Leda L. Chong has become senior VP for the Asia-Pacific region for Falls Church, Va.-based General DynamicsAerospace Group. Chong has been staff VP-government relations since 2009.
Leda L. Chong has become senior VP for the Asia-Pacific region for Falls Church, Va.-based General DynamicsAerospace Group. Chong has been staff VP-government relations since 2009.
Tom Corum has been named VP-business development for Jet Midwest Technik, Kansas City, Mo. He spent three years in the financial services and business brokerage industry and had been executive VP-business development at Empire Aero Center.
Karen Jans has been selected as associate VP-university relations for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla. She was a public information officer at Isothermal Community College.
Blain K. Rethmeier has been named senior VP-public affairs and government relations for the Washington-based U.S. Travel Association, succeeding Geoff Freeman, who was promoted to executive VP and chief operating officer. Rethmeier was senior VP-public affairs for the American Insurance Association.
Amar Chouaki has been appointed VP-sales for Southern Europe for Air France KLM Engineering & Maintenance. He was head of the Project Management Department. Miguel Chiang has become VP-Latin American sales. He was product support director for airframe base maintenance.
USAF Brig. Gen. James E. Haywood has been named director of strategic plans, programs and analyses at Air Force Materiel Command Headquarters, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. He was director of requirements at Air Force Space Command Headquarters, Peterson AFB, Colo. Honors And Elections
Jane Garvey has been named the 2011 recipient of the Donald D. Engen Aero Club Trophy for Aviation Excellence, given by the Aero Club of Washington. She was FAA administrator from 1997-2002 and previously was director of Boston Logan International Airport and acting administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.
Jay Heppner has been elected chairman of the Master Executive Council of United Airlines' Air Line Pilots Association unit. He succeeds Wendy Morse, who did not run for re-election.
Adam Maher has been selected by the New York-based Society of Satellite Professionals International to receive its Promise Award for Young Space Industry Professionals. Maher, an engineer in the Advanced Systems Group at Space Systems/Loral, was honored for leadership in systems and mechanical engineering.
Investors detest the thought of losing money. So one has to wonder what the future holds for struggling Hawker Beechcraft. Investment bank Goldman Sachs and Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp. paid a top-of-the-market price of $3.3 billion in 2007 to acquire the builder of business jets and general aviation and military turboprops from Raytheon. But a collapse in demand for business jets the following year created a flood of red ink that has yet to be stanched, despite progress in cutting costs and improving efficiency.
Boeing Chief Financial Officer James Bell (left photo), 63, will retire April 1 after 40 years with the company. He will be succeeded by Corporate Controller Greg Smith (center photo), 45, on Feb. 1 who will work with Bell “to ensure a smooth transition,” Boeing said.
A system that enables an aircraft to taxi without engine power or ground tugs has been launched by El Al Israel Airlines for application on its fleet of Boeing 737s. Developed by WheelTug, the system will use two electric motors inside the wheels of the nose gear to propel it at speeds up to 28 mph. Although adding around 300 lb., 200 lb. of which comprises the new integrated driving wheels, developers say the overall system is “flight-weight” neutral due to the reduced amount of fuel required for taxiing.
Boeing has submitted its proposal for a second CH-47 Chinook multi-year procurement contract with the U.S. Army. The proposal covers 155 new-build and remanufactured CH-47F helicopters to be produced over five years, with the contract to be signed in January 2013 and deliveries to begin in 2015. The contract will allow completion of the Army's planned procurement of upgraded Chinooks. Boeing, meanwhile, delivered the first of 690 remanufactured AH-64D Apache Block 3 attack helicopters to the Army on Nov. 2.
Poland hopes to revive its advanced jet trainer competition in the spring after deciding to scrap the current session. The move could reopen the door to BAE Systems to offering the Hawk. The company had withdrawn from the competition, believing the requirement was tilted to the high-end air combat role. Alenia Aermacchi's M-346 and the Korea Aerospace Industries T-50 remained in the running for the 16-aircraft program.
Australian officials say their country's defense trade treaty with the U.S. is one step closer to being implemented following introduction of related legislation in Parliament. The treaty, signed in 2007 by leaders of both countries, removes the requirement for individual licenses to be obtained for preordained exports, and allows for the license-free movement of eligible defense articles within the pre-approved communities.
Excalibur Almaz, a Houston space tourism company distinguished by its plans to use refurbished Soviet-era military space station hardware for adventure travel and commercial research, has become the seventh participant in the second round of NASA's Commercial Crew Development initiative. The agreement will permit participation in a series of systems requirements and launch vehicle, test plan, design compatibility, test and operational systems reviews through May 2012, according to NASA.
Capt. Tadeusz Wrona was celebrated as a hero in Poland last week, after he performed a textbook gear-up landing Nov. 1 at Warsaw Frederic Chopin International Airport with his LOT Polish Airlines Boeing 767-300ER. But outstanding questions are why the landing gear failed to lower and no alternative means worked.
An article on Finnair in the Oct. 24/31 issue (p. 84) incorrectly states the amount of overflight fees the airline pays Russia. They run about $55 million annually.
Prime real estate on unmanned aircraft is under the nose, where most carry their primary electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) sensor. Even as UAV manufacturers add payloads such as radar and signals-intelligence sensors to increase capability, these familiar gimbaled turrets are staying in place to meet demand for full-motion video.
European Union emission allowance (EUA) prices edged to a new 32-month low in October as macroeconomic fears over Greece's financial crisis continued to hold sway over the market. EUAs for December 2011 delivery eased to €10.13 ($13.98) per metric ton on Oct. 4, down from €12.42 on Sept. 5. Prices continued to fall through October and set a new 32-month low of €9.85 at the close on Nov. 1, the lowest price for the December 2011 contract since February 2009, according to Platts assessments.
Orbiting fuel depots have become the latest marker in the high-stakes game of influencing U.S. space policy. It would be cheaper and faster to preposition fuel tanks in space and launch fuel to them on today's relatively small rockets, the argument goes, than to spend the billions NASA plans for developing the heavy-lift Space Launch System that Congress has ordered. As the volume rises on the received wisdom propounded by both sides, it is starting to sound a lot like a reprise of the old attacks on the Bush administration's Ares I rocket.
A new study commissioned by the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) concludes that defense contractors and their suppliers would lose 124,428 jobs in 2013 if the worst-case deficit-cutting scenario via August's Budget Control Act unfolds. Based on the study's calculation of 620,000 total jobs, the industry would see 20% of its workforce vanish in a single year.
