South Korea has chosen the Raytheon Advance Combat Radar (RACR) over Northrop Grumman's SABR as the centerpiece of the upgrade of the bulk of its Lockheed Martin F-16s. Subject to U.S. approval, Raytheon will supply 134 RACR sets to South Korea, the company says. BAE Systems is modernizing the same number of South Korean F-16s. Until now, the main unresolved issue in the modernization program was the selection of radar.
Firoz Tarapore has been named interim president/CEO of StandardAero, Tempe, Ariz. He succeeds Rob Mionis, who has resigned. Tarapore has been a director and member of the company's executive committee. David Smoot, a current director, has been appointed vice chairman. He is CEO of Dubai International Capital.
Bell Helicopters is playing the speed card with a third-generation tiltrotor to meet the requirements for the U.S. Army's Future Vertical Lift (FVL) program. While its competitors look to hybrid, compound helicopters to meet the Army's need to fly at 230 kt. and still perform like a normal helicopter, Bell is gambling that increased speed and higher productivity on the battlefield will become the critical capabilities the service will be seeking in the coming years.
What could be the final, most important budget conflict in Washington since President Barack Obama took office has been engaged with last week's roll-out of his fiscal 2014 budget request. And for the aerospace and defense (A&D) sector, the results will be far clearer, far sooner than for any other community serving the American public.
Steve Forte has become chief operating officer of Virgin America. He was CEO of iJet Onboard and has been president/CEO of Naverus Inc. and senior vice president-flight operations of United Airlines.
The U.S. Air Force faces the prospect of 15-25% in annual reductions this fiscal year in its planned acquisition of the conventional F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. And believe it or not, that is the good news. The bad news is the cuts are likely to happen again next year due to the same political impasse that led to the 2011 Budget Control Act and its nightmarish “sequestration,” or widespread automatic budget cuts, which started to take effect last month and seem more than likely to do so again come October when fiscal 2014 begins.
The FAA's fiscal 2014 request looks like another example of wishful thinking by the Obama administration. The FAA is proposing to save nearly half a billion dollars in its $15.6 billion request by cutting airport grants while increasing money for airport projects with higher ticket fees, or Passenger Facility Charges (PFC). The administration has asked to do this before—and Congress has rejected it.
As Jean-Yves Le Gall takes the helm at French space agency CNES this month, he leaves behind a 12-year tenure as head of European launch consortium Arianespace, a legacy that began shortly before the 2002 failure of an Ariane 5 rocket left the launch vehicle's future in doubt. Since then, Ariane 5 has launched 54 consecutive times without failure from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana, a track record unrivaled by U.S. rockets and one that has allowed Arianespace to capture more than half the world's commercial launch market today.
It has been a late, cold spring season in Washington, with fiscal panic in the air, and barely a single program, even the rare specimen that is based on a sound requirement and executed with a smattering of competence, is safe.
John Van Maren (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-simulation from director of programs and customer support of New York-based FlightSafety International. He succeeds Rick Armstrong, who has resigned.
As U.S. defense priorities change, Lockheed Martin Space Systems is renewing a strategy that it has used for years: tapping into Silicon Valley's penchant for sharing ideas.
I'm a bit aghast at the statement from Boeing's chief project engineer, Mike Sinett, that “there will be no restrictions on the aircraft and no limit to ETOPS” when the 787 is recertified (AW&ST April 1/8, p. 34). I realize the FAA has yet to take a position on this issue, but, really, why would ETOPS certification be granted until a statistically reliable performance record is established for the recertified 787? I certainly would not want to be 300-plus min. away from an airfield if the reengineered lithium-ion battery starts to smoke or burn.
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I agree with many of the Feedback senders over the last several weeks that spending $400 billion on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is a colossal mistake. But I believe that building 100 additional F-22 Raptors should be considered. Better still, President Barack Obama is committed to increasing the number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. I believe that the president and Congress should authorize a NASA budget of at least $20 billion annually, accelerating the SLS, Orion and a deep-space habitat vehicle program.
NASA's Chris Cassidy, newly arrived flight engineer on Expedition 35 to the International Space Station (ISS), is at the cutting edge of mankind's space endeavor as he uses the Minus Eighty-degree Freezer in Japan's Kibo lab module to store research samples. The work Cassidy and other station astronauts do in the coming decade is likely to shape how far, and how fast, humans will move into the Solar System.
Renee Awana (see photo) has been named director of cabin experience for Hawaiian Airlines. She was vice president/head of marketing for Mobi PCS in Hawaii.
Jon Rambeau has become vice president/general manager of Lockheed Martin Training and Logistics Solutions, Orlando, Fla. He was vice president of F-35 international programs at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth and had been vice president for technology transition within Lockheed Martin's Corporate Engineering and Technology organization.
Micah Edmond has been appointed assistant vice president of industrial base policy of the-Aerospace Industries Association, Arlington, Va. He has headed his own consulting firm, which has advised the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction and the Simpson-Bowles National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.
Dave Schmitz (see photo) has been appointed president of Cubic Defense Applications of San Diego. He succeeds Brad Feldmann, who has been promoted to president/chief operating officer of the parent Cubic Corp. Schmitz was vice president/general manager of Cobham Sensor Systems.
Industry predictions call for 12,000 aircraft to be replaced in the global fleet over the next 20 years as they reach the end of their service lives. As airlines move to more fuel-efficient, quieter and more environmentally sensitive aircraft, older ones are shuffling downstream, often to be parked or dismantled. This may be happening faster than in the past, since operators appear to be deciding more quickly to disassemble, taking advantage of the spare parts market for early end-of-life aircraft and engine models.
Congress has often come to the rescue of programs cut for budget reasons, and the Lakota light-utility helicopter may join that list this year. The Army's fiscal 2014 budget request grounded procurement of the program long-term, and trimmed its purchase over the next two years by 31 aircraft compared with the Army's earlier plans. The cut is a major blow to EADS North America, which was hoping to keep its Columbus, Miss., production line “hot” for the Army's potential Armed Aerial Scout program (AW&ST Sept. 12, 2011, p. 56).
