The Boeing-led team designing and testing a massive chemical laser for use on a 747-400F against ballistic missiles has completed inspection and refurbishment of the high-energy laser in preparation for installation on the host platform. Also achieved by the team in 2007 were the technical drawings required for the installation this year and modifications to the Airborne Laser (ABL) hangar at Edwards AFB, Calif. After numerous technical challenges in its history, Boeing expects ABL to demonstrate its ability to shoot down a boosting ballistic missile target in 2009.
Don’t look for much help on wind tunnels and other infrastructure in the new White House aeronautics plan. President Bush gave his Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) a year after he signed his original aeronautics policy in December 2006 to develop a plan identifying critical infrastructure and defining “an approach for constructing, maintaining, modifying or terminating these assets based on the needs of the broad user community.” But the plan issued Dec.
Air traffic flow control may one day use computer algorithms to review flight plans automatically and suggest alternative routings to avoid congestion and cut delays. The concept is five or more years from operational use, but its potential is alluring.
Philippe Pastor (see photo) has been appointed vice president-human resources of France-based Messier-Dowty International . He succeeds Claude Mathieu, who has moved within the Safran Group to Sagem Defense Securite.
Weapons specialists loaded a 700-lb. mockup of the 20.5-ft.-long, 30,000-lb. Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP)—widely perceived as the weapon of choice in a U.S. attack on Iranian nuclear facilities—into the weapon bay of a B-2 bomber mockup Dec. 18 at Whiteman AFB, Mo. The warhead, carrying 5,300 lb. of explosives, is designed to penetrate 200 ft. of earth, more than twice the depth of the 5,000-lb. GBU-28, which was designed in 1991 to penetrate deep, hardened Iraqi bunkers. It is 10 times as powerful as the standard BLU-109 penetrator for 2,000-lb.-class bombs.
Pratt & Whitney reports the F117 engine—the military version of the PW2000—for the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III transport has passed its 5 millionth operational flight hour. The PW2000 has surpassed 34 million flight hours powering 757s.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. is flying an H-92 medium-lift helicopter featuring a fly-by-wire (FBW) system. The company has two development programs underway that could use FBW—the X-2 technology demonstrator and the UH-60M Black Hawk. Sikorsky officials say flight tests of the H-92 will continue this year and FBW flight control systems will be incorporated into the company’s next generation of commercial and military helicopters.
It isn’t often in this age of large organizations, work packages and shared responsibility that a lone individual gets a chance to step in and save the day, relying on courage and skill to rescue a situation that is going badly awry. Scott Parazynski is just that rare kind of hero. On Nov. 3, 2007, the veteran NASA astronaut used every bit of his 6-ft. 2-in. frame and his long arms to reach a torn solar array that had stalled assembly of the International Space Station.
Certification of Aspen Avionics’ Evolution Flight Display system, the EFD1000, originally anticipated by the end of 2007, is now expected in March 2008. The Albuquerque, N.M.-based company has notified customers of the delay and expects to start installations in April 2008. Aspen, which is focused on manufacturing affordable glass products, introduced the system that is aimed at Part 23 Class 1, 2 and 3 aircraft, at Oshkosh 2007. Customers who wish to track progress of the unit may do so at aspenavionics.com/evolutiontracking
Europe is struggling to define the rules about including aviation in its emissions trading scheme (ETS), with several difficult months still ahead as stakeholders battle over the terms and conditions.
Europe’s Automated Transfer Vehicle is ready for fueling, now that launch crews have finished loading and sealing its cargo hold and mating its two halves in preparation for the freighter’s inaugural mission to the International Space Station next month. The five-day loading process, completed in mid-December at the S5 payload processing building in Kourou, French Guiana, included the installation of 1.3 metric tons of food, clothing, spare parts and other dry cargo and 268 liters of drinking water.
Boeing has submitted its final KC-767 advanced tanker proposal for the KC-135 replacement—citing the use of half the ramp space, a requirement for fewer bases, less maintenance cost and use of 24% less fuel than the larger Northrop Grumman/EADS KC-30 competing design. Northrop Grumman says its design is newer and carries more fuel and cargo.
The formal signing by British Airways of a previously announced order for eight Boeing 787-8s and 16 787-9s raised the company’s total order book for the new 250-300-seat jet family to 790. The BA deal is valued at $4.4 billion at list prices. The airline holds 18 options at pre-arranged prices and 10 purchase rights, which reserve production placement. As 2007 ended, Boeing also recorded 31 737 orders from the Dublin-based leasing company Awas, plus 19 purchase rights.
For at least the second time, NASA has scrubbed a shuttle launch because of faulty fuel sensors (AW&ST Dec. 17, 2007, p. 24). The more I hear, the more I’m glad the folks who make them don’t make pacemakers.
When China shot down its own aging FY-1C weather satellite last January, demonstrating its anti-satellite capabilities, alarms sounded around the globe (AW&ST Jan. 22, 2007, p. 24). Political and Pentagon leaders, who largely had ignored warnings voiced by national security space professionals for many years, finally were paying attention.
Shuttle America will start receiving its Embraer 175 regional jets in July, now that parent Republic Airways has confirmed 11 options it held with the aircraft maker. The jets, which will operate under the Delta Connection name, add to the 44 Embraer 170s Shuttle America already operates (16 of those in the Delta livery). The 175s will be configured with 12 first-class seats and 64 economy seats.
Sukhoi has started manufacturing the prototype of its fifth-generation fighter, known as T-50 or PAK FA, at its manufacturing facility in Komsomolsk. First flight is planned for 2009. Prototypes will be fitted with Saturn Izdelie 117 engines, a major upgrade of the existing Al-31FP for Su-27/Su-30Fs, says Yury Lastochkin, general director of Saturn. The Russian defense ministry plans to select the engine for production standard T-50s in 2009. Saturn and Moscow-based Salyut engine designer and manufacturer are the competitors.
J. Christopher Reyes has been named to the board of directors of General Dynamics , Falls Church, Va. He is co-chairman and a founder of Reyes Holdings, Rosemont, Ill.
Saab is evaluating the sell-off or expansion of its space business. The move is part of a reassessment of non-core activities in which the Swedish aerospace and defense contractor may be too small to remain competitive, and to determine whether it is worth devoting scarce capital and research resources to maintain these activities. The company’s Bofors Dynamics weapons unit—like Saab Space, a part of the Systems and Products Div.—is also thought to be among the activities under review (AW&ST Sept. 10, 2007, p. 52).
Thales Alenia Space engineers are struggling to fix a helium leak that is jeopardizing the first indigenous pan-African fixed satellite service telecommunications mission.
Dara A. Panahy (see photo) has been promoted to partner from senior associate in law firm Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy ’s Washington office, specializing in aerospace, communications and banking companies involved in space and communications ventures.
Officials at the U.S. State Dept. unit that reviews arms export licensing requests acknowledge that more work is falling on fewer experienced staff members. According to a congressional report, in summer 2006, about half of the licensing officers at State’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls had less than a year’s experience. Workforce challenges as well as shortcomings in electronic processing are taxing the system, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
An international task force is taking the first steps toward a joint Mars sample return mission in the coming decade, following a meeting in Washington late last year to lay the groundwork for cooperation. The task force, dubbed the International Mars Architecture for Return of Samples (IMARS) group, is a committee of the International Mars Exploration Working Group, which was formed in 1993.
