Raytheon is set to restart production of laser-guided AGM-65E anti-tank missiles in response to a USAF request for the weapons to be used to attack high-speed moving targets with a reduced risk of missing. As a gap-filler, the U.S. Navy is providing some of its AGM-65Es to the Air Force, which operates Mavericks with TV and infrared seekers.
In another breakthrough in the tele-commuting world, Stewart-Matl Ltd. of Austin, Tex., has won a $5.7-million contract from the Texas National Guard Bureau to build a Predator unmanned reconnaissance aircraft operations complex in Houston. The Texas ANG is one of the organizations that will fly reconnaissance missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere from sites in the U.S. As the UAV mission expands, the ANG and Air Force Reserve will be called on to perform these combat missions regularly from their home bases.
Despite optimism over the long overdue Sport Pilot/Light Sport Aircraft categories, there is a downside: the ill-advised 1,320-lb. gross weight limitation (AW&ST July 23, p. 47).
After an Aug. 10 trajectory maneuver, the NASA Phoenix Mars Lander is on a more direct course. It is traveling at 74,200 mph. relative to the Sun, after departing Earth Aug. 4 at 6.8 mi./sec. on board the third stage of a NASA/United Launch Alliance Delta II. The spacecraft fired its four mid-size thrusters for 3 min., 17 sec. to adjust course. Each of these four hydrazine engines has about 1 lb. of thrust, compared with the 12 descent engines—each with about 66 lb.
Engineers and other technically trained men and women who aspire to enter the aerospace/defense industry should have no problem finding work. As of mid-year, there were no less than 40,000 job openings, according to the 2007 Aviation Week Workforce Study.
John Ricciardelli has been appointed vice president-customer experience and support services for Eclipse Aviation, Albuquerque, N.M. He was executive director of commercial development programs for Bell Helicopter Textron.
Kaman Dayron, based in Orlando, Fla., received a $7-million contract from USAF to supply nine countries with the Joint Programmable Fuze system to meet anticipated munitions requirements. The JPF is a new fuze system for precision weapons like the Joint Direct Attack Munition. The participating countries are Australia, Belgium, Japan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Portugal, Oman and Poland. The fuze’s variable delay feature can be reprogrammed from the cockpit.
Mark Mitchell has been appointed managing director for customer experience for American Airlines. He has been the airline’s managing director for operations at Los Angeles International Airport.
A modified hydrogen valve design that is less susceptible to freezing will be fitted into Pratt & Whitney RL10 upper stage engines in Atlas V and Delta IV launchers to prevent a recurrence of early engine shutdown. There was such an incident on June 15 during launch of two National Reconnaissance Office ocean surveillance spacecraft at Cape Canaveral on an Atlas V. As a result of the RL10 valve freeze-up, the two NRO spacecraft were placed in lower than planned orbits. They have been climbing higher with approximately two maneuvers each per week since the incident.
Garmin plans to offer an optional upgrade for its panel-mounted GTX 330 and its remote-mounted GTX 33 Mode S digital transponders for general aviation aircraft. This will give both transponders 1090-MHz. extended squitter capability for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast transmission of GPS position, velocity and heading to ATC and other aircraft. The price for these options has not yet been determined.
Glen H. Fountain (see photo, p. 15), who is manager of NASA’s New Horizons mission to Pluto at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md., has been named to receive the 2007 von Braun Award for Excellence in Space Program Management from the Reston, Va.-based American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. AIAA is saluting Fountain for 40 years of contributions to space missions that have advanced fundamental understanding of Earth’s environment and the solar system.
MV-22s belonging to U.S. Marine Corps Medium Tiltrotor Sqdn. VMM-263 will deploy to Iraq next month using the amphibious assault ship Wasp. A decision was made to ship the tiltrotors rather than self-deploy, to reduce the strain on equipment. In Iraq, the MV-22s are to be based at Al Asad AB for their seven-month tour.
USN Adm. (ret.) Dennis Blair has been named to the board of directors of Iridium Satellite, Bethesda, Md. He has been president of the Institute for Defense Analyses and was commander-in-chief of the U.S. Pacific Command.
