France has kicked off definition of a system of systems to tie future air- and ground-based army units into a network-based close-combat capability. The €4-5-billion ($5.6-7-billion) project, known as Scorpion, will draw on experience with the air-ground cooperative combat system (BOA) demonstrator that began in 2004. Scorpion aims to equip 18 battle groups with new infantry fighting vehicles and light tanks, upgraded main battle tanks and other gear—but so far no aerial hardware—connected by a common high-bandwidth communications backbone.
Oman Air has become the first airline to operate with OnAir’s inflight Internet connectivity system. The service, which includes WiFi Internet, e-mail and short text messaging, was inaugurated on the Muscat to London route using an Airbus A330. Seven other carriers have also signed up to use OnAir Internet, which is based on Inmarsat’s 492-kbps. Swiftbroadband satellite network .
NASA has targeted February 2013 for a replacement flight opportunity for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory that was lost in February 2009 due to a Taurus XL launch vehicle failure. Orbital Sciences built the spacecraft and will construct its replacement to be as close to the original as possible. The reflight could be on an Orbital Taurus XL, but Michael Freilich, director of NASA’s Earth Science Div., says the space agency could hold a launcher competition. Other potential candidates include SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Orbital’s Minotaur V.
A third terminal would be built at Taipei’s Taoyuan International Airport under a plan commissioned by the government. The terminal would raise capacity to 50 million passengers per year from 30 million .
The British Parliament’s Defense Committee wants to know what “lessons learned” the Defense Ministry will draw from the Airbus Military A400M debacle, at the same time as it excoriates officials over their failure to be up-front about the wider multibillion-pound gap in the overall procurement program. “At best, confused and unhelpful and, at worst, deliberately obstructive” is the acerbic conclusion of the U.K.’s Defense Committee with regard to evidence provided by the Defense Ministry concerning a multibillion-pound funding disparity.
A major evolution in air traffic control technology is underway in the vast reaches of Canada’s northern airspace. Nav Canada is pioneering the use of satellite-based surveillance on high-altitude and oceanic routes, enhancing ATC coverage for some of North America’s most important international air corridors.
Sukhoi intends to add three more T-50 development aircraft to the test program within the next 12 months, with further details of Russia’s next-generation fighter leaking out from a high-level gathering here. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held a cabinet meeting last week on developing the aerospace and defense industry at Sukhoi’s Moscow headquarters. Putin was also shown the T-50-0 static test rig airframe along with a cockpit simulator for Russia’s fifth-generation fighter.
Boeing engineers are checking out the third and final Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) built by their company in the GOES-N configuration, after its launch Mar. 4 on a United Launch Alliance Delta IV from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. Liftoff came at 6:57 p.m. EST, two days late because a quick-disconnect and a steering control valve on the rocket had to be replaced. The weather satellite will be designated GOES-P until checkout is complete, when it will be stored as GOES-15 as an on-orbit spare.
Initial calibrated images from Europe’s Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) probe suggest the mission, intended to advance scientists’ understanding of the global water cycle, will meet specifications with margin to spare. SMOS was launched on Nov. 2, together with the Proba-2 technology satellite, and is to be commissioned at the end of April (AW&ST Nov. 9, 2009, p. 26).
Inspections of the U.K.’s Merlin and Apache helicopter engines are being stepped up following an incident which resulted in damage to two powerplants while they were being run on the ground. The AgustaWestland Merlin antisubmarine-warfare and support helicopter and WAH-64 attack helicopter use the Rolls-Royce Turbomecca RTM322 turboshaft engine. A Merlin recently suffered a failure on one of its three RTM322s during a ground run. This culminated in the loss of a compressor blade, which caused damage to a second engine. Periodic engine inspections have begun .
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has successfully completed a set of rigorous actuator tests, which agency managers hope is a sign that the problem-plagued rover mission has turned a corner. “The final actuator that we were having problems with has passed its two-times life test,” NASA science chief Ed Weiler says. MSL’s actuators will drive the rover’s wheels and its robotic arm. The two-times life tests run the actuators continuously for twice their design life. MSL is targeting a September 2011 launch, after missing its original 2009 Mars launch opportunity.
Lockheed Martin workers at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility expect to finish the last of 134 space shuttle external tanks by the end of June before shutting down the production line for the huge aluminum-lithium structures. They have already resettled the tank—designated ET-138—back in the horizontal position (see photo) after hoisting it upright to splice the liquid oxygen/intertank section to the 96.7-ft. liquid oxygen tank that rides at the bottom of the tank portion of the shuttle stack. The LOX tank that forms the nose of the external tank is 54.6 ft.
