The U.S. Navy's Unmanned Carrier-Launched Airborne Surveillance and Strike (Uclass) effort has garnered lots of headlines for the innovations it represents, but the service is trying to use the program to prod the acquisition world into new thinking. And while seemingly bureaucratic, the new approach might just help the Navy land its desired Uclass fleet even as the military and intelligence sectors enter a long-term austere budget environment.
Russia is re-arming a fleet of modern new helicopters, including the fearsome-looking Mil Mi-28 Night Hunter, seen here in a photo taken by Chris Lofting at a celebration of the Russian air force's 100th anniversary in 2012. Russia's aerospace industry is hoping such hardware will revive the sector (see page 45). Elsewhere in this issue are reports on cybersecurity, beginning on page 48, and on delays in China's C919 transport program (see page 39).
Gregory Gicca has become director of marketing for Verocel, Westford, Mass. He has been director of safety and security product marketing at AdaCore and Green Hills Software.
In what appears to be a major challenge to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty, a recent Israeli-launched drone strike against suspected terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula breached Egyptian sovereignty for the first time since the 1979 accord. The strike occurred in the midst of a sensitive time for the Egyptian army; it is still clashing with supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood movement—more than a month after Egyptian top brass deposed the movement from power. The two nations have tried to deny that the Aug. 9 strike took place.
Leaks of classified information from former Booz Allen Hamilton and U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden have given the NSA a world-class public-relations headache. Private citizens are reeling too, having not yet grasped the extent to which digital communications were potentially subject to state scrutiny. As the U.S. continues communications surveillance as a tool to fight terrorism, it faces both in-house and international data-privacy concerns. That struggle will also present new challenges for industry.
Capt. (ret.) Elliot M. Cannon (Paso Robles, Calif. ), United Parcel Service (Paso Robles, Calif. )
In reference to “Fired Up” (AW&ST July 29, p. 46), which deals with the September 2010 crash of UPS Flight 6 from Dubai to Cologne, Germany, what makes anyone think a video recording would have done any good in a cockpit filled with “continuous toxic smoke”?
When Pilatus Aircraft began contemplating a successor to its iconic PC-6 Porter, it initially considered an unpressurized, turboprop-powered utility aircraft. But Cessna preempted that concept with its Model 208 Caravan. Recalculating, the Stans, Switzerland, designers settled on something unprecedented. They conjured up a large-cabin, executive/utility aircraft with a big cargo door, a single PT6 turboprop, short- and rough-field capability, pressurization to cruise over the weather and enough horses to do so at 280 kt.
The FAA's fire safety branch is ordering 45,800 lithium-chemistry batteries for “large-scale” fire tests in a Boeing 727 testbed at its William J. Hughes Technical Center this fall. According to a request for quote issued on Aug. 13, the batteries are to be used as part of ongoing research “in support of a Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) and FAA rulemaking on the shipment of lithium-ion batteries by air. “These cells are to be used for large-scale fire tests that will provide data in support of the rulemaking,” says the FAA.
Sabine Minarsky-Bstandig (see photo) has been appointed vice president/manager of the Human Resources Div. of the Austrian Airlines Group, effective Nov. 1. She succeeds Michael Ruplitsch, who has left the company. She has been head of human resources for Erste Bank.
Long before the sequester blew in from the north like Smaug the dragon and stole their gold, the Pentagon's bosses had put themselves in a place where they steadily needed more money year-by-year to do business as usual.
Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver, who has been a policy lightning rod at agency headquarters as the Obama administration worked to shift U.S. human spaceflight from a government-run operation to a commercial venture, has resigned to become general manager of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). A former aerospace consultant, Garver joined President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign after initially supporting Hillary Clinton.
NASA says it will spend $55 million in fiscal 2014 to fund new milestone payments to the three companies developing commercial crew vehicles under the Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) phase of the seed-money effort. The companies will also add unspecified investments to meet the additional milestones, which were listed as optional under their 2012 Space Act agreements, and will extend the CCiCap phase from May to August 2014.
Michael Foale, long NASA's most senior active astronaut, has retired from the space agency after three decades and a half-dozen spaceflights. One of them—a 145-day mission to Russia's Mir space station in 1997—was interrupted by a collision with an out-of-control Progress cargo capsule. During his 2003-04 command of the eighth expedition to the International Space Station, Foale became the first American to accumulate a year in space on his way to logging a pre-retirement total of 375 days.
Christine Kelly Singley has become managing director of corporate communications for US Airways. She was head of executive, international, operational and internal communications for Delta Air Lines.
Phillip Spector has joined the satellite/space practice at law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in its Washington office. He was general counsel and head of business development at Intelsat.
USAF Maj. Gen. Margaret H. Woodward has been appointed director of the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office in the Office of the Vice Chief of Staff at USAF Headquarters at the Pentagon. She has been Air Force chief of safety/commander of the Air Force Safety Center, Kirtland AFB, N.M. Brig. Gen. Lee K. Levy, 2nd, has been selected for promotion to major general and appointment as vice director of logistics for the Joint Staff at the Pentagon. He has been director of logistics at Headquarters Air Mobility Command, Scott AFB, Ill. Levy will be succeeded by Brig.
Spacecraft manufacturers in Europe and the U.S. are finding new business in Brazil's emerging satellite market, with Thales Alenia Space of France and Italy, and Palo Alto, Calif.-based Space Systems/Loral (SSL) tapped in recent weeks to build new commercial spacecraft. Brazil, the world's seventh-largest economy, is expected to spend roughly $2 billion between 2012-15 on new civil and military space initiatives.
Aug. 29-Sept. 1—Asian/Australian Rotorcraft Forum. Tianjin, China. See www.arf2013.nuaa.edu.cn/ Sept. 3-6—39th European Rotorcraft Forum. Moscow. See erf2013.org/ Sept. 5-8—China Helicopter Exposition. See www.helicopter-china-expo.com/ Sept. 9-12—Fifth Boeing/Northrop Grumman/Elysium Joint Global Product Data Interoperability Summit. Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort, Chandler, Ariz. See www.gpdisonline.com Sept. 10-12—AIAA Space 2013 Conference and Exposition. San Diego. See www.aiaa.org/SPACE2013
It seems everybody is all “Fired Up” and moving in opposite directions: the UAE's GCAA urges installation of cockpit video recorders (CVR) in its final report on the 2010 crash of UPS Flight 6, and for 13 years the NTSB has pushed the FAA to require just that. But the FAA has declined to act, and pilot unions “are firmly against the idea.” So what else is new?
