Travis Slocumb (see photo) has been named head of the Raytheon Co.'s Electronic Warfare Systems, El Segundo, Calif. He was vice president-strategy and business development for the company's Space and Airborne Systems.
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.
Reader Ted Klapka's letter (AW&ST March 3, p. 8) regarding the recent Viewpoint “Protect Airlines From SAM Threats” (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 58) is insular to the extreme. U.S. airlines (as well as those of other nations) fly all over the world, frequently in the skies of nations that harbor terrorists who would like nothing more than to stage an encore to 9-11. I will grant him that “no one gets out of this life alive,” but the vast majority of us would prefer it to be via natural causes.
The U.S. is close to completing the nationwide deployment of a satellite-based navigation network, which will be by far the largest such system in the world and a key foundation for the NextGen initiative.
Boeing's Maritime Surveillance Aircraft (MSA) demonstrator, a modified Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet, has been flown to Boeing's Yuma, Ariz., facility to prepare for initial certification flight tests following extensive conversion work by Toronto-based Field Aviation. The aircraft forms a prototype platform for development of the MSA, which is designed for nations seeking a lower cost surveillance and patrol capability without the full anti-submarine and surface vessel warfare capacity of the P-8.
Scheduling issues at Cape Canaveral, including launch of a classified U.S. government spacecraft known as Clio, may force NASA to delay its long-planned first flight of the Orion deep-space crew capsule from mid-September into October. “We'll probably move a little bit from the September time frame just because of the launch manifest, probably somewhere into October,” says William Gerstenmaier, associate NASA administrator for human exploration and operations.
Elizabeth L. Schmid has become vice president for national security and acquisition policy for the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association. She was on the staff of the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense and previously the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Slowly, steadily Japan is building its naval aviation strength, and with it a latent capacity for local power projection. A third helicopter carrier, launched in August, is due for commissioning in 2015, while a sister ship is planned and probably under construction. In December, Japan decided to take the first steps toward increasing its amphibious capability, which will likely produce at least two ships larger than the current three, with full-length flight decks.
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.
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.
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.
Right now, the majority of aviation development in India is like the tango; two steps forward, one back, stop and gaze at your partner, wait for applause, then repeat.
Daniel G. Korte has been appointed president/CEO of LMI Aerospace Inc. of St. Louis to succeed the retiring Ronald S. Saks, who will remain non-executive chairman of the board. Korte was president of Defense Aerospace at Rolls-Royce and had been vice president/general manager of Global Strike Systems at Boeing.
Daniel F. Akerson, former chairman/CEO of General Motors, has been named to the board of directors of the Lockheed Martin Corp., Bethesda, Md. He also was a managing director of The Carlyle Group, and is a director of the United States Naval Academy Foundation.
The British Army has been cleared to begin flying the Thales U.K. Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system (UAS). The long-delayed UAS received its initial release to service documentation from the U.K. Military Aviation Authority on March 5. British Army pilots may now begin training flights with the system in segregated airspace over the Salisbury Plain Training Area in southern England. An interim contingency deployment capability for Watchkeeper is expected to be ready by the end of 2015.
John S. Rego (see photo) has been appointed CFO of Virgin Galactic, Mojave, Calif. He was CFO of AppSense Inc. in New York and had been executive vice president/CFO/treasurer of the Vonage Holdings Corp.
Aurelien Blanc has been appointed managing director of the Turbomeca Asia Pacific subsidiary of Safran. He had been commercial director for Southeast Asia for Airbus Helicopters.
Space Exploration Technologies is one step closer to competing against the United Launch Alliance, the Pentagon's monopoly rocket provider, for defense work. The U.S. Air Force has ruled that the maiden Falcon 9 v1.1 flight last fall will be counted as one of three required for SpaceX to be certified to compete for boosting U.S. national security payloads.
