Eddie Johnson's Viewpoint “NASA's Plan Shorts Safety” (AW&ST Feb. 3/10, p. 82) is on target in being concerned about the safety of the commercial crew vehicles now under development. The Orion procurement (in 2006) emphasized safety and required that responding contractors demonstrate compliance with the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB).
At capacity-constrained airports around the world, high winds are a major cause of flight delays and cancellations, often as a result of the knock-on effects of reduced airport flow rates. Landing aircraft currently have to maintain set distances apart due to the wake vortices occurring from the wingtip, but research has shown that in strong headwinds, ground speeds on approach are reduced and the effect of the vortices is quickly dissipated, potentially allowing the distances separating the aircraft to be reduced.
Brian Clegg has been appointed vice president-global aerial operations for Erickson Air-Crane Inc., Portland, Ore. He succeeds H.E. “Mac” McClaren, who has become Washington-based vice president-government, defense and security programs. Clegg was vice president-flight operations for the CHC Helicopter Corp.
For offshore helicopter pilots, the approach to oil and gas platforms is one of the most work-intensive periods of the flight. During bad weather, pilots can struggle with high winds, while low visibility and clouds sometimes obscure heli-decks that often sit hundreds of feet above the sea level, and obstacles such as cranes and gas flares create challenges in the final moments before touchdown.
Matthijs de Haan (see photo) has become general manager of Terma the Netherlands in Leiden. He succeeds Richard Jones, who is retiring; de Haan was director of the Holland Space Cluster in Noordwijk.
New green propulsion technology developed by Swedish Space Corp. is expected to help Skybox Imaging sell black-and-white images at resolutions well below 1-meter ground-sample distance, positioning the Mountain View, Calif.-based startup to compete with established remote-sensing service providers in the U.S., Europe and Israel. Skybox Chief Executive Tom Ingersoll says the first two of a planned 24-satellite constellation of small, optical imaging spacecraft can already offer panchromatic products at 90-cm ground-sample distance.
Diana L. Sands has been named senior vice president of Chicago-based Boeing's Office of Internal Governance, effective April 1. She has been vice president-finance/corporate controller and is succeeding Wanda Denson-Low, who is retiring. Robert E. Verbeck, who has been vice president/chief financial officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security in St. Louis, has been appointed to succeed Sands. And he will be followed by Leanne Caret, who has been vice president/general manager for vertical lift in Philadelphia.
Temperatures soar to beyond 1,000C in the turbine sections of helicopter engines. This is hardly a hospitable environment for a condenser microphone. But Berlin-based German Aerospace Center (DLR) researchers, because they needed to take sound measurements in just such inhospitable places for experiments useful in the decades-long pursuit of quieter helicopters, have designed a special housing and coiled sound canal probe for the job.
Rafi Maor returned to Israel Aerospace Industries as chairman in November 2013. He had worked on the Lavi fighter program and led IAI's unmanned aircraft systems division before leaving the company for the information and telecom industries. Maor gave his first media interview to Senior International Defense Editor Bill Sweetman at last month's Singapore Airshow. AW&ST: What is your view of how big the civil unmanned air system market will be, and how soon it will start to take off?
USAF Brig. Gen. Jay B. Silveria has been selected for promotion to major general and appointment as commander of the U.S. Air Warfare Command Center of Air Combat Command, Nellis AFB, Nev. He has been vice commander of the 14th Air Force of Air Force Space Command, Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Col. David A. Krumm has been selected for promotion to brigadier general and appointment as vice commander of the 5th Air Force, Pacific Air Forces, Yokota AB, Japan. He has been principal military assistant to the secretary of defense at the Pentagon.
Bryce Wiedeman has become president and Kevin McHenry vice president-sales of Airborne Systems North America, Pennsauken, N.J., which was recently acquired by their employer, Transdigm Group Inc. Wiedeman was president of Avionic Instruments, a Transdigm subsidiary, and McHenry was vice president of Transdigm and had been president of subsidiary Adams Rite Aerospace.
Following its recent decision to pursue large geared-turbofan designs for next-generation engines in the 2020s and beyond, Rolls-Royce has announced plans to expand its aerospace research and technology capabilities in Dahlewitz, Germany, with construction of a new testbed for power gearboxes.
The U.K. government has selected Honeywell's SmartPath ground-based augmentation system to complement a standard ground-based instrument landing system (ILS) at a new airport being built on St. Helena island. The British territory is in the South Atlantic Ocean, 1,100 mi. from the African mainland and 700 mi. from the nearest diversion airport. St. Helena is in the process of building its first airport, slated to be operating in 2016 and opening the island to tourism. The facility will have a single 5,085-ft.-long, 150-ft.-wide runway.
The board of Finmeccanica has approved plans for a new organizational and operating model for its companies. Finmeccanica, which is saddled with high debts, is looking to divest its transportation units and make aerospace, defense and space its core focus. Companies affected by the changes are AgustaWestland, AleniaAermacchi, Selex ES, OTO Melara, WASS and SuperJet International. Other firms in the group, including DRS Technologies and FATA, will be managed separately.
Assad Kotaite, a Lebanese diplomat who served in key positions at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) for more than three decades, died Feb. 27 of cancer in Montreal. He was 89.
Certainly one of the more remarkable business aviation developments of 2013 is behind this statistic: 137 twin turboprops were delivered, a 45% increase over 2012. What happened? Beechcraft happened. All but two of those airplanes were King Airs.
NASA officials say they are not planning for a disruption in the International Space Station (ISS) operations growing out of the U.S.-Russian confrontation over Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, because the partnership that controls the ISS is solid.
As Boeing explores interest in a 757 replacement (AW&ST Feb. 24, p. 28), an obvious solution presents itself—a 757 MAX. The 757 is known for its range, payload and hot-and-high takeoff capabilities. This rugged and reliable airframe is beloved by flight crews and maintenance personnel alike. Restarting production of the 757 with new-generation engines and some modest aerodynamic and systems refinements would produce an economical solution to the 757 replacement issue.
Rachel Ehrenfeld's Viewpoint “Protect Airliners from SAM Threat” was insightful and accurate. I have worked for large aircraft defensive systems for more than 20 years and can readily see that Ehrenfeld has done her homework. Cursory dismissal or deflection of this issue is neither appropriate nor effective. Executive transport (Air Force One and other head-of-state aircraft) are equipped with defensive systems to counter the infrared surface-to-air missile threat, as are a good portion of our airlift aircraft and El Al Airlines.
At least one more iteration of a budget shell game must play out before the Pentagon and industry can feel good about how Congress will fund military investments over the next five fiscal years. The telltale event will be how Capitol Hill receives the Pentagon's $26 billion wish list, which comes on top of its base budget request for 2015. The list includes attack helicopters and two more Joint Strike Fighters, top Defense Department officials said last week in rolling out the request (see page 30).
