Seven Win Bristow Apprenticeships
Seven well-qualified students have won apprenticeship positions with Bristow
Helicopters, from a field of nearly 120 competitors. Varying in age between 17 and 21,
the seven young men are currently studying at Air Service Training, Perth. They are all
beginning the second stage of their apprenticeship programs, and are working toward
their Category A3 Licenses. If they succeed, all seven will gain full aircraft maintenance
engineer qualifications. “We at Bristow are very mindful that we can harness talent at a
very young age through the apprenticeship program. We recognize that apprentices can
make your organization more effective, productive and competitive by addressing your
skills gaps directly,” says Phil Mitchell, director centralized operations, Bristow, Eastern
Hemisphere. “I had heard about Bristow and knew they were one of the largest helicopter
companies in the area, so I knew this was a great opportunity,” says 21-year-old apprentice
Ross Bisset, whose older brother is already working in the helicopter industry. “I found out
that, unlike many companies, you don’t need an engineering degree to get into Bristow,”
adds apprentice Andy Patterson, 17. All of the apprentices will be posted to Bristow
Helicopter’s base in Aberdeen, Scotland. With its ties to the North Sea oil industry, the
Aberdeen heliport is the busiest in Europe, with 40,000 flights annually.
■ PUBLIC SERVICE
NASA Rotary Research
Not Confirmed
Hold your horses—NASA does not have
approval to spend $26.1 million on rotary
wing research—at least not yet. Recent
media reports quoted NASA aerospace
engineer Odilyn Maria as saying the
agency would spend this money on
subsonic rotary wing projects in FY2010.
These projects were supposed to develop
and demonstrate an active rotor system
that could change rotor speed in flight,
according to industry reports.
However, according to NASA spokesperson Beth Dickey, “the president’s budget
request for NASA in fiscal year 2010 is still
under consideration by Congress.” Translation: The money isn’t in the bank yet.
A check within the budget request,
available online at www.nasa.gov/news/
budget, confirms a $26.1 million request
for subsonic rotary request. But, unless
Congress okays the funding, it is a nonstarter.
■ PUBLIC SERVICE | TRAINING
Test Pilot Becomes Astronaut
The European Space Agency has selected Agusta Westland Senior Test
Pilot Tim Peake to be an astronaut. Peake will be the first-ever British
astronaut to join the European Astronaut Corps (EAC). He is one of
four successful candidates chosen for the EAC, which currently has
eight astronauts. In his new position, Peake will be trained to fly to the International Space
Station. He and his three EAC teammates were chosen from 8,413 applications.
In an official ESA release, Peake said he is “delighted” to be selected for the European
Astronaut Corps. “I think that the space industry is going to play an increasingly important role in overcoming many of the challenges that humankind faces, and to be a part of
ESA’s team working towards that goal is a great privilege,” he added.
Peake joined the U.K. Army Air Corps in August 1992. After gaining his wings in June
1994, Peake was posted to Germany as a Gazelle pilot. Subsequently, he became a qualified
helicopter instructor and was “exchange posted” to the U.S. Army, where he flew Apache helicopters. He used that skill on returning home to train British Army Apache AH Mk.1 pilots.
After training as a rotary-wing test pilot, Peake retired from the U.K. military following 17
years of service. He then joined Agusta Westland, test flying Apache and Lynx helicopters.
Tim Peake
■ MILITARY
Lockheed Delivers
200th Common
Cockpit
Lockheed Martin has provided the U.S.
Navy with its 200th Common Cockpit
avionics suite. The equipment is designed
to be used in the U.S. Navy’s MH-60R
and MH-60S multi-mission helicopters.
Built using commercial-off-the-shelf
(COTS) hardware, the Common Cockpit
standardizes flight operations on both
Navy helicopter models. Each uses four 8 x
10-inch color displays that are compatible
with night vision devices. To date, 47
Common Cockpits have been made for
the MH-60R, the Navy’s newest anti-submarine/anti-surface warfare helicopter.
The 153 Common Cockpits that have been
produced for the MH-60S perform ship-to-ship vertical resupply. According to
Lockheed Martin, the cockpit has logged
more than 250,000 flight hours since
deliveries began in January 2000.
