Claude-Henri Hereus has become vice president of the Aerospace Div. of the New York-based Seabury Group . He was vice president-procurement strategy at Airbus.
Dave Bakker has been appointed senior vice president-customer services and operations for Geneva-based SITA . He was a customer service executive for Dell Inc.
The huge value of the vertical-landing feature in the Stovl F-35 seems to escape many people (AW&ST June 30, p. 11), including the U.S. Air Force, because recent experience has caused runway availability and operability to become an unexamined assumption. However, if we look back to the early days of the Vietnam and Korean Wars and World War II, we can see the tremendous role runway availability and operability played in dictating the pace of our campaigns.
Paris-based aerospace engineering company GECI International has concluded a preliminary agreement to acquire a majority shareholding in Reims Aviation Industries, a leading maker of light surveillance aircraft systems.
In an Airline Outlook item on 33 mobile air units acquired by Alaska Airlines to perform cabin venting, cooling and heating of parked aircraft (AW&ST July 7, p. 19), the amount of time required for the units to pay for themselves was misstated. The period is 1.5 years. An article on Bedek activities mischaracterized the nature of Airbus A330/A340 work the company will begin this year (AW&ST July 7, p. 62). It will be heavy maintenance.
USMC Brig. Gen. (ret.) James M. Feigley has been appointed to the board of directors of Applied Energetics Inc. , Tucson, Ariz. He is president of Rock River Consulting Inc. and was commander of the Marine Corps Systems Command.
Fred Downey has been appointed vice president-national security and Daniel Elwell vice president-civil aviation for the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Assn. Downey was senior counselor/legislative aide for defense and foreign affairs for U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.). Elwell was assistant FAA administrator for aviation policy, planning and environment.
EVAS Worldwide says the Gulfstream G650, due to enter service in 2012, will have the Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS) as standard equipment. EVAS allows pilots to see in continuous dense smoke. With EVAS protection included as standard equipment, the G650 will be the first factory-delivered aircraft to meet FAA recommended standards for cockpit smoke. More than 3,000 EVAS systems have been delivered. EVAS is certified for use in dozens of aircraft types by FAA, EASA, Transport Canada and China’s CAAC, according to the company.
A BAE Systems artist’s impression shows how an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) element of the Royal Air Force’s Deep and Persistent Offensive Capability requirement might look when it enters service around 2018-20 (see p. 111). The UCAV is shown operating in concert with an RAF Eurofighter Typhoon. European UCAV efforts are examined as part of this year’s Farnborough air show coverage.
There’s increasing optimism among aircraft developers that big fuel-burn improvements can be achieved with radical new aircraft designs, but they also face a stark reality: Whatever economic and environmental leaps they produce will take until 2050 to reach throughout the air transport system. For traditional design improvements, “we are starting to see some leveling off” in efficiency gains, says Peter Chivers, Airbus vice president of research and technology planning. That’s causing increasing interest in “some major game-changing technologies,” he says.
USN Capt. Maude E. Young, who has been selected for promotion to rear admiral (lower half), has been named program executive officer for space systems/commander of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command Space Field Activity/director of the Communications Directorate of the National Reconnaissance Office in Washington.She has been major program manager for NRO and National Remote Sensing System.
As flight-testing of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter accelerates, the pace of engine work is equally frenetic—Pratt & Whitney is starting qualification of a fix to the F135 turbine cracking issue and General Electric/Rolls-Royce is building the first production-representative F136 alternate engine.
USAF Maj. Gen. Michael C. Gould has been named director of operations and plans for the U.S. Transportation Command, Scott AFB, Ill. He has been commander of the Second Air Force of Air Education and Training Command, Keesler AFB, Miss. Gould will be succeeded by Maj. Gen. Alfred K. Flowers, who has been commander of air force officer accession and training schools in the Air University Air Education and Training Command, Maxwell AFB, Ala. Flowers succeeds Maj. Gen. Mike Gould, who is now operations and plans director for U.S. Transportation Command. Col. Darryl W.
Gary Lidstone has been appointed director of engineering for Seattle-based Raisbeck Engineering . He was an operations manager for Pratt & Whitney’s Seattle Aerosciences Center.
The initial M-346 advanced trainer in the industrial preseries configuration logged its official first flight on July 7 from Alenia Aermacchi’s Venegono, Italy, facility. The company says its goal of structural optimization has been achieved through a different spacing of wing spars and fuselage frames, plus a wider use of composite and titanium parts. These combined changes have led to a reduction in empty weight of about 700 kg. (1,543 lb.).
USAF Gen. (ret.) Lance W. Lord has been appointed CEO of the Colorado Springs-based Astrotech Space Operations subsidiary of Spacehab Inc. He was commander of Air Force Space Command at Peterson AFB, Colo.
Europe’s goal of deploying the Galileo satellite navigation system by 2013 and making its Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES) network sustainable by 2015 or so could encounter stiff headwinds unless a number of policy issues are resolved. The European Commission (EC) and the European Space Agency issued a request for proposals for 28 Galileo full operating capability (FOC) satellites and their related ground segments on July 1. The EC expects to short-list candidates for negotiation by Aug. 7 and to have all contracts signed by mid-2009.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
Lockheed Martin expects to fly its Advanced Composite Cargo Aircraft (ACCA) X-plane in the summer of 2009, demonstrating the ability to quickly craft a fuselage from composite materials with far fewer parts than today’s structures.
Michael Ruecker (see photo) has been named senior vice president/general manager of Jet Aviation ’s maintenance and fix-based operations in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He was maintenance director for the Basel, Switzerland, facility.
Umeco Group’s Pattonair Americas has begun providing warehouse management for Safran’s Turbomeca USA’s Grand Prairie, Tex., facility. Services underway include a direct-to-line-feed for parts. Pattonair will add enterprise resource planning systems development as well as modernize the layout and stocking procedures.
Michael A. Taverna (Paris), Douglas Barrie (London)
There are signs that the space intelligence policy of Europe’s two strategic powers, long at loggerheads, may at last be beginning to converge. The two nations, Europe’s biggest defense spenders, have traditionally taken very different approaches to space surveillance. France, the continent’s premier space power, has pursued an independent capability; Britain, with the notable exception of communications, has preferred to rely on privileged access to U.S. assets.
The Senate confirms Army Gen. David Petraeus as the next head of U.S. Central Command (Centcom). Petraeus was nominated for the post after Adm. William Fallon’s March resignation following reports of a possible schism between Fallon and the White House. Army Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno will receive a fourth star and take Petraeus’s place as chief of the Multi-National Forces in Iraq. Not everyone in the Senate is happy about the Petraeus confirmation, however.
When the Lockheed Martin F-35B lifted off for the first time on June 11, it was an outward sign of an inner shift in the program, a growing confidence that the Joint Strike Fighter is finally and firmly on a schedule that is executable and can be used by international customers to begin planning their purchases.
