There are six finalists for AVIATION WEEK’s Program Excellence Awards this year. In the R&D/System Design and Development Category, they are Boeing’s EA-18G Growler, and Lockheed Martin’s Theater High Altitude Area Defense system and Theater Battle Management Core Systems. In the Production/Sustainment Category, they are Northrop Grumman’s Defense Support Program, and Lockheed Martin’s F-22 Raptor and MH-60 Multi-Year Common Cockpit. The winners will be announced at AW&ST’s A&D Programs Conference in Phoenix on Oct. 30.
Rick Spinogatti has been promoted to vice president-finance and administration from controller and Kevin Flood to vice president-product management and support from director of product management of Analytical Graphics Inc. , Exton, Pa.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has joined the United Nations’ effort to control Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (Manpads), the shoulder-fired launchers and missiles involved in 40 attacks on civil aircraft during the last three decades. It’s also looking at how nations handle security, with the prospect of reducing hassles for passengers.
Coinciding with AVIATION WEEK’s MRO Asia Conference in Shanghai this week, the following four articles explore two themes in the business of Asian maintenance, repair and overhaul. One is expansion, especially in China: Executives interviewed for these reports all describe at least doubling of capacity or output, and SR Technics, which has previously kept its Asia-Pacific region operations small, is looking for a big Asian base. The second theme involves the intertwined issues of staff turnover, wages and productivity.
Douglas Barrie (London), Joris Janssen Lok (The Hague)
Several European air forces face further wing modification—or even re-winging—of early model Lockheed Martin F-16s to shepherd their aircraft through until the F-35, or an alternative, can be introduced into service.
The leasing partnership AerVenture says it will lease six A320s to Aeroflot starting next year. The aircraft, to be used by Aeroflot on domestic and European routes, are part of the carrier’s effort to replace inefficient Russian-designed aircraft with Western ones. It is the first lease between AerVenture and Aeroflot. In 2005, AerCap, one of the partners in AerVenture along with LoadAir and Al Fawares, ordered 70 A320s, from which the Aeroflot aircraft will be drawn. All aircraft are to be in place by March 2009.
Singapore Technologies Aerospace is looking to bring more foreign work into China as it and partner China Eastern Airlines more than double the capacity of their Shanghai airframe maintenance joint venture, Starco. The pair have conceptual plans for further expansion of Starco, and the Singapore company, known as ST Aerospace, is itself keen for more opportunities in China.
Controllers are moving the first Wideband Global Satcom (WGS) military communications satellite into position over the Pacific Ocean after an Oct. 10 launch on a Lockheed Martin Atlas V evolved expendable launch vehicle. The Atlas V 423 configuration performed as planned, placing the spacecraft into its transfer orbit without the shortfall it suffered on a classified National Reconnaissance Office mission in June. That problem, attributed to a leaky hydrogen fuel valve in the cryogenic RL10 upper stage engine, apparently has been resolved (AW&ST June 25, p.
NASA’s Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) is examining how the agency decides whether a particular mission should be manned or unmanned, and whether safety concerns are given appropriate weight in that process. Also likely to be included in the panel’s next report in November is standardization of flight test procedures at NASA centers, but the group has adopted a wait-and-see approach while NASA completes its investigation into allegations of preflight alcohol abuse by members of the astronaut corps. U.S. Navy Vice Adm.
U.S. Army Brig. Gen. (ret.) Bill Jacobs (see photo) has become vice president/general manager for special aviation for DynCorp International , Falls Church, Va.
German industry officials say the German air force is considering a data-relay satellite capability—either a dedicated small satellite or a shared system such as is proposed by the European Space Agency—to permit operational electronic intelligence (elint) to be quickly downloaded from its planned fleet of Global Hawk UAVs. The air force is also beginning to show interest in an operational elint satellite system proposed by France to complement imagery from its Global Hawk aircraft, known as Euro Hawks (AW&ST Sept. 24, p. 32).
The US Airline Pilots Assn. (USAPA) is trying to decertify the Air Line Pilots Assn. as the collective bargaining agent for the East and West groups at US Airways (AW&ST June 11, p. 42). Scott Theuer, a Philadelphia-based Boeing 737 captain and spokesman, says an audit indicates that USAPA has a sufficient number of signed cards from former America West pilots and US Airways pilots to trigger an election aimed at deposing ALPA.
