John Hunt has become regional sales manager and director of business development for Cutter Aviation's Phoenix-based aircraft service and avionics business unit.
With final ground tests nearing completion in Toulouse, the first Airbus A350 test aircraft appears to be just days away from its first flight, which would initiate a flight-test program that is expected to last about a year. MSN001 was scheduled to perform high-speed taxi tests and high-power engine runs at the end of last week, after the aircraft's Rolls-Royce Trent XWB engines had been powered up for the first time June 2.
Turkey is awaiting the imminent maiden flight of the Hurkus, a turboprop training aircraft named for one of the country's greatest aviation pioneers. Vecihi Hurkus is the most celebrated Turkish aviator, who achieved many of the country's aeronautical firsts. As well as being the first Turk to shoot down an enemy aircraft, he was also the first to design and build an indigenous aircraft in the 1920s. But his numerous designs failed to move beyond the prototype stage.
Nigel Warren (see photo) has been appointed Farnborough, England-based sales manager for Northern Europe for FlightSafety International. He was an air ambulance pilot for Jet Logistics of Raleigh, N.C., and has been a Dassault Falcon 200 pilot for a corporate flight department in Albuquerque, N.M.
EADS CASA says that it plans to modify a prototype C295 for trials in late September as a firefighting aircraft. The aircraft will use a tank system fitted in the main cargo hold that would drop water through openings cut into the belly of the aircraft. The news comes just a week after the company announced it was offering a new version of the C295 fitted with winglets and uprated engines that will be made available to customers in 2014 and become the baseline production aircraft in the fourth quarter of 2014. The new aircraft will be designated C295W.
An unidentified firm order announced in June 2011 for 10 Bombardier CS100s, plus options for six more, was placed by Bahrain-based Gulf Air, Bombardier has revealed. Russian lessor Ilyushin Finance, meanwhile, has received shareholder approval to confirm its order for 32 CS300s, plus options for 10 more. This takes firm orders for the CSeries to 177. The first aircraft, FTV1, has begun fuel-testing ahead of an initial flight planned for this month.
The A400M's fly-by-wire system is based on the three-axis digital flight controls developed by Airbus for the A380, but modified to increase maneuverability and agility. The maximum bank angle is 120 deg. and load factor 3g. Software provides flightpath stability, plus high- and low-speed flight-envelope and overstress protection.
Whether the National Commission on the Structure of the Air Force's final report serves as a blueprint for the armed service in the 21st century or is just another dense tome darkening Capitol Hill bookshelves remains to be seen. But one thing is certain: It should be the military's final, official exorcism of the National Guard's contentious role during the Vietnam War.
In 2012, there were 11,261 private jets registered for use in the U.S. and 7,997 in the rest of the world. Embraer has produced a significant number of those jets, so I am intimately familiar with the private aviation landscape. Few issues are as important to private jet owners and their pilots as ensuring the ability to safely and efficiently navigate from airport to airport without delay or restriction.
Switzerland's Solar Impulse team overcame storms in the Midwest U.S. to fly the solar-powered prototype, HB-SIA, from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Lambert St. Louis International Airport on the third leg of its Across America 2013 cross-country flight.
Size, turboprop power and swept-wing speed give the Airbus Military A400M Atlas a rare mix of tactical and strategic airlift capabilities. Aviation Week Chief Aircraft Evaluation Editor Fred George visited Toulouse to fly Europe's new heavy-lift transport, which is to enter service with the French air force by July, and found the airlifter to be surprisingly agile. Airbus photograph by Sylvain Ramadier. Elsewhere in this issue, a special report explores Turkey's expanding aerospace industry (page 46).
Al Vetere has become CFO of Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopter. He was vice president-financial for military programs. Anthony Moreland has returned as managing director for North America. He was head of the North America and global accounts team at Sikorsky Aircraft and had been executive director of commercial business development and marketing at Bell.
Cost-cutting is driving U.S. industry to reassess its own science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) promotional efforts, according to Susan Lavrakas, director of the Aerospace Industries Association's workforce issues. AIA and its member companies—which she says spend more than $160 million annually in STEM promotion—welcome government help in assessing the effectiveness of their efforts, such as the annual Team America Rocketry Challenge.
Industry is expected to submit proposals this month for “Phase 0” of a high-speed strike weapon (HSSW) demonstration program to be conducted by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). AFRL has been working toward an HSSW flight demonstration, but last month canceled a planned solicitation, saying it was “looking to an alternate strategy” for accomplishing a high-speed strike weapon demonstration. Now Darpa is leading the effort, says a source familiar with the program.
Dave Rosenberg (see photos) has been named vice president-strategic planning and programs and Don Alvord vice president-human resources of the Wichita-based Beechcraft Corp. Rosenberg was director of the Hawker 4000 product line and general manager of the piston product line. Alvord was vice president/general manager for the company's Little Rock (Ark.) Completions Center.
In the June 3 article, “Automated 777 Line Delivers Big Improvements” (page 37) paint designations should have read BMS 10-60 standard gray and BMS 10-42 body coat.
