The U.K., faced with continuing operational demand on its rotary fleets, is considering a re-engine program for all of its Lynx Mk9 helicopters, as well as postponing the type’s withdrawal from service.
Rob Maruster has been promoted to chief operating officer from senior vice president-airports and operational planning of JetBlue Airways , effective June 1. The current president/COO, Russ Chew, will become senior adviser, while CEO Dave Barger will also be president.
Dan Gibson (see photos) and Jim Oschmann have become vice presidents/general managers of the Systems Engineering Solutions and Antenna & Video Technologies units, respectively, of the Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. , Boulder, Colo. Gibson was director of his unit, while Oschmann was director of program execution for the Advanced Technologies and Products unit.
A Lockheed Martin F-35A airframe, AG-1, was delivered to the U.K. last week for structural testing at BAE Systems’ site at Brough, England. Testing will begin a 15-month evaluation period at major subcontractor BAE’s Structural and Dynamic Test Facility in July. The structural test work will examine the strength of the airframe, with the results feeding into plans for the aircraft’s flight envelope expansion. The airframe will be returned to the U.S. following the trials. Six static test rigs are involved in the system design and development phase of the F-35 program.
Jennifer Michels (Washington), Melanie Reffes (Montreal)
The 2003 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) may have taught airlines they need a standard health emergency plan in place, but the swine flu outbreak is teaching them something new: They need consolidated, credible, country-by-country information.
Honda Aircraft has pushed back first delivery of its HondaJet by a year, saying “global aerospace industry business challenges” have delayed critical components for the conforming aircraft to be produced for FAA certification testing. First flight of the light business jet has been reset for January 2010, and first customer delivery delayed to fourth quarter 2011 from late 2010.
A new Chinese satellite launched Apr. 22 appears to be a dual-use bird with both civil and military applications. Xinhua news service says Yaogan VI is one of a series used for “scientific experiments, land resource surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster prevention and reduction.” Western analysts say the satellite may be intended primarily for military applications. Some in the Yaogan series have carried synthetic aperture radars, while others have had optical-imaging payloads.
There are increasing signs that as Airbus and Boeing define their next-generation short-to-medium-haul aircraft, they may bring to market quite different aircraft, even if both opt for an open-rotor engine design. Airbus is primarily interested in a rear-fuselage installation, driving engine makers to examine pusher open-rotor designs, whereas Boeing prefers wing-mounting, which necessitates a puller configuration, according to industry officials.
May 12-14—EBACE. Geneva. June 15-21—Paris air show. Sept. 23-24—MRO Europe. Hamburg, Germany. Nov. 2-4—A&D Programs. Phoenix. Dec. 2-3—A&D Finance. New York. Dec. 8-10—MRO Asia. Hong Kong. June 4—Business Aviation Security. Rosslyn, Va. June 16—Demonstrating the Value of Corporate Aircraft. New York.
The U.S. Transportation Dept. says it has enough information to start the decision-making process on an antitrust immunity application by Oneworld alliance carriers. This triggers a six-month deadline for a final ruling. Five airlines want permission to cooperate more closely on certain routes, and three—American Airlines, British Airways and Iberia—also want to form a joint venture to pool resources on transatlantic routes.
Northrop Grumman’s Bat line of small unmanned air systems is the UAS product line recently acquired from Swift Engineering, where it was known as KillerBee. Bat systems will have wingspans of 6.5 to 33.2 ft. Swift will continue to work on design refinement, flight test support and manufacturing. Product development will be managed by NorGrum’s Aerospace Systems.
If there is a cyberattack on the U.S., network specialists wouldn’t know where it came from, if it were really an attack or how to contain it. If the U.S. wanted to launch a cyberattack, there would be no policy to shape it, no laws to control it, and very little idea of its second- and third-order effects. That’s the opinion of group of high-level business, legal, scientific and military specialists who assembled a National Research Council paper “Technology, Policy, Law and Ethics Regarding U.S.
Blake Larson (see photos) has been named senior vice president of Minneapolis-based Alliant Techsystems/ president of ATK Space Systems and Mike Kahn Space Systems executive vice president, succeeding Larson. Kahn was executive vice president/general manager of ATK Launch Systems.
Seven astronauts are set to lift off next week on the final space shuttle flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, a mission delayed six months by a fortuitous failure on the orbiting observatory.
Articles in the Nov. 10, 2008, and Feb. 2 issues incorrectly listed the number of space shuttle flights at those points. STS‑119 was the 125th shuttle mission, and STS-126 was the 124th. The upcoming STS-125 will be the 126th shuttle flight.
Graham Warwick (Washington), Darren Shannon (London)
The unprecedented downturn in business aviation is starting to claim major casualties, but there are signs the market may be stabilizing after a frenzy of delivery defaults and order cancellations driven by the global economic crisis.
Robert G. Robinson’s letter “The Carbon Dioxide Circle” (AW&ST Apr. 20, p. 8) clearly explains that biofuels eliminate the problem of carbon dioxide caused by fossil fuels. However, an article in the Apr. 11 issue of The Economist (p. 81) reports the International Council for Science has concluded that using biofuels aggravates rather than ameliorates global warming. The cause is the nitrous oxide associated with farming the plants used for biofuels.
The former vice president of cargo sales in Europe for Martinair has agreed to plead guilty, serve eight months in jail and pay a $20,000 fine for participating in a conspiracy to fix cargo rates for international air shipments, the U.S. Justice Dept. said Apr. 29. Franciscus Johannes de Jong also has agreed to cooperate with the department’s ongoing investigation. Fifteen airlines and four executives now have pleaded or agreed to plead guilty in the case.
There is no question that the U.S. Army has a requirement for an airborne armed reconnaissance platform. How the service eventually fulfills it though, will have far-reaching effects on the industry and the Army itself, depending on results of an analysis of alternatives (AOA) that could take up to two years to complete.
NASA will use part of the $1 billion in economic stimulus package funding it receives this year to advance a commercial route to the International Space Station for its astronauts. Acting Administrator Christopher Scolese tells Congress the agency’s Fiscal 2009 operating plan contains $400 million in stimulus funding for human exploration activities. That includes $150 million for what is known as COTS D—human-rated versions of the Commercial Orbital Transportation System cargo vehicles being developed with almost $500 million in NASA seed money.
Two key U.S. unmanned aircraft systems are embroiled in a heated debate over how the Pentagon can rapidly field surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities while sticking to traditional acquisition processes demanding rigorous testing.
Nettie R. Johnson has become corporate vice president-worldwide media relations for the Lockheed Martin Corp. , Bethesda, Md. She was director of communications for Lockheed Martin Simulation, Training and Support, Orlando, Fla.
Gary K. Boekenkamp (see photo) has been appointed vice president-marketing, acquisitions and strategic business development for the Legacy Products Group of BBA Aviation , Chatsworth, Calif. He was vice president-strategy and business development for the BBA Aviation Flight Support Group. Honors and Elections
Turkey is finally inching closer to meeting a long-standing requirement for a new attack helicopter, with the pending first flight of a T-129 demonstrator this summer. The T-129 is an AgustaWestland derivate of its AW129, with Turkish modifications, that is produced in part with Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). It is slated to be fielded in late 2013. The Turkish army is buying 50 of the helicopters, with an option for another 41. That contract, estimated at more than $3 billion, was finalized last year, after a source-selection announcement in 2007.