Dr. Silvio Finkelstein of Argentina, retired chief of the Aviation Medicine Section of the Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization , has won its Edward Warner Award for his leadership in aviation medicine and contributions to safety in international civil aviation. Among Finkelstein’s efforts was a study on the potential adverse safety effects of smoking. A decade of pioneering work and research on the subject led to the adoption by the ICAO Assembly of a resolution restricting smoking on international passenger flights.
Messier-Dowty has inaugurated the 1,200-sq.-meter (12,912-sq.-ft.) landing gear system test center for the A400M to evaluate the airlifter’s key subsystem performance during the development program. The rig will mainly be used for functional and endurance testing. The first set of landing gears was recently delivered to the EADS CASA final assembly line in Seville, Spain.
A joint U.S. Commerce and Defense Dept. team has decided not to alter the filter on the Visible/Infrared Imager/Radiometer Suite (Viirs) sensor being built for the National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) Preparatory Project satellite. Viirs, the most troublesome of the Npoess sensors, has experienced problems with “optical crosstalk,” or light leaks. However, program officials have decided to leave the system’s filter as is, though some readings on ocean color and aerosols may be slightly affected.
VFA-213 stationed at NAS Oceana, Va., is the first F/A-18F squadron whose aircraft are equipped with AESA radar with small target detection capability, for precision targeting (of bombs or electrons) and as much as three times the range of a conventional radar. The Block 2 Super Hornet's sensor capabilities and cockpit design allow the two crewmen to conduct different missions simultaneously such as air-to-air, air-to-ground and electronic attack.
Advocates of space solar power (SSP)-collecting the Sun's energy in geostationary orbit and beaming it back to Earth as microwaves or laser beams-are encouraged by a new Pentagon report. The National Security Space Office (NSSO) finds the SSP concept a “strategic opportunity” and an “energy-on-demand” tactical asset for deployed forces.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington), Michael A. Taverna (Turin, Italy)
The combined crews of the International Space Station and the space shuttle Discovery are preparing to conduct the most complex mission of the station-assembly sequence, setting up the ISS to accept long-delayed laboratory modules from NASA’s partners. An engineering dispute over the integrity of three crucial reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) thermal protection panels threatens to delay the launch well past the Oct. 23 target. Senior NASA managers will settle the issue on Oct. 16.
The statement that no one demonstrated detonation combustor with common fuels is incorrect and unfair as it disregards a long-term NASA projects in the late 1980s.
The British government and industry are in sensitive discussions over “trade-offs” regarding cutting the number of Typhoon Tranche 3 aircraft to be purchased by the Defense Ministry. The talks appear to be in parallel with four-nation work to put together a bid proposal for the Tranche 3 production run. This work also includes aircraft-number “options” for the U.K. and Italy “to support their business case,” says one U.K. industry executive close to the program.
It was jolting when dozens of institutional investors and stock analysts visiting SAIC Inc. were told to turn off their Blackberrys so they wouldn’t interfere with CEO Kenneth Dahlberg’s microphone. But SAIC should be forgiven for the faux pas. Having gone public a year ago this week, it was the company’s first investor conference.
Walt Hepker has been appointed vice president-business development for Thales Communications Inc. , Clarksburg, Md. He was vice president-program management. Hepker succeeds Diane Reineke, who is now head of the company’s C4ISR unit. Hepker will be succeeded by Glen Parker, who has been manager of the Joint Tactical Radio System and Handheld, Manpack and Small Factor programs. Cesar A. (Tony) Urenda has been named business development manager for tactical communications.
Dale L. Jensen, in his letter “Time To Ditch Old Style Engines” (AW&ST Sept. 24, p. 10), is out of touch with the realities and physics of liquid rocket propulsion. Non-stoichiometric mixture ratios have always been used in rocket engines, not to lessen engineering challenges but to maximize exhaust velocity and thus maximize propulsive thrust, hence efficiency. The original J2 engine had a molecular mixture ratio of 2.9 of fuel to oxygen to provide a specific impulse of 418 seconds, an astonishing high value for the era.
Wayne Iurillo (see photo) has been named vice president/general manager of the Raytheon Technical Services Co.’s Indianapolis-based Customized Engineering and Depot Support unit. He was director of tactical communication systems/general manager of the Fort Wayne, Ind., facility for Raytheon Network Centric Systems.
Thales has been selected to supply 48 TopOwl helmet-mounted displays for the Spanish army’s 24-aircraft Tiger attack helicopter fleet. The HMDs, ordered by the Spanish affiliate of helicopter prime contractor Eurocopter, are to be delivered starting next year.
