Boeing says it is “still evaluating” whether the failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engine earlier this month on a test stand at the U.K. manufacturer’s Derby, England, site might impact the year-end entry-into-service target of the 787. The engine, which was a Package A interim service configuration intended for initial aircraft only, suffered an intermediate pressure turbine-related failure.
Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md., and Washington)
Just over one year into the contract to develop a new U.S. Navy maritime surveillance aircraft, service officials are preparing for a critical design review in February and laying plans to avoid the same technology pitfalls of building a high-flying unmanned aerial system (UAS) now plaguing the U.S. Air Force. The Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program, an $11-billion project to field 68 high-altitude UAS, expects to conduct its first flight in Fiscal 2012, says Jennifer Clarke, the Navy’s BAMS program deputy director.
President’s Export Council Chairman Jim McNerney, who is president and CEO of Boeing, and Vice Chairman Ursula Burns, the chairwoman and CEO of Xerox, said the 20 private-sector advisers will begin meeting Sept. 16 on jobs creation and export expansion.
Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md., and Washington)
The U.S. Navy’s ambitious pursuit of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) was, if anything, simply a glimmer in the eye of a few rogues in the service just a decade or so ago. Fast forward to the present, and the Navy has emerged with funded programs, a cohesive vision and a procurement corps aggressively engaging industry—three things that any U.S. project needs to garner support, and money, from Congress.
The first spacecraft in the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) military communications satellite network, launched Aug. 14, will spend the next three months circularizing its orbit. When circularization is complete, the spacecraft will fly about 22,300 mi. over the equator at 90 deg. W. Long. for a period of satellite checkout and calibration. It will then be moved to an operational orbit, and should be ready to be put into service in early 2011.
If NASA wants to resurrect nuclear rocket technology, it should start with a more advanced concept than Nerva, like the Los Alamos National Lab-developed Dumbo or the nuclear-electric Vasimir. Either offers much higher overall performance. The Nerva concept was known to have severe weight and bulk problems due to the graphite core, even in flight-weight versions. The concept was guaranteed to work, but not very well. The virtue was avoidance of the political risk to the program managers’ jobs of an embarrassing failure. We can do much better
NASA’s Lunar Science Institute (NLSI) at the Ames Research Center here brings to that body the same interdisciplinary approach that the center’s Astrobiology Institute has pursued over the past decade in the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.
An ongoing trial of space-based ship detection by the South African Maritime Safety Authority demonstrated the ability to improve security during the recent World Cup tournament, according to service provider ExactEarth. The Cambridge, Ontario-based company is demonstrating the provision of space-based automatic identification system (AIS) data using a microsatellite in low Earth orbit. The demonstration uses the Canadian Nanosatellite Tracking of Ships (NTS) spacecraft launched in 2008.
Uniquely for the U.S. Navy, talking about unmanned systems means thinking across three domains—air, surface and undersea—and about how vehicles operating in these different environments can be made to work together.
The development of the new Ilyushin Il-112V twin-turboprop military transport has run into difficulties that could sideline the program, owing to concerns from the primary customer, the Russian military.
Bobby Braun, NASA’s first chief technologist since the 1990s, says better coordination, a greater emphasis on continuity in research and competition for “the best ideas” will reap rewards in innovation and technology for the space agency.
Amy Butler (Washington), Graham Warwick (Washington)
The unmanned vehicle market is going through an unprecedented growth spurt, with militaries and industry spending billions of dollars on the technology and companies large and small offering a wide range of designs. The initial focus has largely been on developing land-based intelligence-collecting systems. Unmanned work has also been fueled by the desire for unblinking surveillance, improvised explosive device detection and precision strikes during wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Major mission-system upgrades completed in December 2008 on 17 NATO E-3A AWACS aircraft are set to be cleared for full operational capability, potentially opening the way for the fleet to take part in missions over Afghanistan, probably by year-end. The aircraft were modified by a Boeing-led team under a $1.32-billion mid-term modernization program that included industry partner and subcontractor EADS.
The coverage of the recent Lufthansa Cargo crash (AW&ST Aug. 2, p. 41) leads me to wonder if there should be an airworthiness directive issued, limiting the landing weight for MD-11 cargo aircraft. This reduced weight might lower approach speeds and thereby reduce the premium on piloting skills in landing the beast. Of course there will be some nice loading and operational (fuel-consumption versus stage-length) calculations to be performed. But, the alternative is prolonging an unsafe operating condition.
Declining Aegean Airlines revenue owing to domestic economic problems has resulted in a €32.6-million ($42-million) first-half loss. The airline, which is trying to merge with Olympic Airways to bolster its financial health and better combat rivals, saw revenue decline 3% in the first six months, which led to the negative result following a €13.4-million profit for the year-ago period. Aegean is closing two domestic and three international routes.
Margaret D. Tutwiler has been appointed executive vice president/head of communications, marketing and government relations for the CIT Group of New York. She was senior vice president/head of global communications and public affairs of Merrill Lynch. David M. Moffett has been named to the board of directors. He is former CEO of the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. and was a senior adviser with the Carlyle Group.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is too savvy to expect applause from the military-industrial complex for suggesting the way it has been doing business in recent decades is untenable going forward. But he is doing a favor to the services, the Defense Department and contractors in trying to fundamentally rebalance missions and program priorities to make the U.S. military more efficient, effective and focused.
How do you go to an asteroid? First get a steady supply of big money and smart people, and start planning, designing, building, testing and training. Along the way remember to forget the last 16 years of lunar science, the 1994 bistatic radar experiment over the lunar south pole during Clementine’s 234th orbit, or the map generated from the neutron spectrometer on board the Lunar Prospector in 1998. Forget about the recent orbiters: Smart 1 from Europe, the Japanese Kaguya and Chandrayaan-1 from India—all seeking the first glimpse of lunar ice.
Selective laser sintering (SLS) is an additive manufacturing process that is an offshoot of stereo lithography from the 1980s. By scanning cross sections of a part in a 3D computer design, engineers are able to use high-power lasers to fuse powdered materials to make the actual part. Unmelted powder acts as a mold; the completed part is lifted away from it.
Laura J. Peterson (see photo) has been named Northwest U.S. vice president-state and local government operations for Boeing . She was vice president-business development and global strategy for Seattle-based Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Amy Butler (NAS Patuxent River, Md.), Graham Warwick (Washington)
For Insitu and parent Boeing, operating experience is a distinct advantage as the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps make the long-awaited shift from buying services to procuring systems to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) for deployed forces. Winner of the Small Tactical Unmanned Air System (STUAS) competition, Insitu’s Integrator will eventually replace the smaller ScanEagle, which Boeing and its subsidiary have operated for more than 350,000 hr. in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf.
A new program is using the 66-spacecraft Iridium constellation to provide continuous, global monitoring of space weather. Known as the Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (Ampere), it is a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Iridium and Boeing. Ampere provides real-time measurements of Earth’s magnetic field, with up to 100 times greater sampling density than previously possible.
USN Rear Adm. Allen G. Myers has been nominated for promotion to vice admiral and assignment as commander of Naval Air Forces/commander of Naval Air Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet at San Diego. He has been director of warfare integration/senior national representative in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations at the Pentagon. Rear Adm. (lower half) William F. Moran has been named deputy director of the Air Warfare Div. in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington. He has been commander of the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, Norfolk, Va. Rear Adm.
With initial operational clearance (IOC) in sight, the Indian air force will soon order 20 more Tejas Mk.1 Light Combat Aircraft, bringing its total order for the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. fighter to 48 to equip two inaugural squadrons.
