Cirrus Design Corp. is taking orders for its new Cirrus SR Sport aircraft aimed at the recreational, training and sport pilot segments of the general aviation market. The two-seat monoplane will feature an all-composite airframe with electrically operated flaps, a digital avionics package and a single power lever to control the Rotax 921S engine rated at 100 hp. The fixed, tricycle landing gear uses a castoring nosewheel and the airplane will have a Cirrus Airframe Parachute System for emergency descents. Wingspan is 29.8 ft. with a length of 18.7 ft.
William Ayer, chairman/president/CEO of the Alaska Air Group Inc., has been appointed to a three-year director term on the Seattle branch of the Federal Reserve Board . He succeeds Mic Dinsmore, former CEO of the Port of Seattle.
Japan Airlines will get a capital boost of ¥150 billion ($1.4 billion) through an issue of preference shares, the Nikkei newspaper reports. The investors will include four of its major creditor banks.
Clyde S. (Chip) Jones has been named chief operating officer for NASA ’s Michaud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. He was manufacturing and assembly manager for the Ares I upper stage.
William J. Brennan has been nominated to be assistant U.S. Commerce secretary for oceans and atmosphere, which is the No. 2 position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He is deputy assistant Commerce secretary for international affairs/acting director of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program.
Asian airlines are deftly handling the environmental debate, taking advantage of the warning signs that came out of Europe a year ago to introduce timely and substantial measures to cut pollution and keep public opinion on their side. While some European carriers were caught flat-footed by the sudden explosion of the environmental debate in that region about a year ago, and found themselves scrambling to avoid punitive government policies, the Asian airline industry hasn’t suffered an outbreak of anti-aviation hysteria.
Amir Eilon has been appointed a non-executive director of Silverjet plc . He also is a non-executive director of MK Airlines and has held the same role at EasyJet.
The mothership from NASA’s Deep Impact comet-analysis mission has started a second service life, using its largest telescope to look for new extrasolar planets around five stars where big “hot Jupiters” already have been discovered. Controllers ordered the search to begin Jan. 22 as part of the Extrasolar Planet Observations and Characterization (Epoch) study developed at the University of Maryland. Astronomers will use the telescope to look for smaller planets transiting the stars, or affecting the timing of the larger planets’ transits.
The chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees mine-resistant ambush-protected (MRAP) vehicles says it’s too soon to cut back production on the massive ground trucks. “I think we ought to build the MRAPS. We ought to have them in the inventory,” Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) said after speaking at Aviation Week’s Defense Technologies and Requirements conference. Taylor, who chairs the seapower and expeditionary forces subcommittee, said it’s important to offer unit commanders a variety of vehicles to meet the day’s mission.
Jeff Letwin, who is managing partner of Pittsburgh law firm Schnader Harrison Segal Lewis, has been named chairman of the Legal Committee of Airports Council International . He also is solicitor for the Allegheny County (Pa.) Airport Authority.
Mary Engola (see photo, p. 15), who is manager of customer and industry relations for Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder Colo., has been elected 2008 chair of the Coalition for Space Exploration .
Clifford Gunsallus, who is vice president-engineering for the Helicopters Div. of the Kaman Aerospace Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., has been appointed chairman of the board of the Center for Rotorcraft Innovation Inc. , a consortium of industry and academia that conducts collaborative pre-competitive research and development and technology transfer with the U.S. government.
Gen. Bruce Carlson, chief of the Air Force Materiel Command, suggests levying fines on corporations that file “inappropriate” contract award protests. Carlson says he is generating support on Capitol Hill for such a fine, and that industry has expressed interest in reform as well, now that protests are becoming almost the norm. Carlson also says his service will figure out a way to buy 380 F-22s, despite the fact that the Pentagon has capped the number of aircraft to be procured at 183. Carlson knows “it’s going to be incredibly difficult” to boost the numbers.
Karaca Kestelli has been named a vice president and Jesko Neuenburg a senior associate of the New York-based Seabury Group . Kestelli was an engagement manager at McKinsey and Co., while Neuenburg was a consultant at Bain and Co. New associates include Pascal Chouinard, formerly of Pratt & Whitney; and Tej Mehta, formerly of Thales Avionics.
Dwarfing the C-130 Hercules testbed aircraft’s other engines, the Europrop International TP400-D6 is now being prepared for a first flight in April. The engine is destined to power the Airbus Military A400M, with this aircraft now anticipated to be flown in July. Marshall Aerospace is managing the engine flight test program using the C-130. The TP400 program is running about a year behind schedule as a result of technical issues that have emerged during development. Each TP400 propeller is 18 ft. across.
Norway’s Thor 5 telecommunications satellite is undergoing several weeks of in-orbit checkout following its launch on board a Proton M/Breeze M rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan Feb. 11. The satellite will spend several days executing a planned drift to its operational orbital location at operator Telenor’s 1 deg. W. Long. orbital slot. It will provide Ku-band fixed telecommunications and direct-to-home television broadcasting services with its 24 transponders, improving Telenor’s service coverage in the Nordic countries and Europe.
Asia-Pacific air traffic is growing rapidly, and air navigation service providers are moving just as fast to adopt satellite-based navigation—which should be easy to do because so little has been invested in radar infrastructure.
The British government could reveal as early as mid-March how it will address significant military funding shortfalls. Many in industry view the pending decisions as a litmus test of ministerial commitment to key tenets of its Defense Industrial Strategy.
Former astronaut Steve Oswald (see photos) has been named vice president and general manager of Boeing ’s Washington-based Intelligence and Security Systems Div. Brian Knutsen has become vice president of the division’s Boeing Mission Systems, Springfield, Va.
KLM took delivery of its first Boeing 777-300ER on Feb. 13, adding the long-range aircraft to its 15 777-200ERs. The aircraft is the first of six due to be delivered, and made its Boeing-acceptance flight on Jan. 24. The aircraft will bolster KLM’s long-haul capacity from the Netherlands to Asia and the Americas, and is expected to fly its inaugural services to Sao Paulo, Dubai, New York and Manila.
General Electric’s “more-electric” GEnx-1B engine has racked up 3,500 trouble-free ground starts using Hamilton Sundstrand variable frequency starter generators as part of validation tests for the Boeing 787. The generators collectively provide almost 1.5 megawatts of power for each 787. During flight tests on GE’s 747 flying testbed (FTB), the engine has also completed an additional 694 air starts. To date, the engine has accumulated more than 3,400 hr. and 4,500 cycles. Certification is anticipated later this quarter.
David A. Fulghum (Washington), Amy Butler (Washington)
The U.S. Navy is specially modifying three advanced SM3 anti-ballistic missile interceptors to shoot down an electronically dead, intelligence-gathering satellite that was launched into space for the National Reconnaissance Organization (NRO). Aviation Week broke the news on AviationWeek.com Feb. 12 that the U.S. was planning the shootdown.
Barely weeks after ordering an all-Ka-band broadband satellite, Eutelsat says it is poised to buy a big Ku-/Ka-band spacecraft for a new TV neighborhood established to serve emerging markets in Eastern Europe.
