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.
Nathan Manning (see photos) has become Fort Worth-based vice president/general manager of the Eaton Aerospace Group's Fluid and Electrical Distribution Div. and Benjamin Yiu Shanghai-based Asia-Pacific general manager. Manning was president/CEO of General Electric and Aviation Industry Corp. of China joint venture Aviage Systems in Shanghai. Yiu was mobile business manager for Power and Motion Controls in the Eaton Hydraulics Group. He had worked for the Concurrent Computer Corp. and China Aerospace International Holdings Ltd.
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.
As composite structures become larger, more integrated and more critical, guaranteeing the integrity of a major repair when the aircraft returns to service is a growing imperative. Research into methods of checking repairs in situ could pave the way for wider structural health monitoring.
Rachel Ehrenfeld's Viewpoint, “Protect Airliners from SAM Threat” (AW&ST Feb. 17, p. 58) is dead-on. One of the clearest lessons learned from the events of 9/11 was the failure to imagine risk. Airline executives make risk decisions—both business and safety related—every day and those decisions are informed by hard facts concerning the likelihood and consequence of an event. Clearly the likelihood of a surface-to-air missile (SAM) attack against an airliner is growing, but are the airlines and their insurance companies prepared for the consequences?
Pamela Drew has been promoted to executive vice president of Exelis, McLean, Va. She will continue as president of the company's information systems business. Drew has been senior vice president-strategic capabilities and technology at TASC Inc. and was vice president-business development for Northrop Grumman Mission Systems.
A Japanese H-IIA launcher lifts off Feb. 27 with the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Earth-science spacecraft onboard, setting up unprecedented coverage of rain and snowfall from a slot in the sun-synchronous “A-train” satellite constellation. Liftoff of the GPM “core observatory” came at 1:37 p.m. EST (3:37 a.m. Feb. 28 local time) from the launch site on Tanegashima Island in southeastern Japan, and the big rocket performed nominally.
USAF Maj. Gen. John B. Cooper has been appointed director of logistics at Headquarters Air Combat Command (ACC), Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. He has been director of logistics/deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. Cooper has been succeeded by Brig. Gen. Kathryn J. Johnson, who has been director of system integration, at USAF Headquarters. Col. Brian T.
Brian Oszakiewski has been become director of government affairs for the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Association. He was legislative director for U.S. Rep. Dan Lipinski (D-Ill.).
Following several articles in the Feb. 17 issue devoted to electronic warfare (pages 42-50) and increasingly bloated defense budgets (pages 52-54) is a one-page Viewpoint (page 58) outlining how a few man-portable missiles could have a catastrophic impact on the world's economy by bringing down one or more commercial airliners.
Bonnie J. Cook has been promoted to executive vice president-business operations for its Mission Solutions & Services Group from head of financial operations and the integration of acquisitions for the Mantech International Corp., Fairfax, Va. Ulrich Storchle (see photos) has been named managing director of MBDA Deutschland subsidiary TDW GmbH. He was managing director of Bayern-Chemie GmbH and succeeds Helmut Hederer, who has been appointed managing director of Taurus Systems GmbH.
This week, Aviation Week publishes two editions. A special report on air traffic management includes articles on Nav Canada's initiatives to improve the flow over the busiest oceanic routes (page 32). Nav Canada graphic. Elsewhere in both editions are reports on Rolls-Royce's plans (page 20), changes looming for helicopter operators (page 28), a new U.S. military satellite system (page 22) and repairing damage to composites (page 36). Our MRO Edition cover photo by SR Technics shows a mechanic working on a Rolls-Royce Trent 900.
Herman Wacker has been appointed vice president-legal for the Alaska Air Group. He was deputy general counsel/managing director of legal. Shannon Alberts has been named corporate secretary. She was managing director of corporate affairs and assistant corporate secretary, and has been succeeded by Kyle Levine.
Aeronautical Radio of Thailand Ltd., known as Aerothai, is a state enterprise with about 90% owned by the government and 10% by the airlines. It is operated on a cost-recovery basis as a non-profit organization. Any annual surplus is returned to airlines, and they are also charged for any deficit. The organization was founded by airlines in 1948, and the government acquired a majority stake in 1963. It now has about 2,800 employees.
The successful launch of a Delta IV with the GPS IIF-5 spacecraft Feb. 20 indicates fixes added to the launcher's engine-processing procedures worked as planned, even though final reports on the 2012 Delta IV anomaly that generated low thrust in its RL-10B-2 upper-stage engine are not expected until April. The big rocket carrying the timing and navigation satellite lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 8:59 p.m. EST, right on time after a five-month delay, while the issues raised by the 2012 launch were addressed.
Some aircraft are regarded as seminal, as having defined or shaped a market, as Boeing's 707 did for the jetliner and General Atomics' Predator has for unmanned aircraft. Such a status could be due the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-Max helicopter as soon as unmanned cargo delivery becomes routine.
U.S. national security officials are sorting through intelligence collected about North Korea's latest missile test. South Korean media reported that Pyongyang fired four short-range ballistic missiles on Feb. 27. They “appeared to be of the Scud variety [and] were fired in a northeasterly direction and landed off [North Korea's] coast,” a spokesman says. Top national security lawmakers are not yet commenting on the apparent test.
Skybox Imaging plans to use a commercial version of the Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC) Minotaur 1 rocket to launch six of its cubesat-derived high-resolution imaging satellites in 2015, potentially clearing the way for an OSC launch of seven more of the Space Systems/Loral spacecraft. Orbital is developing a dispenser for the Skybox satellites, which measure 60 x 60 x 95 cm each (2 x 2 x 3 ft.) and weigh about 120 kg (265 lb.), and is buying the rocket's solid-fuel stages commercially from ATK instead of using government-furnished variants.
March 14-16—Valiant Air Command 2014 Tico Warbird Air Show. Titusville, Fla. www.vacwarbirds.org March 18-19—2014 Precision Strike Annual Review (PSAR-14). Waterford Conference Center. Springfield, Va. www.precisionstrike.org/Events/4PSAR/4PSAR.html March 18-21 and 24-27—Fatigue Concepts Courses in Fatigue, Fracture Mechanics and Damage Tolerances of Aging and Modern Aircraft Structures. Perth, Australia. Call +1 (916) 390-5000 or see www.fatcon.com/s March 25-30—FIDAE. Santiago, Chile. www.fidae.cl/portal_fidae.aspx
Aerospace and defense companies feature prominently as partners in two public-private advanced manufacturing institutes launched by the Obama administration. Led by EWI and headquartered in Detroit, the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII) involves a 60-member consortium that includes Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric and United Technologies Research Center.
