Guy Snelgar (see photo) has been promoted to managing director from business development manager of Southlake, Texas-based GetThere's business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory plans to fly the fourth and final Boeing X-51A WaveRider hypersonic engine demonstrator in mid-2013. Tests began on Oct. 26 on an actuator suspected to have caused the early end to the third flight in August. If confirmed, the fix should be “pretty simple,” says the X-51A program manager. The fourth flight will be the last chance for the X-51A to prove that a hydrocarbon-fueled, fuel-cooled scramjet engine can accelerate a missile-class vehicle to near Mach 6.
Rob Bishton has been named operations director of London Gatwick Airport-based FastJet. He was head of flight operations at EasyJet. Kyle Haywood, former CEO of Air Uganda, is the new general manager for Africa, and Harun Cordan has been named chief pilot and head of flight operations. He was a chief instructor at Ryanair.
The first Airbus A321 with sharklets (winglets) took off on its maiden flight from Hamburg last week. The aircraft flew to Toulouse and will start its flight-test program. Certification is planned for the middle of next year, and deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter. The A321 is the second in the A320 family to be equipped with sharklets.
Blue Origin will use test results with its suborbital New Shepherd crew vehicle of the pusher-type launch-abort system it developed with NASA funding to “inform” the design of its planned orbital space vehicle. The Oct. 19 test at the company range near Van Horn, Texas, used a commercially procured solid-fuel rocket to boost a full-up New Shepherd to an altitude of 2,307 ft., with thrust vector control during powered flight, separate attitude control during coast and a parachute recovery 1,630 ft. away from the starting point.
Offshore operators of Eurocopter AS332 and EC225 Super Puma helicopters are reviewing health and usage monitoring system data before determining whether the aircraft can be returned to flight. Some AS332Ls were to begin flying on Oct. 26, but flights of EC225s remain on hold. The suspensions, and a European Aviation Safety Agency airworthiness directive mandating that vibration data be checked, follow the Oct. 22 ditching of an EC225 in the North Sea.
Northrop Grumman is prime contractor on the James Webb Space Telescope, but its most notable play in the human-spaceflight arena was the Lunar Excursion Module that landed six crews on the surface of the Moon. Now, as NASA awaits the outcome of the upcoming U.S.
Dale Keller (see photo) has been named CEO of the London-based Board of Airline Representatives. He has held management roles with Air Mauritius and Air Malta, and was a BAR U.K. board member. Honors And Elections
Central Asia has the potential to be the next boom market for international air travel, but the European Union's blacklist is keeping a damper on the market.
Innovation has long been integral to aerospace and defense. Generations of engineers and managers have been attracted to an industry synonymous with overcoming daunting technical challenges. Heavier-than-air flight, vertical flight, supersonic flight, spaceflight, precision-guided weapons, radar, sonar, night vision—examples abound of disruptive technologies that have created new capabilities and spawned whole new markets.
Lockheed Martin is self-funding work to generate software that will allow for the AN/TPQ-53 radars being fielded to detect air-breathing threats as well as those in a ballistic trajectory, according to Lee Flake, director of counter-fire radar programs. These X-band radars are designed to provide 360-deg. detection of rockets and mortars. The U.S. Army has 65 under contract. The new software will provide data on the whereabouts of airborne threats, such as unmanned aircraft and cruise missiles.
Malaysia's navy is generally last—behind the army and the air force—when it comes to securing budget approval for new aircraft, but the government may be end up giving the navy priority over the other armed services, because anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capability is becoming critical. The deputy chief of the navy, Vice Adm. Mohammed Noordin bin Ali, says ASW has increased in importance because there are now many more submarines in Asia. He says the navy needs to boost its capability by buying six more ASW helicopters.
The big names in commercial aircraft manufacturing no longer have Southern California addresses, but the area abounds with suppliers. Twice as many aerospace engineers, mechanics, technicians and assemblers work in California as in any other state, and the bulk of them are clustered from Los Angeles to San Diego.
Reader Dale Jensen incorrectly portrays rocket launches as being detrimental to the environment (AW&ST Oct. 1, p. 10). First, weekly space or missile test launches would have to be increased by many orders of magnitude to even earn a “trivial contributor” title. Second, all liquid-fuel engines actually burn very cleanly compared with most other of our industrial and transportation processes. All fuel is fully burned either in or beyond the engine, leaving no visible trail other than vapor.
Chris McDowell has become VP-sales and marketing at Richmond, British Columbia-based Vector Aerospace Helicopter Services. He was VP-sales and business development at Heli-One.
A recent Washington Outlook item (AW&ST Oct. 15, p. 25) quotes father-and-son duo Dov and Roger Zakheim saying: “A Mitt Romney administration would [among other things] avoid the difficulties that stymied early attempts at acquisition reform by . . .
NanoRacks plans to launch its new external commercial research platform to the International Space Station in 2014, for deployment through the Kibo airlock to the Japanese module's exposed facility. The NanoRacks platform completed an interim design review in September, and is headed for a critical design review in April. That will set the stage for delivery to the station. The external platform will hold 10 standard NanoRacks research enclosures.
Remi Volpe (see photo) has joined Minneapolis-based Honeywell Sensing and Control as VP-general manager for the Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. He was the area's marketing director for buildings and CentraLine business leader for Honeywell's Environmental & Combustion Controls business.
Rockwell Collins and China Electronics Technology Avionics Co. have agreed to establish Avic Leihua Rockwell Collins Avionics Co. to develop and manufacture communications and navigation systems for Comac's C919 regional jet.
Pilots of business jets, commercial airliners and all manner of general aviation aircraft will fly more safely and experience far fewer collision alerts after 2020 with a family of new airborne collision-avoidance systems (ACAS) the FAA is developing. Dubbed ACAS X, the technology is the FAA's prime choice as a drop-in replacement for today's required traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems (TCAS) and will be the foundation for new products in the light and unmanned aircraft sectors.
Airbus and Rolls-Royce are keenly aware that Qatar Airways and Emirates, two of the most outspoken and demanding airline customers for the A350, are watching flight-tests of the Trent XWB engine like hawks—particularly as the engine endures the heat and dust of recent flight trials in the Middle East.
In “Green Machine” (AW&ST Oct. 8, p. 40), it seems Boeing is late to the adaptive trailing edges (ATE) party, as is Airbus. ATEs were introduced in the early 1970s by German high-performance glider manufacturers Alexander Schleicher and Schempp-Hirth. Negative flap setting allowed the pilot—at high penetration speeds—to lose less altitude because negative settings raised the nose of the airplane, thus also losing less altitude. Sandpoint, Idaho
When it comes to hyperventilation about the looming “fiscal cliff,” the airlines have been relatively quiet. Over the summer, the AIA brought together executives from airports and business aviation, aviation safety advocates and former Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to outline the potential damage that sequestration would wreak on the FAA.
