The lure of hypersonic speed for military and commercial use, as well as space access, continues to drive research around the world. Due to the tough challenges, and the cost of overcoming them, more international partnerships are forming to follow the hypersonic dream. One of the latest projects is Australia's scramjet-powered Scramspace experiment, which is being readied for flight-test. The Scramjet team includes the University of Queensland, which prepared a computational fluid dynamics simulation of the flow field around the recently redesigned fins.
Now that voters have had their say, new and returning lawmakers are running their own popularity contest to determine who sits where and controls which appropriations or policymaking in the next, 113th session of Congress. Consequently, leading candidates are making their positions clearer on certain issues, leading to interesting insights normally glossed over. For instance, Rep.
SAS Group has narrowly escaped insolvency, after reaching agreements with eight of its unions over deep cost cuts. The deals vary by employee group, but Norwegian pilots are accepting a 10% wage cut plus 8% more flying hours and flight attendants are surrendering two weeks of vacation per annum while their pay is frozen. The cuts were a prerequisite for SAS to receive another loan by a consortium of shareholders and banks. A Swedish minister says efforts to sell the Swedish government's stake in SAS will now also resume (see related story on page 16).
Jeff Filkins has become West Coast sales manager for aircraft maintenance and management for JFI Jets, Long Beach, Calif. He was West Coast sales manager for Honeywell Flight Support Services and operations leader at Honeywell International's Global Data Center.
In the cutthroat world of defense spending and lobbying, even the most academic of mistakes can cause a major headache. Take the recent case of a wording error buried in a lengthy National Research Council report on boost-phase missile defense systems. In September, the report mistakenly estimated that the operation and sustainment costs for the Patriot system would be as high as $809 million annually per battalion, when in fact it was for the entire 15-battalion force. Moreover, an Army document says the actual fiscal 2011 cost was about $545 million.
The history of civil versions of military jet airlifters is not encouraging. The idea of building rear-loading freighters for commercial operators seems to occur to every company that develops such aircraft for an air force. What does not occur is great success.
Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat, has been named Visionary Executive of the Year by Carlsbad, Calif.-based Satellite Markets and Research news service. The award is given to a senior executive of a satellite company.
Spirit and Southwest airlines and Allegiant Air are petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their challenge to new U.S. Transportation Department rules on price advertising and ticket refunds. The carriers call the rules an “assault” on the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, a precedent-setting evisceration of the act's intent to rely on market forces and a violation of First Amendment free-speech protections.
Robert H. Schmucker, Markus Schiller (Munich, Germany )
Congratulations! After having preached the same for years, and hardly seeing any impact besides murmured off-the-record agreements, it is good to finally see a renowned journal stating it is “not so easy” (AW&ST Oct. 22, p. 52) to build a credible nuclear force that has to be based on reliable missiles and warheads. As long as a country lacks even one of those, its threat potential is low. And if a country lacks both, there is no real threat.
Beth Wagner has been named associate publisher of Aviation Week's Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. She has more than 15 years of sales experience within the business aviation community.
Back when engineering departments dominated engine manufacturing companies, a powerplant was not certified for flight until it had run well more than 10,000 hr. in development test cells and in flight.
Debate over the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) on flights has long centered on cell phones. The announcement to stop dialing and texting has become a refrain synonymous with takeoff. PEDs, however, are becoming far more diverse. Tablet computers are exploding in popularity. The development of smartphones with audio and video capabilities means that passengers are more loath than ever to darken their screens for any stage of flight, let alone wait until 10,000 ft. to listen to music or log into Facebook.
Hypersonic technology is extremely difficult to master and high-speed travel generally involves long distances. These simple, but axiomatic principles of hypersonic studies not only dictate key areas of research but also, increasingly, influences who teams with whom.
Even before the latest fighting in Gaza between Israeli and Hamas forces, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin were poised to receive major new orders for missile defense systems from Middle Eastern countries, Wall Street analysts note. But the recent fighting, and the performance of Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system developed with U.S. funds and technology, may spur growth. This month, the Pentagon announced potential foreign military sales to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) worth up to $17 billion, combined.
Robert Cords (see photos) has been named senior VP-airlines and fleets of StandardAero, Tempe, Ariz. He was senior VP-corporate strategy and customer development. Jeffrey Wood has become senior VP-airlines and fleets, succeeding Jennifer McNeill, who returned to her former role as VP-sales, marketing and business development for airlines and fleets.
Mark Dankberg, chairman and CEO of ViaSat, has been named Visionary Executive of the Year by Carlsbad, Calif.-based Satellite Markets and Research news service. The award is given to a senior executive of a satellite company.
The performance of the U.S.-backed Iron Dome missile defense system in Israel can only add to congressional support for co-production of the short-range system in the U.S. (see p. 24). In its fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, the House requires the Missile Defense Agency to establish an Iron Dome program office and calls for negotiation with Israel for data rights to the technology and to explore co-production of the system.
In another case of an OEM acquiring one of its prime suppliers, GE Aviation is taking over the assets of family-owned Morris Technologies and its sister company, Rapid Quality Manufacturing. The companies, both located in Cincinnati, specialize in advanced machining and additive manufacturing, particularly of specialty alloys such as cobalt chromium.
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The first implementation directive for “Better Buying Power” (November 2010) by Ashton Carter, the then-undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics (USD/AT&L), concluded with the challenge, “Reduce Non-Productive Process and Bureaucracy.” Yet the memo added 16 tasks and reports. Similarly, “Better Buying Power 2.0” directs the defense acquisition workforce to “eliminate unproductive processes and bureaucracies.” The dictum institutes new processes while not detailing procedures, reports or reviews to be eliminated. The processes are addictive.
Qatar Airways is among Airbus's and Boeing's best customers, given its huge targets for growth. But it is also using its clout to rearrange its orderbook and push for new models.
