The Royal New Zealand Air Force has become the latest customer for the Beechcraft T-6 Texan turboprop trainer. Beechcraft and Global Mission Support have partnered with Safe Air and CAE to provide 11 T-6s and simulators and other equipment to support training. The T-6 will replace the CT-4 Airtrainer. The first four are scheduled to be delivered in November, and all 11 by mid-2015.
Scott Fitzgerald (see photo) has become director of business development for advanced sensor systems of the Physical Optics Corp., Torrance, Calif. He was electronic warfare chief engineer and systems engineering manager for Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems, Goleta, Calif.
Small UAVs have represented the largest number of losses in Germany's unmanned fleet since their introduction over the last decade. The greatest losses were of LUNA tactical reconnaissance UAVs, according to the latest figures from the Bundeswehr. LUNA losses totaled 56—45 destroyed, including 24 that crashed, and 11 missing. Some 23 Aladin mini-UAVs were destroyed, including six that crashed, and another 10 that are missing. Two Mikado micro-UAVs crashed, and two others went missing.
Aaron Gellman has been named to receive the Francis X. McKelvey Award for 2014 from the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies in Washington. Gellman is a professor at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and was director of Northwestern's Transportation Center. He is being honored for his commitment to the betterment of the aviation industry. McKelvey was also a consultant and co-author of the textbook Planning and Design of Airports.
An audacious project to convert land-based helicopters for shipborne amphibious operations has been given the go-ahead by the U.K. Defense Ministry. The £330 million ($546 million) program, awarded to AgustaWestland in December but only formally announced on Jan. 29, helps to secure the U.K.'s amphibious power projection capabilities, which will become a key part of the country's ability to mount a Responsive Force Task Group (RFTG) on its future Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.
The U.S. Air Force should restructure up to 10% of its active-duty force into either its federal reserve component or the Air National Guard, including aircraft, to save money and maintain optimal capability in a post-war era of austerity, says a highly anticipated report issued Jan. 30.
Robert Randall has become senior sales manager for the U.S. for Universal Avionics, Tucson, Ariz. He has been OEM sales manager in 2012 and was Midwest U.S. sales manager. Honors And Elections
U.S. Strategic Command (Stratcom) has signed a new data-sharing agreement with France that will permit the exchange of space situational awareness information. The deal will allow the French defense ministry to request information gathered by Stratcom's Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., for launch support, satellite maneuver planning, in-orbit anomalies, electromagnetic interference, spacecraft decommissioning and collision avoidance, according to Stratcom.
Brian Moran has been appointed Brussels-based president for Boeing of European Union and NATO relations. He succeeds Antonio De Palmas, who has been named president of Boeing Italy. Moran has been the Berlin-based head of Boeing International's activities in Northern Europe and had been senior manager of international business development for the Nordic region, Switzerland and the U.K. De Palmas succeeds Rinaldo Petrignani, who is retiring.
Singapore is synonymous with MRO in the Asia-Pacific region, but the fast-paced growth of Asia-Pacific airlines is drawing local and global companies to establish aftermarket support entities in Indonesia and Malaysia as well.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense is expected next week to sign a long-awaited contract for the country's first squadron of F-35B Joint Strike Fighters. The so-called Main Gate 4 decision had been expected late last year, but it is now expected to be announced before Defense Secretary Philip Hammond visits Washington Feb. 4-6. The order will be for 14 aircraft to form the U.K.'s first operational F-35B unit. The U.K. already has three F-35Bs and a fourth on order.
As efforts to strengthen India's defense-industrial base have fallen far short of the country's self-reliance target, the military is continuing to look abroad for its defense hardware. That is encouraging to international equipment manufacturers from the U.S., Russia, France, Israel, the U.K. and Germany, which have been establishing relationships in India to sell aircraft, tanks, howitzers, unmanned aerial vehicles, combat vehicles, missiles, infantry weapons, submarines and support equipment.
Jim Roche, deputy CEO of Pilatus Aircraft, explains how the Swiss company expects to expand its presence in both defense and general aviation markets in India, in an interview with AW&ST Contributing Editor Jay Menon. AW&ST: What are the short- and long-term business plans for Pilatus in India?
“Open and Shut?,” on page 46 of the Jan. 20 issue, should have stated that it is the HS748 aircraft, known as the Avro in India, that is facing retirement.
Westchester County Airport (HPN), 30 mi. due north of Times Square, is one of business aviation's global hubs. Fittingly, it has always been home to five fixed-base operators (FBO) that fuel and pamper the based and visiting business jets, and those who fly and ride in them. But no more.
As one studies the FAA Part 117 regulation in terms of single augmented flight crews on flights between 8-10 hr., the rule becomes a step backward in terms of fatigue mitigation. An item in a recent Washington Outlook, “Chilly Rollout” (AW&ST Jan. 13, p. 47), underscores the dissension.
