Pawana Shrestha has become country manager in Nepal for Etihad Airways. She succeeds John Rees Evans and was an executive with global distribution system Galileo.
Ken Kaplan (see photo) has been appointed head of the Aviation Outreach Initiative at Vaughn College of New York. He has been an executive with the King Schools and a publisher and trade show producer.
Bonny Simi has been appointed VP-talent for JetBlue Airways. She was director of customer experience and analysis at the airline's Customer Support Center in Salt Lake City, and is one of JetBlue's Embraer 190 captains.
J. Veronica Biggins has been named to the board of directors of Southwest Airlines. She was a member of the board of AirTran Holdings Inc., parent company of AirTran Airways, which was acquired by Southwest in May 2011. Biggins is a managing director in the Atlanta office of Diversified Search and had been senior partner and head of diversity practice at Heidrick & Struggles in Atlanta.
USAF Maj. Gen. Bruce A. Litchfield has been appointed commander of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center of Air Force Materiel Command at Tinker AFB. He was special assistant to the commander. Brig. Gen. Terrence A. Feehan has been nominated for promotion to major general. He has been deputy program manager for the Ballistic Missile Defense System for the Missile Defense Agency, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. Brig. Gen. Kenneth J. Moran has been appointed special assistant to the commander of Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio.
Bonnie Allin, president/CEO of the Tucson (Ariz.) Airport Authority, has been appointed chair for 2011-12 of the board of directors of the International Association of Airport Executives, a division of the Alexandria, Va.-based American Association of Airport Executives. Vice chair will be Tonci Peovic, general manager of Zagreb (Croatia) Airport Ltd.
Brig. Gen. Charles L. Carr, Jr., (see photo) of Columbus, Ohio, has been elected national commander of the Civil Air Patrol, an auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force. He was vice commander and will be succeeded by Col. Joseph R. Vazquez of Richmond, Va. Carr follows Maj. Gen. Amy S. Courter.
The U.S. airline industry just can't seem to catch a break. Volatile fuel prices and an anemic economy are conspiring to wipe out the meager profits eked out last year. In fact, for the first half of this year, the publicly traded U.S. carriers reported a combined $290 million loss, and the rest of the year looks dicey.
ATR plans to deliver seven ATR 72-600s this year as it ramps up output of the latest version in its turboprop line. The -600 series features a new Thales glass cockpit and upgraded engines, although some of the late model -500s already feature higher-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127Fs. Production of -500s will continue, with deliveries at least into 2013. Royal Air Maroc took delivery of the first two of the new-standard turboprops on Aug. 19, using a 70-seat layout. It is buying four ATR 72-600s and two sister-model ATR 42-600s.
Airbus has reached the first major milestone in its production ramp-up for its single-aisle fleet, with output now at 38 A320-family aircraft per month. The aircraft maker has already announced plans to boost production to 42 aircraft per month in the fourth quarter of next year to meet strong demand, and is considering a further increase to 44 units per month. One of the biggest concerns is whether the aircraft maker's supply chain can support the 44-per-month output level, given other manufacturers are also raising rates.
Boeing planned to mark the award of joint FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency type certification of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000-powered 787-8 at an event in Everett, Wash. on Aug. 26. The initial delivery to launch customer All Nippon Airways of Japan is on track for between Sept. 25 and 29, according to program sources. Final flight testing for type certification of the Rolls-powered 787-8 took place on Aug. 13, when ZA102, the ninth 787 to be built, completed the last functionality and reliability evaluation.
Air New Zealand is launching a sweeping review of its long-haul business, which will encompass everything from airline partnerships to fleet mix and aircraft configuration. The review is prompted by under-performance of the long-haul division compared with the airline's other operations. Long-haul routes have been collectively losing NZ$1 million ($800,000) per week for the past six months, says CEO Rob Fyfe. While the airline does not intend to change any of its firm orders, it has flexibility through options, leases and retirements.
China Eastern Airlines has become the second Chinese carrier within a month to take delivery of a 737-700 configured with both Boeing's recently developed high-altitude/high-temperature airport operations package and the 787-inspired Boeing Sky Interior. The same features were also incorporated into a 737-700 delivered in early August to Xiamen Airlines. Both operate in the high altitudes of Tibet and western China, and will use a higher thrust rating on the 737-700's recently upgraded CFM56-7BE engines.
