Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, notoriously strong-willed, appears to be doing something very out of character: reversing course on an official decision. Rumsfeld decided last week to complete Lockheed Martin's multiyear C-130J contract despite a well-publicized financial decision to terminate the work along with other high-profile programs. Following the termination, Lockheed Martin and a host of lawmakers rallied behind the program. Rumsfeld said his reversal was based on new information on the cancellation costs, which were once thought to be about $500 million.
The Army's recent upbraiding of Boeing's work on the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is sending jitters through the massive program, which is intended to eventually replace nearly all radios used on the battlefield and in military aircraft. Army acquisition chief Claude Bolton says the entire program--including a handful of "clusters" that would produce radios tailored for different platforms--is under review. He reports that a study team reviewed JTRS and has offered its advice to the Pentagon, although he's mum on details.
History repeats itself even in the high-technology world of aircraft gas turbine engines (AW&ST Mar. 28, p. 51). Rolls-Royce is not the first to find the benefits of power takeoff from the intermediate spool of a three-shaft engine. Ford Motor Co. in their Model 704 demonstrator 2.5-spool turboshaft truck engine, where the power shaft was driven by the intermediate turbine was (see SAE Technical Paper 187A, June 1960).
United Airlines, mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for 29 months, has shed itself of its defined-benefit pension plans, shipping them out to join the nearly 3,500 other failures administered by the U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (see p. 28). This means trouble for many of United's pensioners and the already-underfunded PBGC. Perversely, it's a wonderful development in United's seemingly interminable attempts to reorganize itself, secure financing and emerge from Chapter 11.
The STS-114 orbiter Discovery shuttle return-to-flight vehicle will be switched to the external tank and solid rocket boosters originally planned for the Atlantis STS-121 follow-on mission, set for September. The switch will be made following a second Discovery oxygen/hydrogen propellant loading test with its original tank, scheduled for completion by early this week on Launch Complex 39B. This will be followed by Discovery's rollback to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) about May 29 and return to the pad in mid-June.
Susan Gurley has been appointed executive director of the Assn. of Corporate Travel Executives. She was assistant dean of international and graduate programs at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington.
I have a response for the National Defense University's Peter Huessy (AW&ST May 2, p. 21). There is not going to be a missile aimed at Vancouver. The only way that city is ever going to be hit by one is when a Ft. Greely interceptor does its job hitting a warhead aimed at Los Angeles or Seattle. But then again, if Canada had joined--or joins in the future--that may just happen anyway.
Images collected by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor should help settle the fate of the U.S. lander that disappeared as it was approaching the planet's surface in 1999. Malin Space Science Systems, which built and operates the camera, believes a couple of blurry images from the Martian South Pole (shown) match the signature they would expect to find if, as investigators concluded, the Mars Polar Lander crashed when a software glitch shut down its engines prematurely (AW&ST Mar. 27, 2000, p. 40).
European Space Agency controllers' long-running effort to deploy a boom for the Mars Express Sub-Surface Sounding Radar Altimeter (Marsis) appears to have succeeded, although not without a last-minute scare. One of 13 segments on the boom initially failed to lock into position after a long-delayed deployment command. Mission-team analysis at ESA's European Space Operations Center in Germany suggested the problem may have been caused by the effects of cold on the boom's Kevlar and fiberglass structure.
The Very Light Jet segment of the business jet market is heating up, with three companies already engaged in the FAA certification process and a fourth deep into the initial design phase.
Kicking off a debate that will last two years--until passage of the next FAA reauthorization bill in 2007--aviation's often dysfunctional family members are staking out their positions on how to buttress the shaky fiscal foundations of the air traffic control system. Aviation's stakeholders, brought together last month by the FAA to talk privately among themselves (AW&ST May 2, p. 21), went public May 4 at a House Transportation aviation subcommittee hearing on the condition of the Aviation Trust Fund and the potential for reforms.
A U.S. Navy official is lauding small companies for their crucial role in the evolution of unmanned aerial vehicles. Part of the UAV challenge is narrowing down a wide array of ideas, and nimble, forward-thinking businesses are ideally suited for that work, says Rear Adm. Timothy L. Heely. He is program executive officer for strike weapons and UAVs. By contrast, prime contractors tend to stay focused on their existing products.
