AllThingsD » aircraft

UTC Deal Reached to Acquire Goodrich

Kate Linebaugh and Gina Chon — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:55:20 +0000

United Technologies Corp. agreed to buy aircraft-components maker Goodrich Corp. for $16.4 billion in cash, the company’s biggest-ever acquisition and a signature deal for Chief Executive Louis Chênevert.

The acquisition will strengthen United Technologies’ exposure to the commercial aviation business at a time when the industry’s order books are full, and it fulfills Mr. Chênevert’s desire to find a deal big enough to add measurably to a company that expects $58 billion in revenue this year.

It also sets United Technologies apart from other conglomerates like Tyco International Ltd., which announced plans this week to break into three companies. Tyco is betting the parts will be worth more than the whole, but United Technologies is moving in the opposite direction, believing it will win more business by offering a fuller menu of products to aircraft makers.

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Throttle Back Those Hypersonic Dreams

John Murrell — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 17:48:40 +0000

This morning, DARPA’s Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 was successfully launched over the Pacific on its second test flight. It separated from its booster, went into glide mode at the edge of space, bound for Mach 20, and … nothing. Sadly, much like the first test flight in April 2010, the aircraft stopped sending back data and headed to a watery grave. Hey, if it were easy, it wouldn’t require advanced research.

DARPA: That's Mach 20, Baby

Kara Swisher — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:50:21 +0000

In an onstage interview at the ninth D: All Things Digital conference in June, Regina Dugan — who is director of the federal government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — riveted the crowd by talking about a plane in development that can fly at a speed of Mach 20.

That would be 13,000 miles per hour, or 20 times the speed of sound.

Now DARPA is trotting out the Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 for its second and final launch this morning at 7 am PT from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

According to the DARPA site, the aircraft will be boosted into the atmosphere via a rocket, and will blast around for 30 minutes. (See the chart below for the info as to how it does so.)

On its first outing, the plane already proved it can maintain Global Positioning System (GPS) signals while traveling 3.6 miles per second. But DARPA also lost contact with the vehicle, which had a controlled landing in the ocean.

The goal of the second flight, said DARPA, “is to validate current assumptions and increase technical understanding of the hypersonic flight regime. More than 20 test assets will collect continuous flight data to achieve this goal.”

Cool.

Here’s a video of the full interview at D9, with DARPA director Dugan talking about the Mach 20 flight and more:

[ See post to watch video ]

Google CEO Eric Schmidt's Friends and Family Fly for Free, Frequently

Peter Kafka — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 22:07:34 +0000

Google’s new 2008 proxy statement looks a lot like Google’s proxy statements from previous years: The company’s top executives received nice bonuses, though slightly smaller than last year’s. And Google’s (GOOG) ruling troika–CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page–all took home salaries of $1, and will make do by owning gazillions of dollars worth of Google shares.

One smallish change: Eric Schmidt’s friends and families spent a lot more time with him on the company jet last year.

At least that’s the conclusion I’m drawing from a footnote to the SEC document, which notes he was paid a total of $508,763 in “other compensation.” The breakdown: $402,562 for personal security costs, plus another $106,201 “paid by Google on Eric’s behalf for costs related to aircraft chartered for Google business on which family and friends flew in 2008.”

Google has consistently been shelling out about a half-million dollars in “other compensation” to Schmidt each year, so this is nothing new. The only difference is that Schmidt seemed to bring more friends and family on the Googleplanes last year, or having them take longer flights, than before.

In 2007, friends and family-related flight costs only totaled $4,000. And in 2006, Google shelled out $22,456 for “tax gross-ups” related to those flights, plus another $531 in “aggregate incremental costs.”

So what prompted Schmidt’s pals and relatives to take to the skies that much more this year? I’ve asked Google for more information, and will update if I get anything.