Timing is everything, and the chronology of signatures President Barack Obama provided Dec. 26, 2013, to a couple of A&D-related laws has lowered and reformed a key tax benefit that federal contractors received. Under the Bipartisan Budget Act—the so-called Ryan-Murray budget deal that helps avoid another shutdown and allows fresh appropriations—federal reimbursement of certain contractor compensation packages applied to cost-type contracts has been capped at $487,000. That is down from more than $952,000 under an automatically adjusted regulatory formula.
Worsening the plight of airlines suffering unexpectedly weak demand, the Chinese government has limited most of its employees to flying economy class. Air China is likely to suffer the most from the new rules, which are part of President Xi Jinping's campaign against the efforts of millions of Chinese bureaucrats to divert public funds to their own benefit. The limits took effect on Jan. 1 and apply to the vast majority of Chinese officials.
Embraer has begun flight-testing its Legacy 450 mid-light business jet, a smaller version of the all-new mid-size Legacy 500 that is scheduled for certification in the first half of this year. Making its 1-hr., 35-min. first flight from Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, on Dec. 28, the Legacy 450 has the same 6-ft. cabin height, Honeywell HTF7500E turbofans, Rockwell Collins Fusion avionics, fly-by-wire and side-stick flight controls as the 500, but with a shorter cabin.
1984 A team of 10 managers starts work on a business plan for a new airline based in Dubai. 1985 Emirates is formally launched with Maurice Flanagan at the top. He has $10 million and five months to get the airline off the ground. Sheikh Ahmed bin Said Al Makhtoum and Tim Clark join. On Oct. 25, EK600 takes off from Dubai to Karachi, Emirates' first scheduled flight. The airline also flies to Mumbai and New Delhi.
Today's International Space Station has roots extending back more than 30 years, to the Cold War competition when the Soviet Union orbited Mir, and NASA, Canada, Europe and Japan planned a bigger outpost dubbed Space Station Freedom. 1987 concept for Space Station Freedom. Mir-2 concept from 1993. Some elements of the follow-on Soviet station found their way into the ISS.
USAF Maj. Gen. John W. Raymond has been nominated for promotion to lieutenant general and assignment as commander of the 14th Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) of Air Force Space Command/commander of the Joint Functional Component Command for Space of U.S. Strategic Command, Vandenberg AFB, Calif. He has been director of plans and policy for U.S. Strategic Command, Offutt AFB, Neb.
Textron's Scorpion two-seat advanced trainer is now in the flight-test phase. The company's public relations efforts remain minimal, although this is a valuable initiative, company-funded programs of such magnitude being a rare occurrence. But can an all-new military aircraft expect export success in the absence of domestic orders? Can Textron overcome such a handicap ? On the opposite side of the Atlantic, Dassault Aviation has not developed the Alpha Jet's long-overdue successor: Perhaps they should talk and jointly create a global product.
Michael T. Strianese, who is chairman/president/CEO of L-3 Communications, has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association for 2014. He succeeds Wes Bush, who is chairman/CEO/president of the Northrop Grumman Corp. The new vice chairman is David L. Joyce, president/CEO of GE Aviation. The board reelected Marion C. Blakey as AIA president/CEO and Ginette C. Colot as secretary-treasurer.
Were thousands of commercial airline flights in the U.S. canceled last week due to 1) the “polar vortex” that plunged most of the country—especially the eastern half—into a deep freeze, 2) the long-awaited implementation of a new FAA flight-time/duty-time regulation for air carriers operating under Part 117 or 3) both? Regardless, at least one regional carrier was quick to blame the new pilot rest rule. On Jan. 6, Northeast-focused JetBlue Airways imposed a 17-hr. shutdown, canceling more flights than any other carrier.
Lawmakers and regulators in the U.S. capital are spitting out new laws and regulations affecting aviation, aerospace and defense in rapid-fire fashion these days. After a year of seemingly nothing to show for their salaries but the bad effects of their inaction—think air traffic controller furloughs and the October 2013 federal shutdown—legislators this week could pass a $1.01 trillion, so-called omnibus appropriations bill for fiscal 2014 that keeps the government open and reintroduces some stability to Pentagon, NASA and FAA budget-making.
In “Fight and Train” you say “the F-35 remains the world's leading combat aircraft” (AW&ST Dec. 30, 2013/Jan. 6, 2014, p. 58). This is a bit of a stretch for an aircraft that has not yet reached squadron service, much less flown in combat.
A pushback collision between an Etihad Airways Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777-300 at Abu Dhabi in May 2012 reveals the complexities involved in solving the ramp damage problem, and in its final report on the incident, the United Arab Emirates' General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) focuses largely on non-technical solutions.
Kevin Dutton (see photo) has been appointed vice president-operations finance for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga. He has been director of materials and production finance. Scott Clarey has been named sales director for the Southwest U.S. and Kevin Brink for the Northwest U.S. Clarey was Western U.S. and Western Canada sales director for Piaggio America; Brink was sales director in that same area for Dassault Falcon Jet.
BAE Systems has begun flight trials of three-dimensional printed metallic components on the Panavia Tornado combat aircraft, as the company explores the potential benefits of the method. A one-off component—a bracket made from printed stainless steel and designed to carry a fixed thermal-imaging camera—has been fitted to a U.K. Royal Air Force Tornado GR4 the company uses for flight testing. The bracket was produced in a fraction of the time and cost that similar items would have previously taken.
“Again and Again” on the importance of the Northrop Grumman unmanned X-47B's recent repeated carrier landings (AW&ST Aug. 5/12, 2013, p. 50) states: “unmanned technology advocates say autonomous landing systems such as that used for the X-47B could be retrofitted onto other manned aircraft, reducing the cost of hours of training for pilots, while increasing safety.”
