French aerospace equipment manufacturers saw steady growth last year, with revenues up 14% to €11.4 billion ($14.7 billion) and order intake totaling €14.3 billion, including a 20% increase in exports. Olivier Zarrouati, who leads the equipment group at French aerospace industry association Gifas, says the country's equipment-manufacturing industry is entering a new phase.
It came as no surprise. He was 95, after all. But word of his passing Oct. 18 was jarring nonetheless. Legendary characters—and Albert Lee Ueltschi was that—are not easily let go. I've long regarded FlightSafety International's founder as the industry's Last Lion, and Lord knows, he could roar.
John L. Petersen has been elected chairman of the Anoka, Minn.-based Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation, succeeding Larry E. Williams, who has completed his three-year term. Petersen is founder and CEO of The Arlington Institute.
Douglas Hofsass has been appointed assistant administrator for the Office of Risk Based Security of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in Washington. He was associate administrator.
The F-35 weapons-drop test program has advanced with another first. A Lockheed Martin F-35A jettisoned its first Raytheon AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range-Air-to-Air Missile (Amraam) on Oct. 19. An F-35A previously dropped a 2,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munition while an F-35B dumped a 1,000-lb. version. The Amraam jettison is different, requiring the door-mounted rack to eject the missile.
Dennis K. Diemoz has been named president of Douglas, Isle of Man-based Excalibur Almaz's U.S. operation. He was VP and general counsel of the United Space Alliance and has been company counsel at Lockheed Martin Space Operations.
Spirit AeroSystems Holdings warned of a $590 million forward loss from Boeing, Rolls-Royce and Gulfstream fuselage, nacelle and wing programs as it prepared to report third-quarter earnings. The company said supply-chain savings it anticipated have not been achieved, resulting in a model that is not matching the actual costs of hardware being shipped. After adjusting its cost estimates, the company expects savings going forward.
Space Editor Sean Meade has posted on the On Space blog photos and a video of Xcor Aerospace's full-scale model of its two-seat Lynx suborbital spaceplane—which it intends to debut at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight. DeweyW notes: It looks like the pilot drives it with stick, not a yoke, and reads round analog gauges. With no head-up display and only two glass screens, maybe space tech isn't progressing as fast as we thought.
While defense companies and their high-profile trade organization, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA), have been vocal all year in begging lawmakers to avoid automatic budget cuts known as sequestration, set to start Jan. 2, the A&D sector encountered blowback recently for focusing on doomsday job losses that no one wants while not offering much to help lawmakers find a political solution.
Liam Quinn has been appointed business development manager at Johannesburg-based South African Airways. Also joining the airline are: Jon Danks, head of U.K. marketing and communications; Stephen Gerrard, commercial manager; Matt Parr, leisure sales manager; Philip Ariss, corporate sales manager; and Kerry Farmer, online sales manager.
An unequal battle is brewing to replace the airplane that has provided U.S. Navy aircraft carriers with their logistics lifeline to the mainland for half a century, a competition that could lead the service to reevaluate fundamentally how it transports high-priority cargo to its battle groups.
James Culmo (see photos) has been appointed VP of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s newly formed High-Altitude, Long-Endurance Enterprise, based in Redondo Beach, Calif. He has been VP and deputy general manager for the Military Aircraft Systems business. Kathryn G. Simpson has been named VP and deputy general counsel. She was VP-legal, corporate transactions and governance at the Raytheon Co. James W. Stephenson on Dec. 1 will become VP, associate general counsel and sector counsel for the Electronic Systems Sector, succeeding Dennis Cameron, who plans to retire.
The U.S. Army is finally expecting its first delivery—due next fall—of new equipment designed to help correct the problem of fratricide in its air and missile defense forces that has persisted since the Persian Gulf war in the early 1990s.
Nov. 5-6—University of Westminster Aviation Seminars: “Market Research for Air Transport” and “Practical Techniques and Strategies.” Also, Nov. 7-9—”Demand Analysis and Capacity Management: The Air Transport Issues.” London. Call +44 (203) 506-6559, fax +44 (207) 915-5410 or see www.westminster.ac.uk/airtransportshort Nov. 8—Royal Aeronautical Society's Washington Branch Lecture featuring: Tom Burbage and Al Norman of Lockheed Martin. British Embassy, Washington. See www.raeswashington.org
NASA's vision for deep-space exploration may be missing an opportunity to re-fortify the agency's long-running but sporadic ties to nanotechnology, according to an assessment from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. Breakthroughs in nanotechnology could hasten bold missions, while fostering advances in energy, medicine and other fields crucial to U.S. economic health, according to the study report, which urges more focused oversight of U.S.
Preliminary results show that the Missile Defense Agency scored three of five attempted missile intercepts in the first integrated flight exercise to combine engagements from three different defense systems.
Michael Iuro has joined Schaumberg, Ill.-based Dekra's Safety Consulting Engineers Div. as business operations manager. He was VP of architecture and property development company Iuro & Associates Corp.
Slashing its requirement by a third, the Indian air force (IAF) says it will induct only 144 of the originally ordered 214 Fifth-Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) that it is co-developing with Russia.
Airbus A350 customers have been reassured by the sight of a Trent XWB engine strapped to the wing of an A380 flying testbed. However, to Rolls-Royce this outward display of progress is just the tip of the iceberg as it works on certification and ramping up production of the first flight-test engines for the new twin.
Despite leaning out its 777 final assembly line about seven years ago, Boeing considered its goal of producing 100 of the widebody jets per year unrealistic without a significant capital investment. But a combination of automation, process improvements from its mechanics and a push on hiring is making that goal possible.
Israel's Elta is presenting new tactical radar options for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), to meet a need for ultra-rapid response to mortar attacks. Although the IDF is quite capable at detecting outgoing rockets with highly sensitive sensor systems, crude and inaccurate enemy mortars still have terrorized the Israeli population in settlements along the Gaza Strip border.
