Two months after reaching a parking orbit, Japan's Hayabusa explorer has used its ion propulsion system to make a painstaking survey of the asteroid Itokawa. Now comes the hardest part: touching down, gathering samples and returning home.
3M Aerospace for its preformed polyurethane protective tape "boots." Aitech Defense Systems's C106 rugged single-board computer. Chorus Motors, a subsidiary of Borealis Exploration, for its electric motor that can power nosewheels. CMC Electronics Inc. for its second-generation Class 2 Electronic Flight Bag for airlines and business jets. Dunlop Aerospace Equipment for its low-noise bleed valve to replace earlier design in the V2500 engine.
Britain's Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicle reconnaissance system development continues with the award of a 317-million-pound ($559-million) contract for UAV airframe and ground-station procurement. Prime contractor Thales placed the contract with UAV Tactical Systems, its joint venture with Israel's Elbit Systems. Elbit's Hermes 450 is being used as the basis for the initial Watchkeeper. The first batch of Watchkeeper 450s will be manufactured in Israel, with production then transferring to the joint-venture manufacturing site in Leicester, England.
Pat Norris (see photo), business development manager of U.K.-based LogicaCMG, has been appointed a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation. His career in satellite navigation began in 1966 as a contractor supporting NASA's National Geodetic Satellite at the Goddard Space Flight Center and then the Apollo program. Norris has been involved with major European space programs for the last 25 years, including European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Services, Galileo, Cassini-Huygens, Skynet 5 and MTSAT.
BAE Systems has climbed up a notch in the government's rankings on research and development spending. Expenditure of 1.11 billion pounds ($1.56 billion) places it third, behind two pharmaceutical companies in terms of U.K. R&D investment. The Trade and Industry Dept.'s 2005 R&D scorecard placed Airbus (U.K.) seventh, with 345 million pounds, and Rolls-Royce ninth, with 282 million pounds. Rolls-Royce was 12th in 2000. The government target is to see R&D investment rise to 2.5% of national income by 2014. This figure stood at 1.86% in 2003.
Interconnect, a wafer bumping service company, announced qualification of its Ni/Au pad resurfacing process for high-temperature wire bond applications, producing bonds that are stable at high temperatures with a thinner gold layer. These special high-temperature wire bonds are useful in avionics applications, and require no additional lead time for production, according to the company. IC Interconnect's process eliminates the Kirkendall voiding that takes place in an Al/Au interface at 200C thermal exposures.
Finnair Cargo has selected SITA's Champ cargo management software under a multimillion-euro contract to manage its fleet of 70 aircraft worldwide. The carrier handles 86,000 tons of cargo a year.
Northwest and United Airlines' third-quarter financial results are appropriate to their status as carriers entering and preparing to leave Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Northwest, which filed for Chapter 11 little more than two weeks before the quarter ended, turned in a $167-million operating loss, compared with a $79-million operating profit a year earlier. Its net loss grew from $38 million to $469 million.
Pulse Research Lab's PRL-425 Series Universal Differential Receivers and Line Drivers are self-contained buffer pods that can receive differential signals with a minimum amplitude of 100 mV. and a common-mode range (CMR) between -2.4 to +4 volts. The differential TTL and RS-422 outputs can run up to 300 MHz., the NECL outputs up to 1.8 GHz. The PRL-425s can translate and/or buffer signals from satellite receivers, optical transceivers, military and telecommunications equipment. Pulse Research Lab, 1234 Francisco St., Torrance, Calif. 90502-1200.
SpaceDev Inc. and Starsys Research Corp. signed a merger agreement late last month, joining two companies known for developing innovative space systems. The smaller of the two, SpaceDev, will absorb the 130-person Starsys as a subsidiary, paying about $9 million in cash and common stock, and assuming some Starsys debt. Privately held Starsys recorded roughly $15 million in revenues last year and $11 million for the first six months of 2005.
Terry Bacola (see photo) has become general manager of the Little Rock (Ark.) Service Center of Dassault Aircraft Services. He succeeds Ken Root, who has been named maintenance manager. Root, in turn, succeeds Dennis Cockrell, who has become customer service manager. Cockrell was president of Dassault Falcon Jet subsidiary Midway Aircraft Instrument Corp.
The U.S. Army is planning to test the Raytheon Patriot Advance Capability-3 system on Nov. 11, the final trial for 2005. Testers will demonstrate a shoot-look-shoot scenario. Further testing is expected next spring.
