Kris DeSoto has been appointed marketing manager for the Northeast U.S. and Glenn Murray for the Midwest U.S. for American Eurocopter, Grand Prairie, Texas. DeSoto was sales manager for Latin America and Murray for the Asia-Pacific region. Don Baenen has become director of oil and gas marketing and Patrice Royer director for business and private aviation. Baenen was a global aviation specialist with BHP Billiton Minerals Exploration and had been aviation logistics coordinator with BHP Billiton Petroleum (Americas) Inc.
John P. Hynes, Jr., has been named senior vice president of the TASC Defense and Civil Group, Chantilly, Va. He returns to the company from the Science Applications Research Corp., where he was senior VP/general manager of the Mission Support Business Unit.
Mitch Alexander (see photo) has been promoted to manager from assistant manager of FlightSafety International's Learning Center in Daleville, Ala. He succeeds Ralph Hicks, who has retired. Kelly Allender (see photo) has been promoted to manager of the Tucson, Ariz., Learning Center from assistant manager of FSI's Cessna Learning Center in Wichita. Alexander succeeds Randy Lewis, who will be retiring. Gary Porterfield (see photo) has been promoted to manager of the Learjet Learning Center in Wichita from assistant manager of the West Palm Beach (Fla.) Learning Center.
Christian Duhain has become a non-executive director of London-based A.J. Walter Aviation. He was EADS corporate VP-international development Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Scott Goodey, who has been president of Greenpoint Technologies, Kirkland, Wash., is now both president and CEO. He succeeds Jon Buccola, who is now chairman and founder. Sloan Benson, who has been executive VP, will also be president of Greenpoint's Denton, Texas, facilities. Adrian Osborn has been promoted to VP-operations from VP-programs and Nikki Clarke to VP from director of human resources. Nima Seyedali has been appointed legal director. She had been contracts manager and patent counsel for the 747-8 products division.
John Heather (see photo) has been appointed business development manager for Baines Simmons, Surrey, England. He has worked for the National Aviation Authorities and was training operations manager at CAA International.
The remnants of a tropical storm were parked over Washington for much of last week, providing a fitting backdrop of rain and gloomy skies as the U.S. Congress returned from its summer recess. A bipartisan “super committee” has been formed to draw up recommendations on how to cut another $1.5 trillion from the federal budget deficit over the coming decade. If lawmakers can't agree on a compromise by the end of the year —and given their partisan antics, that's a possibility—a “trigger” will automatically reduce future U.S.
U.S. Air Force officials are mum on the outcome of a key Integrated Baseline Review (IBR) for the Boeing KC-46A refueling tanker that was held late last month. During this first major milestone for the program, officials laid out a schedule and resource requirements. USAF spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy says the IBR was “successful,” but declined to provide details on the outcome. A critical design review is slated for September 2013, and the first 18 KC-46A refuelers are due for delivery in 2017.
U.S. Missile Defense Agency officials continue to investigate the cause of the Sept. 1 failure of Raytheon's new SM-3 IB ballistic missile killer to intercept a target during its first end-to-end flight test. An upgraded version of the IA, the IB includes a new two-color infrared seeker optimized for better discrimination of an actual warhead against clutter such as countermeasures. It also features a throttleable divert-and-attitude-control system, which was designed to provide more maneuverability for better chances of a ballistic-missile kill.
Turkey is making good on its commitment to explore the feasibility of developing its own fighter aircraft. The Turkish government has signed off on a two-year study contract, with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) also looking at potential jet trainer conceptual designs. In May, officials suggested a nominal 2023 fielding time line for the fighter. A decision on whether to pursue the development or go for a more traditional off-the-shelf procurement for the medium to heavy aircraft is not expected until at least late 2013.
Embraer and Elbit Systems have finalized the terms for their joint venture called Harpia Sistemas to develop unmanned aircraft for the Brazilian market, with Embraer taking a 25% minority share in AEL—Elbit's Brazilian subsidiary, which will be the principal agent for the Israeli defense company in the joint venture. Embraer will control 51% of the joint venture, with AEL Elbit holding the rest. The plan to work together was first announced in April.
