Darpa is at it again with its far-fetched ideas. Actually, it's been at this one since at least 2003, but officials are not giving up on the promise of odor detection. The program is now called Unique Signature Detection and falls under a broader effort called Novel Sensors for Force Protection, according to the U.S. Defense Dept.'s Fiscal 2007 budget request for research, development, test and evaluation. The detection program seeks to identify if enemy combatants have unique smells that can be used to track them.
Peter Zalizniak has become account manager for military, government and maritime sales for EMS Satcom of Ottawa. He was regional director of channel development for Iridium Satellite.
GE-Aviation is beginning the detailed design phase for the GEnx engine selected as the Boeing 747-8 powerplant (AW&ST Apr. 17, p. 48). The architectural design is complete, and this new phase will continue for more than a year. The engine contains the same technology as the engine for the Boeing 787--composites fan case and fan blades and the twin-annular, pre-swirler combustor system--but the engine has been resized, along with components, to meet the latest 747's airframe and thrust requirements. The front fan on the Boeing 747-8 engine will be 105 in.
"Can you bring a gunship to Kirtland?" That's how Rudy Martinez got involved in laser weapons. Martinez, then an operations officer, got permission to fly an AC-130 to Kirtland AFB, N.M., where the man who called showed him a classified weapon that would, he said, "revolutionize the gunship": a chemical laser. The laser was as big as the plane, Martinez recalls.
An innovative European public-private venture will test the ability of small, inexpensive telecom satellites to provide broadband and broadcasting coverage to rural and remote areas where existing ground infrastructure is inadequate. The venture, known as the Highly Adaptable Satellite (Hylas), was announced at the Case for Space Conference in London on May 15 by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Avanti Screenmedia Group of London. Avanti raised most of the financing for the project and will operate the spacecraft, to be launched toward the end of 2008.
The technology that produces electricity from sunlight could soon be in use by the Pentagon as a low-cost, high-efficiency source of energy for an experimental airship.
For those interested in a shiny new jet from Boeing, the cost just went up. The midyear hike in list prices for 2006 averages 4% across all models above 2005 levels and is attributed to "the general inflation rate for manufactured goods." In reality, aircraft list prices bear little resemblance to what customers actually pay because of discounts and such variables as performance options, interiors, avionics and fuel capacity.
The Japan International Transport Institute (JITI) is completing a study, aided by experts from the U.S. and Japan, on the usefulness of the Chicago Convention, the legal framework set up in 1944 to govern international commercial aviation. The study, expected to be released later this year, addresses the impact of government deregulation and liberalization on the document and is likely to contain amendment recommendations. Advisers include Clifford Winston, an economics scholar at the Brookings Institution, and Steve Morrison, professor and chair of the Economics Dept.
Cracks are beginning to emerge in NATO's plans to buy the TCAR multinational radar for its Allied Ground Surveillance (AGS) aircraft system. That radar may be augmented by the U.S. Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program sensor, a sophisticated active electronically scanned array radar built by a Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team. Already, NATO is limiting TCAR's application to the A321 platform while an off-the-shelf alternative may be proposed for the unmanned Global Hawk adjunct. The U.S.
Having followed your excellent coverage of the Tanker/Transport since its inception several years ago it's easy to conclude that U.S. Sen. McCain (R-Ariz.) seems to have a special interest in assisting Airbus. His early multiple roadblocks derailing Boeing's submittals, in retrospect, illustrate obvious purpose. These hindrances started well before the illegal hiring of an ex-government employee and a conviction.
France's way of conducting aircraft accident investigations continues to stun the international flight safety community. Parallel technical and judicial inquiries double the amount of search work, technicians and policemen frequently interfere, while delays in the courts are fiercely criticized by all involved, including victims' relatives and lawyers. Obviously, a top-to-bottom review is urgently needed to prepare for a political initiative to devise new methods.
