Jeff has been involved in aerospace journalism since the mid 1990s. Prior to joining Aviation Week, Jeff served as managing editor of Launchspace magazine and the International Space Industry Report. He has been the editor and chief of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily & Defense Report since 2007 and has been a regular contributor to Aviation Week magazine. He received his B.A. from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va.
Northrop Grumman is developing a multispectral sensor payload for a low-flying unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that will be capable of detecting mines, fortifications, or other obstacles in littoral areas prior to amphibious landings. The Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis (COBRA) system will image objects in six different wavelengths, then map those pictures on top of each other and perform algorithm manipulations of the data until mines "pop out," according to Senior Program Man-ager Dave Gilbert.
Next year Northrop Grumman Corp. will begin flight testing an experimental airframe designed to produce quieter sonic booms, in support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program.
NASA engineers are applying human factors research, as well as point-and-click Internet-style interfaces, to redesign the '70s-era space shuttle displays and reduce the workload on busy astronauts. Bruce Hilty of NASA's Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston is co-chair of the Space Shuttle Cockpit Council and a leader of the Cockpit Avionics Upgrade program, which has resulted in 120 new color display designs.