The U.S. Energy Dept.'s National Nuclear Security Administration expects to award a new seven-year contract by Dec. 1 for the management and operation of Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). Two teams are competing for a first-term contract that could pay as much as $79 million a year, if all targets are met. Outstanding performance ratings could extend the pact to 20 years.
Bombardier Aerospace plans to "temporarily" suspend production of its 50-seat CRJ200 regional jet in January. Bombardier's 50-seat jets created the regional jet market in the 1990s, but demand has plummeted as airlines have migrated to larger RJs (AW&ST Dec. 6, 2004, p. 44). The Canadian aircraft builder says it will lay off 660 workers at facilities in Montreal and Belfast, Ireland, as part of 1,135 job reductions announced in August.
The chief scientist for the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC) says the destructive effects of new radar technologies are "truly transformational"--a longtime goal of the Pentagon's current leadership--and open "an interesting and flexible trade space to the military" for designing a new arsenal of nonkinetic weapons.
Top European airline officials are warning that the industry's development is being distorted by continued government meddling, although they quibble over which political interference is most nefarious. Executives for Air France, British Airways and EasyJet all blame government intrusion into the marketplace for harming air transport's growth. But in the same breath, they accuse one another of benefiting from these actions.
James K. Bass has been appointed president/CEO of The New Piper Aircraft Inc., Vero Beach, Fla. He succeeds Chuck Suma, who is now vice chairman. Bass was president/CEO of the Suntron Corp. of Phoenix.
Pentagon acquisition chief Ken Krieg tells House lawmakers he is withholding approval for two major programs to move into the design and development phase because their sponsor services have not fully funded the efforts. Krieg declined to identify them and wouldn't confirm or deny to reporters that they are the Marine Corps-led Joint Heavy Lift helicopter and the Navy's DD(X) future destroyer, which were among the few programs directly addressed during the House Armed Services Committee's acquisition reform hearing.
Computer programmers at NASA Ames Research Center have used images from the 1994 Clementine mission to create a 3D tour of the lunar surface at 66-ft. resolution. The download is at worldwind.arc.nasa.gov
Alaska Lt. Gov. Loren Leman has been elected chairman of the Arlington, Va.-based Aerospace States Assn. He succeeds Oklahoma Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin, who remains on the executive board. Other officers are: secretary/vice chair, Vermont Lt. Gov. Brian Dubie; vice chairs, Lt. Govs. Catherine Baker Knoll of Pennsylvania, Cruz Bustamante of California and Jane Norton of Colorado; treasurer, Sandra Bast of Illinois; and state delegates Charles Clark of Ohio and Stephanie Wright of Delaware.
Pronal, a French manufacturer of bladder tanks designed to store and transport liquids, has developed new elastomer materials for use in manufacturing its onboard fuel tanks for helicopters and civil and military aircraft. The materials are highly resistant to hydrocarbons and additives and have an excellent strength/weight ratio, according to the company. The materials are effective in creating damage-proof tanks and for self-sealing tanks that prevent leakage into an aircraft if it's been hit by missiles.
USAF Lt. Gen. Maxwell C. Bailey, former commander of the Air Force Special Operations Command, is among the new members of the Kentucky Aviation Hall of Fame in Lexington. Also inducted recently were: USAF Lt. Gen. John B. Conaway, former chief of the National Guard Bureau; and two deceased pilots, Col. Vermont Garrison, a double ace from World War II and the Korean War, and USN Lt. Richard Caswell Saufley, who conducted pioneering work in ship-based aviation.
SAS Cargo has inked a deal with Sterling Airlines to take over the latter's freight-hauling capacity, which totals about 30,000 metric tons. SAS Cargo President and CEO Kenneth Marx notes that the Sterling network gives his company access to locations it didn't serve previously. The deal is also supposed to allow Sterling to focus more on its core passenger service. The move follows only a few weeks after SAS Cargo bought the general sales agency from Sterling Airlines.
NASA's Cassini Saturn probe took this image of Saturn's icy moon Dione as it approached its only planned close flyby Oct. 11, capturing the moon against the planet's northern hemisphere as viewed almost edge-on to the rings. The spacecraft was only about 39,000 km. (24,200 mi.) away at the time, headed for a 500 km. flyby. Dione's heavily cratered surface is distinguished by streaks across one side, reminiscent of the "tiger stripes" Cassini saw on Enceladus (AW&ST Sept. 12, p. 15).
