WANTED: A FEW GOOD IDEAS U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) has requested aerospace companies, federally funded R&D centers and USAF laboratories to submit concepts for what a next-generation strategic missile system might look like. A December 2001 Nuclear Posture Review produced by the Defense and Energy departments estimated that today's Minuteman III missiles will need to be replaced around 2018.
Darrell Frey has been appointed general manager of the Savannah, Ga., service center, Elizabeth Nelson diversity manager and Lisa Saxon staffing manager, all for Gulfstream Aerospace.
Mark Creager (see photo) has become director of certification for Jet Aviation Engineering Services of San Antonio. He was manager of structural analysis and certification for Gore Design Completions Ltd., also in San Antonio.
EURO SPACE PLANE Europe's largest aerospace company would love to help its U.S. counterparts with NASA's Orbital Space Plane, drawing on the old Hermes project to help meet U.S. requirements for a crew transport that could serve initially as an International Space Station lifeboat. Francois Auque, head of the EADS Space Systems Div., concedes there is no reusable launch vehicle program in Europe today, his company's own Phoenix project notwithstanding.
Northrop Grumman has begun development and production of a second-generation Global Hawk long-endurance, large-payload unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. A new $30.1-million contract from the U.S. Air Force has triggered work on the RQ-4B, which will increase the payload to 3,000 lb. from 2,000 lb. That will allow the addition of a signals intelligence payload to the radar, electro-optical and infrared systems already packaged in the UAV. The first three RQ-4Bs are to be delivered in 2004-05.
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NASA, its International Space Station partners and ISS prime contractor Boeing completed a Multi-Element Integrated Test of Japan's Kibo pressurized module and the Italian-built Node 2 where Kibo will connect with the station. The three-week test at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., demonstrated interfaces supporting in-orbit activation, audio and video control, and life-support caution and warning systems.
In an effort to stop treating engines as an afterthought in the design of unmanned aircraft, Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin have recruited Pratt & Whitney to help design their competitor in the Pentagon's Unmanned Combat Air Systems (UCAS) project.
If the proposed Air France/KLM linkup goes ahead, as now envisioned, the SkyTeam airline alliance would gain added clout in the global market. Last week, the two carriers confirmed that "detailed discussions are taking place in view of [establishing] an intensive cooperation, concurrently with KLM's entry into the SkyTeam alliance." The brief statement, however, acknowledged that "critical points are still under discussion."
If the U.K. government harbors any aspirations to carry out onshore final assembly and maintenance, repair, and upgrade of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, it needs to pursue policy elements of this with some urgency, cautions U.S.-based think tank Rand. The British Defense Ministry commissioned Rand in October 2002 to carry out a study looking at options for final assembly and maintenance of the JSF in the U.K.
At least two national intelligence-gathering organizations are in the market for a stealthy unmanned aircraft that can give them long-endurance surveillance and huge amounts of communications bandwidth. Specifically, intel collectors want to be able to transmit tens of gigabits of data per second, or more, to their U.S. and allied consumers.
STEALTH COMMUNICATIONS The F/A-22 combined test force at Edwards AFB, Calif., has successfully flown the first four-ship test of the stealth fighter's unique intra-flight data link (IFDL) (see photo). The low-probability-of-intercept communications device allows the pilots to automatically share flight information with each other without using voice communications that could be detected by an adversary's electronic warfare equipment.
China's Shanghai Airlines has placed a $410-million order for five Boeing 757-200s. The first three airplanes are scheduled to be delivered in mid-2004, followed by two more in the spring of 2005.
FIGHTER ENHANCEMENT During the war against Iraq, Jordanian air force officials had a chance to see modern F-16s in operation with U.S. Air Force crews operating from the Arab kingdom. Now the country wants to bring its own fleet of F-16s up to a more capable warfighting standard. Jordan is mulling a potential $370-million enhancement to its F-16s, including the purchase of F100-PW-220E engine modification kits. Also part of the deal would be Falcon Star and Falcon Up structural enhancements that boost the aircraft's life to 8,000 hr.
