously wrong things can go when key customers differ with product decisions.
As Embraer embarks on talks with customers about defining its second generation of E-Jets, the aircraft maker is mulling revisions to its product lineup. One is whether it will proceed with the upgrade on the smallest member of the family, the E-170. “Now, the -170 is a question mark,” says Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva, president of Embraer Commercial Aviation.
Widespread concerns about aircraft-delivery financing are not enough to spur Airbus and Boeing to delay plans to increase output. The huge backlogs that both sport provide one confidence-booster, with Airbus in particular seeing strong growth as it anticipates a record order intake this year.
The U.S. has built, flown, pointed and triggered a missile designed specifically to carry a directed-energy weapon. That payload, expected to be operational soon, will be able to disrupt, shut down, spoof or damage electrical systems, but little has been revealed about the project.
Italy's emergency government is dealing with a dire financial situation that will force substantial cuts in both the defense procurement budget and investment, and flagship provider Finmeccanica is set to feel the brunt of the fallout. Details of Finmeccanica's first reactions emerged last week when the company announced third-quarter financial results that show it swung to a loss equaling its profit for the same quarter a year before.