The Australian Defense Ministry is financing research efforts that are looking at keeping water-landing helicopters afloat and improving the detection of objects in space. The research efforts are two out of five new activities the government is funding under its Defense Capability and Technology Demonstrator activity. The work on the so-called Pegasus Aircraft Buoyancy System is being pursued in particular with an eye on deploying Army helicopters on the new LHD-class landing helicopter dock ships.
The Russian industrial team that developed the containerized Club-K missile concept says sales talks are picking up. Deals with several unspecified export customers are reportedly nearing conclusion. At the same time, developers have expanded the features of the Club-K system, to add new weapon systems and differing container configurations. In addition to the anti-ship 3M054TE and 3M54TE1 missiles, and the land-attack 3M015TE cruise missile, developers say the Kh-35 anti-ship missile and 91PE1 and 91PTE2 anti-submarine missile are Club-K deployment options.
While NASA is seeding exploration-enabling technology in the U.S. (see p. 22), Russia's new Skolkovo Foundation has joined with RSC Energia to do the same work at a site near Moscow dubbed the “Russian Silicon Valley.” Backed by the government, the Skolkovo research center was established last fall to advance work in energy, information technology, telecommunications, biomedical and nuclear engineering. Now, according to Russian press reports, it will add space technology to the portfolio, with Energia's long-standing expertise in spaceflight as its basis.
Robert Fowler, longtime chief test pilot for de Havilland Canada, died Aug. 23 at home in Toronto. He was 89. A Royal Canadian Air Force pilot who flew 48 missions with the British Royal Air Force in World War II, Fowler joined de Havilland in 1952 and remained there until his retirement in 1987. During that time, he helped develop the DHC-5 Buffalo, DHC-6 Twin Otter, Dash 7 and Dash 8. He also piloted the first flight of an aircraft with Pratt & Whitney Canada's PT-6A turboprop engine.
David L. Ferguson, the former chief test pilot for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Tactical Fighter Program, an Air Force test pilot and Vietnam War combat veteran, died of cancer Aug. 10 in Quartz City, Calif. He was 72. Ferguson piloted the first flight of the YF-22A and conducted its initial airworthiness demonstration for the company's Skunk Works.
Small hand-launched unmanned aircraft are taking on a greater role in providing full-motion video to ground forces as sensor advances and operating costs lead the military to evolve larger tactical unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) into sophisticated multi-intelligence assets. The largest user of UAS, the U.S. Army is shifting the basic electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) imaging mission to small platforms such as the AeroVironment Puma while adding capabilities to its AAI RQ-7 Shadow tactical system.
Should Airbus further boost the combined production rates of the single-aisle A320 series well beyond the currently planned 42 aircraft per month? The European manufacturer has to address this key question soon if it intends to handle the steady stream of sales that temporarily left Boeing's far behind. But it is a complex question that is slowly evolving into a matter of taking calculated risks.
European Union emission allowance (EUA) prices crashed to a 29-month low of €10.70 ($15.42) per metric ton (mt) on Aug. 5, amid fears that Europe could be heading into another recession, cutting industrial CO2 emissions and demand for allowances to cover them. That was the lowest price for December 2011 delivery EUAs since March 2009.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) can be forgiven for making a big deal out of the delivery of its first Boeing 787. Its status as launch customer has figured pretty heavily in the airline's marketing, but it has had to endure a long wait for that privilege. First delivery is now expected in late September, more than three years after the originally scheduled date. When the initial aircraft does arrive, ANA will not be in the exclusive club for long—the second customer, ANA's local rival Japan Airlines (JAL), could receive its first 787 just a few months later.
NASA may be able to apply a couple of the first promising technologies it has picked for spaceflight demonstrations on operational missions by the end of the decade, if they work out. Under the agency's new technology-push approach, NASA's Office of the Chief Technologist (OCT) picked flight tests of high-bandwidth laser communications and a space-qualified atomic clock that could make the laser links even more efficient, as well as the largest solar sail yet flown.
Congress is quick to weigh in on the lessons of last week's launch failure of a Russian Soyuz launcher with a Progress spacecraft full of supplies for the space station crew (see p. 35). But just exactly what that lesson is depends on the position of the politician citing it before the mishap. “[T]his episode underscores America's need for reliable launch systems of its own,” says Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.).
Top Pentagon leaders are slacking when it comes keeping the Lockheed Martin F-35 sold, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Aug. 24 in a sharply worded letter to Ashton Carter, nominated as the next deputy secretary of defense. “If confirmed by the Senate . . . your personal commitment to making F-35 succeed will be essential,” Cornyn writes, adding that “the DOD's failure to sufficiently defend and advocate for the program has enabled and even invited unwarranted criticisms . . .
