The European Commission has approved the acquisition of Nera Satcom of Norway by Danish-based Thrane & Thrane. Nera, a maker of terminals and Earth stations for mobile satellite systems, will expand Thrane & Thrane's portfolio land-based, maritime and aeronautical satellite communications systems, chiefly linked to Inmarsat.
Tuxedoed, mess-dressed and bejeweled luminaries from the aerospace industry gathered at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum Mar. 20 for the presentation of Aviation Week & Space Technology's 2007 Laureate Awards. With icons such as Boeing's "Dash 80" 707 prototype and the space shuttle Enterprise as backdrops within the museum's soaring annex outside Washington, this 50th annual Laureate Awards presentation drew more than 400 nominees and guests from around the world.
A small telecom satellite to enable European manufacturers to compete more effectively against overseas suppliers is entering the detailed design phase in view to an end-of-decade launch.
USAF Lt. Gen. (ret.) Richard T. Swope has been appointed to the board of directors of the Kreisler Manufacturing Corp., Elmwood Park, N.J. He is vice president-Air Force programs at Cypress International Inc.
Japan's first reconnaissance satellite, launched in March 2003, has been having electrical problems since Mar. 25 and is likely to be abandoned, a year before the end of its planned five-year service life. With the launch of a second radar satellite last month, Japan had only just completed its long-standing plan to operate two radar and two optical satellites that together would be able to take at least one daily picture of any place in the world.
The British government is to establish an Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism as part of a shake-up of the Home Office. The changes will also see the creation of a Ministry of Justice.
International demand for the C-17 may not be enough to keep the transport's production line open for long. Worries for U.S. Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation, include "strategic airlift as we change the level of ambition in NATO to be able to respond out of the area." NATO's effort to buy into C-17 "will help keep the line open some short amount of time.
Embraer's first Phenom 100 very light jet is ready for fuselage-wing mating and final assembly at the manufacturer's Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, facility. The wing and fuselage were completed at another Embraer facility in March. The manufacturer plans to install the four-passenger aircraft's two 1,615-lb.-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617Fs this month. Initial assembly of main fuselage sections and structures of the second production Phenom 100 is underway, according to Embraer Executive Vice President Luis Carlos Affonso.
The Australian MRH90 helicopter has completed its first flight. The hour-long flight took place at Eurocopter's Marignane facility. The first four MRH90s are being built in France, with the remaining 42 to be assembled in Brisbane, Australia. Additionally, Eurocopter has inaugurated its facility in Albacete, Spain. The site will produce composite rear fuselage sections for the EC 135 and Tiger helos, along with NH90 forward fuselage sections. Final assembly of the three helicopter types for the Spanish market will also be performed there.
NATO problems in Afghanistan mirror those of the U.S. in Iraq. USAF Gen. Lance Smith, supreme allied commander for transformation, who is responsible for NATO defense planning, sees technology gaps. "We showed up in Iraq with seven different blue [friendly] force trackers that didn't talk to one another. So an Army commander knew where his forces were, but wouldn't necessarily know where the Marine forces right next to him were.
Russia has agreed to provide a gamma ray and neutron spectrometer for the European Space Agency's BepiColombo Mercury probe, to be built by EADS Astrium and launched in 2013, in cooperation with Japan. Russian scientists were also invited to respond to the next call for proposals for ESA's new Cosmic Vision science program, to be submitted by the end of June (AW&ST Feb. 12, p. 33). The decisions were part of an expanded Tripartite cooperation between ESA, the EC and Russian Space Agency Roscosmos.
Early analysis indicates the roll problem that caused SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket to fall short of orbit during its second demonstration flight Mar. 20 was the result of an unexpected coupling between the thrust vector control system and the sloshing of fuel in the rocket's second stage.
MARKET FOCUS Onex completes Raytheon Aircraft purchase, calls it Hawker Beechcraft 14 NEWS BREAKS USAF in program to integrate Massive Ordnance Penetrator bomb on B-2s 20 Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency re- leases images of gigantic solar flare 22 U.K. seeks to align aerospace research funding process with long-term needs 24 Embraer's first Phenom 100 VLJ is ready for fuselage-wing mating 26 Plans afoot for Chinese micro-satellite to hitch ride on Russian probe to Mars 26
Lizum Mishra has been named corporate communications director, for New Delhi-based Boeing India. She was manager of marketing and communication programs for the Sapient Corp.
Eaton Corp. Chairman/CEO Alexander M. (Sandy) Cutler invited financial analysts to the leafy Cleveland suburb of Willoughby Hills last spring to brief them on a plan to expand aerospace sales to $2 billion by 2010. He's already had to revise that target, but Wall Street isn't complaining.
Scientists from Sweden, Canada, Finland and France have finally detected molecular oxygen in interstellar space, but at concentrations much lower than star-formation models predicted. That isn't surprising, giving the difficulty of finding the elusive molecule, which theorists believe helps radiate away excess heat as clouds of interstellar gas collapse into new stars. A team using Sweden's Odin orbiting radio telescope found the spectral line for molecular oxygen in the constellation Ophiuchus (photo), which is about 500 light years from Earth.
Despite the shortcomings of the aerospace and defense workforce outlined by Aviation Week & Space Technology, I can't think of a better time to be a young engineer.
CAE is expanding its reach across the simulator market with the launch of a new line--the 5000 Series--aimed at filling training requirements for narrow-body aircraft as well as business jet aircraft and very light jets.
As a director of operational excellence at Eaton Corp., Michael Nieves spends a lot of time abroad overseeing the ramp-up of the company's first major low-cost aerospace production facility. Luckily, he's not far from home.
Your articles on the F-22 navigation computer problem when crossing the international date line brought back memories. Around 1965, I was responsible for the technical crews on two Apollo tracking ships (Vandenberg and Redstone). The contractor for the navigation systems on the ships refused to provide us with source code for the computers as it was not in the contract, and wanted about $50,000 more to provide the source. I argued that we needed the code to be able to fix any problems that came up when we were at sea.
The Swiss air force is sending an F/A-18C to participate in air-to-air weapons testing at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif. The focus of the nearly year-long trials will be use of the Raytheon AIM-9X air-to-air missile--Switzerland is the lead export customer for the weapon. Tests will also involve a helmet-mounted cueing system. Thirteen missile firings are scheduled.
The format has been expanded for Aviation Week & Space Technology's Annual Product Breakthrough Awards. Larger companies are now included as well as lower-tier players. Four awards will be presented for best new or enhanced product or service; one each to Large, Medium, Small, and Start-Up entities. Entries are due by June 29 and winners will be announced at the AVIATION WEEK Aerospace & Defense Programs Conference in Phoenix on Oct. 30. Please contact [email protected] for an application.
Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp. is cementing its position as a leading private investor in aerospace. Onex and equal partner Goldman Sachs last week finalized their $3.3-billion purchase of Raytheon Aircraft, the corporate and general aviation business that had been owned by Raytheon Co. since 1980. The 8,500-employee, Wichita, Kan., operation was renamed Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and will operate as a stand-alone company.
Prof. Aaron Shenhar (Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J.)
Regarding the letter from Karl Kettler about my Viewpoint (AW&ST Mar.19/26, p. 10; Mar. 5, p. 58), I agree that the U.S. aerospace industry is still leading the world and that it has made much progress during the last few decades.
