Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Michael Mecham (San Francisco)
Big U.S. space contractors continue to reef in the sails, even as the outlook for players active in commercial and overseas government markets remains robust.
With baby boomers on the cusp of retirement and fewer math and science graduates opting for aerospace careers, many companies are in a race to hang on to their young talent. The problem is that younger workers do not feel as attached to their jobs as earlier generations did. The voluntary attrition rate for aerospace and defense (A&D) employees with five or fewer years’ experience was almost 16% last year, according to Aviation Week’s 2009 Workforce Study. That is well above the average attrition rate of less than 10%.
Technicians from Cincinnati-based machine tool producer MAG recently completed an upgrade of its Charger composite tape-laying system for Short Brothers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. New control hardware, software and mechanicals boost the control system to Version 2 and help reduce changeover time by 50% when switching between 6- and 12-in. tape widths. The machine is being used to produce horizontal stabilizer skins for Bombardier’s Global Express business jet.
Fed up with Pentagon resources being drained by the spiraling costs of weapons systems, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is aiming to bring 20,000 acquisition overseers into the government workforce. But finding enough employees equipped with the skills to manage multibillion-dollar procurement programs could be a monumental headache.
A new report reveals more about the cyberwar against Georgia in 2008. A U.S. cyberwarfighter had earlier told Aviation Week that the Russians had orchestrated that cyberwar in which those conducting the attacks “knew where the cyber talent was, how to use it and how to coordinate it. It looked like a seamless, combined operation that coordinated the use of a range of cyberweapons from the sophisticated to those crafted by high school kids. The techniques they used everybody knows about.
Just how weak is the U.S. airline industry? If you look at balance sheets and creditworthiness, the best description is “anemic.” The market capitalization of all U.S. carriers is dwarfed by many individual companies in other sectors—and not just the household-name giants.
Airline labor appears to have the ear of the Obama administration, as unions have boasted. A case in point is an Aug. 11 letter Transportation Dept. lawyer Donald Horn sent to Air Canada telling the carrier to stop picking up passengers in the U.S. on sports charter flights from Canada and then continuing to other U.S. cities, because the flights violate cabotage rules. The department recommended the airline not only discontinue charter contracts with hockey’s Boston Bruins and basketball’s Milwaukee Bucks but not enter into any similar contracts in the future.
Iridium recorded a 23.9% jump in subscribers, to 347,000, in the second quarter, with a 71.4% surge in the machine-to-machine market. Revenues were up only 1.2% with net income 52.9% over the same period in 2008.
Douglas Barrie (Zhukovsky, Russia), Alexey Komarov (Zhukovsky, Russia)
Even while battered by financial woes and offered tough love by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia’s commercial aircraft sector continues to draw Western suitors. Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney last week were identified as the two remaining engine contenders for Russia’s proposed MS-21 next-generation narrow-body passenger aircraft. Pratt is proposing its geared turbofan, while Rolls is offering the RB285, a three-shaft design drawing on the Trent engine architecture.
Schoolchildren learn that an asteroid impact that shook Earth 65 million years ago might have signaled the disappearance of dinosaurs. But the discovery by NASA scientists of glycine on the comet Wild 2 is lending credence to an opposite thought: Comets, asteroids or meteors delivered the ingredients for life to Earth.
They still have a hard time competing for talent with Silicon Valley and its legendary minting of millionaires before they turn 30, but aerospace and defense (A&D) companies are holding their own when it comes to compensating their technical talent.
An unprecedented storm is descending on the aerospace and defense (A&D) industry. A severe economic downturn has choked demand and financing for new aircraft, while military spending is leveling off and will likely decline under the Obama administration.
Hispasat reported a net profit of €29.5 million ($42 million) for the first quarter—a 55% jump over the figure reported a year earlier--allowing it to pay out a record €11.4-million dividend. Revenues were up 10.9% to €75.5 million.
NASA hopes to continue studying inflatable heat shields with possible applications on missions to Mars and other celestial bodies with atmospheres, after an early test article survived a suborbital flight before sinking in the Atlantic Ocean. The Inflatable Reentry Vehicle Experiment (IRVE) was launched on a Black Brant 9 sounding rocket from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on the Virginia coast at 8:52 a.m. EDT Aug. 17, rising to an altitude of 131 mi. Packed into a 15-in.-dia.
Russian avionics specialist Avionica and France’s Sagem are creating a joint venture to support and maintain the latter’s Sigma inertial system, which installed on the MiG-29SMT now being introduced into service with the Russian air force. The aircraft were originally destined for Algeria, and included Western avionics. However, Algeria part way through fulfillment of its order, refused to take any more and returned already delivered aircraft to Russia. This is the first example of a key Western component being used on a Russian combat aircraft.
The Royal Air Force will press most urgently to improve Typhoon’s ground attack capability as it negotiates the next major round of enhancements, even as efforts to expand the operational scope of the aircraft continue.
John L. Garrison, Jr. (see photo) has been appointed president/CEO of Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. of Fort Worth. He succeeds Richard Millman, who will be retiring. Garrison was president of Textron’s industrial segment.
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) Janice M. Hamby has been nominated for promotion to rear admiral and appointed vice director of command, control, communications, and computer systems for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. She was director of command and control systems at North American Aerospace Defense Command Headquarters/director of architectures and integration for U.S. Northern Command, both at Peterson AFB, Colo. Rear Adm. (lower half) Paul A. Grosklags has become vice commander of Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md.
Airbus Military has achieved power-on for the second KC-30A tanker for the Royal Australian Air Force, the lead-customer for the A330-based refueler. These first two A330s are being modified by Airbus Military in Spain, with three others undergoing the process at a Qantas facility in Brisbane; the first A330 is already at that site. Airbus Military says the first two KC-30As are to be delivered to the RAAF in mid-2010.
Reading Nat Jennings’ comments (AW&ST Aug. 3, p. 8) on the VXX program problems was enjoyable. I have been a contracting officer for the federal government for more than 30 years. I have seen many acquisition reforms, but these kinds of problems still occur. Why? Is it the process or the kinds of people who often are put in charge of acquisition strategies? Often, engineers or program managers decide these strategies, not trained contracting people; think what would happen if contracting people determined engineering strategies.
USAF Maj. Gen. (ret.) Pat Halloran has received this year’s Kelly Johnson Trophy from the Blackbird Assn. The trophy recognizes lifetime achievement and is presented to an individual who has worked to perpetuate, foster and improve the SR-71/Blackbird program.
David Nixon has it wrong in “Quality and Politics Count” (AW&ST Aug. 3, p. 8). We need technically astute management in charge of NASA. But appointments to NASA leadership are political as shown by the naming of Lori B. Garver (left) as deputy administrator and Charles F. Bolden, Jr., as administrator. Neither knows what to do with NASA; they are waiting to be told by the U.S. Spaceflight Plans Committee.
Hamilton Sundstrand and Zodiac Aerospace were selected last week for a slew of systems on Russia’s proposed MS-21 next-generation narrow-body passenger aircraft. Hamilton Sundstrand will provide the auxiliary power unit, as well as the air-conditioning system in a joint proposal with Nauka, and the wing anti-icing system. For the electrical power system, Hamilton Sundstrand will partner with Zodiac’s ECE subsidiary. Zodiac companies also were picked for the passenger cabin interior (C&D) and fuel supply and oxygen systems (Intertechnique).
