Jared Fox has been appointed director of business development for San Jose, Calif.-based TWC Aviation's Private Jet charter Services group. Fox has been VP-charter sales at Corporate Jets.
Prof. Jonathan Katz Physics Department Washington University (St. Louis, Mo. )
One reason that the lithium-ion batteries failed so frequently in the Boeing 787 may be because acceptance testing may not have included pressure cycling. A cell or battery not equipped with a pressure-relief mechanism deforms during pressure cycles.
Todd Borkey has become chief technology officer and VP-strategic initiatives of Clarksburg, Md.-based Thales Communications. He held the same title at DRS Defense Solutions.
Production ramp-ups amid a transition into new products, particularly the CFM Leap single-aisle engine series and GE90 successor for Boeing's proposed 777X, are behind the late 2012 surge of acquisitions and joint ventures by GE Aviation, including the $4.3 billion purchase of Italian gearbox, turbine and transmission specialist Avio.
The future of the Tupolev Tu-204 narrowbody airliner looks ever more uncertain after Russian authorities suspended the air operator's certificate of the largest operator, Red Wings. The program is already in limbo, with no commercial orders at the moment.
The truth is that the future of air traffic management is already here and it is time to start running to meet it. It may be an uphill run, but to achieve our common vision of a globally harmonized and interoperable air navigation system we need to recognize what needs to be done and set about doing it.
Brazilian arms manufacturer Avibras has become a stakeholder in Harpia Systems, the joint company formed in 2011 by Embraer and Israeli-owned AEL Systems to develop unmanned aircraft systems. The Falcao medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aircraft, under development by Avibras for the Brazilian air force, will become part of Harpia's product line. The Falcao made its first flight in 2012.
The Northrop Grumman/Bell Helicopter Fire-X unmanned helicopter has completed a 250-flight envelope-expansion program at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., in preparation for the transfer of testing to the U.S. Navy's MQ-8C Fire Scout endurance upgrade program.
David Rushton has joined New York-based FlightSafety International as commercial marketing manager-visual simulation systems. He was VP-business development for VDC Display Systems.
Teledyne Brown Engineering will support International Space Station operations at NASA's Johnson Space and Marshall Space Flight centers under a mission operations and integration contract worth as much as $120.1 million over the next five years. The Huntsville, Ala.-based company has agreed to support all phases of flight.
Military intelligence confronts a potential adversary that is secretive and authoritarian, but not for the first time. The media have changed, but like the Soviet Union, China releases what it wants to release. Every large-scale model at the upcoming Idex defense show in Abu Dhabi, every glossy data sheet handed out by a smiling booth attendant (in 2011 at least, the Chinese industry had not switched to memory sticks, because most people aren't that stupid) and the images on the Internet are there for a reason. Promoting exports?
Azerbaijan launched its first satellite Feb. 7 atop an Ariane 5 ECA rocket from Europe's equatorial spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana. Built by Orbital Sciences Corp. for Azerbaijan satellite operator Azercosmos, the Azerspace/Africasat-1a spacecraft carries 24 C-band transponders and 12 Ku-band transponders to deliver communications coverage to Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Europe and Africa. The satellite was dual-manifested with Spain's Amazonas 3 satellite, built by Space Systems/Loral for Hispasat of Spain.
Unlike major customer Gulf Air, which hopes to cut its costs by 24% this year as part of a major three-year restructuring plan, Gulf Technics is growing. The MRO in Bahrain recently started offering Airbus and Embraer airframe maintenance services, has plans to build a two-bay widebody hangar at Bahrain International Airport and is evaluating whether to launch component repair capabilities to supplement its spares inventory.
USN Vice Adm. (ret.) P. Stephen Stanley (see photo) has been appointed Falls Church, Va.-based VP of cybersecurity/C4 of Northrop Grumman Corp. He was the principal deputy director of cost assessment and program evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Danny Wilson has been named director of supplier performance and development at Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. He was senior manager of supply chain surveillance.
Roy Morgan, founder of Air Methods Corp., has been named the recipient of the Living Legends Vertical Flight Hall of Fame Award, presented by Hurst, Texas-based Bell Helicopter. The award recognizes individuals for contributions to the rotorcraft industry.
Hop!, Air France's new regional subsidiary scheduled to be established in the next few weeks, is the French legacy carrier's latest attempt to slash direct operating costs on its domestic/short-haul route system, lower fares and thwart discount competitors from acquiring a significantly bigger market share. The initiative confirms the emergence of an increasingly more aggressive strategy but one that is still not aggressive enough. Moreover, Air France is still paying the high price for adapting too late and too slowly to the deregulation of Europe's airline industry.
