Jake Hart (see photos) has become vice president-autopilot systems and Jim Shirey vice president-business development of Cobham subsidiary Chelton Flight Systems, Boise, Idaho. Hart was a marketing executive and Shirey a business development executive with Sagem Avionics Inc.
NASA faces major challenges in both the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE) and in reestablishing its role in aviation and technology development (AW&ST Jan. 1, p. 66). Unfortunately, the budget will not permit both. The cost of human spaceflight is simply too high, and it will not be reduced by the VSE. Nor does it make sense to abandon the International Space Station, the only practical destination for a future generation of reusable spacecraft.
The European Space Agency will split a €329-million ($424.4-million) prime contract for Bepi Colombo Mercury mission, the agency's next major science project, between Astrium and Alcatel Alenia Space. Astrium Germany will be overall prime contractor, with Astrium U.K. and Alcatel Alenia Italy as co-primes, says Jacques Louet, ESA's director of science projects. But Astrium Germany will shoulder the full program risk under a "political expedient" approved last week by ESA's industrial policy committee.
Though the overwhelming majority of the Pentagon's highly skilled technical workforce is at the cusp of or beyond retirement age, workers apparently aren't running for the door, as once feared. This is giving the Defense Dept. borrowed time to continue planning how to manage its aging workforce and head off a mass exodus.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael (Buzz) Moseley apparently isn't enthusiastic about his service's $15-billion decision to buy a variant of the CH-47 to be its future combat search and rescue helicopter. "Buzz . . . doesn't want his special operations guys having to fly the Chinook design," says a senior Air Force official, who adds that it's an older-generation aircraft than its combat-search-and-rescue competitors, Lockheed Martin/AgustaWestland's US101 variant and Sikorsky's S-92 derivative.
In the Nov. 27, 2006, issue (p. 10), an editor rebuts Karl Kettler's letter entitled "What's the Fuss About ADS-B?" Policy decisions have been made that Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is the en-route, if not terminal, air traffic control surveillance system of the future.
The importance of the Middle East as a market for luxury was underscored by Boeing's release of cabin concepts for its 787 VIP airplane, including this view of a flying office, at the Middle East Business Aviation Conference in Dubai last week. Most Boeing Business Jets are based on the 737 NG platform, but the company has taken seven orders for the 787. It isn't disclosing the home-base of those customers, but the huge expansion of business in the Middle East for commercial and private aviation can't be underestimated.
Air China has agreed with CFM International to set up a joint maintenance business in China. The airline has ordered 53 CFM56 engines for 24 A321s that will be delivered from 2008-12. The airline valued the order at $345 million, or $6.5 million per engine.
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency declared the Jan. 26 test of the Theater High-Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) system a success. This was the first trial of Thaad at the Pacific Missile Range Facility near Kauai island in Hawaii, a facility that allows MDA to run the interceptor through its entire flight regime. Tests at White Sands, N.M., required them to truncate some of its capabilities for range safety. On Jan. 26, the interceptor hit its Scud-representative target just outside the Earth's atmosphere.
Fears that the upcoming presidential elections could compromise the ongoing French military modernization program are proving unfounded, although some big programs, notably a second aircraft carrier, still appear at risk.
DFW International Airport's first natural gas well will become operational this spring and start swelling non-aviation revenue. The airport already has collected $185 million in an initial bonus last October from Chesapeake Energy Corp., which entered into a long-term oil-and-gas lease agreement with DFW, which has 18,000 acres for natural gas exploration and production. It will receive an annual royalty of 25% of the value of natural gas produced there. DFW is also working on a 150-acre commercial development to boost non-aviation revenue.
David Abney has been promoted to chief operating officer from president of UPS International and has been named president UPS Airlines to succeed John Beystehner, who has retired. Alan Gershenhorn succeeds Abney as president of UPS International. Gershenhorn was Brussels-based head of operations of UPS Supply Chain Solutions in Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa.
One of the features of the post-2001 airline environment in the U.S. has been the blurring of the boundaries between the traditional airline categories, and this trend shows every sign of continuing. Analysis of third-quarter cost data shows that while expenses for network carriers continue to decline, those for low-cost carriers (LCCs) are creeping upward--and some LCCs have effectively elevated themselves out of this category entirely.
A powerful new laser expected to expand greatly the ability of scientists to perform in-situ analysis of rocks is on its way to a 2009 rendezvous with Mars.
The Bush administration unveils its budget proposal for Fiscal 2008 this week, and both its context and content will carry risks and rewards for U.S. aerospace and aviation.
It may not have the heft of the proposed $4.8-billion sale of Smiths Aerospace to General Electric Co., but Esterline Technologies Corp.'s deal to acquire Canadian avionics concern CMC Electronics Inc. is another sign of supplier-level consolidation in aerospace, not to mention the growing role of private equity firms in industry mergers and acquisitions.
A week after Boeing said it would not use a wireless inflight entertainment system for the 787, that aircraft's launch customer, All Nippon Airways, opted for Panasonic Avionics Corp.'s eX2 system. A Panasonic official says the company was prepared to support either a wireless or wired IFE system. But he agreed with Boeing's assessment that wireless carries the greater risk in terms of regulatory approval and weight penalties (AW&ST Jan. 29, p. 21).
Jim Cameron has been named overhaul business unit manager and Bob Gurren manager of lean deployment, materials and OEM business for PAS Technologies Inc., Kansas City, Mo. Cameron was his unit's product line manager, while Gurren was manufacturing superintendent for the Formica Corp., Evandale, Ohio.
MARKET FOCUS Esterline deal for CMC continues supplier- level consolidation in aerospace 10 NEWS BREAKS AEDC placing kinetic-energy interceptors and kill vehicles in simulated orbits 16 EuroHawk wins contract from Germany to develop unmanned ISR aircraft 17 Boeing unveils cabin concepts for its 787 VIP 18 Airport to add cargo inspection proce- edure to baggage-screening system 18 Lockheed Martin's first Sbirs satellite finishes testing 20
Frederick G. Wasserman has been named to the board of directors of the Allied Defense Group Inc., Vienna, Va. He is chief operating and financial officer of Mitchell & Ness Nostalgia Co.
Patricia Garcia has become vice president-contracts for Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, Garland, Tex. She was director of contracts for Raytheon Network-Centric Systems.
Japan Airlines Corp. is tackling a key cause of its unprofitability--its immense fleet of 70 Boeing 747s. Seeking higher yields and lower costs, the airline's 2007 fleet plan accelerates retirements of 747-200s and -300s as more -400s are converted to freighters. Long-haul routes, especially to Europe, are being slimmed down but the carrier, Asia's largest, is building up services closer to home, piling on flights to Asian markets such as China and planning to add more when new runway capacity becomes available in a few years.
David A. Fulghum, Amy Butler and John M. Doyle (Washington)
New U.S. military aircraft programs are again under siege, this time from within the Pentagon. The Army and Marine Corps have signaled their intention to push for more of the defense budget to pay for increasing their total manpower strength by 92,000 additional troops and replacing equipment used up by combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Svein Oppegaard, who is the head of Human Resources at SAS Braathens, also will be acting head of human resources for the SAS Group. He succeeds Bernhard Rikardsen, who has resigned as executive vice president.
