FIRST FLIGHT: Northrop Grumman's second RQ-4A Global Hawk maritime demonstrator successfully completed its first flight, the company said June 13. In the four-hour flight, the UAV launched autonomously from the company's production facility in Palmdale, Calif., and tested accurately for air speed, altitude and direction.
LE BOURGET, France - The Boeing Co. is exploring several potential upgrades to the C-17 Globemaster III in case the U.S. Air Force decides to continue buying the transport aircraft well into the next decade, company officials said June 13.
The Odyssey Launch Platform and the Sea Launch Commander have departed their home port in Long Beach, Calif., in preparation for the June 23 launch of the Intelsat Americas-8 spacecraft, Sea Launch announced June 13. Upon arrival at the launch site at 154 degrees West longitude, the launch team will begin a 72-hour countdown, ballast the Launch Platform to launch depth and perform final tests on the Zenit-3SL launcher and spacecraft.
MOSCOW - During high-level talks with Russia's Federal Space Agency, European Space Agency officials confirmed ESA's interest in the joint development of the Clipper reusable manned spacecraft to replace Soyuz capsules. Clipper was a central element of the negotiations attended by heads of ESA's key directorates and Russian space program leaders. The spacecraft, proposed by RSC Energia, is a partially reusable lifting body "mini shuttle" that could allow the delivery of six-person crews to and from low-Earth orbit.
A program to hunt for potentially threatening asteroids or comets down to 100 meters across probably would cost $300 million-$400 million and could use an array of space-based and ground telescopes, according to Lindley Johnson, program manager for NASA's Near Earth Observation Program.
Maritime defense - including the creation of a maritime equivalent of the North American Aerospace Defense Command - presents the greatest single opportunity to beef up domestic security, according to the Defense Department's top official for homeland defense. "When we speak of a maritime NORAD, we're not talking about just a bilateral relationship with Canada modeled on the NORAD agreement we have in the air domain," said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense.
LE BOURGET, France - In January, Eurocopter finally terminated an agreement to develop and produce the utility Mil Mi-38 helicopter jointly with Russia, as legal difficulties regarding industrial property rights could not be resolved. Although Russian developers have lost their French partner, their hopes are still high as they look for new partners, according to Aviation Week's ShowNews.
U.K. ISTAR: BAE Systems' Nashua, N.H., facility will perform $12.5 million worth of work under a larger contract between the U.K. Ministry of Defense (MOD) and BAE Systems to provide maritime intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) sensors for the Royal Navy. BAE Systems' technology partner, QinetiQ Group, also will work on the sensor system proposal, called "Sextant." The seven-month advanced demonstration phase will result in a demonstration to British officials, BAE Systems announced June 13.
A BAE Systems-Raytheon team is proceeding with development of an advanced mission planning capability for the U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, and efforts to develop similar capabilities for other types of platforms are shaping up, according to a BAE Systems official. The team won a $12.9 million contract for the U-2 work on May 9, said Bob Simek, business development director for BAE Systems' National Security Solutions unit in San Diego.
LE BOURGET, France - The V-22 Osprey is doing "swimmingly well" in its operational evaluation (OPEVAL) and is expected to finish that key test phase in about a week and a half, according to a program official. "We're on the brink of completing OPEVAL," said Marine Corps Col. Bill Taylor, the deputy program manager for the U.S. Navy-led V-22 program. "We're looking forward to the results when they officially come out."
FAST PATROL BOATS: United States Marine Inc. of New Orleans has been awarded an $18.8 million U.S. Navy contract to build three 27-meter Fast Patrol Boats, with technical data, training and spare parts, for the Royal Oman Police Coast Guard under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Oman will use the fiberglass-reinforced plastic boats for law enforcement and local-patrol operations. The boats will be built in New Orleans and should be ready by May 2007. The contract was awarded June 9 by the Naval Sea Systems Command.
The U.S. military must prepare for global anti-terror operations as well as a potential major engagement with China as it works on the new Quadrennial Defense Review, analysts said at the American Enterprise Institute on June 10. Speed in response to worldwide developments is critical, but budget realities will force hard constraints at a time when modernizing the military is important, they said.
NASA is preparing to release the latest Announcement of Opportunity for its Discovery program, which will ease restrictions on proposals that have contributed to cost and schedule overruns on previous missions, according to Andrew Dantzler, director of the Solar System Division at NASA headquarters.
MAKING APPEARANCE: The first KC-767A aerial refueling tanker built for the Italian air force flew across the Atlantic June 10 to be displayed at the Paris Air Show. The flight is part of a flight-test and aerial refueling certification program, aircraft builder Boeing said. The company is building four of the planes for Italy.
MERIDIAN, Miss. - Rolls-Royce plans to use the success of its Power By the Hour (PBTH) F405 engine maintenance contract for the Navy's T-45 trainer to seek similar contracts for other military aircraft, Alan W. Wilson, director of U.S. Navy programs for the company, told The DAILY. Candidates for PBTH contracts include Northrop Grumman's E-2C Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft, the C-2 Greyhound, a cargo-carrying Hawkeye derivative, and the Boeing AV-8B Harrier II.
Aviation Week Group will hold a press conference with J.D. Power and Associates at the Paris Air Show on June 13 at 10:30 a.m. in room 4 at the media center to announce their new relationship. The McGraw-Hill Companies, which owns Aviation Week Group, completed its acquisition of J.D. Power and Associates on April 1.
AMERICAN DATA: Boatloads of data from the recent sinking of the USS America aircraft carrier will help shipbuilders design stronger, better naval ships for decades, but first analysts have to interpret the information, according to U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Denny Dwyer. The two-star admiral, program executive officer for aircraft carriers, says the May 14 controlled sinking led to no surprises. The 78,000-ton aircraft carrier, built by Newport News Shipbuilding and named by President John F. Kennedy, first was honored with full naval rites before the exercise.
ROLLOUT: Shuttle Discovery is scheduled to begin rolling back out to Launch Pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in the early morning hours of June 14, equipped with an upgraded external tank featuring a new heater to prevent ice formation. Mounted atop the Crawler Transporter, the fully stacked shuttle and its mobile launcher platform will take six hours to make the four-mile trip to the pad. Launch of Discovery on mission STS-114 to the International Space Station is scheduled for a launch window lasting from July 13 to July 31.
MORE SPACE: The National Air and Space Museum plans to expand the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Virginia to add three new components to the facility. The expansion, which will proceed as privately raised money pays for it, will add 216,000 square feet, for an eventual total of 760,000 square feet. The expansion plan would create space for a restoration hangar where visitors could watch the work being done, a "collections care" center including an archive for paper, photographs and film, and a collections storage unit.
