Richard R. Yuse (see photos) has been appointed president of Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems , El Segundo, Calif. He succeeds the late Jon C. Jones. Yuse was president of Raytheon Technical Services Co., Reston, Va. He has been succeeded by John D. Harris, 2nd, who was vice president of Raytheon Contracts and Supply Chain. He has been followed by David Wilkins, who was vice president-contracts for Raytheon Network Centric Systems, McKinney, Texas.
FAA is advising airlines to establish guidance and requirements aimed at controlling “distractions”—including use of personal electronic devices (PEDs)—on the flight deck. The sterile-cockpit rule already prohibits pilots from engaging in tasks unrelated to safe operation of an aircraft during critical phases of flight, notes the FAA. And in an Information for Operators (InFO 10003) advisory issued last week, the agency recognizes that PEDs and laptops, such as electronic flight bags, can be valuable tools in aviation.
CFM International is challenging Pratt & Whitney’s claimed maintenance cost savings for the geared turbofan (GTF) as the war of words over next-generation powerplants heats up in advance of crucial reengining decisions by Airbus and Boeing. CFMI, a joint General Electric/Snecma company, is offering a variant of its advanced Leap-X turbofan and disputes the veracity of the projected claims made for the competing PW1000G family.
European Union emissions allowance (EUA) prices rallied to an eight-month high in April, following the release of partial data showing CO2 emissions from installations across the EU in 2009. EUAs for delivery in December 2010 closed at €15.20 ($20.07) per metric ton of CO2 equivalent on April 27, compared with €13.02 on April 1, an increase of 16.7%.
Preliminary tests of CFM International’s CFM56-7BE Evolution upgrade for the Boeing 737 indicate greater fuel-burn savings than estimated, the engine company says. “We anticipate going into service with a 2.5% improvement, which is a big deal for us,” says CFM Executive Vice President Chaker Chahrour. Details of the initial performance results, which were 0.5% better overall than expected, emerge as flight tests of the CFM56-7BE get underway on General Electric’s Boeing 747 flying testbed in Victorville, Calif.
To reduce the cost of space launches, has anyone considered the use of a cluster of 115,000-lb.-thrust GE90-115 turbofans around a central core as a flyback first stage? After release, the use of differential thrust and possibly reversers on some engines would allow the first stage to be steered away from the upper stages before ignition. Even a vehicle as large as a Delta IV Heavy could be boosted by an array of 20 such engines, in two parallel rows of five on each side.
I am baffled by Bombardier’s emphasis on the CSeries and lack of interest in a replacement for the 50-seat jet. There are many markets for which a 90-120-seat and larger jet is an inappropriate size. Do the major airlines think they will abandon those 50-seat markets and assume people will drive 100 mi. to fly out of a bigger airport? Do they think no entrepreneur will see this hole in the market and exploit it with a new design that produces an aircraft with 15-20% better economics than current 50-seaters?
U.S. private-equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts is to acquire 49.9% of Grupo Inaer in a deal that values the Spanish helicopter operator at $700 million. European investment companny Investindustrial will retain 50.1% of Inaer, which operates more than 280 helicopters and provides medical transport, firefighting, search and rescue, civil protection and customs surveillance services for governments and regional authorities. Headquartered in Alicante, Inaer has more than 240 bases in Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, the U.K. and Chile.
The Viewpoint, “Killing Ares Will Kill the Dream,” is a full-page advertisement for ATK (AW&ST April 19, p. 66). Ares is a rocket designed by politicians, not engineers. In the same issue, the U.S. Air Force X-37B is shown being prepared for an orbital launch test. This former NASA project proves we have viable options to “Apollo on steroids” and that visionaries in the Air Force have moved beyond capsules and parachutes.
Mark Carreau (Johnson Space Center), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
The resurrection of NASA’s Orion crew exploration vehicle as a space station lifeboat is injecting a new disruption into the agency’s already challenging transition from the in-house human-spaceflight plan it started under former President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama’s commercial space transportation and technology-investment agenda.
Simon Pryce took the helm of BBA Aviation just as the global economyexperienced a severe downturn. The aviation support and aftermarket service provider that owns marquee names, such as Signature and ASIG, has not escaped the ripple effects, although an aggressive cost-cutting effort has helped BBA to weather the turmoil. Pryce tells International Editor Robert Wall that the efforts have left BBA better structured to benefit financially from the rebound, whatever its pace may be.
