Peter van Oorshot has been appointed VP-strategic alliances at VisionWaves, Zeist, Netherlands. He has held business development roles at KLM, Prolin, Hewlett Packard, GorillaPark and Qinetiq. HONORS & ELECTIONS
Brad Furukawa, VP-information technology solutions and chief information officer at Northrop Grumman Corp., has been named to the Boston-based National Association of Asian American Professionals' list of Top 100 leaders. He was recognized for his leadership and professional achievements, which reflect the group's aim to honor Asians who have overcome obstacles to make contributions to the success and prosperity of North America.
Rand Simberg, who recently joined the Competitive Enterprise Institute as an adjunct scholar, has been named to receive the Space Journalism Award by the Space Frontier Foundation. Simberg has written extensively on space topics from a free-market perspective for The New Atlantis, Popular Mechanics, National Review and other publications.
Easing U.S. visa regulations is not top of mind for either lawmakers or travelers as they recall the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. But the airlines and U.S. travel industry have been arguing for exactly that. Although it is lost in the skirmishes over the debt, FAA reauthorization and other more pressing issues, the existing U.S. visa regime puts a major squeeze on airlines, particularly those seeking to expand in the global economy's brightest spots, the rapidly growing BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
British Defense Secretary Liam Fox warns the government may soon issue a list of programs of concern, to put pressure on contractors to improve performance. The defense ministry has already held one review of major projects. Another is due next week and, if the outcome is not satisfactory, the list will be published, Fox warns during the Defense & Security Equipment International exhibition in London. The list would serve to alert the stock market what contracts may be at risk, he says.
Even though NATO's military campaign in Libya is not yet over, policy makers are starting to look at what comes next. One of the main tasks will be rebuilding the Libyan military, which has been taken apart by weeks of NATO air strikes. The U.K., at least, is already putting some intellectual effort into the reconstruction job. The government has consulted with officials with experience in how to do this, including those who helped put together the arms package to rebuild Kuwait's military after Iraq's invasion in 1990.
Airbus Military is preparing to deliver the first Royal Air Force A330 tanker now that the Future Strategic Transport Aircraft (FSTA) has received its civil and military type certificate. Airbus says the first of 14 aircraft is due for handover in “the coming weeks.” Half the fleet will be two-point refuelers with underwing pods—including the first aircraft which is covered by the type certificate—with the other seven three-point refuelers. They additionally have a centerline hose-and-drogue option, which still needs to complete the certification process.
Saab has kicked off the formal launch of the sales push for its RBS 70NG very-short-range air defense system, with a series of five demonstration firings to a group of 17 countries. The RBS 70NG is the first major upgrade of the weapon system in about a decade, and is designed to extend the life of a man-portable air-defense system first devised in the 1970s. The system is designed for vehicle mounting, ground launch or remote system operations from a central control station.
The U.S. and Australia are adding cyberspace to their Anzus Treaty, marking the first public pledge of allied cyberdefense outside of NATO. U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says the focus on cyberspace “is in large measure a recognition . . . that cyber is the battlefield of the future, and that we are all going to have to work very hard not only to defend against cyberattacks, but to be aggressive with regard to [them] as well.” The move comes via the annual Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations in San Francisco last week.
U.S. Homeland Security Department officials plan to expand its fleet of UAS to 24 that are operational by fiscal 2016, including 11 on the Southwest border, according to a Sept. 12 report to congressional Armed Services committees. The department, which includes the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection, has seven UAS to provide response and monitoring capabilities throughout North America.
The board of cash-strapped Air India somewhat surprisingly has decided to go ahead with the acquisition of 27 Boeing 787s despite the fact that a government official said recently the airline didn't have the money to pay for the aircraft. At its first meeting under new Chairman and Managing Director Rohit Nandan, the Air India board decided it wants the 787 acquisition to be part of its overall expansion program. The state-run airline will seek the federal government's approval for the purchase, an airline official said.
A week before Boeing is set to deliver its first 787, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives has approved a bill that would take away the power of the National Labor Relations Board to penalize companies for closing or relocating plants in retaliation for strikes by employees. That charge was leveled against Boeing by the company's unionized machinists after the manufacturer opened a second final assembly line at a new factory in South Carolina rather than at its traditional home for widebody jets in Everett, Wash. The case is pending in Seattle.