EXPANDING SERVICE Rio Grande Air has ordered four Catpass 250 turboprop regional transports from Commuter Air Technology, with the first delivery set for late this year. Rio Grande Air operates about 100 flights each week, and the new airplanes will allow the carrier to add service to Artesia and Gallup, N.M., as well as Telluride, Colo., and Phoenix, Ariz., according to airline officials. It now serves Taos, Alamogordo and Albuquerque, N.M. The twin-engine, nine-passenger Catpass 250 is a modified Beechcraft Model 200 Super King Air.
Scaled Composites has selected San Diego-based SpaceDev to provide a hybrid rocket propulsion system for SpaceShipOne, Scaled's manned suborbital space vehicle. SpaceDev and Environmental Aeroscience Corp. (eAC) had developed and tested competing flight-weight motor designs for the project, and completed ground-firing runs earlier this month (AW&ST Apr. 21, p. 69). In June 2002, eAC was selected to supply nitrous oxide fill, vent and dump system components and associated plumbing. SpaceDev will supply the rest of the motor system under a contract awarded last week.
CIT Aerospace has signed an agreement with IAE International Aero Engines to supply 14 V2500 engines to power seven Airbus A320s in an order valued up to $100 million.
General Dynamics Corp. is conducting due diligence on BAE Systems plc, with the possibility that GD could follow up with a formal offer to acquire the U.K.-headquartered company, according to financial and investment community professionals. A General Dynamics official said it would be inappropriate to comment, and a BAE Systems executive had little to say. "We see two or three major players in the global aerospace/defense industry in the future, each one will have a significant American component, and we intend to be part of one of them," he said.
After 2.8 billion miles of travel, NASA's Galileo spacecraft was scheduled for a fatal plunge into Jupiter's atmosphere Sept. 21 to protect the moon Europa from possible contamination by lingering Earth microbes. In this composite of images from Galileo's eight-year tour of the Jovian system, Europa is the moon at the right, with Io, Callisto and Ganymede rounding out the set from right to left. The spacecraft also delivered unprecedented data on the gas giant's atmosphere, including the Great Red Spot, actually a 300-year-old storm.
FRAC PACK The FAA's new rule on how fractional ownerships will operate is getting support from the General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. GAMA officials are hailing the regulation, which made its long-awaited appearance in the Federal Register last week, as an "important milestone in the evolution of business aviation." Fractionals allow companies to buy a share in an aircraft, with guaranteed availability to it.
Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc., the parent company of cargo carrier Atlas Air, plans to enter a prenegotiated Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December to restructure its finances. The company has about $2.5 billion debt, including off-balance-sheet aircraft leases.
BOEING AND CIRA Boeing and Italian aerospace research center (CIRA) signed a memorandum of understanding to investigate technology concepts for development. In the next few months, the focus will be on projects associated with Boeing's 7E7, as well as on ways to utilize CIRA test facilities, including both icing and plasma wind tunnels. Development of initiatives relating to unmanned air vehicle systems and interoperability of UAVs within existing aviation infrastructure also will be explored.
Your trenchant editorial "NASA Can Do It--Again" (AW&ST Sept. 1, p. 66) highlighted sociologist Diane Vaughan's identification of the cultural catalyst for the Challenger disaster: "Deviance had become normalized." The same phenomenon occurred with Concorde's "tire failures and debris strikes" and Columbia's foam strikes--not to mention the Airbus A300 computerized flight control systems. How do you unnormalize such deviance to create a permanently safety-imbued culture at NASA? Establish a mandatory anomaly reporting program involving:
FALLING STARS? The U.S. Transportation Dept. Inspector General's latest report reflects skepticism about the FAA's plans to modernize terminal area air traffic control Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (Stars) and is calling for more scrutiny of the program. The IG isn't convinced that Stars, under development by Raytheon, actually represents an improvement on the interim system now installed in 75% of the 188 Terminal Radar Approach Control (Tracon) facilities.
