BIOBUCKS Wyle Laboratories stands to gain almost $1 billion in revenues supporting Johnson Space Center's Office of Bioastronautics over the next decade under a new deal that consolidates several previous contracts. Wyle's Houston operation will perform functions ranging from fundamental biomedical research to spaceflight operations as it helps the JSC office manage the health and productivity of crews in space, ensure they conduct useful science and transfer the results to terrestrial applications.
Space Launch Corp. has won the contract to continue study of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (Darpa's) Rascal concept. Rascal (Responsive Access Small Cargo Affordable Launch) is to be a two-stage launcher capable of placing 75-kg. (165-lb.) satellites into 500-km. (310-mi.) Sun-synchronous orbit, with a winged first stage powered by a turbojet that injects cooling fluid into the compressor to improve thrust at high Mach numbers (AW&ST Feb. 25, 2002, p. 19). The upper stage is a rocket released by the aircraft.
One of the 600 Tomahawks fired at Iraq in the first six days of combat leaves the USS Cape St. George, a guided missile cruiser that was one of four surface ships involved in launching cruise missile attacks. The missiles were fired at fixed targets during much of the first week of the U.S.-led attack on Iraq. Now the war effort is shifting to Iraq's ground forces, which are assembling in a large circle around Baghdad and Tikrit (see p. 22). Photo by USN Intelligence Specialist 1st Class Kenneth Moll via AP/Wide World.
For future space shuttle missions, NASA should: *Limit crews to four astronauts. *Carry two Gemini capsule-sized lifeboats in the cargo bay, where they would take up little room. *Always check for damage to the orbiter's tiles before reentry and if any threatening damage is found, have the astronauts use lifeboats for reentry. *Either leave the shuttle in orbit for repair or reenter using autoland (Soviets did this with the Baran orbiter in 1988).
Pakistan and India traded missile tests last week, with India launching a Prithvi surface-to-surface missile, its 16th test since the program began. Pakistan acknowledged testing an Abdali ss/missile. The tests came amid renewed fighting in Kashmir.
GET YOUR MBA IN AEROSPACE The University of Tennessee College of Business Administration has introduced the first fully accredited executive MBA program in the U.S. focused exclusively on the aerospace industry. It is a blend of 40% class material, 40% class material taught in an aerospace context, and 20% business content unique to the issues facing the industry--such as defense acquisition, systems engineering and integration and program management.
Elaine Vaught has been promoted to executive director of aircraft systems design engineering from director of avionics systems for Bell Helicopter Textron of Fort Worth.
U.K. NATS SOLUTION After a year of discussion, National Air Traffic Control Services, the semi-private body in charge of U.K. air traffic management, will receive 130 million pounds ($204 million) in additional funding to keep the troubled system in operation. Half of the money will come from the government and the remainder from BAA, the U.K.'s airport authority, in return for 4% of stock. The plan also calls for investing 1 billion pounds over the next decade to modernize the system.
Capt. James Bonney has been elected chairman, First Officer Stephen Strieter vice chairman and Second Officer W.Scott McDorman secretary/treasurer of the DHL Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Assn. Bonney has been an ALPA contract negotiator for DHL, while Strieter was MEC secretary/treasurer. McDorman was the MEC communications chairman.
RUSSIAN CRUISE The Russian air force appears to be deploying a modified version of the Kh-55 (AS-15 Kent) cruise missile, fitted with a conventional instead of a nuclear warhead. The derivative, believed to be designated the Kh-555, would provide an interim conventional long-range land attack capability for the air force until the next-generation Kh-101 finally enters the inventory. Commenting in the Russian defense journal Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye, Gen.
Kristin Kirschbaum (see photo) has been promoted to national sales manager from general manager of the Anchorage, Alaska, facility of Signature Flight Support, Orlando, Fla.
NO SMOKING, PLEASE Saddam Hussein appears to have missed the opportunity to torch the oil fields in southern Iraq. The estimated potential income to the people of Iraq is $20-30 billion per year. However, there is a greater threat to people and the environment if the northern oil fields are set afire, said Pentagon analysts. The oil in Iraq falls into two categories, with sweet crude, which has a lower percentage of hydrogen sulfide in it, in the south.
