I was discouraged to read of the further cuts in NASA aeronautics research. With the "Presidential Vision," NASA sees a chance to return to the clear goals it had during the space race. But perhaps the NASA mission was forgotten not when the space race ended, but when it began. NASA's original mission was to advance the technology of flight.
Civil-military space cooperation, which never seemed to take off under past NASA leadership, finally may get a big boost under newly confirmed Administrator Michael D. Griffin. That's important not just for the broader policy implications, but because it could give him another option for one of the thorniest problems he faces coming into office--what to do about the aging Hubble Space Telescope.
Sweden and Italy have agreed to cooperate on the development of multirole, active electronically scanned antennas (AESA). The industrial partners in the arrangement are Ericsson Microwave Systems, Alenia Marconi Systems and Elettronica. During a year-long first phase, the companies will conduct feasibility and technology studies to determine what direction to take in their research and development efforts. Eventually, the partners hope to apply AESA technology for radar, electronic warfare and communications.
The first German air force operational squadron has taken delivery of a single-seat Eurofighter. Fighter wing 73 (JG 73), near Laage, will field 10 single-seaters this year. It got rid of its MiG-29s last summer. The Luftwaffe took delivery of its first single-seat Eurofighter earlier in the year, but it went to the maintenance school house.
THE JAPAN ADVANCED INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE and Technology (JAIST) is buying a new Cray XT3 massively parallel processing system for its high-performance computing facility. The system has 372 Advanced Micro Devices Opteron processors and will be the first of its type in Japan. JAIST supports the work of 600 graduate students. The system will be used to develop new algorithms for massively parallel computing applications such as large-scale simulations and visualization in nanotechnology.
With the appeal of sake, Japan's traditional rice wine, diminishing at home, the search for new marketing gimmicks is literally going where no winemaker has gone before. Nineteen members of the Federation of Brewer Unions from the Kochi prefecture on Shikoku Island plan to make sake from rice stock flown in space. The federation will send several fermenting batches on a week-long Russian Soyuz mission in late September, claiming cosmic rays will subtly alter the process (and presumably the taste).
What Oneworld partners American Airlines and British Airways portray as a routine renewal of their behind-and-beyond transatlantic code-share operation may turn instead into a second confrontation between international alliances before the U.S. Transportation Dept.
To submit Aerospace Calendar Listings, Call +1 (212) 904-2421 Fax +1 (212) 904-6068 e-mail: [email protected] Apr. 25-27--Analytical Graphics Inc.'s East Coast Spring Training Summit. Doubletree Hotel, Philadelphia. Also, May 9-11--West Coast Spring Training Summit. Manchester Grand Hyatt, San Diego. Call +1 (240) 764-1511, fax +1 (240) 764-1501 or see www.agi.com
Jack Worthen has become vice president/general manager of the SatCon Electronics Div. of the SatCon Technology Corp. of Boston. He was vice president-sales for the Zywyn Corp.
Jonathan Coopersmith, Associate Professor of History (Texas A&M University, College Station, Tex.)
The writer who noted with amusement NASA historian Steven Dick's failure to follow the NASA pronouncements on Hubble policy (AW&ST Mar. 21, p. 6) may not fully appreciate the responsibility of the historian. His job is not to justify NASA policy and activities, but document, describe and understand what happened and why. Like an engineer, an historian's pro- fessional integrity demands full and honest reporting. A good historian does not take off his history hat and put on his management hat to suit the times.
We still remain a strange but wonderful industry. Over 30 years, world Gross Domestic Product has tripled. In the same period, passenger traffic has increased seven-fold. With 6% annual growth, air transport is expanding at more than twice GDP. The problem is that the more we sell, the more we lose. In 2004, 1.8 billion people flew--more than ever. And we still lost $4.8 billion. Shocks such as SARS, terrorism and war have interrupted the normal business cycle.
Russian missile manufacturer NPO Mashinostroyenia has finally released a test image of its 3M25 Meteorit strategic cruise missile. The air-launched variant of the Meteorit, probably designated Kh-80, is shown being dropped from an inboard pylon of a Tupolev Tu-95 Bear bomber. The Meteorit program was begun in the late 1970s, and ended in the early 1990s. Deployment was curtailed by the 1988 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the U.S. and then-Soviet Union.
