USN Lt. Cdr. (ret.) Jay Shower (see photo, p. 32) of El Cajon, Calif., has received the FAA Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award to recognize his achievements as a career pilot in the Navy and civil aviation. The award recognizes pilots who have demonstrated professionalism, skill and aviation expertise by maintaining safe operations for 50 or more years. Shower’s name will be added to the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award Roll of Honor located at FAASafety.gov
Air Vice Marshal Mark Skidmore has become air commander Australia , succeeding Air Vice Marshal Mark Binskin, who has been promoted to air marshal and chief of the Air Force. Skidmore was air director general in the Joint Operations Command.
Joseph DeMartino, who has been vice president-programs for the GKN Aerospace Services Structures Corp. , Cromwell, Conn., also will be chief operating officer.
Kim Doering (see photo) has been named vice president-Huntsville (Ala.) operations for the United Space Alliance . She was deputy program manager for the space shuttle at the NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Boeing will take a pre-tax charge of around $250 million in the second quarter to cover further losses on its 737-based Wedgetail airborne early warning and control program for the Royal Australian Air Force. Blaming subsystem development issues on the electronic-warfare and ground-support systems, and the need for additional time for integration testing, Boeing says the first two aircraft will be delivered with interim capability next July, four months later than scheduled. All six aircraft with full capability will be delivered in 2010.
Will Simmons has been appointed director of customer management and business development for charters for Epps Aviation at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Atlanta. He has been an Epps captain.
Lim Kim Choon, director general/CEO of Singapore’s CAAS, is among new members of the executive committee of the Brussels-based Civil Air Navigation Services Organization . Others are: Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer of the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization; and Emanuil Radev, director general of ATSA of Bulgaria. Neil Planzer, Boeing vice president-air traffic management strategy, was elected an associate member.
As airlines clamor for more efficient aircraft, Airbus and Boeing are digging deep into their research and technology bases to see what new ideas may be nearing prime time. Strong candidates include active laminar flow control technologies and fuel cells. Both companies have already performed a series of laboratory and flight tests in these areas, and the coming years should see another burst of activity as engineers try to mature these technologies for commercial application.
Michael T. Strianese Title: President and CEO, L-3 Communications Age: 52 Birthplace: Brooklyn, N.Y. Education: Holds a degree in accounting from St. John’s University and is a certified public accountant. Experience:
Rolls-Royce is partnering with British Airways to test and demonstrate “credible and sustainable” alternative aviation fuels, and will issue a request for proposals for candidate fuels to oil companies and other development agencies this month. “We want to do a very serious, good scientific study, and we’re asking anyone with a credible aviation fuel to take part in this program,” says Ric Parker, director of research and technology.
Jim Sponnick (see photos) and Mark Wilkins have exchanged positions at the Denver-based United Launch Alliance . Sponnick was Atlas program vice president and has become Delta product line vice president, succeeding Wilkins.
Linda Winger (see photo) has become program manager for Avista Inc. , Platteville, Wis., a subsidiary of the Esterline Technologies Corp. She was worldwide vice president-professional services for Esker.
Ronald King has been named vice president/general manager of the Little Rock (Ark.) Completions Center of the Hawker Beechcraft Corp. He has been an executive with Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Engines, GE Aircraft Engines and the Walbar Engine Components division of the Goodrich Corp.
David J. Podlesney, who is GPS IIR/IIR-M program manager for Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Valley Forge, Pa., has been inducted into the Global Positioning System (GPS) Hall of Fame at the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB. He also will be Lockheed Martin’s program director for USAF’s next-generation GPS III. Podlesney was selected for the Hall of Fame for engineering leadership and technical performance leading to the delivery, successful launch and record-setting handover of the first modernized GPS satellite.
A Bermuda-based company with Asia-Pacific clients started by a brain trust of former Hughes executives has made its first launch and has another on the way, using spacecraft that other companies ordered but didn’t or couldn’t use. ProtoStar I was in checkout and beginning its transfer into its orbital parking spot at 98.5-deg. W. Long. over Indonesia after liftoff from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, on July 7.
David Elrod and Wade Stevenson have been inducted as Arnold Engineering Development Center Fellows . They were honored for contributions to devising innovative technology for aerospace development, test and evaluation in the Tennessee-based Arnold’s flight and space simulation test facilities. Elrod, who is general manager of Aerospace Testing Alliance, was recognized for work in developing technology to test space sensor systems.
Before Boeing achieved power-on with the first 787, the complex process of bringing the new aircraft to life had been rehearsed many times in a laboratory at Hamilton Sundstrand, supplier of the more-electric airliner’s power systems. The aircraft power system integration facility (APSIF) at Hamilton’s Rockford, Ill., plant is a complete representation of the 787’s electrical systems, from generators to motors, laid out as in the aircraft, with all the actual cabling.
The search for a sharp improvement in the fuel efficiency of next-generation narrow-body transports without compromising noise could lead to dramatic changes in nacelle technology and radically recast the supplier landscape.
Arianespace reports that the first shipment of Russian equipment for the new Soyuz launch complex under construction at Kourou has left St. Petersburg by container ship. Russian specialists are due to arrive later this month to begin installing the hardware. Two more shipments will follow. The launch pad is to become operational by mid-2009.
Mark S. Kula has been appointed vice president-radio frequency combat and information systems for the Northrop Grumman Corp. ’s Electronic Systems Sector, Rolling Meadows, Ill. He was vice president-national security operations at the Mission Systems Sector.
Pierre de Bausset (see photos) has been named corporate secretary of Amsterdam-based EADS . He was head of investor relations and finacial communications and has been succeeded by Nathalie Errard. She was liaison with investors and analysts in the U.K., France and Southern Europe.
The new Russian military spacecraft Cosmos 2440, launched June 27 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton K booster, is a missile early warning satellite that renews Russian attempts at extending the lifetime of its warning constellation. In 1988, Russia started a transition to Lavochkin geosynchronous-orbit missile warning satellites from the original highly elliptical orbit warning satellites used during the Cold War.
Alex Smith (see photo) has become managing director of Seattle-based SepiaWave . He was co-founder/CEO of the Rannoch Corp. and chairman of the Era Systems Corp.
Regarding Frank Morring, Jr.’s articles “Surface Ops” and “Space Debate” and the Viewpoint from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (AW&ST June 30, pp. 32, 50 and 66), the first item explains the obvious. Because the Ares vehicle uses inefficient RS-68 rocket engines, it must become larger and more expensive to provide the necessary lift capability: six RS-68 engines rather than five, and a 5.5-segment booster rocket instead of five segments, all because the “configuration was ‘a couple of tons short’ of the throw weight needed.”
China says the liquid oxygen/kerosene engines, which generate 120 metric tons (265,000 lb.) of thrust, for its planned Long March 5 have passed initial tests, while significant progress has been made on the plant at Tianjin that will build the launcher. State media say the rocket will be 59.5 meters (195 ft.) high and weigh 643 metric tons at liftoff. The diameter of the Long March 5 has previously been given as 5 meters, compared with 3.35 meters for the current Long March 3.