Don’t expect change anytime soon in the restrictions on liquids and gels allowed in air passenger carry-on bags, says the head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Shortly after British authorities uncovered a plot last August to blow up U.S.-bound transatlantic airliners with liquid explosives, the agency imposed its 3-1-1 rule (liquids or gels must be in a 3-oz. container, in a single resealable 1-qt. clear plastic bag, one to a passenger).
French defense research agency Onera is broadening its UAV activities as Europe gears up its so-far-modest effort, although progress is threatened by funding uncertainties. Much of the immediate effort is focused on the low end of the spectrum, to meet medium-term army and navy tactical and urban warfare requirements. In particular, the agency is building an experimental mini-UAV, dubbed Mavdem, under a €4-million ($5.4-million) European Defense Agency (EDA) award aimed at providing a workable design capable of stationary flight and economic cruise.
LAN Airlines has named Lufthansa Technik to provide fleet component support for up to 129 Airbus A320s and eight A340s. The activity would cover three of the South American carrier’s hubs over the next 12 years. The extension of the two companies’ relationship is valued at more than $200 million.
Richard J. Gilbrech, director of NASA’s Stennis Space Center, will take over in October as associate administrator for the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA headquarters. He will oversee the agency’s overall effort to move human space exploration from low Earth orbit to the Moon, and eventually to Mars and beyond. He will replace Scott Horowitz, who is leaving the agency (AW&ST July 16, p. 23). Robert D. Cabana, a veteran shuttle astronaut like Horowitz and now deputy director of Johnson Space Center, will succeed Gilbrech as director of Stennis.
Eurocopter has opened a new logistics facility in Donauworth, Germany, to coordinate movement of all materials, components and parts to and from the company’s main production site in Germany as well as commercial and military customers, company subsidiaries and maintenance sites. In September, a Cooperation Center will open in Donauworth, where Eurocopter’s engineering partners, service providers and suppliers will work together, according to the company.
More U.S. Air Force enlisted personnel will have the chance to fly. The service has opened eight career fields for retraining experienced airmen. First-term personnel can sign up for flight engineer, flight attendant and aerial gunner. Staff and technical sergeants can retrain for boom operator, flight engineer, loadmaster, airborne mission systems, airborne battle management, aerial gunner and cryptologist linguist opportunities.
Hitco Carbon Composites ranks number three in this year’s list of “Where A&D Professionals Want To Work” for the professional development and valuing the individual categories. Ed Carson, chief operating officer, has a clear view of why: “We’re moving toward offering more complex design and development [to customers] and have invested millions of dollars in equipment and tooling to enable our work with the most advanced materials in the industry,” he says. The mantra for Hitco employees is: “Invest, perform, grow.”
When Aviation Week launched its annual review of job opportunities and the workforce in the late 1990s, Bell Helicopter was named among the innovators, even though it wasn’t a young company then. Issuing computers to each employee, it offered online access to information, data and learning to help employees and families stay connected to the company.
Raytheon pulled in a $72.7-million contract from the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center to meet new requirements for a demonstration of homeland security capabilities of a Relocatable Over the Horizon Radar with a two-dimensional receive antenna array. Four one-year extension options could bring a total contract value of $124.7 million.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp.’s S-92 medium-lift helicopter is achieving availability rates of more than 90% in commercial service, with several operators reporting near 100% availability, says David Adler, senior vice president of worldwide customer service. He says the company’s methods to track downtime due to unscheduled maintenance are “more stringent” than those of its customers.
New Piper Aircraft has completed evaluations of a 1/5-scale model of the company’s PiperJet (see photo) at the Kirsten Wind Tunnel at the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory in Seattle. The model was equipped with remotely activated flight control surfaces and focused on 973 specific data points. Bob Kromer, vice president of sales, says the tests “identified some potential areas for improvement,” including sweeping the tail 30 deg. to enhance effectiveness.
UPS has begun construction of a new air hub at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai. UPS Chairman/CEO Mike Eskew attended the ground-breaking with the Shanghai Airport Authority Aug. 9 and said his is the first U.S. airline to open an international air hub in China under the 2004 U.S.-China Air Services Agreement. He added that UPS has invested $600 million in China during the past five years. The new hub will link all of China via Shanghai to UPS’s international network with direct service to the U.S. and Europe.