Maureen A. Dougherty (see photos) has been named vice president-737 Airborne Early Warning and Control programs for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in Seattle. She was vice president for the F-22 program. Dougherty has been succeeded by Paul J. Bay, who was site director of IDS' Puget Sound (Wash.) area operations.
USN Rear Adm. Matthew G. Moffit has been named director of the Fleet Readiness Div. in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in Washington. He has been commander of the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center, Fallon, Nev. Moffit will be succeeded by Rear Adm. (sel.) Mark T. Emerson, who has been commander of Strike Force Training Pacific, North Island, Calif.
Government-owned domestic carrier Indian (formerly Indian Airlines), defense manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. and Airbus are in talks regarding a $115-million maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to service public and private carriers. According to a senior airline official, two locations--Mumbai and Nashik (western India)--are being considered for airframe work. An engine shop is to be set up in New Delhi.
Even as work on a solid-state laser inches closer to development of a Star Wars-style weapon, other parts of the Pentagon are investing in leap-ahead technologies that could produce even higher-energy beams in a faster timeframe.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter supporters, who think it's a bad idea to cut more than $1 billion from the project in Fiscal 2007, are exploring ways to restore funding for the Pentagon's most expensive aircraft program. The Senate Armed Services Committee, concerned that JSF is beginning low-rate initial production (LRIP) with too little testing (only about 1% of the flight test program has been completed), voted to trim funding next year by $1.2 billion to slow the process.
A decision to expand and redraw a strategic partnership between Thales and Diehl could have important implications for future consolidation of Europe's aerospace and defense sector.
Virgin Atlantic plans to equip its fleet with the Tempus telemedicine device by 2009. Tempus is to replace the MedLink system, both of which are manufactured by Phoenix-based MedAire. Tempus uses advanced satellite technology that operates the airline's onboard phone system to transmit medical information, such as vital signs, and video images to medical experts on the ground. They diagnose the problem and advise crew on a course of action.
The House Appropriations Committee says it's "very concerned" about the Apr. 25 crash of the Homeland Security Dept.'s sole Predator B unmanned aircraft in the Arizona desert. The panel withheld $6.8 million of the department's Fiscal 2007 budget request of $10.3 million for the Predator program until its Customs and Border Protection unit reports crash investigation findings and the implications for future drone operations along U.S. borders and coastlines.
It is important to determine if there is water ice on the Moon, and I support the effort to return man to the Moon (AW&ST Apr. 17, p. 26). But sending two high-speed high-mass projectiles to gouge a trough "roughly a third the size of a football field" in the Moon's surface strikes me as a most inelegant solution. Has adequate consideration been given to the effects of further man-made contamination of the Moon's surface? We could be in the process of doing something we later will bitterly regret.
Eurocontrol will assist European states enforcing the airline blacklist that has been established. The alerting service will be run from Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management Unit. A warning will be issued to the states if a banned carrier aims to enter European airspace. Aviation authorities in those countries will then be able to order inspection or prevent the aircraft from taking off--or perhaps even from entering the airspace.
The U.S. Defense Dept. is now serious about developing a strategic approach to energy consumption and conservation. No longer will energy be considered a free commodity. There is less tolerance toward practices that divorce energy use from larger department-wide requirements. Such practices carry increasing financial and logistical burdens, which impede new operational and tactical concepts.
The Aircraft Group (TAG) has developed TAG Fleet Online, designed to give subscribers immediate access to digital images of aircraft records, current equipment specifications and the latest operating data for aircraft they own, manage or trade. TAG President Wally Andrushenko says the program replaces traditional methods of auditing and managing commercial aircraft records with a technology-based system that eliminates microfilm and paper.
NASA has picked the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne RS-68 engine to power its planned heavy-lift Cargo Launch Vehicle (CaLV) on future missions to the Moon and beyond, rejecting a "production" version of the Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). To feed the five RS-68s envisioned for the CaLV, each of which can generate 650,000 lb. thrust at sea level, the diameter of the core stage tanks will be increased from the 27.5-ft. dia. originally planned to 33 ft.
