The nuclear-powered Cassini Saturn probe is beginning to take the measure of Titan, using radar and other sensors to probe into and beneath its orange clouds to reveal a world scientists believe may be an analog for Earth before life appeared. Cassini is scheduled to fly near Titan more than 40 times as it tours the Saturn system, and results of the first encounters are beginning to be published. Based on a radar map generated during the first close flyby on Oct.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) Paul J. Kern has become Washington-based vice president/senior adviser on homeland security and national defense for Battelle Science and Technology International, Columbus, Ohio. He was commander of the Army Materiel Command.
The British Defense Ministry has finally declared a full operational capability with its WAH-64 Apache attack helicopter, five years after the first unit was delivered and two years after receipt of the last of the 67 on order. At the same time, the ministry announced the WAH-64 would receive a 194-million-pound ($353-million) upgrade to the sighting and targeting system. The intent is to have the whole fleet fitted with the modernized target acquisition designation sight/pilot night vision sensor by the end of 2010.
Germany's Grob Aerospace has signed an order from Canada's Kelowna Flightcraft for nine G-120As. The aircraft will be used at the Canadian Forces Flying Training School in Manitoba. The training service provider also has taken an option for another three G-120As. The first of the aerobatic trainers is set to be delivered later this year.
Drinkers of Diet 7UP can enjoy almost-instant, but temporary, weight loss if the commercial space tourism industry sparked by the Ansari X Prize takes off. As top prize in a nationwide U.S. sweepstakes, the Texas-based soda-maker is offering one of the first 10 tickets to space sold by Virgin Galaxy. The Virgin Companies spinoff is developing a commercial suborbital rocket for space tourists based on technology in the X-Prize-winning SpaceShipOne, built by Scaled Composites of Mojave, Calif.
Russia will develop and build new aircraft carriers in the next decade, according to Russian Navy Commander-in-Chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov. Preliminary design discussions will begin later this year, he indicated. Full-scale development would be possible after 2010 under a new government weapon procurement plan. The existing arrangement does not cover aircraft carriers. Kuroyedov says the vessels would accommodate new-generation aircraft, and he projects entry into service in 2016-17.
The International Air Transport Assn. (IATA) is seeking the holy grail of air traffic management--a single sky with one global ATM system that allows airlines to operate aircraft the same way anywhere in the world.
Julia Phillips, director of the Physical, Chemical and Nano Science Center at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., has been elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is also the director of the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, an Energy Dept. Office of Basic Energy Sciences nanoscience research center at Sandia and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Neil Goudie of Cambridge, England, has received the Tiger Moth Trophy today for winning the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority General Aviation Safety Awards 2004. Goudie was taking part in a gliding competition in August when he saw a competitor's wreckage in a field. The pilot was seriously injured. Goudie was cited for arranging for an emergency call and then landing in the field to give first aid, using his telephone to obtain guidance from a doctor friend until an air ambulance arrived.
Frank Morring, Jr. (Goddard Space Flight Center, MD.)
Engineers and interns at this NASA field center are building the prototype of a robotic rover that could go where no wheeled rover has gone before--into the dark cold craters at the lunar poles and across the Moon's rugged highlands--like a walking tetrahedron. With NASA pushing to meet President Bush's new exploration objectives, the robots taking shape here today could be on the Moon in a decade. In the longer term, the concept could lead to shape-shifting robot swarms designed to explore distant planetary surfaces in advance of humans.
An ATR 42 flew across the widest part of Africa--from Dakar, Senegal, to Mombasa, Kenya--in the most ambitious test to date using the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos). Conducted by the European Space Agency and Agence Pour la Securite de la Navigation Aerienne en Afrique et a Madagascar, the 20-hr. flight used a Thales Avionics Egnos receiver to gather upgraded GPS data through a roof-mounted antenna. The flight demonstrated the Egnos extension over Africa, relying on the Egnos testbed signal broadcast through Inmarsat IOR-E.
