A biofuel supply sufficient to meet up to 1% of aviation’s fuel needs could be available “instantly,” and at a price competitive with petroleum jet fuel, if green diesel is approved for use in aircraft, Boeing says. The company is working with partners to gain approval by the end of 2014.
NASA PROTEST: Wyle Laboratories has prevailed in a bid dispute with Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) over a potential $1.76 billion NASA award for medical, biomedical and health services supporting human spaceflight programs. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) sustained, or supported, Wyle’s protest in a Dec. 27, 2013, decision, published Jan. 13. Since NASA announced the contract opportunity in July 2012, SAIC split into two companies — one retaining the SAIC name and another called Leidos.
U.K.-based Reaction Engines has signed an agreement with the U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) to explore the potential of the company’s Sabre advanced cycle air-breathing rocket engine. The company announced the signing of the cooperative research and development agreement (Crada) on Jan. 13 with AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate. Reaction Engines says the agreement gives AFRL “a framework to assess the performance, applications and development paths” for the Sabre engine.
Now that Lockheed Martin has decided to drop its protest against the recent award of the U.S. Navy’s Air And Missile Defense Radar (AMDR) contract to Raytheon, the next step for the company is to find a way to stitch its vaunted Aegis combat system together with the service’s future radar. Jim Sheridan, the director of Lockheed’s Aegis U.S. Navy program, says discussions have not yet started with Raytheon, but the name for the Aegis system to be incorporated into AMDR will be Advanced Capabilities Build (ACB)-Next.
The U.S. Navy surface fleet must steer away from depending on defensive missiles and must move toward becoming more offensively lethal, says the admiral in charge of those ships. “The surface force must greatly improve its offensive lethality,” says Vice Adm. Thomas Copeman, commander of the Naval Surface Force and U.S. Pacific Naval Surface Force.
The Belarus air force has introduced into service a radar that is claimed to be able to detect stealth targets at 350 km (220 mi.) range. Developed domestically by the KB-Radar company, the Vostok-D radar was declared operational with the air force’s 49th Signals Intelligence brigade in November, the Belarus defense ministry announced last week. Vostok-D is intended to replace the Soviet-era P-18 early-warning radar (known as Spoon Rest to NATO) and will be used to cue surface-to-air missile systems.
The fifth and final next-generation narrowband communications satellite being built for the U.S. Navy by Lockheed Martin has entered its first system test phase. The Lockheed Martin team recently mated the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) system module, which carries mission system equipment, and the core—which houses propulsion—with a key antenna for the satellite.
The National Defense Industrial Association, a top lobbying group for the U.S. aerospace and defense sector, said Jan. 13 it is spearheading its own industrial base review, which will be led by recently retired Pentagon industrial base czar Brett Lambert. “Brett will lead a team of industry stakeholders to provide fact-based perspectives on how we can best manage and preserve our critical industrial capacity,” said NDIA Chairman Arnold Punaro, a former Marine Corps major general and himself a well-known veteran of numerous blue-ribbon panels.
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Aviation Week Laureate Awards March 6, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Join Us! Aviation Week’s 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
HOUSTON — Astronauts aboard the International Space Station opened hatches to access the “Orb-1” Cygnus resupply capsule Jan. 12, following a successful rendezvous and berthing of the Orbital Sciences Corp. resupply craft launched last week on the first of an eight-flight, $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) agreement with NASA.
NEW DELHI — India is hoping to launch its Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA) so-called fifth-generation fighter by 2018, a senior defense official says. “The product design work of AMCA has been started” by the Defense Research and Development Organization, says K. Tamilmani, director general of India’s Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), based in the southern city of Bengaluru. The vehicle is expected “to be ready” within next four years, he adds. The multi-role fighter was developed by the ADA at the request of the Indian air force (IAF).
NEW DELHI — India is trying to expedite the long-stalled process of acquiring 145 Ultra Light Howitzer artillery guns for its army. The government is proposing buying the guns through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales route. Last August, the U.S. Department of Defense notified the U.S. Congress of a possible sale of 145 155mm towed Howitzers in response to a request from India. The deal’s estimated cost is $885 million, which also includes providing associated equipment, parts, training and logistical support.
The White House decision to extend International Space Station (ISS) operations until 2024 found widespread support among a global gathering of space-agency chiefs meeting in Washington this week, but in some cases mainly as a way to gain more time to prepare national space programs to participate in China’s planned space station later in the 2020s.
BEIJING — South Korea is going ahead with its LCH-LAH light helicopter program, following parliamentary and ministerial approval of full-scale development for the 4.2-5.3 ton (9,300-11,700 lb.) aircraft in cooperation with a foreign partner. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) will handle the South Korean side of the development and has beefed up its program office for the project, making it one of the main divisions of the company.
HOUSTON — Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy are potentially scheduling late January for a second attempt to install two Canadian-furnished commercial Earth-observing cameras outside the International Space Station, after transmission problems thwarted their efforts during a marathon Dec. 27 spacewalk. The latest excursion is tentatively planned for Jan. 27, according to Dan Hartman, NASA’s deputy International Space Station program manager.
LONDON — Aero-engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce is planning to cut 400 jobs in its defense business in both the U.S. and U.K. The company says the moves are in response to ongoing reductions in defense budgets in the U.S. and Europe as well as part of a drive to reduce costs and boost competitiveness.
BEIJING — The South Korean parliament has approved limited 2014 funding for the KF-X indigenous fighter subject to conditions that implicitly threaten to kill the program if it goes off the rails. Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), meanwhile, is restructuring its internal organization to sharpen its focus on the KF-X and the LCH-LAH helicopter program.
