John Sepulveda (see photos) has been named executive vice president/general manager and Brian Holt senior vice president-sales and marketing of Milwaukee-based Derco Aerospace Inc. Sepulveda was chief financial officer and has been succeeded by Peter Winkler, who was assistant controller. Holt was vice president-international sales. Markus Heinrich has become vice president-U.S. sales.
Satellite navigation system planners are beginning to move forward in their efforts to address compatibility and interoperability issues, say program officials.
Malaysian Airline System is looking for a merger partner, says Chief Executive Idris Jala, while stressing that the company is not yet negotiating with anyone. A preferred partner would be one that is dissimilar to Malaysian, says Idris.
Space Systems/Loral will build an eighth EchoStar satellite for Dish Network’s direct broadcast constellation under a new contract. SS/L already has a string of Dish contracts in the works, including the pending summer liftoff of EchoStar XI on a Sea Launch Zenit rocket. CMBStar and EchoStar XIV are under development at the company’s Palo Alto, Calif., factory. All the Dish spacecraft are based on the SS/L 1300 platform. A launcher for EchoStar XV has not been selected, but launch is scheduled for 2010.
Michael A. Taverna (Noordwijk, Netherlands, and Paris)
The European Space Agency is poised to launch the second test spacecraft for the Galileo satellite navigation system, in the last major step before the program transitions to its new all publicly funded organizational framework.
The Turna target drone powered by a Turkish Engine Industries turboprop engine completed its first flight this month. The effort to fit a turboprop on the Turna was undertaken by drone prime contractor Turkish Aerospace Industries and the engine company, and ensures the system no longer requires technology from overseas. The engine delivers 90 lb. thrust and a maximum propeller speed of 6,000 rpm.
The U.S. Air Force will better be able to predict communication outages caused by ionospheric scintillation following the Apr. 16 launch of its Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite on an Orbital Sciences Pegasus rocket. The Pegasus’ L-1011 carrier aircraft took off from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands before air-launching the 870-lb. satellite into its targeted elliptical orbit of 205 X 385-naut.-mi. 8 min. later.
Eric Hofer has become senior vice president-sales and customer service for Virgin Charter , Santa Monica, Calif. He was vice president-North American sales for Travelocity Business.
Amy Butler (Springfield, Va.), Douglas Barrie (London)
The Royal Air Force is on the brink of securing funding for key air-to-surface weapon projects against the backdrop of a difficult Defense Ministry spending round. The RAF has submitted a funding request covering study work for the Spear (Selectable Precision Effect at Range) program, the MBDA Storm Shadow enhancement project and the Future Anti-Ship Guided Weapon. However, Spear’s timescale continues to shift.
Speaking of airworthiness, in the wake of the B-2 crash in Guam, a technical order has been issued for inspection of a component or an area of the aircraft. It is believed to be associated with the flight control system. “If everything is OK, the aircraft is OK’d for flight,” says an Air Combat Command official. At least some of the B-2s are now flying again.
NTSB Chairman Mark Rosenker warned against complacency with the U.S.’s safety record, which has been “admirable” in recent years, when the NTSB released 2007 preliminary accident data last week. General aviation, which has long held a bad safety reputation, last year recorded its lowest number of fatalities in more than 40 years—491 people—although the sector was involved in 1,631 accidents, 113 more than in 2006. Meanwhile, Part 121 scheduled carriers were involved in 24 accidents—non-fatal—in 2007.
Chinese airlines’ battle against pilot attrition and wage increases has escalated, with Shanghai Airlines suing nine pilots for $5 million in compensation because they want to leave the company. China Eastern, another Shanghai-based carrier, has suffered from pilots turning around aircraft and returning to their departure points on dubious grounds of bad weather.
The process that allows the formation of sea shell interiors and pearls is being examined for use to deposit nacre-like coatings onto metal surfaces. Scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute, working under an Air Force contract, are looking for biological ceramic coatings that are naturally derived and that don’t involve high-temperature, high-pressure procedures now required for building ceramic coatings.
David Yeoman has been appointed senior director of enterprise communications for Rockwell Collins , Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He was director of corporate communications and succeeds Tim Burris, who is now vice president-communications for Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems, Tewksbury, Mass.
The supplemental spending measure being considered by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be the only major appropriations bill lawmakers send the White House before the November elections. That will boost the likelihood that funds ostensibly for war-fighting could be significantly redirected. Look for Congress to load up the bill with domestic earmarks and unrequested conditions ahead of the national elections.
While not an issue that creates a flight safety problem for the F-22 Raptor, Boeing has sued Alcoa for defective titanium structural supports for the stealth fighter’s wings. Boeing wants $12 million from Alcoa in compensation for not following required procedures in heat-treating forged supports that connect the wings to the fuselage. About 15% of the inspected supports have been fingered for the complaint, which means they will have to be monitored frequently for cracks.
Thanks to the efforts of two Bristow helicopter pilots, rotary-wing aircraft can now be equipped with Traffic-alert and Collision Avoidance System II. It was in 2002 when Mark Prior, Bristow Eastern Hemisphere’s chief test pilot, asked flying safety officer Derek Whatling why TCAS II “won’t work for us.” Some aviation experts said helicopters flew too slowly to use it. Prior and Whatling were skeptical. “Let’s do some digging,” Whatling suggested.
The ICO G1 mobile communications satellite is being maneuvered to its checkout position in geosynchronous orbit, following launch from Cape Canaveral Apr. 14 on board a United Launch Alliance Atlas V with two solid rocket boosters. The Space Systems/Loral satellite is the largest commercial communications satellite ever launched, company managers say.
Regarding the letter from David Noland on Arthur C. Clarke (AW&ST Mar. 31, p. 10), Wernher von Braun’s many textbooks, works with diagrams and written visions of space travel have been well-documented since his early days in Germany and later in the U.S. After his death, these documents were exhibited in most major U.S. cities. As to the V-2 comment, remember that the German V-2 was the world’s first rocket. It reached the edge of space on Oct. 3, 1942, at a height of 84.5 km. (52.8 mi.) and five times the speed of sound.
USAF Maj. Gen. Dana T. Atkins has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general with assignment as commander of the Alaskan Command of U.S. Pacific Command/commander of the 11th Air Force of Pacific Air Forces/commander of the Alaskan North American Defense Region, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. He has been director of operations of U.S. Pacific Command, Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii. Col. Kimberly A.
Michael A. Taverna (Noordwijk, Netherlands, and Paris)
The gradual retreat of NASA and French space agency CNES from space-based oceanography as it morphs into an operational activity is thrusting the European Space Agency and the European Commission—somewhat reluctantly—into a program leadership role.
The document the Air Force was planning to drop on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) late last week to rebut Boeing’s protest that the service acted unfairly in its selection of an Airbus A330-based tanker runs thousands of pages. Boeing says the Air Force changed its assumptions midstream in the competition and misunderstood the company’s 767-200LRF bid. The Air Force has already told the GAO that Boeing should have raised the concerns well before the Feb.
