Citing the potential for a “competitive advantage” from alternate powerplants for the single-engine F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and noting that there could be an operational risk someday with just one engine provider, Marine Corps Brig. Gen. David Heinz hopes officials will at least consider funding a second engine effort. The JSF program executive officer says he “categorically” supports the Fiscal 2010 budget request—which does not include funding for a second engine.
The Royal Air Force is recasting a key capability in its air-to-surface repertoire as it tries to secure cash for the initial elements of the program in the next funding round.
Ricardo V. Soria, assistant principal of Choctawahatchee High School, Fort Walton Beach, Fla., has received the 2009 Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award, which is given by the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, NASA and the Space Foundation . He was selected for his role in creating the Engineers for America program, an elementary school initiative that promotes science, technology, engineering and mathematics education through hands-on flight, aviation and aerospace activities.
More than five years after entering the small but intensely competitive aircraft training and simulation business with a niche acquisition, Rockwell Collins finally is stepping up its challenge to market leaders CAE, Thales and L-3 Communications.
Wolfgang Mayrhuber, chairman/CEO of Deutsche Lufthansa AG, has been named to receive the 2009 Distinguished Achievement Award from The Wings Club of New York.
Boeing is working with Qinetiq to develop technology for solar-electric unmanned aircraft that can stay aloft in the stratosphere for three months initially, then a year, and ultimately five years or more. Such extreme persistence for surveillance and communications missions is one of the key advantages driving the rapidly growing demand for the next generation of unmanned aircraft systems. That demand is reshaping the aerospace industrial base as it addresses the emerging market (see p. 46). Boeing concept.
The first of the three Russian Beriev A-50/Israeli Elta Phalcon airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) aircraft has been delivered to the Indian air force. Using the A-50, a derivative of the Ilyushin Il-76, as a platform, the system was due 18 months ago, a fact Defense Minister A.K. Antony didn’t let go without notice. While he didn’t assign specific blame for the delays, the IAF is expected to switch to an Embraer or Gulfstream platform as it seeks a second set of three AWACS. It is expected to retain the Phalcon radar system.
Emirates finalized a $3-billion service agreement with the Engine Alliance to maintain, repair and overhaul GP7200 engines that power the airline’s Airbus A380s. Emirates’s first GP7200-powered A380 entered service last August. Emirates has ordered 250 GP7200 engines and 58 A380s.
Tom Mekis (see photo) has become president/CEO and Jim Odenwaldt vice president-aircraft sales of the Piedmont Aircraft Co. , Winston-Salem, N.C. Mekis was vice president/general manager of the Leesburg, Va., facility of predecessor Landmark Aviation. Honors and Elections
Bell Helicopter is studying a cross between a tiltrotor and tiltwing aircraft as a candidate for eventual replacement of its AH-1Z attack and UH-1Y utility helicopters.
Eager to gain headway in the growing Asian market for satellite services, EchoStar has formed a joint venture with AsiaSat on direct-to-home satellite television services using the AsiaSat 4 spacecraft. The first target market will be television direct-to-home services for Taiwan, but other markets that EchoStar declines to name have been identified. Taiwan has some DTH services, but EchoStar says they are not “robust” and so sees an opening. Denver-based EchoStar provides DTH systems and services in Europe, Mexico, Canada and the U.S.
The Saab Bofors Dynamics workforce in Sweden is being cut as a result of reduced business. The layoffs are only the latest in a series announced by Saab, which is dealing with lags in commercial aviation and defense orders. The latest affect 370 redundancies at Karlskoga, Eskilstuna, Linköping and Göteborg. These layoffs, to be implemented through 2011, come at a cost of 200 million Swedish kronor ($25.9 million) and will largely impact fourth-quarter results.
President Barack Obama may be the “target” of the next missile launch from North Korea, say senior Pentagon officials. However, the impact the North Koreans are aiming for is psychological—not physical. Obama is due to visit South Korea in mid-June and analysts say a large missile, at least the size of a Taepodong 2, is being readied for launch from a new facility on the northwest coast near the border with China. If the North Koreans are willing to rush and break safety rules, the analysts say, they could launch the large missile during Obama’s visit (see p. 27).
Dave Huntzinger has been appointed an executive of Baldwin Aviation , Hilton Head, S.C. He has been vice president-safety, security and compliance for Korean Air and America West.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Drew Dawson, director of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Office of Emergency Medical Services (EMS), have received 2009 Public Service Awards from the Alexandria, Va.-based Assn. of Air Medical Services . Klobuchar was honored for her commitment to health care and EMS, support of air medical transport and “keen interest in the role of technology in enhancing the safety of U.S.
David Rome has become manager of global air traffic management for Metron Aviation , Dulles, Va. He was manager of international operations for NavCanada.
European space ministers are calling on the European Union to direct economic stimulus funding toward the space sector and speed up the introduction of long-term funding mechanisms needed to ensure the smooth rollout of new programs, notably the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) initiative. The two biggest European space-faring nations, France and Germany, have already agreed to include space in their national stimulus plans.
NASA hopes former astronaut and retired Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Charles Bolden will have his Senate confirmation hearing to become the next administrator of the space agency by the week of July 6. Following a vote by the full Senate, “perhaps we’ll have Charlie in place to celebrate the Apollo 40th anniversary” in mid-July, says Alan Ladwig, senior adviser at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Greg Peckover has become a senior analyst for Euroconsult North America in Montreal and Veronique Revel associate senior analyst for Euroconsult in France. Peckover was director of engineering/vice president-strategic development at NSI Global. Revel was a sales and marketing official for Thales.
Latecoere plans to reorganize its Toulouse area activities in a further effort to deal with dropping demand from the global financial crisis. The reorganization will involve transferring aerostructures work at the company’s plant at Cornebarrieu, France, which is devoted principally to Dassault Falcon business jets, to nearby facilities where Airbus and other aerostructures work is concentrated. Cornebarrieu will remain as a center of maintenance and repair activity.
Thales will shut down its facilities for the first two weeks of August as part of a cost-cutting measure. During the busy European vacation period, sites are usually not running at full pace, anyway, but the decision to formally close down will generate additional, but not publicly quantified cost savings. Thales is making the cuts in reaction to the global economic slowdown, which has taken a toll on its commercial and space business, although military operations have, so far, remained fairly stable.
The first quarter’s declining traffic trend appears to be easing, says Airports Council International Director General Angela Gittens. However, she warns that ACI’s April results could be distorted upward by the boost in holiday traffic, especially international, during the month. Compared with the same period last year, passenger traffic was down an average 3% (1.8% in international, and a sharp 4.9% decline for domestic travel).
When a nuclear or radiological weapon is detonated, scientific investigators can determine where the device originated, based on an analysis of its materials through nuclear forensics. Homeland Security Dept. officials in the Bush administration often warned potential attackers that they had the skills to track them down because every nuclear weapon has a “return address.” But a recent study by the Government Accountability Office finds people with nuclear forensics skills are becoming scarce.