The Show Goes On In Geneva Having weathered a global recession, plunging aircraft valuations, a credit crisis, decreased operations and, more recently, an angry Icelandic volcano, the embattled business aviation community gathers in Geneva May 4-6 for the 10th edition of the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (Ebace).
EADS Defense and Security Div. will for the first time install its Helicopter Laser Radar (Hellas) subsystem on a Sikorsky S-92 helicopter. Hellas is aimed at helping crew to detect and avoid such obstacles as power lines from a distance of up to 1,000 meters (3,280 ft.). The new effort is part of a contract with the Royal Thai Air Force. The service has already purchased three Hellas systems for its Bell 412 fleet. An additional three are now being acquired for the S-92.
Japan Airlines will retire all its Boeing 747-400s and Airbus A300-600s by the end of March 2011, under an accelerated restructuring plan aimed at achieving cost cuts that it previously hoped to achieve over three years. As a result of the cuts, the airline will offer 40% less capacity internationally and 30% less domestically than it did in the year ended March 2009. Fifteen international and 30 domestic routes will be dropped. Adding those services to ones cut during the last fiscal year, the total reductions will be 28 and 50 routes, respectively.
Italian defense and aerospace conglomerate Finmeccanica saw revenues grow for the first quarter of 2010, though net profit was down versus the same period for 2009. R&D investment was also down slightly. Revenue for the period was €4 billion ($5.3 billion), a 3% increase over the first quarter of 2009. Net profit fell by 15% to €91 million from €108 million. Order intake was also slightly down, but so was debt, which was cut by 2% to €4.3 billion.
The government of the Hebei province surrounding Beijing is making a bid to head off plans to build a second airport at the capital, saying it will upgrade its own nearby facility to take on the role. Hebei proposes building new airports at Qinhuangdao, Zhangjiakou and Chengde and expanding Handan under a program budgeted at 2 billion yuan ($293 million).
Tony Taliancich, who has been director of the United Launch Alliance ’s East Coast operations at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., has been named director of the Customer Program Office. He has been succeeded by Mark Dowhan, who was director of West Coast operations at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Following Dowhan is Rick Beach, who was director of common upper stage and product evolution.
Military planners hope that Europe’s revised institutional framework—as outlined in the Lisbon Treaty—will help broaden the mandate of a key satellite center and the European Defense Agency (EDA) so they can contribute more meaningfully to continental defense.
With the 22nd Boeing 787 in final body join, the company has put the brakes on further large assembly deliveries to the aircraft’s integration plant in Everett, Wash., as its supply chain struggles with airframe—not systems—parts shortages.
Flight testing of an upgraded radar on the U.S. Air Force’s Rockwell-built B-1B bomber has begun at Dyess AFB, Texas. The Reliability and Maintainability Improvement Program (RMIP) replaces the receiver/transmitter and radar processor in the B-1’s APQ-164 radar with derivatives of units from Northrop Grumman’s APG-68(V)9 radar for the F-16. Software has been rewritten from Ada to C++ to improve supportability. Boeing was awarded a $180-million contract to upgrade 67 B-1s, with RMIP kits to be delivered beginning in 2011 and installation to be completed in 2014.
Kevin Moschetti has been promoted to president of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Esterline Corp. ’s Communication Systems from president of subsidiary Palomar Products.
Brian Barrett (see photos) has been promoted to vice president-aftermarket services for the Aerospace Group of Crane Aerospace & Electronics , Lynnwood, Wash., from director of repair and overhaul services. Eric Wilson has become the group’s Burbank, Calif.-based vice president-human resources. He held the same position at Crane Composites.
Tony Fernandes Age: 46 Education: Educated at Epsom College; graduated from the London School of Economics in 1987. Career: Became financial controller of Warner Music International in 1987; worked as an auditor at Virgin Atlantic and as the financial auditor for Virgin Records. Named managing director at Warner Music Malaysia in 1992. Became vice president of Warner Music-Southeast Asia in 1999 and left in 2001 to buy the ailing AirAsia.
