Mark A. Caylor (see photos) has been named corporate vice president/president of Enterprise Services/chief strategy officer and Stephen C. Movius corporate vice president/treasurer of Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp. Caylor adds the chief strategy officer role. Movius continues as vice president-investor relations.
S hawn Kling has been named president of Universal Asset Management , Memphis, Tennessee. He has been chairman of Gulf Strategic; a member of the boards of directors of Global Energy & Lighting and Red Arrow Logistics; and strategic adviser to Dynamis Energy. Greg Brinkerhoff has been appointed chief financial officer.
USN Rear Adm. Jesse A. Wilson, Jr., has become director of the Joint Integrated Air and Missile Defense Organization on the Joint Staff, succeeding USAF Brig. Gen. Kenneth E. Todorov. Wilson was executive assistant to the chief of naval operations and interim deputy director of the 21st Century Sailor Office.
John Croft’s “False Promises” ( AW&ST July 21, p. 38), which covers preventing autopilot false glideslope prompts, made me think of the crash of a Gulfstream G-2 into the side of a mountain in Hot Springs, Virginia, on Sept. 26, 1976. I was an air traffic controller at Trenton Mercer Airport in New Jersey, where the aircraft, owned by Johnson & Johnson, departed.
“Out There” and related articles ( AW&ST June 23, pp. 38-46) show how NASA and its partners are developing hardware to support an eventual human presence on Mars. But how can the public be inspired to fund a program when the results are so far in the future they won’t be seen by many of today’s taxpayers?
I take exception to the commentary “A Fine Mess” by Madhu Unnikrishnan ( AW&ST July 21, p. 19). It is a naked endorsement supporting Norwegian Air International’s (NAI) attempt to serve the U.S. An opposing opinion should receive equal weight.
Regarding “Malaysian 777 Shootdown—Another Big Blow” ( AW&ST July 21, p. 12), even though it is well known that surface-to-air missiles emit a white exhaust plume during launch and climb, I have read of no reports of such a plume being witnessed. Is it possible the Russians have developed a stealth combustion propulsion fuel?
Aug. 21-22—Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Worldwide UAS Workshop. Dayton Beach, Florida. See proed.erau.edu or email [email protected] Aug. 22—54th Annual Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine Conference. Bangalore. www.isam.in/ Aug. 25—Ninth Asia-Pacific Congress of Aerospace Medicine. Beijing. www.apfama.org/2014
Two government sensors that may fly in space under the new U.S. Air Force Hosted Payloads Solutions program (see page 27) are a French-built advanced data-collection system that will receive data from ocean buoys and electronic-tagged marine life, and a Franco-Canadian search-and-rescue satellite-aided tracking system. Both were developed for NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and both were left without rides to orbit when the joint civil/military National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (Npoess) was cancelled in 2010.
The commercial aircraft industry has largely stayed on the sidelines of the political tension between Russia and the West, but that may be changing. The latest round of sanctions imposed after the shoot-down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 includes the suspension of Ex-Im Bank deals with Russia—a decision that could hurt Boeing’s commercial aircraft sales there.
Do guitars qualify as carry-on luggage? According to Congress, they should. But as is often the case in Washington, the law hasn’t quite caught up with the rules. Though a law was passed two years ago mandating that musical instruments can be safely stowed on commercial flights, the Transportation Department hasn’t yet completed the rules to implement the law. This disconnect might have gone unnoticed, if not for an incident involving the folk-rock band Deer Tick. U.S.
With about 3,000 built, and around 400 still in operation around the world, the L-39 Albatros jet trainer was a major success for Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody.
Planetary scientists hope the seven instruments NASA has competitively selected for its planned Mars 2020 rover will find evidence that life has existed on the red planet and maybe that it still does.
The first two of four U.S. Air Force Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites—developed under contract with Orbital Sciences Corp. in secret—are now operating in “near geosynchronous” orbit (GEO) as a “neighborhood watch.”
Boeing has completed the main wing spar of the 279th and final C-17, marking the start of assembly for the last military airlifter to be made at its Long Beach, California, facility. The aircraft, which will be completed with the shutdown of the line in 2015, is one of 10 still unsold. Boeing says it is confident of placing all 10 by the end of the year with unspecified customers in the Middle East and possibly elsewhere. Other potential takers include India, which received its sixth C-17 on July 28. The Indian air force has 10 C-17s on firm order.
Boeing will assemble the 787-10, the third and longest 787 derivative, exclusively at its Charleston, South Carolina, facility, making it the first of any Boeing commercial model to be completed away from the U.S. West Coast. The decision was widely expected, since the 110-ft. midbody section of the 787-10 will be 10 ft.
Tunisia wants to purchase a fleet of heavily armed Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters, as the country modernizes its armed forces. The deal with the North African country could be worth $700 million, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified the U.S. Congress of the possible program July 23. Tunisia has requested 12 UH-60Ms along with a large quantity of AGM-114 Hellfire missiles, 2.75-in. Hydra unguided rockets and the integration work that could turn some of those unguided weapons into guided ones.
