The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have finalized the letter of acceptance for the sale of 36 Boeing AH-6i helicopters, marking formal launch of the program. The AH-6i program was initially kicked off with a memorandum of understanding with Jordan to buy the helicopter, but that deal has not been concluded. Boeing says it still sees an opportunity for that contract to come to fruition. The Philippines is seen as another potential AH-6i buyer. Meanwhile, Boeing is upgrading its AH-6 demonstrator to prepare for this summer's fly-off as part of the U.S.
Jeff Chalupa (see photo) has been named general manager-domestic operations for Tulsa, Okla.-based Nordam's transparency division. He was senior director-global engineering and quality for the repair division.
Richard DeFatta has joined Kratos Defense & Security Solutions in San Diego, as VP-engineering support services for the Madison Research Business Unit of the Weapon Systems Solution Div. He was VP of Teledyne Solutions.
Michelle A. Scarpella and Stephen D. Hogan (see photos) have been appointed Falls Church, Va.-based VPs for the F-35 and F/A-18 programs, respectively, for the Northrop Grumman Corp. Scarpella has worked on the B-2, Joint Stars and E-2C Hawkeye programs, and Hogan was EA-18G and EA-6B program director.
When GE Aviation spearheaded its drive to qualify the F136 as a second powerplant choice for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, it naturally emphasized the project's jobs potential. Southern state political leaders, eager for new, well-paying manufacturing jobs, offered incentives to win a share of the Defense Department's biggest procurement program. In the end, GE Aviation and its partner, Rolls-Royce, lost their JSF bid; Pratt & Whitney's F135 retained its role as the fighter's sole powerplant.
R. Scott Rettig has been named chairman and CEO of OTO Melara North America in Washington, succeeding U.S. Navy Adm. (ret.) James Amerault, who will retire. Rettig was chairman and CEO of AgustaWestland North America.
Kharam Khalsa had an ambitious goal to reach before graduating from the University of Waterloo in Ontario: create a global standard for airline sustainability and establish an international forum for environmental managers to share their ideas about achieving sustainability.
An unguided, Vietnam War-vintage missile has been transformed into an air-to-ground precision-guided munition (PGM) that will be introduced into combat in Afghanistan this spring. The 2.75-in. Hydra rocket was the keystone weapon of the U.S. Army aviation's aerial artillery. Now BAE Systems has turned it into the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) II that does not require communications with its launch aircraft. All the precision is introduced after the rocket is launched.
He was an executive at Pan Am and American Airlines before becoming Lufthansa's president. Later as boss of Delta Air Lines, he created “Song.” After that he was the founding CEO of Virgin America, exiting in 2007. So, what's Fred Reid (top, third column), a man skilled at moving masses through hubs, up to now?
The Pentagon's $614 billion fiscal 2013 spending request proposes to put to rest several ailing programs that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has deemed unnecessary, but there are some major programmatic decisions that remain unclear in this budget plan.
Flight tests of Eurocopter's X3 compound helicopter are set to resume this month following an extensive safety inspection period. The aircraft, which reached a top speed of 232 kt. in May 2011, will be brought to the U.S. for demonstration flights in the June-July period. Eurocopter would like to see the X3 flown to higher speeds than the 250 kt. achieved by Sikorsky's semi-compound design, but the manufacturer says the main focus is on gaining experience with the concept.
Marie Epstein (see photo) has been promoted to VP-sales for the Americas from regional sales manager at Virgin Atlantic Cargo in New York. She was director of strategic accounts at Delta Air Lines/Northwest Airlines Cargo.
March 7—55th Annual Laureate Awards. Washington. March 13-14—Innovation Supply Chain Showcase. Orlando, Fla. April 3-5—MRO Americas 2012. Dallas. April 3-5—MRO Military Conference & Exhibition. Dallas. April 23-25—NextGen Ahead: Air Transportation Modernization. Washington. May 8-9—Civil Aviation Manufacturing. Charlotte, N.C. May 23-24—MRO Regional: Eastern Europe, Baltics and Russia. Vilnius, Lithuania. Sept. 19-21—MRO IT Conference & Showcase. Miami.
The majority of the 161 unclassified milsats forecast for production in the next decade will go into service in the near term with production tapering in the outyears.
It took Congress seven years and 23 extensions to pass a bill to authorize funding and set policies for the FAA for the next four years. It took makers and users of NextGen air traffic management equipment about a day to recognize that while the FAA reauthorization bill makes welcome changes, realizing the full benefits of air traffic modernization is still a long way off. The funding picture in the bill is not quite what industry had hoped, and all signs point to the fact that it is not likely to get much better.
Mike Leinback has become director of human spaceflight operations at Denver-based United Launch Alliance. He was launch team leader for all NASA space shuttle missions launched since 2000.
Cancer has claimed three notable space pioneers. Roger Boisjoly died Jan. 6 in Nephi, Utah. He was 73. As an engineer at Morton Thiokol, he warned that cold weather could cause the O-rings, which sealed field joints in the space shuttle solid-fuel boosters, to fail. Six months later, the shuttle Challenger, launched over Boisjoly's objections after a below-freezing night, was lost when its O-rings failed.
There are worrying signals that a significant part of the airline industry could implode in the coming months, and despite the doom and gloom predictions from Europe this horror is occurring on the other side of the Atlantic.
NASA's fiscal 2013 budget request will reflect, and be reflected in, space-exploration spending and priorities worldwide. That isn't a good thing. Those who view civil space exploration as both an uplifting human pursuit and an important economic driver are sure to be disappointed by the details of the U.S. budget plan to be released Feb. 13. We know from previous plans that it will be flat and tight, with no major new initiatives and a lot of backfill from previous spending shortfalls.
