Carlos Eduardo Camargo has become director of external communications for Brazil-based Embraer . He was head of investor relations and has been succeeded by Andre Gaia, who was head of financing for commercial and business aircraft customers. Camargo succeeds Rosana Dias, who has resigned.
Saab management has laid out a new corporate structure that will take effect Jan. 1. The company hopes it will have a better connection with its core markets by setting itself up in five units: Aeronautics, Dynamics, Electronic Defense Systems, Security and Defense Solutions, and Support and Services. The company also is creating the post of chief marketing officer.
The human spaceflight review panel heads to Capitol Hill this week, where Chairman Norman Augustine will outline why the group finds NASA’s human-exploration program untenable (see p. 36). But panel members aren’t any happier with that conclusion than the civil servants and contractor employees working on the Ares I crew launch vehicle, Altair lunar lander and other projects likely to bite the dust as a result.
The Russian defense ministry is continuing to fund high-speed propulsion research, with ongoing development of test hardware for ramjet/scramjet engines. Work is also being undertaken into the utility of pulse-detonation engine concepts.
Development work on General Electric’s new Walter M601-based H80 turboprop engine is being boosted by the award of Czech Republic government research grants valued at around $4 million. The grants are the first given to GE, which acquired part of Walter Engines in 2008. GE Aviation’s Czech-produced H80 will be more powerful than the baseline M601 and have 7.5% better fuel efficiency plus an increased temperature margin. GE says this will enhance hot-day takeoff performance and high-altitude cruise speeds, while helping to extend service life to 3,600 hr.
Sea Launch is struggling to stay afloat amid continued order cancellations and growing concern about the impact its demise would have on launch capacity. Last week, Eutelsat shifted its big W7 spacecraft from Sea Launch to International Launch Services, adding to five other payloads that have moved over to ILS in the months before and since Sea Launch filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 in June.
A U.S. Air Force KC-10 is visible through the glare of the cockpit canopy of an F-15B, which is taking position under and behind the KC-10 in preparation for refueling. The cost to maintain the USAF aerial refueler fleet—KC-10s and KC-135s—is growing dramatically. A draft request for proposals kicking off a new duel between Boeing and Northrop Grumman/EADS for the KC-X tanker replacement contract is expected as early as this month (see p. 56). James Haseltine photo.
The German navy will now likely begin funded study work on a limited upgrade for its AgustaWestland Lynx Mk88 helicopter in 2010, say industry executives, as budget constraints stymied ambitions to begin earlier. The navy is looking at replacing the Lynx’s anti-ship missile armament, and at the same time upgrading the radar on the helicopter. The program is understood to be being driven mainly by concerns about the age of the navy’s Sea Skua anti-ship missile.
Jim McQueeney has become president/chief operating officer of St. Louis-based LMI Aerospace Inc. He was vice president-materiel for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga.
Former astronaut Ken Bowersox has been appointed vice president of the Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance Dept. of Space Exploration Technologies , Hawthorne, Calif. He was director of the Johnson Space Center’s Flight Crew Operations Directorate and an independent aerospace consultant, serving on several NASA standing review boards.
NASA astronaut Nicole Stott, who will stay on the International Space Station until at least November as the newest member of its crew, helps replace an ammonia-coolant tank during the first of three extravehicular activities (EVAs) during the space shuttle Discovery’s STS-128 mission to the orbiting laboratory. The 13 members of the combined shuttle and station crews transferred 18,548 lb.
Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) recently demonstrated two cargo container security systems to the Homeland Security Dept.’s Science and Technology Directorate. The demonstrations, conducted at Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico, centered on GTRI’s container security device (CSD) and composite container security system. The CSD is designed to detect unauthorized door opening or removals on marine cargo containers, and can account for normal flexing of the units during transportation without sounding a false alarm.
