The National Aeronautic Association has named outgoing Lockheed Martin CEO Robert J. Stevens as recipient of the 2012 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy “for public service of enduring value to aviation in the United States.” Stevens has led Lockheed Martin since 2004. He is due to step down as CEO at year-end but will continue as chairman.
With the prospect of lawmakers staying in session past the Christmas holiday to continue debating the deficit, business executives and interest groups are increasing their calls to avoid the expiration of tax cuts and nearly $1 trillion in across-the-board budget cuts due to take place in early January. That is typical activity during high-stakes negotiations, lawmakers say.
“Managing Uncertainty” (AW&ST Nov. 26, p. 26) states that “improving program management” may be the reform needed to help budgets in an era of fiscal austerity. Another viewpoint may be as simple as this: The U.S. military budget is just too high, regardless of reform measures.
Cheryle R. Jackson, AAR VP-government affairs and corporate development, has been elected to the Arlington-Va.-based Aerospace Industries Association board of governors.
In 2008, when slot values at London Heathrow Airport were at their peak, Continental Airlines paid more than $200 million to acquire four landing slot-pairs. Four years later, Delta Air Lines has struck a deal to acquire 49% of Virgin Atlantic—which controls 44 long-haul landing slot pairs at Heathrow—from Singapore Airlines for the bargain-basement price of $360 million.
A U.K. project to use air traffic radar data to improve the environmental performance of aircraft operating into airports has led to reduced CO2 and fuel-burn levels.
You have run several articles on the Emdrive—the controversial propellentless thruster—recently, and I would like to comment in general on the topic. By providing thrust without using propellent, Emdrive appears to be violating the law of conservation of momentum. This conservation law is a deeply rooted and well-established law of physics, and is a direct theoretical result from Emmy Noether's Theorem. Conservation of Momentum is not likely to be wrong.
In Senior Defense Editor Amy Butler's recent post on the Ares blog about Canada's possible F-35 defection, she notes: “While this is big news in Canada, and in the international realm, I do question what it means in the big picture for the F-35 program.” This thought-provoking piece elicited much give-and-take among our readers, including: Atomic Walrus saying:
That airlines' financial performance globally appears to be slowly improving is being interpreted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as due to restructuring and cost-cutting, and not as a result of world economic growth.
Test flights of Rolls-Royce's upgraded Trent 1000 Package C configuration for Boeing's stretched 787-9 are underway on the engine maker's 747-200 flying testbed in Tucson, Ariz.
The U.K. coalition government sees the manufacturing sector—and the aerospace industry in particular—as a means of lifting the country out of the economic doldrums and onto a path to growth. But industry leaders are concerned that a lack of skills and perhaps more critically, interest in engineering from the up-and-coming generation of workers could starve the U.K. of aerospace growth at a time when industry is finally getting government support it needs.
In 2004, the Joint Strike Fighter's program manager, Lockheed Martin Vice President Tom Burbage, observed that if any one big defense program falters, the rippling effects impact all programs.
The airline industry could be poised to regain the upward momentum that faltered badly in 2011, with new analysis signaling that the decline has leveled off and even started to reverse.
Sikorsky, teamed with Lockheed Martin, is the only bidder left for the U.S. Air Force's 112-aircraft, $6.85 billion Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) program. Boeing, Bell Boeing, EADS North America, and a Northrop Grumman/AgustaWestland team all say they will not bid to replace the Air Force's Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawks. Sikorsky says it will offer a “proven, affordable” helicopter, suggesting it will propose the UH-60M already purchased by the USAF to top up its HH-60 fleet.
Andrew David has joined Melbourne, Australia-based Jetstar as head of the carrier's Australia and New Zealand operations, effective in mid-2013. He is CEO of Tiger Airways Australia.
Your editorial “Don't Misinterpret Entrants Slow Pace” (AW&ST Nov. 19, p. 58) is correct as far it goes, but requires insight. Boeing and Airbus are pretty much building reengined older aircraft models and Comac is building new-model aircraft with no previous experience in this field—and no FAA certification. Bombardier, on the other hand, is building a brand-new aircraft. It has all the expertise required to launch the CSeries and the manufacturer even has resources to help out Comac with its C919.
Lufthansa expects to add Hong Kong, followed by Mexico as the next international destinations for its growing fleet of Boeing 747-8s when additional aircraft arrive next year. The airline began 747-8 service from Frankfurt to Los Angeles on Dec. 10. Lufthansa 747-8 chief pilot Elmar Boje said the aircraft will also be introduced on flights to Miami and Chicago in 2013.
Turkish Airlines completed a deal announced in October to buy 15 Boeing 777-300ERs, adding to the 12 it already has in operation. Separately, Boeing's largest leasing customer, GE Aviation Services Co., picked up four 737-800 options from an 85-aircraft order it completed in October. As of Dec. 11, Boeing holds 1,068 net orders for the year. As of the end of November, it has made 537 deliveries. Its 2012 goal is 585-600 total deliveries, including a combined 70-85 747s and 787s.
The launch of the Indo-French Saral navigational satellite has been delayed until early next year, an Indian space scientist says. The satellite was initially slated to be lofted on Dec. 12 on board the Indian space agency's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The mission has been postponed in view of “technical issues” that cropped up during the program, the scientist at the Indian Space Research Organization says. Although the new launch date has not yet been set, it will “likely happen in January or February.”
In the wake of flight and certification testing of the PW1500G, Pratt & Whitney and Bombardier have made the surprise decision to build the CSeries without a novel propulsion feature known as the variable area nozzle (VAN).
After 14 years of trying, North Korea has finally joined the countries capable of launching a satellite into orbit. But the success was short-lived. The nation's space program is also experiencing the bitterness of the failure to keep its spacecraft stable. North Korea succeeded Dec. 11 on its six attempt to orbit what officials there call an Earth-observation satellite. The U.S. led a group of nations, including Russia and China, that warned North Korea not to proceed with the mission. China has since expressed “regret” over it.
A small engineering firm on Florida's Space Coast is looking to recover some of the revenue and jobs the region lost with retirement of the space shuttle fleet by offering maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services to the commercial spaceflight industry that the Obama administration hopes will take the shuttle's place.