The technological walls separating radar, electronic warfare and missile defense are coming down. This fundamental shift has resulted in development, not yet publicly acknowledged, of multifunction, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars that can locate stealthy airborne targets and then jam their computers and guidance systems with at least enough effect to drive them off course by using a focused beam of X-band radar energy.
June will be a busy time for the aerospace industry, not just because of the Paris air show at Le Bourget. For European aerospace giant EADS, it will be a critical month as the company aims to end its leadership succession battle. Moreover, Airbus, in which EADS is the largest shareholder, must resolve uncertainty that its new A350 is competitive with Boeing's 787.
The House Armed Services Committee is taking issue with the U.S. Navy's plan to concurrently develop and produce its VXX Marine One replacement helicopter, the US101 being built by a Lockheed Martin/ AgustaWestland/Bell team. Accord- ingly, lawmakers limited the use of research and development funds until the Navy can certify that the test results for VXX test articles demonstrate that the "mission configuration can be produced without significant further design modification," the committee's report says.
The Air Force is spending $6.2 billion to upgrade its Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile force, but one of the program's unfunded needs is--ironically--a new helicopter. Air Force Space Command operates 25 Bell 1970s-era UH-1N Hueys to support missile operations at three bases. The helicopters are used to ferry personnel, launch codes and equipment and--perhaps more importantly in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, climate--provide airborne security for nuclear warhead transfer convoys.
The European Union has approved the Global Monitoring for Environment and Security network as its second flagship space program, and agreed to fund "significant" long-term research in satellite communications technologies, as part of the initial road map for a new space policy. Financing and other details of the policy, to be conducted with the European Space Agency and member states, are to be approved by year-end.
Here we go again. Just when it appears that NASA is moving off the dime and starting to permanently open space for people via the Vision for Space Exploration (VSE), the agency returns to its roots and starts pouring every dime into the Next Big Thing.
Melbourne-based Hawker de Havilland (HdH) has signed a $70-million long-term agreement for the manufacture and assembly of complex Joint Strike Fighter structures stemming from a May 2004 memorandum of understanding. This follows the announcement last week that Australia is negotiating with the U.S. and seven other nations on the next phase of the JSF program covering production, sustainment and follow-on development.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines says it is fully operational with Boeing's Connexion inflight broadband application on all of its intercontinental flights to Asia and the U.S. "There are far more users than we anticipated," says CEO Lars Lindgren.
The Pentagon is unleashing two new technologies in the battle against improvised explosive devices, which continue to kill and maim many in Iraq. Alliant Techsystems has developed a high-power microwave (HPM) system that when tested last fall at Yuma, Ariz., exploded 75% of mines planted in a test area. The idea is to detonate mines along a road before people drive or walk the route. The system is ground-based so far, but support from the Air Force Research Laboratory indicates that it may be destined for use from an aircraft.
Richard R. Barnhart has been appointed general manager for maintenance, repair and overhaul for Barnes Aerospace, Windsor, Conn. He was president of the Aerostructures Div. of the Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn.
A follow-on contract ensures Lockheed Martin Space Systems will continue developing a massive space-based radar antenna. A subscale version is slated to be flown in low Earth orbit (LEO) as a one-year proof-of-technology experiment. The $19.5-million Air Force Research Laboratory-administered contract covers the next 14-month phase of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Innovative Space-Based Radar Antenna Technology project, advancing the effort to a Critical Design Review stage.
U.S. Army Gen. (ret.) William Wright Crouch and Tamara L. Adler have been appointed to the board of directors of Flir Systems Inc., Portland, Ore. Crouch is one of the retired generals who oversee the Army's Battle Command Training Program. Adler is a managing director with JPMorgan Chase.
Boeing has signed a preliminary agreement with Lion Air, an Indonesian low-cost carrier, for up to 60 737-800s and the proposed 737-900X, with deliveries beginning in 2007. At list prices, the deal would be worth $3.9 billion. A Boeing official said it is too early to discuss the aircraft mix and noted that the 737-900X has not been launched. The signing in Washington occurred during the state visit of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono last week.