The U.S. legacy airlines have my sympathy in many areas. Airport security takes a terrible toll in costs to airlines, in public perception and in reduced travel by those unwilling to put up with TSA nonsense. The airlines suffer from market vagaries of the so-called "free market" created by deregulation. The legacies have been forced to undo decades of contract excesses, demoralizing their labor forces.
THE DEFENSE DEPT. WILL START USING a laser light warning system starting this month to alert pilots who stray into restricted areas over the nation's capital. Failing to reverse course or contact ATC could result in the use of force. The U.S. Air Force keeps fighters on alert nearby, and there are surface-to-air missiles stationed around the city. It costs about $50,000 to scramble a jet every time an intruder (usually a general aviation aircraft under visual flight rules) stumbles into restricted areas.
USAF Col. Mark W. Graper, deputy assistant chief of staff for operations, Combined Forces Command/United States Forces Korea, Yong San, South Korea, is among colonels who have been nominated for promotion to brigadier general. Others are: Bradley A. Heithold, commander of the 347th Rescue Wing of Air Force Special Operations Command (SOC), Moody AFB, Ga.; Susan J. Helms, deputy director of operations for technical training at Headquarters Air Education and Training Command, Randolph AFB, Tex.; Peter F. Hoene, director of staff at Air Mobility Command (AMC); Darrell D.
Italian defense industry officials are betting that recent changes in export licensing and government policy in Rome herald more overseas sales in the coming years. As it is, Italy is a net exporter of defense items, a position reinforced last year. Italy exported 480.3 million euros ($614.8 million) worth of military equipment, while 270 government-approved imports totaled only 103 million euros. (Germany was the top seller, with 30 million euros, followed by the U.S. with 22 million euros.)
A budget cut of less than 3% is lengthening queues of would-be airlines and new-product developers waiting for FAA certifications. The agency's aviation safety office (formerly regulation and certification) will lose 302 jobs through attrition during the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, to make up for a $30-million budget cut in congressional action during 2004. The jobs represent 4.7% of the 6,429 people authorized for the office last Oct. 1, and 256 of them will be engineers or safety inspectors.
Launch site managers here are preparing to roll the space shuttle Discovery back to the Vehicle Assembly Building as early as this week--pending final external tank modification and test decisions--now that the STS-114 astronaut crew has completed a full-blown countdown dress rehearsal in the orbiter on Pad 39B. Final rollback timing was being weighed late last week (see p. 26).
The launch and orbital checkout of a $1-billion, 15-ton Lockheed Martin/National Reconnaissance Office Lacrosse/Onyx imaging radar spacecraft begin a transition of secret NRO operations toward new or highly upgraded satellites flown on a range of new launchers. During the next 12 months, the NRO is to launch five additional secret payloads, all of them with upgraded systems or major design and launcher changes from past NRO flights.
Bell Helicopter Textron has consolidated common functions of its commercial and military customer service and support into one organization. Bell CEO Mike Redenbaugh said that, in view of the accelerated pace of U.S. military operations, the change will ensure that war fighters receive parts and service when needed. Mike Blake, senior vice president of commercial business and chief service officer, will lead the new initiative.
The British Defense Ministry is examining the operational utility of radio-frequency and laser-damage weaponry, underpinned by classified research and development. Work is underway on both high-power microwave (HPM) and laser payloads. The former is intended to be suitable for a cruise missile or unmanned aerial vehicle, while the latter could be fitted to crewed aircraft and UAVs. The utility of lasers in the ground-based air-defense role has also been examined. Laser work is being undertaken within the government's Corporate Research Program.
The Air Line Pilots Assn. (ALPA) is strongly recommending Congressional funding of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Volcano Early Warning System that would have the capability of warning air traffic control centers of an ash-producing eruption within five minutes' start of the event. This was the same amount of alert time given pilots to divert from the Mount St. Helens eruption in 2004. The ALPA move happened following the release of a USGS report that cited the growing threat of ash to aviation.
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