While U.S. Navy aviation mishap numbers and rates have declined in recent years, the Navy is especially vigilant about potential UAV-related accidents, which are categorized separately. “The mishap rate through Sept. 19 . . . with four mishaps was the best rate in history through this date,” the Navy Safety Center says. But UAVs are not counted in that tally, because they have not posted enough historical flight hours. UAV accidents, including a December crash of an MQ-8B Fire Scout, cost the Navy a total of $67 million in 2012. The U.S.
Russell Ford has become CEO and Marc McGowan senior vice president of the business aviation sector of StandardAero, Tempe, Ariz. Ford has been president of the Carlton Forge Works and Dickson Test Group of the Forged Products Div. of the Precision Castparts Corp. McGowan succeeds Scott Taylor, who is retiring. McGowan was vice president-business development and strategy for business aviation.
When the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) members assemble for their annual meeting in Salzburg, Austria, this week, they should make sure not to miss a presentation scheduled for the last day. Doreen Welsh, one of the flight attendants on US Airways Flight 1549 that ditched into the Hudson River in New York following a devastating bird strike, will tell attendees about what probably were the most dramatic moments of her life and how she survived the incident.
In Bill Sweetman's recent column “Counter-Stealth” (AW&ST Sept. 16, p. 16), he writes: “By 1995, everyone knew that shape was the major driver of RCS (radar cross section),” hence the Russian answer (a new radar) to our stealthy Joint Strike Fighter.
Sikorsky has begun assembly of the first of two S-97 Raider prototypes after delivery by Aurora Flight Sciences of the all-composite fuselage for the first of the high-speed, coaxial-rotor, light tactical helicopters. Assembly is underway in West Palm Beach, Fla. The first of the industry-funded Raiders is scheduled to fly at the end of 2014. The structure comprises a single integrated nose, cabin and tail cone. Sikorsky is aiming Raider at the U.S. Army's Armed Aerial Scout requirement.
A 1:11-scale model of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's D8 “double-bubble” airliner concept undergoes testing in NASA Langley Research Center's 14 X 22-ft. wind tunnel to measure the drag benefit from fuselage boundary-layer ingestion by very-high-bypass engines embedded in the tail. The 13.4 ft.-span model was made using additive manufacturing. NASA Langley photo by George Homich.
A series of U.S.-India military sales agreements worth billions of dollars are nearing completion, on the heels of a meeting between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A $1.2 billion deal to buy six Lockheed-Martin C-130J Super Hercules aircraft (see photo) for the Indian air force (IAF), to bring its fleet to 12, has been inching forward all year. The Indian Defense Acquisition Council issued final clearance for the sale this month and the contract is expected to be signed by year-end.
An industry-government advisory group has prioritized capabilities in the FAA's NextGen program to help the agency realign its spending in an austere budget environment. The RTCA's NextGen Advisory Committee, chaired by Alaska Airlines CEO Bill Ayer, found that its priority list was similar to those compiled by earlier panels that had looked at streamlining and boosting the air traffic management overhaul effort. But this time the ramifications are more dire for programs further down the list.
There have been many times in my career when I have realized (in smack-on-side-of-head mode) that the answer to a question that nobody will answer today is in the notes from last month or a few years ago. This might sometimes be a good approach for the Pentagon to take. I wrote here two weeks ago (AW&ST Sept. 16, p. 16) about Russia's impressive new radars, quite clearly designed to detect and defeat stealth aircraft. But short of a doomsday bomb, there is no ultimate weapon, and I noted that these big complexes—“Aegis on wheels”—are not invulnerable.
Ma Xingrui, administrator of the China National Space Administration (CNSA), tells the 64th International Astronautical Congress that his country is ready to join the International Space Exploration Group (ISEGC), an organization of space agencies that is developing roadmaps for human exploration of the Solar System. “I don't see any problem with that,” he tells a questioner at the Beijing gathering. “If the organizer of the multilateral effort would like to invite China to be a part, of course we are willing to participate in it.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) achieved its first ever salvo test of the SM-3 Block IB missile, and the intercept took place at the highest altitude for the system to date. The first SM-3 IB that was launched successfully intercepted the target, a short-range ballistic missile described as “one of the most complex targets that we have shot to date,” says Mitch Stevison, Raytheon's SM-3 program manager. The second SM-3 IB was launched about 2 min. after the first, in accordance with military doctrine for assured kill.
Curtis Reusser (see photo) has been appointed president/CEO of the Esterline Corp., Bellevue, Wash., effective Oct. 28. He has been president of United Technologies' Aircraft Systems business, which was acquired from Goodrich. Reusser succeeds Brad Lawrence, who will continue as executive chairman until March 5. Michel Potvin has become vice president-corporate marketing and strategy. He was a platform president for Esterline and had been a vice president of the Canadian division of L-3 Communications.