Mark Miller has been appointed head of production and Chris Gagliano head of quality assurance for Liberty Aerospace Inc., Melbourne, Fla. Miller held the same position at the New Piper Aircraft Co. Gagliano was certification coordinator for Learjet and Challenger business aircraft for Bombardier Aerospace.
Michael Hoveskeland has been promoted to vice president-administration from director of Caravan administration for the Cessna Aircraft Corp., Wichita, Kan.
In the current climate, where simplification of identification is a priority, the almost complete lack of data on FAA certificates/licenses is absurd when compared to drivers' licenses. I hold an FAA dispatcher's license, F/E turboist license and ATP with CE-500 and Boeing 747-400 type ratings. They look like they were cut out of the back of a cereal box, are not perforated and still have to be laminated. When non-aviator friends see these licenses, they look in slight disbelief. The way data are presented in no way conveys the work required to attain them.
CESSNA CUTBACKS Cessna Aircraft Co. has revised its delivery outlook for this year to 180-195 Citation business jets and Caravan utility aircraft. As a result of weakening demand, the company plans to lay off an additional 1,200 workers, bringing the number of people who have lost their jobs in the past 18 months to 2,975, according to a Cessna representative. In addition, Cessna will impose a seven-week furlough from June 2-July 18.
The British Defense Ministry is to receive an additional 1.25 billion pounds ($2 billion) to help fund its participation in the war on Iraq. This will bring the ministry's reserves for the campaign to a total of 3 billion pounds.
SATELLITE SWARM NASA has used its medium-class Explorer (Midex) program to fund a constellation of five small satellites that will probe the shifts in the Earth's magnetosphere reflected in auroras. The U.S. space agency picked the Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (Themis) mission from 31 proposals, and set its launch for 2007.
Under a highly classified program Britain has built and tested a full-scale low-observable aircraft design as part of a broad-based effort into next-generation air combat platforms. The program, which had cover names including Replica and Testbed, was jointly funded by the Defense Ministry and BAE Systems. The latter built a full-scale model of the low-observable (LO) design, and tested it on its radar cross-section range at its Warton site, in the northeast of England.
REACHING OUT The British Defense Ministry is aiming to extend the life of its aging C-130K Hercules medium transports yet again, and to acquire additional C-17 heavy transports. That would address both the country's need for a special forces aircraft, and plug a shortfall in general airlift capability. The Royal Air Force has 34 C-130K aircraft in its departmental fleet, currently scheduled to be withdrawn from service beginning in 2006-08. However, study work is underway looking at options to push the aircraft's life out to around 2015.
Josh Peri has become director of marketing for Aviation Supplies and Academics Inc., Newcastle, Wash. He was an airport security instructor for the U.S. Transportation Security Administration.
ANOTHER "WRIGHT-MINDED" FLY-GUY The Richard Pearse Centenary of Flight will celebrate 100 years of powered flight, and the achievements of Richard Pearse, New Zealand's first aviator. It will be held in South Canterbury, birthplace of New Zealand aviation. The celebration will culminate to the day with the centennial of Pearse's first flight, at Waitohi on Mar. 31, 1903 (nearly nine months before the Wright brothers').
Ron Frederick has been appointed president of the Chandler, Ariz.-based Turbomachinery Div. of the Gooodrich Corp. He was president/CEO of the Turbine Engine Components Technology Corp. and had been president of Garrett Aviation Services.
Apr. 6-8--Helicopter Assn. of Canada/Convention/Show. Hyatt Regency, Vancouver. Call +1 (613) 231-1110 or see www.h-a-c.ca Apr. 7-10--ARINC's 2003 Avionics Maintenance Conference. Pan Pacific, Singapore. Call +1 (410) 266-2915 or see www.arinc.com/amc Apr. 7-10--Space Foundation's 19th National Space Symposium. Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado Springs. Call +1 (719) 576-8000 or see www.spacesymposium.com
Japan has asked its air force to consider dispatching the service's Boeing 767 airborne warning and control aircraft to supplement U.S. AWACS operating over the Sea of Japan. The U.S. request is believed to have been made following the Mar. 2 interception of a U.S. AWACS aircraft by North Korean fighters.
