Most aging airframe stories these days have to do with high-priced avgas and airframes sent to the desert. But Ontic Engineering, a Southern California parts and components re-manufacturing and service specialist, is seeing its business expand by keeping “mature” airplanes flying, even through a recession.
Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush's no-nonsense focus on improving margins and efficiency is paying dividends for this longtime TPC laggard. Northrop's respectable fourth-place finish in this year's TPC study is its best showing in more than a dozen years, and the company could be in a position to challenge General Dynamics and Boeing next year, now that it has divested a weak shipbuilding business that was pulling down its overall results. The bad news: Northrop and its peers face strong headwinds in the coming years as politicians in the U.S.
The editorial “IAM Headed Down The Wrong Path” provides an interesting perspective on whether Boeing has a right to use non-union personnel if it deems such use to be in the company's best interest. Certainly, the company is not under an obligation to allow any union to dictate its plans.
EADS and the U.K.'s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are looking into bribery charges leveled against a unit of the aerospace and defense giant by former GPT Special Project Management employee Ian Foxley. He brought the charges as part of his case claiming unfair dismissal. Neither the SFO nor EADS says there is evidence of wrongdoing at GPT, which is a subsidiary of Astrium's Paradigm Services operations. Foxley says GPT used unlawful practices to help secure a deal for communications equipment services for the Saudi National Guard.
After two abortive attempts since 2008, the Indian navy this month is hoping to finally jump-start the process to acquire six medium-range maritime reconnaissance (MRMR) aircraft. Maritime surveillance has been a high priority in Indian national security circles since the 2008 Mumbai attack, when terrorists infiltrated India by sea. The competition for the $750 million program will seek to provide the navy with aircraft that augment its small fleet of upgraded Ilyushin Il-38 Mays for littoral reconnaissance and anti-surface warfare.
If the South Korean air force's plans come to fruition, by 2030 its leading combat aircraft will be pilotless—and domestically made. That strike aircraft will be backed by a home-grown manned fighter, which by then will have been in service for nine years. It all seems rather ambitious for a country whose main experience with combat aircraft development so far has been a light attack aircraft based on a supersonic trainer that was designed with guidance from Lockheed Martin.
Gobe Hobona has been appointed to the advisory board of the Open Source Geospatial Laboratory, University of Nottingham, England. He also is a technical consultant at Envitia.
Sierra Nevada Corp. and Brazilian manufacturer Embraer are fielding the EMB-314 Super Tucano, a veteran counter-insurgency aircraft, as one of two finalists in the U.S. Air Force's upcoming Light Air Support program. Hawker Beechcraft's AT-6B is the other contender in the hotly contested procurement. USAF should announce the winner in June or July.
Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute will become the second U.S. organization to conduct vaccine research on the International Space Station (ISS) under a new Space Act Agreement with NASA. Under the nonreimbursable agreement, a team headed by Cheryl A. Nickerson, an associate professor of life sciences at the university, will continue work started on the space shuttle that takes advantage of the effects of microgravity on infectious micro-organisms to produce vaccines against disease. The Arizona State group joins Astrogenetix Inc.
With bidders lining up for a slew of Indian short-range air defense contracts, European missile-maker MBDA is taking an unusual approach to secure sizable deals. Rather than drawing on an existing system, MBDA is gambling by promoting a developmental surface-to-air missile system for army, navy and air force requirements.
The focus of the investigation into why Air France Flight 447 crashed into the Atlantic a year ago is starting to change now that safety experts have begun evaluating information from the Airbus A330-200's flight recorders. Questions surrounding human factors are moving into the spotlight as the investigation further unfolds, with concerns of turbulent weather and pitot-tube icing shifting into the background.
Lockheed Martin Chairman/CEO Robert J. Stevens spoke with AW&ST Editor-in-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr., and Senior Business Editor Joseph C. Anselmo about the company's fourth consecutive first-place finish in Aviation Week's Top-Performing Companies study. Stevens also addressed how he is positioning the company for a leaner defense environment as well as criticism of Lockheed Martin's performance on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.
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In the wake of the bin Laden raid, Islamabad is turning a cold shoulder to a program for U.S. military personnel to train Pakistani soldiers in counterinsurgency operations. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen says, “We are not going to zero,” but he notes a “very significant cutback in trainers.” Prior to the raid, the program was expanding. Now, Pakistan's leadership, including the military and intelligence brass, are smarting from Washington's unwillingness to notify them prior to the May 2 raid.
European industry cost estimates are putting pressure on the ExoMars program while NASA budget cuts are forcing a redesign of key elements of the flagship U.S.-European cooperative space project. The European Space Agency (ESA) is negotiating €200 million ($287 million) in hardware cost reductions with European contractors supporting a multibillion-euro ESA-NASA mission that would send robotic science probes and terrestrial rovers in search of life on Mars by the end of the decade.
A two-stage Ukrainian Zenit-2S booster and a Russian Block-DM-SL upper stage is at sea en route to Long Beach, Calif., for the resumption of flight operations by Sea Launch in the third quarter of this year. The first Sea Launch hardware since the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection departed the port of Oktyabrsky, Ukraine, May 31. “Sea Launch has 10 Zenit 3SLs on order, covering . . . launches through the end of 2013,” says Kjell Karlsen, Sea Launch president.
Rajiv Shah has been named chief executive officer of IBS Group, Welwyn Garden City, England. He was chief executive of the securities and capital markets business unit of Wipro Technologies.
JAXA's drop tests, described in “Quiet Booms” (AW&ST May 23, p. 13), demonstrated something besides validating techniques for use in designing a low-boom supersonic transport. By reaching Mach 1.43 on descent from 21 km (13 mi.) altitude, and Mach 1.7 from 27 km, the tests inadvertently demonstrated that future aerospace vehicles do not need heavy turbojets and complex mechanically activated bypass ducts to transition to supersonic speed with further air-breathing ramjet acceleration prior to a final rocket boost to reach Earth orbit.
After a second-place finish in last year's TPC study, a superb operating performance pushed Cubic to the top spot of companies with revenues of $1-5 billion, besting a formidable group of peers. The company's showing was bolstered by three strong product lines: electronic ticketing and transportation, virtual training programs and battlespace simulation for mission support. A record backlog of $2.5 billion could underpin further gains in 2011. “The numbers suggest this result is not an accident,” says TPC Project Manager Michael K. Lowry.
David N. Siegel has been tapped by the board of Indianapolis-based Republic Airways Holdings to become its lead independent director. He was chairman and chief executive officer of Xojet.
Peter M. Bowler has been named to the advisory board of AISystems of Toronto. He was the chief executive officer of American Eagle Airlines and was a senior officer of American Airlines before retiring.
The U.K. has set up a cyberoperations group as it further expands its activities in cyberwarfare. “Cyber will be part of a continuum of tools with which to achieve military effect, both defensive and otherwise, and will be an integral part of our armory,” says Nick Harvey, the minister of state for the armed forces.
The European Aviation Safety Agency has granted type certification to the ATR 72-600, the latest upgrade to the twin turboprop. Royal Air Maroc is due to be the first operator of the aircraft. ATR expects to deliver about 11 -600s this year. The airline has ordered four 72-600s and two 42-600s. The EADS/Finmeccanica joint venture is still working on receiving type approval for the 42-600. Flight trials of that type began in March 2010.
