NORTHROP GRUMMAN IS WORKING with the U.S. Air Force to fuse data from a variety of sensors as a basis for collision-avoidance systems for unmanned aerial vehicles. The concept is to create an autonomous "see and avoid" system that would permit UAVs and manned aircraft to operate safely in the same airspace. Work under this contract from the Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, aims to verify, through simulation, a sensing architecture designed under a previous award.
Carter A. White has been appointed vice president-portfolio management for Seattle-based AWAS. He has held similar positions with the Transamerica Finance Corp., Fleet Capital Leasing and the Sanwa Business Credit Corp.
The Smart Material Actuated Rotor Technology (Smart) system developed by Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is projected to reduce vibration in helicopter main rotor systems by up to 80%. Also, Smart would provide a smoother ride compared with existing helos and cut noise by 10 dB. during takeoff and landing. The system uses a series of electrically controlled flaps on the trailing edge of rotor blades that react to sensor signals, modifying the rotor's vibratory and acoustic signatures.
Northrop Grumman and NASA have completed a nine-month test series designed to demonstrate that the composite cryogenic tank flaw that brought the old X-33 program to a halt has been solved, making the technology available for future spacecraft including the proposed Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV). Using the test facility at Marshall Space Flight Center where the X-33's composite liquid hydrogen tank failed, a subscale composite liquid hydrogen tank completed 40 test cycles without a failure. In each cycle, the tank was filled with liquid hydrogen, pressurized to 113 lb.
Lockheed Martin has received a $14.8-million contract for systems integration on eight MH-60R multimission helicopters. The award represents the third low-rate production buy of the MH-60R. Nine MH-60Rs have been delivered so far.
EADS Astrium says it is too early to predict the impact of a fuel leak suffered by Amazonas-1, a large K u-/C-band telecom satellite launched on Aug. 5 for Hispamar, a joint venture of Spain's Hispasat and Telemar of Brazil (AW&ST Aug. 9, p. 15). Astrium CEO Antoine Bouvier said engineers had detected a slight pressure drop in one of the oxidizer tanks, but did not yet have enough information to ascertain its effect on satellite life.
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US Airways, facing a major pension-fund payment this week and end-of-month financial tests it can't pass, clung last week to fading hopes for concessions from its employees.
The FAA is cautiously optimistic about meeting its latest challenge--holding runway incursions down as passenger traffic rises to the forecast 1 billion-plus mark by 2014.
Qantas and Singapore Airlines, preparing to introduce Airbus' A380 to service in Asia in 2006, are exploring how to share maintenance and training costs. Shared hangars and flight simulators is one idea.
Capt. Thomas Peter Heidenberger (Chevy Chase, Md.)
Post-Sept. 11, 2001, there have been countless articles, editorials and letters to the editor concerning terrorism, homeland security and, in particular, aviation security. Your knowledge of the "real" world of aviation security is on par with that of U.S. Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.): giving lip service to travelers, politicizing this issue with minimal results and sparse accomplishments to improve aviation security. What changes have been made are mostly cosmetic, comprise the bare minimum and are not enough to prevent another Sept. 11.
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. has initiated assembly of the first wing for the CTOL (conventional takeoff and landing) version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Prior to the beginning of assembly operations the wing fixture was moved into place automatically using one of three automated guidance vehicles. The fixture allows workers to install aluminum alloy frames and intercostals. When assembly is complete, the structure will be placed in a precision milling machine to remove sacrificial fiberglass shims to obtain the wing's correct inner mold line.
The Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) on the Mars rover Opportunity, jammed for the past month, is back in operation. Last week controllers used the RAT, which includes a spinning brush to clean dust off rocks, to brush areas of the rock Escher deep inside Endurance crater. The operation demonstrated the RAT was back in working order and cleared sites for the rover's two arm-mounted spectrometers. Scientists believe Escher could hold more evidence of past water at the crater site.
Robert Wall (Washington), Frank Morring, Jr. (Washington)
The White House has directed the Pentagon to retain both Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle designs through 2009 and only then revisit the debate over whether one booster family can satisfy military, intelligence and civil needs.
Some military planners have a grand vision to equip every grunt with a radio, enabling all personnel to call for help if needed, but that appears unrealistic. The cost to provide a survival radio to every U.S. military member operating in Iraq, the Horn of Africa and Afghanistan alone is $660 million, and that doesn't include batteries or spares, says Lt. Col. Doug Smith, the Army's personnel recovery officer. Support elements would add several hundred million dollars more. But there may be an elegant workaround, suggests a U.S. Central Command representative.
Raynor B. Reavis, who has been senior vice president-marketing and sales for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., now also will be a vice president of parent company General Dynamics, Falls Church, Va.
When the Genesis spacecraft returns its microscopic bits of the Sun on Sept. 8, final trajectory adjustments will be made in a Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. center hundreds of miles from the reentry and retrieval area. Controllers here will handle any last-minute problems and, if necessary, activate a missed-approach procedure to set up a second sample-return opportunity about six months from now.
Swiss International Air Lines can expect a stable ownership base for at least another year, after its most important shareholders agreed to extend a ban on selling shares. The move should help the airline as it faces ongoing financial difficulties and more efforts to achieve a long-delayed corporate turnaround. The Swiss government, cantons and communities as well as major private shareholders last week concluded lengthy negotiations on the topic.
The White House is preparing to issue a new space transportation policy that will take into account the Columbia disaster and President Bush's call for human exploration of the Moon and Mars. Expected sometime this fall--maybe even before the election--the policy is a rewrite of one that was almost ready for release when Columbia was destroyed on Feb. 1, 2003. It replaces the 10-year-old Clinton policy that put the Pentagon in charge of expendable launch vehicles and left reusables to NASA.
Pakistan is buying seven used C-130Es, which had been owned by Australia. To support the deal, Lockheed Martin has received $8.4 million from the U.S. Air Force for the foreign military sales arrangement. Additionally, the company received a $56-million contract for upgrades and depot maintenance.
Finmeccanica/Alenia Aeronautica is submitting a proposal to acquire a substantial stake in OGMA Industria Aeronautica de Portugal, a maintenance, repair and overhaul firm.
Sikorsky's pending acquisition of Schweizer Aircraft will enable the helicopter giant to diversify quickly into nontraditional markets and gain access to a rapid-prototyping organization that has penetrated a variety of aerospace and defense sectors. Schweizer, for its part, will be able to call on Sikorsky's greater resources in developing new products. It also will gain the marketing savvy and reach, as well as the financial clout, it needs to grow and prosper, said President Paul Schweizer.
Eric Byer has been promoted to vice president from director of government and industry affairs, Amy Koranda to director of safety management from manager of education and training, and Jacqueline Rosser to senior manager for regulatory affairs from manager for flight operations, all at the Alexandria, Va.-based National Air Transportation Assn.
