The space shuttle Discovery waits on Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center for its final mission, delayed for more than six weeks by a series of technical problems. Now set for launch no earlier than Dec. 17, the workhorse of the fleet will be making its 39th trip to orbit. That it was built to fly 100 times is a demonstration of the hard-won experience NASA has gained as it realized the most capable human spacecraft ever to fly is still a long way from providing “routine” access to space.
Alexey Komarov (Moscow), Max Kingsley-Jones (London)
Growth prospects in Russia’s low-fare airline sector aren’t what they used to be. The sector suffered a blow after one of the key players, Avianova, was forced to reduce the seating capacity of its aircraft by more than 10% due to a loophole in the country’s new import regulations. Meanwhile, rival Sky Express is changing its business model after a year of problems.
Tony Smeraglinolo is the new executive vice president of L-3 Services Group . He was president of L-3’s Intelligence Solutions division and had been president of the Global Stabilization and Development Solutions Division of DynCorp International.
Inmarsat is evaluating air-interface technologies and ground-segment suppliers for its Ka-band Global Xpress broadband network, launched last summer to complement the mobile satellite operator’s slower-speed L-band system (AW&ST Aug. 16, p. 27).
Colleen Hargis (see photo) has been named director-administration/information technology for the Springfield (Mo.) Convention and Visitors Bureau . She was a per course instructor at Missouri State University, where she taught computer applications. Melissa Evans joined the bureau as convention sales manager.
Sikorsky is in talks with the Canadian government over whether it will be penalized for a “short delay” in delivery of the first CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopter. Delivery was expected in late November, two years later than originally planned.
Late last month, a couple of F-16s pounced on a student pilot who wandered into the restricted airspace ringing Washington and escorted him to a general aviation field where he was met by men with badges. It would be perfectly understandable if that unsettling experience should end up being the last entry in the hapless airman’s thin logbook. But the violation is likely to be repeated by others.
As Europe gears up to define the aerospace research plans for the coming decades, there is a growing concern within the industry that the Continent’s momentum in this area could stall owing to competing budget demands throughout the European Union.
Boeing’s A160T and the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max have won contracts for unmanned helicopters to perform cargo resupply missions in support of U.S. Marine Corps forces in Afghanistan. The contracts each cover two aircraft, three ground control stations and a quick-reaction assessment next summer.
Kazan Helicopters has flown the second prototype of the Mi-38, almost seven years after the twin-turbine medium helicopter first flew. OP-2 has fuel and hydraulic system and rotor blade upgrades as well as handling and stability improvements resulting from tests of the first prototype. The helicopter has Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127/TS engines and Tranzas IBKV-38 glass-cockpit avionics. OP-2 is to be handed over to Moscow Mil Helicopter Plant for certification flight testing. A third prototype is in assembly at Kazan, which is part of Russian Helicopters.
With the U.S. economy stuck in a high-unemployment, low-growth pattern, a newly resurgent Republican Party is preparing to take over the House vowing serious deficit reduction, and Americans as a whole display almost no interest in the current U.S. manned space program. Under these circumstances, the effort to return humans to the Moon or take them to Mars is doomed, given likely NASA budgets.
John Chapman (left), the former space shuttle external tank project manager, and Otto Goetz (center) who was the space shuttle main engine chief engineer, take part in a roundtable discussion at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center with Senior Editor Frank Morring, Jr. A dozen former and current shuttle engineers at the field center shared their experiences on the program dating back to the 1960s, and gave their views on what the future may hold.
U.K.-based Avanti Communications has launched the first European spacecraft dedicated to providing high-speed Internet access. The 2.5-metric-ton Ku-/Ka-band satellite, called Hylas-1, uses a bus supplied by the Indian Space Research Organization and employs adaptable payload technology, developed by Astrium with the assistance of the European Space Agency, that allows data output to be tailored to meet demand.
EADS Astrium has been awarded a €795-million ($1.04-billion) contract to build two very-high-resolution CSO optical imaging intelligence (imint) satellites to replace France’s Helios 2 system. The first of the spacecraft, part of Europe’s planned Multinational Space-based System (Musis) optical/radar imint network, is to be launched in December 2016.
Karl Ulrich Garnadt has been named Lufthansa Cargo chairman and chief executive officer, succeeding Carston Spohr, who has been promoted to chief executive officer of Lufthansa German Airlines. Both appointments become effective Jan. 1. Garnadt currently heads Hub Management and Passenger Services on the Lufthansa board.
Europe’s large, mid-size and regional carriers are pursuing further structural changes as they look to bolster their finances in a turbulent market. Although traffic is rebounding, and earnings prospects are on the upswing for most, considerable headwind remains. Unions are one source of tension, as is the general economic malaise throughout Europe. Both threaten to depress air traffic recovery, thus setting the stage for further efforts to revamp businesses continent-wide.
NASA’s plans to subsidize commercial human spaceflight are off the table as a money-saving suggestion from the bipartisan cochairs of the President’s deficit-reduction panel. Democrat Erskine Bowles and Republican Alan Simpson last month had suggested the move could save $6 billion, but they left advocates of the Obama administration’s efforts to seed a commercial crew transport industry an out when they demonstrated they did not have a clear understanding of what the agency wants to do (AW&ST Nov. 15, p. 26).
James F. Albaugh, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, has been elected chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association Board of Governors for 2011, succeeding Scott C. Donnelly, chairman and chief executive officer of Textron. David P. Hess, president of Pratt & Whitney, has been elected vice chairman.
Lufthansa restarted its inflight Internet offering Nov. 30 on an Airbus A330-300 from Frankfurt to New York. Availability will be expanded to cover the entire long-haul fleet and its network by the end of 2011. Lufthansa will also allow the use of mobile phones, smart phones or PDAs, but for text messages or e-mail and not voice communications.
USAF Lt. Col. (ret.) Price T. Bingham (Melbourne, Fla.)
The bipartisan White House Commission’s proposal to terminate the Stovl F-35 variant (AW&ST Nov. 15, p. 36) reveals a dangerously narrow, but unfortunately widespread, perspective of airpower. Despite the reality that future threats are likely to possess large numbers of precision-guided, long-range weapons, even many airmen who should know better tend to assume too much regarding the availability and operability of runways when making plans for the employment of airpower. Should the runway assumptions prove overly optimistic, the U.S.
Nicholas E. Calio (see photo) has been named president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association , effective Jan. 1. Calio currently leads Global Government Affairs for Citigroup. Before that, he was assistant to the president for legislative affairs and chief liaison to Congress for Presidents George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush.
Jeff Anastas has been appointedvice president-North Asia and Dan Keady vice president-South Asia, both at Hawker Beechcraft . Anastas was sales director in other locations, including Africa, the Middle East and the U.S. Keady was divisional vice president-sales for Africa, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Australia.
Marta Rona (see photo) has joined Malev Hungarian Airlines as communications director. She was trading and media director at Omnicom Media Group’s Hungarian subsidiary.
The Air Transport Association hired a highly regarded lobbyist with Republican connections to become its new president and CEO as of Jan. 1, just before Republicans take control of the House. Nicholas Calio once was an assistant inside the George W. and George H.W. Bush administrations, and has a close relationship with House Speaker-elect Rep.
I enjoyed the insights in Andrew Compart’s report “Beyond The Merger: Delta Invests and Diversifies” (AW&ST Nov. 15, p. 74). CEO Richard Anderson’s decisiveness has impressed me both as a customer and industry watcher.