Directed-energy weapons are to take a major step forward with creation of the first test facility enabling open-air firings of high-power solid-state lasers against rockets, mortars, unmanned aircraft and other targets.
Frustrated with the pace at which its Eurofighter Typhoon fleet has been coming into service, the German air force is restructuring operations for the short term to boost the number of available crewmembers.
Mar. 18—Royal Aeronautical Society Washington Branch’s Annual Meeting and Presentation: James E. Bennett, president and CEO, Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. British Embassy. Call +1 (703) 693-1564 or e-mail: [email protected] Mar. 21-24—Institute of Applied Aviation Management/National Academy of Legal Studies and Research University of Law’s Post-Graduate Diploma Seminar: “Aviation Law and Air Transport Management.” Sharjah International Airport, United Arab Emirates. Call +91 (94) 4787-5164 or see www.nalsar.ac.in
Top aerospace and defense (A&D) executives are moving to reposition their businesses for an era of leaner Pentagon spending and preserve core capabilities as aging baby boomers retire. But they face formidable hurdles in getting their organizations to execute on the new business strategies, according to a new industry report.
Two members of the US Airways Flight 1549 “Miracle on the Hudson” crew retired from the airline last week. The flight’s captain, Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, 3rd, who guided the Airbus A320 to a safe emergency landing on the Hudson River on Jan. 15, 2009—and without loss of life to the 155 people on board—joined the airline in 1980. Doreen Welsh, one of the attendants on the flight, leaves US Airways after 39 years.
:This ice-covered tower in Saglek, Newfoundland, is one of the ground units Nav Canada is installing on the country’s northeast coast to bring satellite surveillance to transatlantic air routes. Canada’s ATC provider is one of the leaders in deploying Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast, a technology that is viewed by many as the successor to radar (see p. 42). Nav Canada photo.
A French move to sell four Mistral helicopter carriers to Russia could help generate a reappraisal of Moscow’s security relationship with Western capitals, and open up East-West arms trade. During Russian President Dimitri Medvedev’s visit here last week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that he had approved the opening of negotiations for four of the multirole assault ships. The talks will supersede earlier discussions, begun last summer, for the purchase of a single vessel.
Should the U.S. government require standard cybersecurity criteria for all of its contractors as a condition of receiving federal awards? Should contractors, regardless of size, be favored in competitions if they pay their workers better than others? These and other issues are occupying rulemakers and lawmakers alike as they work through the aftershocks of last year’s acquisition reform earthquake in Washington. Rulemakers have called for a public meeting Apr. 22 at NASA headquarters to elicit comment on proposed information assurance standards for federal projects.
France and Britain have agreed to cooperate in buying hardware to meet urgent operational requirements (UORs). The pact , concluded on Feb. 18, will provide a common framework for five types of UOR acquisition, including joint purchases, nation-to-nation arms sales and modification of existing contracts to cover partner requirements (AW&ST Nov. 30, 2009, p. 62). Up for renewal every five years, the accord is the latest example of the increasingly close defense ties between Paris and London.
Lockheed Martin CEO Robert Stevens is taking personal responsibility for the company’s poor performance on the multinational Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and he says he plans to keep top program executive Dan Crowley in place. “I am the accountable executive in Lockheed Martin, and I am certainly accountable in the performance of this program. I, more than any other person, influence the climate here under which this kind of work can be done,” Stevens told reporters during a joint teleconference last week with Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter.
The business of air navigation service providers is changing, and with it, so must the business of its trade association. That’s a conclusion that has become very clear to me since I became director general of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organization (Canso).
NASA science chief Ed Weiler says that although he may not live to see it himself, he would be “shocked” if humanity fails to discover extraterrestrial life before the close of this century. He says it might be in our Solar System under the Martian soil or the frozen crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Or it might be seen through telescopes observing the by-products of life in the atmospheres of distant extrasolar planets.
We occasionally hoist ourselves with our own training petards. As Capt. Brian Wilson points out (AW&ST Feb. 22, p. 8), NASA-advocated training in how to recover from a tailplane stall requires the opposite primary flight control input from that for a “normal” stall. Our company flies turboprops and watches the NASA tailplane stall video, too.
