I believe that for the first time in your Who's Where column every photo is of a woman executive (AW&ST Feb. 4, p. 10). This indicates just how dramatically the defense-technical business world has changed. For a vivid example of how few women held significant spots on the aerospace scene in the past, look to our company's main conference room—newly built in about 1958—where there was only one restroom—“Men's.”
USAF Maj. Joshua J. Chumley, commander, Operating Location Alpha, 3d Space Experimentation Squadron, USAF Space Command, will receive the Washington-based National Space Club's Gen. Bernard Schriever Award for leading a team responsible for operation of the Orbital Test Vehicle.
Over the years, France was—and remains, to some extent— an aerospace-proud nation. In the last several decades, it was often the vanguard for innovations. This forward-thinking momentum began more than 100 years ago when the great minds of the day gave a warm welcome to the Wright brothers after the two inventors failed to garner the support they needed in the U.S. In France, they were accorded respect, accolades and help in their efforts to make controlled flight a reality, including during their celebrated stay in Rheims, in 1909.
Short-takeoff-and vertical-landing (Stovl) Lockheed Martin F-35Bs returned to flight on Feb. 12 after being grounded for almost a month following the Jan. 18 failure of a fueldraulic hose to the actuator that drives the aircraft's swivelling exhaust nozzle. Investigation revealed the hose was improperly crimped. All 25 development and production F-35Bs were inspected and affected hoses replaced. Although Stovl flight-testing was running ahead of plan, Lockheed Martin says the grounding has impacted the program and that it is working to recover any delay.
Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, speaking in Washington, has called for joint design and coproduction of weapons and defense capabilities with the U.S. Appearing Feb. 21 at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Mathai told the audience that the two countries should enter into joint defense projects—a sign that New Delhi is increasingly interested in more than just utilizing traditional “offsets,” i.e., local spending by Western defense companies, to build up its own industry.
Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi has started flight-testing the long-range version of its Superjet 100. But if the SSJ program is to become a success, the technical flaws that affect the baseline version must be conquered.
Linda Markham has been appointed president of Hyannis, Mass.-based Cape Air, succeeding Dave Bushy, who plans to retire. Markham was executive VP and will remain chief administrative officer.
For the first time, a Boeing union has endorsed the company's plan to back away from guaranteed pensions but a minority group said it would rather strike instead, so the airplane maker has more uncertainty on its agenda.
Now entering the final stages of designing its Model 525 Relentless medium twin, Bell Helicopter is taking lessons not only from its own past, but from another major manufacturer. Build will start in the second quarter, aiming for a first flight in 2014.
Greg Hyslop (see photos) has been appointed VP and general manager of Chicago-based Boeing Research & Technology, succeeding Matt Ganz, who was recently named president of Boeing Germany and Northern Europe and VP-European Technology Strategy. Succeeding Hyslop as VP and general manager of Boeing Strategic Missile & Defense Systems is Jim Chilton, who was VP and program manager for Exploration Launch Systems.
In Washington nobody likes to talk about the “s-word” but as March 1, the deadline for the across-the-board budget cuts grows closer, conversations about sequestration are becoming all-consuming. “It is just occupying everyone's time,” says Pentagon industrial base chief Brett Lambert. Unless lawmakers pass a new agreement by the end of the month, $85 billion in across-the-board budget reductions will take place for fiscal 2013. It is the first increment in a 10-year, nearly $1 trillion package of spending cuts.
Aug. 10, 1628: Vasa, first of a new class of ships intended to change the balance of power in Nordic waters, left her Stockholm yard for the first time. As she left the lee of the city, she heeled sharply, flooded and sank. The shipwrights blamed the sailors for demanding too many guns. This is related to the news that full-scale development of the JAS 39E version of the Saab Gripen will cost 13.1 billion kronor ($2.1 billion) over five years. That is about 1 billion kronor less than Saab's last major effort, the JAS 39C/D.
L-3 Communications is exploring whether a German concept from World War II could boost the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability of small naval vessels. During the war, the Germans developed the Focke-Achgelis FA 330 Bachstelze (Wagtail), an unpowered autogyro capable of lifting a man. It was towed behind prowling U-boats and used to spot targets and possible threats. The pilot would bark sightings by telephone to the submarine.
NASA's open-ended space technology push is receiving a bureaucratic boost with the creation of a new Space Technology Mission Directorate at the agency's Washington headquarters, joining Aeronautics, Human Exploration and Operations and Science as associate-administrator-level organizations. The new Space Technology associate administrator will be Michael Gazarik (at left in this photo with Deputy Administrator Lori Garver at Aurora Flight Sciences), formerly director of the Space Technology Program in the Office of the Chief Technologist.
NASA scientists hope to study fragments of a large meteorite that detonated over Russia on Feb. 15, injuring more than 1,200 people and damaging 4,000 buildings around Chelyabinsk, close to the Ural Mountains. NASA says the meteorite is not related to asteroid 2012 DA14 that passed Earth within hours of the event at a distance of more than 17,000 mi. (27,360 km). “Early assessments of the Russia meteor indicate it was about one-third the size of 2012 DA14 and traveling in a different direction,” says the agency. The meteorite exploded at an estimated altitude of 12-15 mi.
Orbital Sciences Corp. hopes to launch its first Antares rocket next month, paving the way for a second commercial cargo service to the International Space Station (ISS) by summer. The plan assumes a successful on-pad hot-fire test of the liquid-fueled Ukrainian-built rocket, but it will not be delayed by inconclusive results from a NASA probe into the cause of a fairing-separation problem that destroyed the $388 million Glory atmospheric-research mission in 2011.
Despite the financial and legal issues that have recently afflicted its parent, Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland is pushing ahead with development and flight-testing of three new rotary-wing aircraft at the same time.
Bombardier has delayed first delivery of its Learjet 85 business jet by six months, to summer 2014, citing technical challenges with its all-composite airframe, which the company says have now been overcome. The carbon-fiber airframe is manufactured at Bombardier's Queretaro, Mexico, plant for final assembly in Wichita.
