The instances of non-compliance with airworthiness directives (ADs) fall into three categories, FAA officials tell Aviation Week’s MRO Conference & Exhibition. The first, says John Hickey, FAA’s director of aircraft certification, is outright non-compliance, for which aircraft are grounded. In the second instance, airlines believe they have complied with the AD, “but the workmanship hasn’t been very good,” says Hickey. Frequently such cases involve wiring. “If work is below the AD, aircraft could be grounded,” he says.
Tony Spehar (see photo) has been appointed sector vice president/general manager for Kinetic Energy Interceptors program for the Northrop Grumman Corp. , Fair Lakes, Va. He has been the program’s vice president/deputy general manager.
ESA has named heads of four all-new or rescoped directorates created to meet the agency’s expanding priorities in space exploration navigation and telecommunications. For full details of the reshuffle go to www.aviationweek.com/extra.
Emery (Kip) Wiltse has become senior administrator for final-phase aircraft completions and support for supplemental type certifications for Gulfstream Aerospace , Savannah, Ga. Wayne Burk has been named director of sales for materials services for Gulfstream facilities in Dallas, Long Beach, Calif., and Appleton, Wis. And, Brian Waymire has been promoted to general manager from operations manager of the General Dynamics Aviation Services facility in Las Vegas.
WorldSpace Satellite Radio says it has received approval from German authorities to use 12.5 MHz. of L-band spectrum for a terrestrial repeater network to provide digital audio radio service in Germany. Italy and Switzerland had previously licensed the DARS service, which is to start up in Italy in 2009. France recently approved use of WorldSpace’s ETSI standard, and is expected to license the system later this year. WorldSpace is one of several companies seeking to roll out radio and other mobile satellite services in Europe.
Alison Wood, BAE Systems head of strategy, has resigned as of the end of May to join U.K. power company National Grid. She will be succeeded by Andrew Davis.
Joseph (Jay) Malo has been named deputy chief engineer in the aviation unit of CH2M Hill ’s Houston office. Charles H. (Chip) Snowden has become Southeast U.S. aviation manager and senior technical support for the Mumbai, India, airport project. He was chief operating officer of Jacksonville (Fla.) International Airport. John Thompson has been appointed a project engineer in the West Palm Beach, Fla., office. He held a similar position at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (Pa.) International Airport.
Thales has reshuffled its management structure to reinforce international sales and foster more transverse synergies across the company. The company appointed former international chief Jean-Paul Perrier as vice chairman in charge of key customer accounts, and named three executive vice presidents to manage its three major regions of activity. U.K. CEO Alex Dorrian will oversee North America, the U.K.
Italy expects to further grow its armaments trade surplus this year, building on a trend that began in 2005. But industry is seeking changes in regulations that could accelerate growth even more.
French defense officials say there are no plans for additional helicopters to support the 700-man force that President Nicolas Sarkozy promised to shore up the NATO mission in eastern Afghanistan. The two rotorcraft in the central Kabul region will be needed to back France’s assumption of the rotating regional command this summer. The six-aircraft close-air-support fleet in Kandahar also will remain unchanged.
Bruce Gunter has been appointed vice president-domestic sales, Gary Black jet sales coordinator and Carroll LeBoeuf Eastern U.S. divisional director for the Cirrus Design Corp. , Duluth, Minn. Honors and Elections
After completing the first test of in-trail climb procedures over the North Atlantic using ADS-B, Airbus aims to certify the technique by 2010 so airlines can reap substantial fuel savings and cut emissions.
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The “Vulture” program, a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency unmanned aircraft effort, has been awarded to Aurora Flight Sciences. The aircraft is being designed around the radical notion of staying aloft for five years—about the lifetime of a satellite—to provide communications, surveillance, reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. The problems to be overcome encompass energy management, extremely high-reliability electronics and control systems and autonomous refueling.
The Japanese lunar probe Selene has collected images of the Earth equivalent to a full Moon: round and without a shadow. The Selene team says the high-definition video, shot on Apr. 6 with a camera supplied by the Japanese television network NHK, is notable because the orbits of the Moon, Earth, Sun and Selene itself had to be in a precisely straight line. Such an opportunity would come only twice during Selene’s year of scheduled observation. In an Earth-rise picture taken by the satellite on Nov. 7, the planet was partly in shadow (AW&ST Nov. 19, 2007, p. 17).
A convergence of demographic changes and short-term corporate policies is creating a crisis that threatens the very foundation of the U.S. aerospace industry.
Western European air forces are preparing to play a bigger role in multinational network-centric operations. Key tools to dynamically manage Link 16 tactical networks, and to train realistically with them, are being introduced into service and were used for the first time in a large-scale exercise this month. One tool involved was a Thales-supplied dynamic network management system. Another was a U.S.-developed system to inject simulated participants and threats into a live Link 16 network.
The Assn. of U.S. and European Aerospace Industry Representatives (Usaire) 2008 Award Competition is now open to graduate students worldwide. Sponsors are Airbus, Cathay Pacific, Air France and Aviation Week; Rolls-Royce is providing administrative support. The topic is “Energy and Environmental Context for the Aerospace and Defense Industry in 2030: [The] Consequences on Industry’s Ambitions [on] Innovation and Competitiveness.” Finalists will be selected on the basis of a one-page summary and a final document of not more than 10 pages.
Safran’s small-engine business, Microturbo, has added a 67-lb.-thrust model to its product line, the TR-3. The engine features a centrifugal compressor, straight-flow combustor and single-stage axial turbine. The 330-mm., 4-kg. (13-in., 8.8-lb.) powerplant is designed for unmanned aircraft, target drones or missiles and can operate at up to 30,000 ft. altitude at Mach 0.8.
Ambitions to upgrade the British Royal Air Force’s Boeing E-3D AWACS fleet continue to be stymied by funding pressures, with the next phase of Project Eagle now not expected to begin this year. Boeing and Lockheed Martin were selected by the British Defense Ministry in 2006 for a technology demonstrator program originally expected to start in the latter half of 2007. The program is intended to draw on the U.S. Block 40/45 standard and improve the battle management capability of the seven RAF E-3Ds (see p. 58).
Finmeccanica wants to bolster its industrial footprint in Japan and sees its helicopter business as one of the hottest prospects for near-term inroads. The company intends to open a permanent office in Japan next year with the goal, according to Chief Operating Officer Giorgio Zappa, of developing industrial and technological collaborations with local players.
British and French defense ministry officials and industry executives will use the remainder of this month to hammer out detailed requirements for a joint anti-ship missile program. Talks are already underway between defense officials and industry.
It’s fascinating that some people regard Boeing’s reaction to the U.S. Air Force tanker award as arrogance. Perhaps they need to do some soul-searching for themselves.
A bid by Delta and Northwest to form the world’s largest airline could soon be eclipsed by another giant merger proposal, but even consolidation of this magnitude may not streamline the U.S. industry enough to snap it out of a downward spiral.
