Beechcraft has filed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Air Force's decision to lift its stop-work order on Sierra Nevada's $427.5 million Light Air Support (LAS) contract to supply 20 Embraer A-29 Super Tucanos to the Afghan air force. The company previously filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and has now filed suit in the Court of Federal Claims contesting the Air Force's decision to lift the stop-work order while the GAO is still within its 100-day window for reviewing the protest.
USAF Maj. Gen. John N.T. Shanahan has been assigned as commander of the Air Force Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Agency, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. He has been deputy director for global operations of the Joint Staff, Pentagon. Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein has been named vice commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, Barksdale AFB, La. He has been director of air, space and cyberspace operations at Air Force Space Command Headquarters, Peterson AFB, Colo. Brig. Gen. Theresa C.
If the U.S. Congress manages to pass a new NASA authorization this year—certainly not a sure thing given the riptides of ideological debate roiling Capitol Hill— there's a chance that it will order some new organizational changes at the space agency. A growing refrain in the relevant congressional committees and across the U.S. space community finds post-shuttle NASA dangerously adrift, with its sails in need of patching and weak hands on the tiller.
USAF Col. (ret.) Michael R. Gallagher (Hillsboro, Ore. )
If our nation only had three air forces, as suggested in a recent Feedback comment (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 8), we could manage. But the discussion ignores all the other air services operated by the National Guard and the Air Force Reserve. If we were serious about saving taxpayer dollars, we would craft a long-term strategy to eliminate the overlap of these organizations. Hillsboro, Ore.
While heavily armored ground vehicles dominated attention and interest during the early years of the war in Iraq, the rugged and dangerous terrain of Afghanistan has since presented a more difficult challenge for commanders. This year's winner of the Defense Laureate rose to the challenge, rapidly developing an unmanned cargo helicopter known as K-Max to ease the logistical burden of war in one of the world's most challenging environments.
Most of the news about what will happen to aerospace and defense (A&D) spending as a result of congressional dallying on resolving its own pre-programmed cuts—sequestration—concerns lost jobs and program slowdowns. But sequestration also is likely to hit the way defense contractors fund independent research and development (IR&D), according to a study by the Fairmont Consulting Group.
Bob Feldmann has been selected as VP and general manager of Boeing's 777X development effort and Keith Leverkuhn VP and general manager of the 737 MAX program. Both will be based in Seattle.
Paul Bland has been promoted to regional sales and service manager for New Zealand and the Australian areas of southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Australian Capital Territory and Tasmania at Toronto-based Vector Aerospace Corp. He was regional mobile repair team manager for Vector's service center in Brisbane, Australia.
Olivier Seguin has joined Sterling, Va.-based BringCom Inc. as VP for Africa and the Middle East. He was director of eastern and southern Africa sales at Telcom Italia Sparkle.
India plans to loft its first navigation and timing satellite in June, the country's top scientist says. The first satellite of the seven-spacecraft Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is scheduled to be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C22) from the spaceport at Sriharikota, according to K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Once launched, IRNSS-1 will be tested in orbit for nearly four months.
Boeing wrapped up negotiations that started last summer when technicians overwhelmingly accepted the same four-year contract they rejected four weeks earlier. Technical workers represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (Speea) voted by 85% to accept the contract, which includes an annual wage pool increase of 5% through 2016. They previously rejected it by 53% and voted to authorize a strike. Ballots were counted March 18. The size of acceptance reflects the position confronting the 7,191 technical workers.
First images from the Landsat 8 spacecraft include this true-color scene of Boulder, Colo., where Ball Aerospace (marked) built the Operational Land Imager that collected data for the imager, along with the cryocooler for its Thermal Infrared Sensor. The latter instrument was built at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
The annual presentation of Laureates by Aviation Week recognizes intellect, discovery and heroism, and the organizations and programs that cultivate them in the aerospace and defense sector are honored with the Workforce Laureate. In the running for the Workforce Laureate this year were programs that are designed to attract a workforce to aerospace, as well as the individuals who continue to push this effort despite budget cuts and economic issues.
A team spearheaded by Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of aerospace company Blue Origin and online giant Amazon.com, announced March 20 it recovered enough pieces to fashion two Rocketdyne F-1 Apollo Saturn V first-stage engines from about 3 mi. below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. “We've seen an underwater wonderland—an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end, one that serves testament to the Apollo program,” Bezos wrote.
Christian Duhain has been appointed managing director-Asia-Pacific for AJ Walter Aviation's Singapore office. He was corporate VP-international development for Asia-Pacific and Latin America at EADS.
India performed its first test-firing of the submarine-launched variant of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile on March 20. It took off vertically from a submerged platform off southern India, followed a predetermined trajectory and achieved its full range of 290 km (180 mi.), according to program officials. This test marks the first time a supersonic cruise missile has been launched vertically from a submerged platform.
That it is not Ryanair but Lion Air that is now placing the biggest narrowbody orders shows how much the center of gravity in the air transport industry is shifting to the Far East.
Unlike readers Pierre Papucci (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 8) and Myron Kayton (Jan. 28, p. 8), I have only been an Aviation Week subscriber for a paltry five years. However, I join them in decrying the relative decrease of technical content in your magazine. I recently acquired, much to my wife's discontent, 8 cu. ft. of old Aviation Week & Space Technologys dating back to the early 1970s, '80s and '90s. What a treasure trove of technical information, and an authentic reading pleasure.
A recent item in the The World (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 10) “Moon-Size Planet Found,” about Kepler's discovery of said planet, states that the new planet's temperature is about 800F, about the same as the hottest days on Mercury. It then goes on to state that, due to Mercury's “erratic” orbit, the temperature drops to minus 280F.
I would like to add to the observations on a recent Viewpoint, “Pilot Race: Why I Am Dropping Out” (AW&ST Feb. 11, p. 58). True, regional airline first officer (FO) pay is not now a living wage. Why not approach this period as a low-paid apprenticeship. If you love to fly and are attracted to aircraft that fly higher, faster, further, this career may be for you. Find a way to survive the low-paying regional FO years remembering that even regional captains, after five years, start at $70,000 per year.
Rob Jager has been appointed a non-executive director of Air New Zealand, effective April 1. He has been general manager of Shell Todd Oil Services, Shell country chair and chairman of Shell Companies in New Zealand.
