Soon, pilots may be able to use a new type of synthetic vision-based cockpit display that will help them line up more easily for a runway and land with very low visibility. Honeywell photographer Eugene Cupps captured this image of the flight deck of a Dassault Falcon 900EX during a test approaching Tucson, Ariz., in April as the company prepared to demonstrate the new tools to the FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency.
John C. Bierwirth, who led the Grumman Corp. in the 1970s and '80s through the development of the U.S. Navy's F-14 fighter and other military aircraft, NASA space shuttle and space station work, and various diversification efforts, died May 26 in a hospice on Long Island, N.Y., of congestive heart failure. He was 89.
Christine McGlade and Andrew W. Reynolds (see photos) have been named vice presidents-manufacturing operations and site managers for the Northrop Grumman Corp.'s aircraft integration centers of excellence in St. Augustine, Fla., and Palmdale, Calif., respectively. McGlade has been program director for the St. Augustine site's E-2/C-2 international programs and deputy program director for U.S. Navy E-2D production. Reynolds has been director of manufacturing operations/deputy manager for the Palmdale site.
The U.S. Marine Corps plans to declare initial operational capability (IOC) for the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter in late 2015, says the commandant, Gen. James Amos. The Marines are the first JSF customer slated to declare IOC, and as such are willing to use the 2B software package, which allows for a limited flight envelope and limited weapons carriage in the near term. For IOC, the short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing aircraft must be “shipboard-qualified,” Amos told an audience in Washington on May 29.
Given years of economic recession in Southern Europe, airlines based in the region are all suffering. But some are dealing with the situation far better than others.
The International Space Station (ISS) returned to a six-person crew May 28 with a second Soyuz “express” mission. The Russian capsule docked with the orbiting science lab at 10:10 p.m. EDT—less than 6 hr. after lifting off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (shown)—delivering veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg and the European Space Agency's (ESA) Luca Parmitano of Italy.
Slowly but surely, Washington's attitude is changing from total denial of nearly $1 trillion in cuts to planned defense spending over the next decade to learning how to live with those restrictions and not completely bollix national security. This week, news could emerge of the Pentagon's formal recommendations to the White House and Congress on how to implement the full effect of the 2011 Budget Control Act and the automatic sequestration toll it levies.
While London will always be identified with certain touchstones of long tradition—The Tower, The Tube, The Few and undercooked bacon, among them—the British capital is vibrant with change, as its thicket of construction cranes attests. The Shard and London Eye have reshaped the city's skyline. Last year's Olympics drew global attention and applause. The royals are flying commercial. 'Will that be beef or chicken, Ma'am?'
British and French industry partners are hailing a research program that intends to drive new technology into European missile development and production.
The advantages of UAS for reducing cost and risk and their growing sophistication will continue to make it tempting to use the aircraft more often and in new situations.
The 50th Paris air show will offer French space agency CNES an opportunity to detail engineering tradeoffs being weighed as it designs a leaner, more cost-effective successor to Europe's Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket. The new launcher is expected to fly in 2020, assuming European Space Agency (ESA) governments approve the estimated €4 billion ($5.2 billion) project at a meeting of ESA ministers slated for 2014.
Michael Fabey (Singapore), Bill Sweetman (Washington)
The U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ships will have to undergo flight-deck renovations before the world's most sophisticated fighter, the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter, can be welcomed aboard. Five years after the first flight of the F-35B, significant work will need to be done on 50,000-ton ships to accommodate the intense heat of the fighter's exhaust.
Stephane Cueille has been appointed managing director of Snecma affiliate Aircelle Ltd., Burnley, England. He was general manager of Snecma's Turbine Airfoils Center of Excellence.
Ken Peterman has become general manager of the government systems segment of ViaSat Inc., Carlsbad, Calif. He was president/CEO of the SpyGlass Group and president of ITT Communications and Force Protection Systems.
While news reports typically point to the public's perception of excess and greed as the primary threat to corporate business jets, there are other forces equally insistent on robbing executives of their winged chariots—engineers.
A confidential annex to a Defense Science Board report provides the first detailed Pentagon acknowledgment that China-based cyberespionage efforts have penetrated U.S. military programs in a widespread fashion, and an expose by The Washington Post on the cyberleaks last week may provide new impetus for Senate defense hawks to ban foreign products that benefit from cybersnooping.
FAA officials tell the National Air Traffic Controllers Association that the agency will not be spending this fiscal year on new initiatives for NextGen and the constitution of the controller-inclusive teams that are helping to push the air traffic modernization program forward, according to Dale Wright, the association's director of safety and technology.
