Crews and maintainers never formally recorded information on a vulnerability involving the B-2’s air pressure sensors and the simple workaround crews came up with to mitigate it, a crucial omission that set the stage for a Feb. 23 B-2 crash in Guam. Aircrews and maintenance teams learned about the sensors’ susceptibility to moisture during a Guam deployment in 2006. They also discovered that turning on the 500-degree pitot heat would quickly evaporate the water and the flight computer would receive normal readings.
The ramifications from Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ firing of the top U.S. Air Force civilian and general are only now unfolding, but the shock wave already is reverberating beyond the Washington Beltway. “This can’t be good news for any of us,” said one Lockheed Martin official with insight into the F-22 program. “I was completely surprised and nobody I know knew anything about it beforehand,” the official noted.
TERMINAL PHASE: The U.S. Navy’s Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) weapon system successfully detected, tracked and intercepted a short-range unitary ballistic missile target in the terminal phase of its trajectory during a June 5 test at the Pacific Missile Range off the Hawaiian coast. The mission was the first to use the latest version of the Aegis BMD system, which adds short-range ballistic missile defeat to the capabilities. The system will be certified for U.S. Navy fleet operations later this year.
SEATTLE – The Royal Australian Air Force has approved results from the first set of mission requirement flight-tests on the Boeing 737 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft, marking the beginning of the end in a long-delayed delivery effort of the first Wedgetail in March 2009.
The future C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft (JCA) will be built in Jacksonville, Fla., but without Boeing, which is splitting from the partnership. Alenia North America will construct a new production and assembly facility and handle what would have been Boeing’s work itself, company spokesman Benjamin Stone said. “We are breaking the partnership with Boeing,” Stone said, saying the breakup was due to a difference in developing a “business case.”
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Hamilton Sundstrand is preparing to flight-test its NP2000 eight-blade propeller on a U.S. Air National Guard (ANG) Lockheed Martin C-130, aiming for a market to retrofit 400 E- and H-model Hercules transports. The composite-bladed propellers have been installed on an ANG C-130E at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., says Bob Leduc, president, flight systems. Flight-testing is expected to begin in July-August and last four to five months.
Due to an editor’s error, an article published June 3 about Japanese fighter planning included an incorrect headline. The headline should be “Raptor Prospects Dim, EA Desires Rise in Japan.”
FUTURE FLIERS: U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded Pennsylvania-based Fidelity Technologies Corp. a $68 million contract to provide classroom and simulation training to the next generation of Navy aviators and flight officers. Under the five-year contract, beginning Aug. 1, Fidelity will provide flight instructors for the Navy’s Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA). The instructors will work with trainees in the first phase of aviator schooling, in which they will be taught such basics as wing dynamics and how to approach a runway.
The first test firing of the Aster 30 missile for the United Kingdom’s Type 45 destroyer-based missile defense system has achieved a successful target intercept, according to European missile maker MBDA.
Massachusetts-based Diamond-Roltran is betting that if slip rings rolled instead of slipped, the V-22 Osprey would not be facing the slip ring maintenance issues it encountered on its first deployment in Iraq.
A new report by U.S. congressional investigators highlights growing cost projections for maintaining or expanding nuclear warhead pit manufacturing as the Bush administration has proposed.
FLYING HIGH: The U.S. defense unmanned systems market generated revenues of $2.9 billion in 2007 but is expected to rise only to $3.5 billion by 2016, according to Frost & Sullivan. The Pentagon’s increasing demand for remotely operated aerial, ground and maritime systems “is accelerating procurement as well as the research and development efforts,” the report forecasts. But Frost & Sullivan analyst Lindsay Voss says “growth will likely plateau as technology matures” and political changes limit new unmanned programs between 2010 and 2016.
BERLIN – The Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) 3-ton W2M satellite is about to enter final testing before leaving ISRO for its launch at the end of 2008 by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana, Ghislain de la Sayette, regional export director for EADS Astrium, told Aerospace DAILY.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide led a happy gang of his crewmates into the main module of the big Kibo laboratory June 4, continuing activation of the long-awaited facility under the guidance of engineers at the newly operational control center in Tsukuba City, near Tokyo. “This is a great moment for the Japanese folks,” Hoshide said. “It’s a beautiful module.”
Lockheed Martin/VT Group joint venture Ascent has signed a 25-year contract to provide military flying training for the U.K. armed forces under a public-private partnership – a deal worth almost $12 billion over its life. The initial contract, worth 635 million pounds ($1.25 billion), covers Ascent’s role as training system provider for the U.K. Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) program, and the initial advanced jet training (AJT) package.
Radio frequency (RF) technology is facing technology gaps that will only be solved by going digital, according to a team at Hypres Inc. Hypres’ All-Digital RF architecture will permit communications receivers to operate with high levels of interference, the company says. A digital RF domain, created on a semi-conductor chip that runs about 10 times faster than the fastest silicone chips, offers “a lot of different options,” Hypres President Richard Hitt said. The signal exists on the chips, interacting with other electronics, power amplifiers and antenna.
SEOUL – South Korea will flight test its own radar-absorbing materials, even though the fate of its KFX stealth fighter project, the main beneficiary of the development, remains uncertain. The Agency for Defense Development, a research and development body, revealed successful ground tests on radar-absorbing material on a McDonnell Douglas F-4 fighter. The timing of the announcement could be interpreted as an attempt to gain publicity for the country’s advanced aerospace efforts, helping to keep the KFX alive (Aerospace DAILY, June 3).
The House Science Committee on June 4 approved a NASA authorization bill for fiscal 2009 that includes $1 billion to accelerate the Constellation program and sets the agency’s topline budget at $20.2 billion.
The Pentagon is preparing to finalize at least part of its airborne electronic attack (AEA) road map, perhaps in a matter of days, with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as the threshold platform, aerospace industry officials say. There is a draft Acquisition Decision Memorandum on the desk of Pentagon acquisition chief John Young that’s expected to be signed this week.
NILESAT: Thales Alenia Space has been selected to build a new telecom satellite for Cairo-based Nilesat. The 3.2 metric ton, 5.7-watt spacecraft, Nilesat 201, will carry 24 Ku-band and four Ka-band transponders and will be launched in February 2010. Arianespace will be the launch provider, according to Egyptian sources; the European launch provider has yet to confirm the selection. Nilesat officials say its two existing units, Nilesat 101/102, also supplied by Thales Alenia, are both full as strong demand in the Middle East and North Africa taxes existing capacity.
NAS WHIDBEY ISLAND, Wash. – The first Boeing EA-18G Growler airborne electronic attack aircraft officially entered service with the U.S. Navy June 3 with its handover to VAQ-129 here.
The Netherlands will bring five additional Boeing AH-64D Apache attack helicopters up to the same upgraded standard it is acquiring for the other 24 aircraft in its inventory. The five were previously earmarked to be sold as part of a budget realignment process. But recently the Dutch decided to retain them because of the operational value of the Apache in Afghanistan, and also because a proposed sale to the United Arab Emirates faltered.
JOHNSON SPACE CENTER – Spacewalkers Mike Fossum and Ron Garan worked fast to recover from a late start on the first extravehicular activity of the STS-124/1J mission on June 3, getting Japan’s Kibo laboratory module prepped to move from the payload bay of the space shuttle Discovery to its final position on the International Space Station.
