Size, turboprop power and swept-wing speed give the Airbus Military A400M Atlas a rare mix of tactical and strategic airlift capabilities. Aviation Week Chief Aircraft Evaluation Editor Fred George visited Toulouse to fly Europe's new heavy-lift transport, which is to enter service with the French air force by July, and found the airlifter to be surprisingly agile. Airbus photograph by Sylvain Ramadier. Elsewhere in this issue, a special report explores Turkey's expanding aerospace industry (page 46).
Al Vetere has become CFO of Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopter. He was vice president-financial for military programs. Anthony Moreland has returned as managing director for North America. He was head of the North America and global accounts team at Sikorsky Aircraft and had been executive director of commercial business development and marketing at Bell.
Cost-cutting is driving U.S. industry to reassess its own science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts, according to Susan Lavrakas, director of the Aerospace Industries Association's workforce issues. AIA and its member companies—which she says spend more than $160 million annually in STEM promotion—welcome government help in assessing the effectiveness of their efforts, such as the annual Team America Rocketry Challenge.
Industry is expected to submit proposals this month for “Phase 0” of a high-speed strike weapon (HSSW) demonstration program to be conducted by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). AFRL has been working toward an HSSW flight demonstration, but last month canceled a planned solicitation, saying it was “looking to an alternate strategy” for accomplishing a high-speed strike weapon demonstration. Now Darpa is leading the effort, says a source familiar with the program.
Dave Rosenberg (see photos) has been named vice president-strategic planning and programs and Don Alvord vice president-human resources of the Wichita-based Beechcraft Corp. Rosenberg was director of the Hawker 4000 product line and general manager of the piston product line. Alvord was vice president/general manager for the company's Little Rock (Ark.) Completions Center.
In the June 3 article, “Automated 777 Line Delivers Big Improvements” (page 37) paint designations should have read BMS 10-60 standard gray and BMS 10-42 body coat.
Bill Gunston, prolific and pioneering aerospace journalist and author, died June 1 at a hospital near his home at Haslemere, Surrey, England, after a short illness. He was 86.
Jonathan B. Hill and M. Anne Swanson in the recent Viewpoint “Small UAVs Pose No Civil Threat” (AW&ST May 27, p. 58) address the misconception that commercial unmanned aerial vehicles integrated into the National Airspace System (NAS) will be large vehicles intended for surveillance operations.
Over the last two decades, Turkey has modernized its air force with “off-the-shelf” combat aircraft and weaponry, but it has been sorely limited in what it could procure.
In what could be the biggest shake-up of U.S.-funded science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts since the dawn of the space age, the Pentagon, NASA and Department of Homeland Security are set to lose many of their STEM programs.
Producing up to 11,065 shp, at an 860-rpm propeller speed for takeoff, the TP400-D6 is the most powerful turboprop to enter production in the West. The engine is built by Europrop International, a consortium comprising Rolls-Royce in the U.K., Snecma in France, MTU Aero Engines in Germany and Industria de Turbopropulores in Spain.
Turkey wants to shape itself into a major aerospace and defense exporter in the coming years. Last year, the country's A&D sector exported $1.28 billion worth of armored vehicles, small patrol boats, electronic warfare and air defense systems. While this represents a small fraction of Turkey's exports each year, its growth is no small part of the government's strategy to become of the world's largest exporters as well as one of the 10 strongest economic world powers by 2023.
Budget constraints are affecting all of Europe, resulting in severe procurement cuts, minimal research and development spending, and an absence of new programs necessary to lay the groundwork for the future. Moreover, leading European countries, which maintain a sizable defense industry, are still striving to reach a consensus on unified operational requirements. Many still dwell in the past, according a higher priority to sovereignty despite the European Union's mission to establish a 27-nation common destiny.
“Getting Down” (AW&ST May 20, pp. 30-31) makes me realize yet again that humans have an embarrassing habit of disastrously transplanting organisms (sometimes intentionally) from one ecosystem to another. To name but a few regrettable cases: zebra mussels in the Great Lakes, Asian carp in the Chicago River, kudzu in the southern U.S. and Burmese pythons in Florida, not to mention similar havoc-wreaking examples worldwide.
Kevin Wu of Cessna Aircraft has been elected chairman of the Asian Business Aviation Association. New vice chairmen are David Best of BBA Aviation and Charlie Mularski of Universal Weather & Aviation. New executive committee members are: Saira Kanchwala of Arinc and Sacha Dunas of the World Events Agency. And, Zhang Qiang of Deer Jet has become chairman of China Mainland Business Aviation Operator Committee.
Honeywell Chairman/CEO Dave Cote is slated to receive the Washington-based TechAmerica Foundation's Corporate Leadership Award on June 20. The award recognizes “CEOs for their leadership in setting the model for creating and driving successful technology enterprises as well as their involvement and contributions to the U.S. technology sector.” The foundation is designed to educate executives, policy makers and opinion leaders on the promise of technological innovation to advance prosperity, security and the general welfare.
Boeing reports that it has completed installation of all 50 of the retrofit installations of battery containment systems on 787s that had been grounded for safety reasons. As of late last week, all 50 aircraft were flying.
The second day of Boeing's pre-Paris media tour promised a new product, which turned out to have nothing to do with the Unmanned Carrier Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike program, but to be a V-22-transportable vehicle called the Phantom Badger. On the last day we saw the International Multi-Intelligence Operational Laboratory Environment (I-Mole). Our final briefing was on the KC-46, so Boeing's “tanker toads” neatly completed the “Wind In The Willows” trifecta for the week.