The long-standing rivalry between Russia's two new combat helicopters—the Mil Mi-28 and Kamov Ka-52—for dominance of the domestic market continues. Russian Helicopters, the holding company overseeing both manufacturers, says it has signed a contract with the defense ministry for delivery of “more than 140” Ka-52s for the air force. The deal is estimated to be worth 120 billion rubles (about $4.1 billion). Deliveries will continue through 2020.
A third Sikorsky S-76D has joined the flight-test program and will be used for avionics and electrical systems testing leading to certification in the first quarter of 2012. The first two prototypes have logged more than 500 flight hr. The upgraded S-76 provides a 14% increase in takeoff power and 8% greater fuel efficiency, says Sikorsky.
The Sept. 7 crash of a Yakovlev Yak-42 taking off from the Yaroslavl airport in Russia has once more ignited high-level calls there to phase out old aircraft and reduce the number of operators in the country to improve safety. The crash killed 43 people; two survived. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been recovered. Russian authorities also began inspecting all Yak-42s in commercial service.
Brazil's Trip Linhas Aereas will add 18 ATR 72-600s to its fleet with options for 22 more of the turboprops. The deal is being split with Trip buying half and leasing another nine. The first -600 is to be delivered next month. ATR says the deal makes Trip the largest operator of the company's aircraft, with 51 aircraft.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has a license from the FAA to launch a Taurus II rocket from Wallops Island, Va., carrying a Cygnus cargo carrier on its first mission to the International Space Station (ISS). The flight, tentatively scheduled for February, will mark Orbital's demonstration-flight milestone under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services seed-money effort.
Stewart D. Nozette, a planetary scientist who used radar to find signatures of water at the Moon's poles, pleaded guilty to espionage Sept. 7 and accepted a 13-year prison sentence. Nozette, who helped develop the Clementine lunar orbiter as a testbed for missile defense technology, was arrested Oct. 19, 2009, after selling classified information to an FBI agent posing as an Israeli spy.
A Gulfstream V owned by the U.S. National Science Foundation and operated by the Boulder, Colo.-based National Atmospheric Research Center has completed a three-year, pole-to-pole project to gather data to generate the first detailed map of the global distribution of greenhouse gases. Over five missions, the atmosphere was sampled at various latitudes during different seasons at 500-45,000 ft. to help target gas sources.
Dublin Aerospace hopes to sign a couple of multimillion-euro contracts soon that will help it triple its turnover this year over last, says Frank Burke, head of sales. The two-year-old company just signed an auxiliary power unit (APU) overhaul contract with Danish carrier Jet Time valued “in the low-million” euro range, he says.
Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Aerospace's component and engine financing solutions company, Sanad Aero Solutions, is placing $50 million of new component inventory at the parent firm's SR Technics and Abu Dhabi Aircraft Technologies (ADAT) maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities. Sanad says the extra inventory in Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates will support customers such as Etihad Airways, Onur Air and Maximus Air Cargo.
Propulsion engineers at ATK are checking the results of the latest test of a five-segment solid-fuel rocket motor that could one day help boost NASA's planned heavy-lift Space Launch System off the pad, but early indications are that the Sept. 8 test was a success. Burning for just over 2 min., the 1 million lb. of propellant generated 3.6 million lb. thrust, says Charlie Precourt, vice president and general manager for space launch systems at ATK.
An article in the issue of Aug. 15 (p. 34) should have stated Orbital Sciences Corp. plans an orbital test flight of its Taurus II launch vehicle in December.
Pratt & Whitney President David Hess says “the lack of a clearly defined future path for human space exploration” has prompted the company to look for a buyer for its Rocketdyne division. Possible suitors include Alliant Techsystems or GenCorp, the owner of Aerojet.
