In early 2008, Avic I, as it was called then, announced it was setting up an airline that would buy its regional airliners, a move that had many industry watchers perplexed. To any trenchant doubter of China's future in civil aeronautics, it must have seemed that the product—the 50-60-seat MA60 turboprop—was so uncompetitive that Avic I could only sell it to itself.
Despite its programmatic progress and status as an acquisition reform program for the U.S. Air Force, GPS III—as with any other Pentagon project—is under the microscope and could be subject to funding cuts. The budget environment at the Pentagon gives new meaning to the term “capture team,” which is used to describe the group assigned by a company to win a program. Many contractors say they feel they are in a perpetual “capture team” mode, constantly fighting not only to win programs, but to keep them once they have won the contract.
Richard Ziskind has been appointed VP-sales and marketing for Greensboro, N.C.-based Dynamic Airways. He was director of marketing at Omni International.
Frank Morring, Jr.'s “What's Next For Deep Space Crew Vehicle” drew varied reactions, most of them pessimistic. Coastal Ron says: I think the multi-purpose crew vehicle is destined to be a $8 billion lifeboat, which is probably way overpriced. I know the original Orion was part of [then-NASA Administrator] Michael Griffin's “Apollo on steroids” approach to returning to the Moon, and from that uninspired perspective, an upsized Apollo capsule made sense for the short Moon trips it was to do.
Boeing's decision to close its Wichita defense plant is a story of too much factory capacity and not enough work. The 2013 closure raises concerns about the future of the company's more than 2,100 employees as jobs shift to facilities in other states.
Sensing continued financial pressure even in the well-protected electronic-warfare domain, the U.S. Navy is slicing through red tape to streamline acquisition of its prized Next Generation Jammer (NGJ).
USMC Lt. Col. (ret.) Paul E. Damphousse has been named executive director of the Washington-based National Space Society. He was chief of advanced concepts for the National Security Space Office and the Defense Department executive agent for space.
Thank you for naming United Technologies Corp. Chairman/CEO Louis R. Chenevert your 2011 Person of the Year (AW&ST Jan. 2, p. 42). As a worker for an aerospace manufacturing operation in India, I must say that during Chenevert's shop tour of our facility in 2008 it was clear he was a hands-on leader who understood the nuances of operations and manufacturing. All workers in these tumultuous economic times must embrace the basics of competence and excellence. Chenevert personifies those qualities.
Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate most likely to support reductions in defense spending, ranks third in terms of donations from defense industry employees. Paul might want to end the war in Afghanistan, scrap all aid to foreign governments and see Pentagon spending tumble by $1 trillion, but the Texan with Libertarian tendencies strikes a chord with the defense industry's techno-geek workforce.
Guiseppe Coccon is the new senior VP-communications at Avio Group, Turin, Italy. He was communications and media relations director at the Barilla Group.
Bart LaGrone (see photo) has been appointed VP-airborne early warning and battle management command control programs at the Bethpage, N.Y., facility of Northrop Grumman. He was deputy integrated project team leader for the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program.
The uncontrolled reentry of Russia's stranded Phobos-Grunt spacecraft presented a moving target to satellite trackers just days before pieces of the botched Mars mission were expected to fall to Earth.
Thailand Receives First of Two C212-400s on OrderThailand Receives First of Two C212-400s on OrderThailand Receives First of Two C212-400s on Order....
Shame on Aviation Week for naming UTC Chairman Louis Chenevert “Person of the Year.” You have American workers making a world-class product at a profit (building nacelles in California) and the first thing Chenevert wants to do is to send these jobs overseas? This type of action is the reason middle-class workers in this country are unemployed and unable to find jobs. Corona, Calif.
Hugh Dunleavy (see photo) has joined Kuala Lumpur-based Malaysia Airlines as the leader of network, alliance, strategy and planning, and Shihaj Kutty as head of revenue management. Dunleavy was executive VP-strategy and planning at WestJet, and Kutty head of pricing at Etihad Airways.
With little publicity, South Korean engineers are working on the largest and most complicated aircraft their country has built independently, an unmanned surveillance aircraft called MUAV. From the scanty information available, they seem to have a technically successful program on their hands, one that augurs well for their ambitious national industry. The problem is that it might turn out to be a fiscal failure.
