The recent interview of Boeing CEO James McNerney ( AW&ST July 14, p. 62) was disappointing, especially compared with SpaceX founder Elon Musk’s vision. It sounded like Boeing was ready to throw in the towel. If there is ever going to be a breakthrough in science, technology, flight and whatever is beyond, it will come from outside of our two traditional airframe manufacturers. SpaceX? Possibly, but it could emerge from an entity none of us know of yet.
Craig Pluim has been named sales director for Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services-North America, Richmond, British Columbia. He was a regional sales director for Heli-One and had been director of maintenance/general manager for Arctic Air Service Inc.
Patrick Neary (see photos) has been promoted to vice president-engineering for the Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Redondo Beach, California-based Aerospace Systems sector unmanned systems programs from director of systems integration and test and evaluation.
Robin Coackley has become an account manager for U.K.-based Envitia. He was an executive with Exelis and has been a member on the Geological Remote Sensing Group.
David Read has been appointed vice president-sales for Europe, the Middle East and Africa for Atlanta-based Maintag. He was director of business development for Europe for Xerafy.
Todd Bitgood (see photo) has been promoted to manager of FlightSafety International’s Learning Center in Long Beach, California, from assistant manager of the St. Louis Learning Center. He succeeds Pete Nily, who has become a regional director of training operations.
USAF Col. Michael Norton has become commander of the Eastern Air Defense Sector of the New York National Guard at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome. He was chief of the National Guard Bureau International Affairs Div. of the Strategic Plans, Policy and International Affairs Directorate in Washington.
Charles Reed (see photo) has become a supervising communications and security engineer for airport and other transit facilities in the New York office of Parsons Brinckerhoff.
Kimberly Kerry, vice president-C4I systems for the Middle East and North America for Raytheon, is among the members of the board of directors named for Raytheon Atheeb Systems Ltd., the Saudi Arabia joint venture of the Raytheon Co. and Pannesma Co. Ltd.
Boeing is tackling previously undisclosed development issues with wiring bundles on the KC-46A tanker for the U.S. Air Force, but says the problems are “well understood” and will not cause significant delays to the pivotal defense program. The wiring issues have forced Boeing to redesign and reengineer harnesses throughout parts of the military derivative of the 767, and the additional work triggered a one-time $272 million second-quarter after-tax charge.
Bombardier is restructuring its aerospace unit and creating three stand-alone segments in a surprise move that includes the sudden “retirement” of Bombardier Aerospace President and Chief Operating Officer Guy Hachey (see photo). The Canadian transportation giant will be reorganized into a new aerostructures and engineering services segment and the existing divisions for commercial aircraft and business aircraft. The heads of all three businesses will report to Bombardier Inc. President and CEO Pierre Beaudoin “effective immediately,” the company said July 23.
David Hewitt, executive vice president for safety of Wheels Up, has been named chairman of the Alexandria, Virginia-based Air Charter Safety Foundation. Greg Kinsella, president/CEO of Key Air, is the new vice chairman. Hewitt succeeds Jeff Baum, president/CEO of Wisconsin Aviation.
Jim Welch has been appointed chairman of the Louisville (Kentucky) Regional Airport Authority board of directors. He was vice chairman and has been succeeded by Phil Lynch. Jon Meyer has been reelected secretary-treasurer. Welch is vice chairman of the Brown-Forman Corp. and Lynch is its vice president-corporate communications. Meyer is partner/chairman of Jones, Nale and Mattingly, certified public accountants.
The Vietnamese navy is close to completing its first fleet of fixed-wing aircraft with the delivery of the final pair of Viking Air DHC-6-400 Guardian maritime patrol and utility aircraft.