Boeing's 777 order count has increased by eight, to 118 for the year. The company did not identify on its website who placed the orders. No other orders were reported for the period, which ended Sept. 14. Total Boeing net orders this year stand at 382.
Pratt & Whitney has completed initial flight testing of the PW1524G geared turbofan engine for the Bombardier CSeries regional jet after 25 flights and 115 flight hours. The engine maker initially expected to wrap up evaluation of the X802 test engine in August after about 50 hr. but opted for more work “since things were going so well,” an official said. The next flight series will be conducted using X804 by year-end.
The U.K. defense ministry has named three bidders for the Project Marshall military terminal area control air traffic management services program. The effort to provide 22 years of service is valued at more than £1 billion ($1.58 billion). The three winning teams are one dominated by BAE Systems and Indra; another by Lockheed Martin and Selex Systems Integration; and a third involving Thales U.K. and NATS. The program will effectively integrate disparate contracts, overhaul much of the equipment now in place and deal with obsolescence.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has funded the troubled James Webb Space Telescope at $530 million in fiscal 2012, enough to support a launch of the big infrared observatory in 2018, according to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who chairs the appropriations panel that oversees NASA. The agency says the telescope's cost has climbed to $8.7 billion for a 2018 launch, and it faces stiff opposition in the House.
NASA's Kepler spacecraft has detected a planet orbiting two stars, the first such discovery by the orbiting planet-finder or any other observatory. The Saturn-sized gas and rock giant in the binary Kepler-16 system, about 200 light years from Earth, is too cold to support life like the imaginary circumbinary planet Tatooine in the Star Wars film. But the discovery of a planet orbiting two stars raises the possibility Kepler may find another one in the habitable zone, since most Milky Way stars are part of a binary system.
Bombardier is keeping final assembly of its Global bizjet family at one location, with its recent decision to build the newest members, the long-range Global 7000 and 8000, in Toronto. Once the center of production of the former de Havilland (now Q series) aircraft, the Toronto facility is used for Global 5000 and 6000 business jet assembly, along with Learjet 40 and 45 wing production and Q400NextGen regional turboprop assembly.
Piaggio Aero has secured the Russian type certificate for its P.180 Avanti II, so the aircraft can be legally registered and operated throughout Russia. Piaggio's international sales director, Fabio Sciacca, says the first delivery of the aircraft to a Russian customer may occur by early next year. Negotiations reportedly are under way with a number of potential customers who are interested in flying Avanti IIs for medical evacuation and surveillanc, as well as VIP transportation.
A ruling by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on separation distances for the new Boeing 747-8 will help the manufacturer keep its promise that the new airplane will have the same operational characteristics as the 747-400 that it replaces.
Just as it needs to boost productivity across all its Boeing product lines, Spirit AeroSystems faces a possible “work-to-rule” slowdown at its Wichita factory as technical employees, members of the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea), are said to be protesting working without a contract. However, the company says it has seen no evidence of a slowdown to date. Speea Executive Director Ray Goforth says workers are taking the action on their own, not at the union management's behest.
Teams will gather in Northern California at the end of September to compete for aviation's richest prize by breaking the 200-passenger-mpg barrier—at least twice the fuel efficiency of today's best general aviation and commercial aircraft.
Earlier this year, the Europeans were startled by Boeing's long hesitation before it eventually decided to launch the 737 MAX. Why was Seattle focusing on the proposed New Small Airplane, tentatively scheduled to enter service by the end of the decade, while Airbus's upgraded A320 series, dubbed NEO, posed an immediate commercial threat?
As I was searching for inspiration on how to call for key players to move important aviation legislation forward and start exhibiting true leadership—quite possibly by being the first to compromise or at least by resisting public declarations of the wrongness of their opponents—I came across this quote by Alan Keith of biotechnology firm Genentech: “Leadership is ultimately about creating a way for people to contribute to making something extraordinary happen.”
As controllers at the Jet Propulsion Lab and Lockheed Martin/Denver set up the twin Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (Grail) spacecraft for their 3.5-month trip to a gravity-mapping orbit around the Moon, the teams that built the Delta II rocket that launched it are facing the end of an era. The Sept. 10 Grail launch was the final from Pad 17, the oldest active pad at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., where the initial Delta was launched with Echo I, the first communications satellite, in 1960.