Sept. 21–23—Ninth Annual American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Aviation Technology, Integration and Operations Conference; and Aircraft Noise and Emissions Reduction Symposium. Marriott Hilton Head (S.C.) Beach and Golf Resort. Call +1 (703) 264-7500, fax +1 (703) 264-7551 or see www.aiaa.org Sept. 21-24—Air Transport Assn.’s 52nd Annual Non-Destructive Testing Forum. Westin Peachtree Hotel, Atlanta. See www.airlines.org/2009NDTForum
Arsat, the company owned by the government of Argentina that has exclusive rights to operate and market Ku- and C-band telecom capacity at 72 and 81 deg. W. Long., has selected European contractors to help design and build the country’s first indigenous geostationary communications satellite. EADS Astrium will supply the central cylinder, bipropellant propulsion system and satellite processing unit for the Arsat-1 spacecraft, which is to be launched in 2012.
Air Arabia is establishing a low-fare airline affiliate in Egypt by teaming with Travco Group, an Egyptian tourism conglomerate. Air Arabia Egypt will be managed by Air Arabia and follow the model the carrier used in starting up Air Arabia Morocco that became operational in May with a hub in Casablanca. The airline will take advantage of Airbus A320 orders placed by the parent airline group. It operates 20 of the single-aisle aircraft and has ordered 44.
Airbus reached 147 gross orders in August after booking a deal for seven A330-300s for Turkish Airlines. The deal still leaves Airbus far off its 300-order target for the year, however. The aircraft maker suffered no further cancellations, leaving the net year-to-date orders at 22 for all aircraft types.
Christopher Manzuk asks, “When will an insider tell us what’s really going on” with the VH-71 program (AW&ST Aug. 24/31, p. 8)? Based on my quarter-century in the business, here’s my assessment.
Prospects are increasing that both Airbus and Boeing may suffer under World Trade Organization subsidy proceedings. If so, the European Union and the U.S. would face difficult barriers to devising a trade-compliant compromise to sustain financial support for commercial aircraft manufacturing.
China Southern Airlines is seeking a further capital injection from the central government following the 3 billion yuan ($438 million) it received last year, says Chairman Si Xianmin. The company is expected to report a bigger profit in the second half of the year than the 38 million yuan it achieved in the first.
The Comac C919 program will aim to deliver operating costs 10% lower than those of the Airbus A320 and the current series of Boeing 737s. The aircraft will match the cross section of the A320 almost exactly, as Chinese designers mix conventional design features with technology a generation ahead of the aircraft’s aging Western competitors.
Aviation author, historian and former aerospace executive William A. (Bill) Schoneberger has died at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif., aged 83. Schoneberger served as president of the Aero Club of Southern California and helped create the Club’s Howard Hughes Memorial Award which for 30 years has honored lifetime achievements in aviation and aerospace. In the 1970s he took a lead role in efforts to have the club display the Hughes H-4 Hercules flying boat, nicknamed “the Spruce Goose,” in a huge dome in Long Beach.
The Chinese military appears to be systematically targeting weaknesses in the U.S. way of waging war, dependence on space systems and power projection in the western Pacific, according to a Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments report. A more confrontational or hostile China is just one of many complicated threats challenging the U.S. this century, CSBA says. Islamist radicalism and nuclear proliferation also present challenges—and ones far different from the large-scale, high-intensity, conventional warfare at which the U.S. military has excelled. U.S.
Lufthansa is increasing its commitment to training new aircraft mechanics by adding 307 new workers this year—up from 285 in 2008, according to the airline’s maintenance operation, Lufthansa Technik. In 2009, plans call for training a total of 927 new hires in 16 career paths and degree programs including a special course in transportation and logistics services. Next year, a master of science degree in mechatronics will be introduced.
In Europe, there is a clear consensus that the ongoing economic crisis will reshape the airline industry and that carriers will never again be the same—even when better times become a reality. Of course, such proclamations serve as an excellent backdrop for assertive speeches delivered to international audiences. As frequently noted, the European airline industry is extremely good at complaining and is even better at it when the time comes to oppose higher taxes of all sorts or rising airport charges.
NASA is gearing up for a major shift in its human spaceflight program as the Obama administration prepares the space policy it believes the U.S. should follow in the coming decades. It will be very different from the “back-to-the-Moon” effort started under President George W. Bush.