Peg Billson has been appointed vice president/general manager of Honeywell's Phoenix-based Airframe Systems business. She was vice president/general manager of the Aircraft Landing Systems business and has been succeeded by Greg Albert. Billson succeeds Roger Wolfe, who has resigned. Albert was vice president-Engine Services Europe for the Aviation Aftermarket Services business.
Stratasys' VeroBlue is an acrylic photo-polymer resin for the Eden333 PolyJet System, manufactured by Objet Geometries. The resin's mechanical properties improve upon the original transparent resin in all standard strength ratings--tensile, flexural, notched impact and compression, according to the company Its opaqueness reveals more detail than the transparent model. Resolution capabilities are unchanged from original resin, so 0.0006 resolution is achievable. Changeover from transparent resin to VeroBlue takes less than 15 min.
Iridium Satellite is starting to talk to satellite manufacturers about replacements for its constellation of 66 low-Earth-orbit communications satellites. Iridium Chairman/CEO Carmen Lloyd says several options are under consideration, including easing costs by selling space for secondary payloads on the new spacecraft. Motorola and Iridium's other original owners paid more than $5 billion to build the worldwide cell-phone system in the sky, which quickly went bankrupt.
The main camera for NASA's planned mission to Pluto is ready for integration into the spacecraft taking shape at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. delivered the instrument, dubbed Ralph (after the character in "The Honeymooners" TV sitcom), where it will join the "Alice" ultraviolet camera already installed on the New Horizons probe.
Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) has started work on a new type of mobile-service satellite that will use the 2-GHz. frequency and terrestrial repeaters to provide voice and data communications across the U.S., as well as monitoring and messaging services. SS/L says it has completed design review of the TerreStar-1 satellite it's under contract to build for TerreStar Networks Inc. of McLean, Va. With that milestone, the project moves into the construction phase. Plans call for delivery of the geostationary satellite in 2007.
Luke J. Gill has been named executive vice president for aerospace and Air Force initiatives at the Thomas Group Inc., Irving, Tex. He was head of maintenance and logistics solutions for the Joint Strike Fighter program at the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. in Fort Worth.
Government officials from Japan and the U.S. are talking about joint civil-military use of Yokota AB northwest of Tokyo in an attempt to relieve congestion at Narita and Haneda airports. Tokyo Mayor Shintaro Ishihara has been championing the concept since the early 1990s and the two governments have been discussing the idea since 2003. Last year, Japan asked the U.S. Air Force to return to local oversight jurisdiction for air traffic control around Yokota and has stepped up talks about civilian use.
The Greek government is evaluating bids for the privatization of flag carrier Olympic Airlines. Greece's Aegean Airlines, a consortium called Olympic Investors and the Netherlands-based investment company Sure Estate are among concerns still in the running.
Boeing regards driving down aircraft operating costs as a survival issue for airlines, so its 787 design relies on advanced materials to extend maintenance intervals and new systems to improve reliability. The goal is to reduce total maintenance costs 9% and lifecycle costs of airframe and systems 5-6%, says Justin Hale, deputy chief mechanic for the 787 development program. "We can't continue to see this industry struggle," he says, referring to airlines' performance in the last few years.
Ophir Optronics' BA500 industrial laser beam analyzer system monitors pulsed industrial Nd: YAG and Diode lasers for a range of parameters that ensure reproducible laser cutting/welding process results, according to the company. The BA500 measures average power, energy-per-pulse and spatial and temporal beam profiles. These can be recorded in digital form for storage and analysis. The BA500 shows the intensity profile of the beam in real time and allows users to adjust the laser resonator and beam-delivery optical system.
Pentagon procurement chief Michael Wynne says the massive Army Future Combat System (FCS) is likely to become a "multinational development program of some variety." The $99-billion program will provide the Army with a network of modernized vehicles and aircraft. Wynne says details are not yet ironed out because the Army is refining its strategy, but the Pentagon is interested in meshing requirements with those of allies and, possibly, sourcing some technology from abroad.
A new full-authority digital electronic control developed by Honeywell flew for the first time in Aermacchi's M-346 advanced trainer on an International Turbine Engine Corp. F124-GA-200 earlier this month. The Fadec uses Honeywell's modular aerospace control technology with a time-triggered protocol for inter-module communications. The result is improved data flow.
