Rajiv Shah has been named chief executive officer of IBS Group, Welwyn Garden City, England. He was chief executive of the securities and capital markets business unit of Wipro Technologies.
JAXA's drop tests, described in “Quiet Booms” (AW&ST May 23, p. 13), demonstrated something besides validating techniques for use in designing a low-boom supersonic transport. By reaching Mach 1.43 on descent from 21 km (13 mi.) altitude, and Mach 1.7 from 27 km, the tests inadvertently demonstrated that future aerospace vehicles do not need heavy turbojets and complex mechanically activated bypass ducts to transition to supersonic speed with further air-breathing ramjet acceleration prior to a final rocket boost to reach Earth orbit.
After a second-place finish in last year's TPC study, a superb operating performance pushed Cubic to the top spot of companies with revenues of $1-5 billion, besting a formidable group of peers. The company's showing was bolstered by three strong product lines: electronic ticketing and transportation, virtual training programs and battlespace simulation for mission support. A record backlog of $2.5 billion could underpin further gains in 2011. “The numbers suggest this result is not an accident,” says TPC Project Manager Michael K. Lowry.
David N. Siegel has been tapped by the board of Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings to become its lead independent director. He was chairman and chief executive officer of Xojet.
Peter M. Bowler has been named to the advisory board of AISystems of Toronto. He was the chief executive officer of American Eagle Airlines and was a senior officer of American Airlines before retiring.
The U.K. has set up a cyberoperations group as it further expands its activities in cyberwarfare. “Cyber will be part of a continuum of tools with which to achieve military effect, both defensive and otherwise, and will be an integral part of our armory,” says Nick Harvey, the minister of state for the armed forces.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has granted type certification to the ATR 72-600, the latest upgrade to the twin turboprop. Royal Air Maroc is due to be the first operator of the aircraft. ATR expects to deliver about 11 -600s this year. The airline has ordered four 72-600s and two 42-600s. The EADS/Finmeccanica joint venture is still working on receiving type approval for the 42-600. Flight trials of that type began in March 2010.
Contracts to study a prototype long-range strike weapon that could be flight tested in 2016 are imminent. This work could lead to development of scramjet-powered hypersonic cruise missiles able to engage time-critical, high-value and highly defended targets. The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has laid out a road map that calls for flight test of the long-range strike weapon against a fixed target in fiscal 2016 and a mobile target in fiscal 2019.
“123xyz” asks: Do flight data recorders record faulty data from faulty sensors? We imagine investigators correlate and triangulate all available information . . . or do they? Meanwhile, “David Sullivan's” take: The last chapter will be the French court deciding the pitot tube manufacturer was liable. It will be easier than teaching basic flying skills to the French . . . was the type of refrain that predominated.
AeroSvit Ukraine Airlines has received its first Boeing 767 winglet modification from Boeing Shanghai. This is the first winglet mod, which included changes to the pylon and a heavy maintenance check, for the airline from the joint venture of Boeing, Shanghai Airport Authorities and China Eastern Airlines. Boeing Shanghai also has signed a five-year contract for heavy maintenance and engineering services for Bangkok-based Business Air, an all 767 operator.
David K. “Bob” Edmonds has joined McLean, Va.-based ITT Corp. as vice president of U.S. Air Force relations for the company's Defense and Information Solutions segment. He was senior vice president of government operations and strategy at Syndetics.
“Pappy” says: Perhaps a SecDef with an engineering background would . . . be less likely to be taken in by overly optimistic marketing . . . while “SteveC” notes: He's taking longer than Oprah to get out.
TPC RESULTS This year's rankings of publicly traded aerospace and defense (A&D) contractors are the result of a composite scoring of four equally weighted performance categories that place significant emphasis on operating excellence. Category weightings are based on results of two surveys conducted by Aviation Week with senior management of companies generating annual revenues greater than $1 billion. The four categories are:
Hidden among hills, mostly in tunnels, hundreds of North Korean heavy artillery pieces stand ready to rain thousands of shells a minute onto Seoul. For decades, the big guns have been the biggest threat that South Korea has had to face. More recently a new one has become more prominent in the South's strategic calculations: an uncertain number of nuclear warheads of uncertain performance and reliability, potentially fitted to ballistic missiles fired from heavily protected sites in the far north of the Korean Peninsula.
With their own national budgets on the decline, European aerospace and defense companies are turning to exports for salvation. But developments in Italy and the U.K. suggest that strategy is easier to enunciate than execute. Aerospace companies in the U.K. and Italy are worried that turmoil in the Middle East and Africa will lead to additional restrictions that will curb arms exports.
NASA's Mars Science Laboratory mission apparently ducked a significant delay when a crane operator accidentally lifted its composite back shell with a 2,000-lb. aluminum table attached to it. Richard Cook, deputy Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) project manager at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says the mishap does not appear to have resulted in excessive loads on the back shell structure, which is designed to help protect the car-sized rover as it enters the Martian atmosphere.
Usman Mastan (see photo) will be responsible for Wichita-based Hawker Beechcraft jet sales in 18 countries in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe. He was director of aircraft sales at Empire Aviation Group and earlier held sales and engineering roles at CAE Aviation training.
USN Capt. and former astronaut Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper has relieved Capt. Chris Meyer as commander of Naval Surface Center Carderock. Stefanyshyn-Piper was chief technology officer at Naval Sea System Command.
Spirit Airlines completed an initial public offering that may have revealed investor thinking about the airline industry as much as it raised money for the South Florida-based low-cost carrier. Spirit sold 15.6 million shares at $12, for $171 million in net proceeds, but it had originally estimated an offering price of $14-16 for 20 million shares, which would have netted about $276 million at the midpoint of the range.
Ulf Liljenberg has been named vice president of Volito Aviation, Malmo, Sweden. He was vice president-technical at Transwede Airways and more recently held senior marketing roles at PK Airfinance and CTT Systems AB in Sweden.
Industry is cheering a measure proposed for the House version of the fiscal 2012 defense authorization bill that would authorize the president to remove satellites and related components from the U.S. Munitions List (USML)—a deep desire for 13 years. The amendment, which Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) crafted, comes amid the Obama administration's export licensing reform effort. Rohrabcher withdrew it at the last minute from the bill the House later approved, but look for it to rise again.
On Feb. 24, 2009, the NASA Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) launched an OSC (Orbital Sciences Corp.) Taurus XL. The result: Launch mishap attributed to payload shroud failure. Mission cost: $209 million, according to Mishap Investigation Board Executive Summary. Last March 4 NASA Glory was launched on another OSC Taurus XL, with the same results as the first foray. The two ballistic failures that now reside in the Pacific Ocean cost at least $410 million.
Lawrence A. “Bud” Sittig has been appointed president and chief operating officer of Carlsbad-based California Pacific Airlines. Following Air National Guard service as a fighter pilot, Sittig flew for Western Airlines and Delta Air Lines and later was a founder and vice president of operations for Skybus Airlines.
