The NASA Marshall Space Flight Center last week was leading a preliminary design review to select the preferred technique for repairing the orbiter hydrogen flow liner cracks that have grounded the space shuttle program. A separate team was continuing to study the possibility of returning to flight with the cracks as is, but that is considered unlikely. Managers earlier this month narrowed the repair options from six to three primary candidates.
Bahrain has selected the BAE Systems Hawk to meet its jet trainer requirements. BAE and Bahrain inked a contract covering the provision of basic and elementary training in January 2002. BAE has not released details of the Hawk deal; however, the order is thought to be for six aircraft, with an option on a further six.
The joke making the rounds at the Farnborough air show goes: ``Everybody knows the answer is UAVs and UCAVs, but nobody is sure what the question is.'' This quip expresses the concern that unmanned aircraft, now every modern military force's darlings, will be spoiled by success. Budgeteers in particular believe good designs could be loaded with more sensors, more weapons and more missions until they become too expensive to build or too valuable to be risked in combat.
The future of Britain's commercial air transport infrastructure was flung under the spotlight last week with the government floating contentious options for airport development at the same time as it came under fire over its partial privatization of air traffic control. The government's consultation document on how to meet projected traffic demands over the next three decades suggests a number of alternative sites for further development.
A multiaxis test stand (MATS) capable of ground testing vectored-thrust aircraft, such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, has been transferred to Edwards AFB, Calif. It had been in operation about five years at NASA Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., but was shut down due to noise complaints. The MATS is being reassembled at Edwards, and should be in service sometime early next year. It will be instrumented with a suite of sensors to measure forces, pressures and temperatures throughout a vectored-thrust engine's full range.
Electro-Radiation Inc. (ERI) will demonstrate its GPS antijamming capability to protect precision-guided munitions under a contract from the Lockheed Martin Integrated Systems Rapid Response program office. ERI believes it has found a lower-cost method for countering jamming, applying its electronic warfare background. The technique relies primarily on polarization to discriminate between GPS and jamming signals, and takes into account the effects of the antenna, ground plane and the environment.
James Crawford, a research scientist at the NASA Langley Research Center's Atmospheric Sciences Competency, has received a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers for 2001, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on researchers who are beginning their independent careers.
In what is described as a ``deeply classified'' Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency initiative, the U.S. is exploring micro-satellites of 220-330 lb., said officials here. They are ``big enough to do useful things'' like intercept communications, relay data or provide an antisatellite capability. Baseline technology has evolved from kill vehicles designed for missile defense. Advantages of the small satellites are that they are hard to detect and track and they can be launched in the shrouds of bigger space vehicles.
The FAA, with the strong backing of the chairman of the House Transportation appropriations subcommittee, has selected Louisville International Airport as a national model test site for next-generation airport surveillance technologies and traffic procedures. Rep. Harold Rogers (R.-Ky.), the subcommittee chairman, placed $5 million as jump-start funding for the project in the Fiscal 2002 transportation appropriation.
About a month ago, Raytheon's NetFires, a loitering, missile-like unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), made its first flight from NASA's Wallops Island test range powered by a small, 30-lb. thrust-turbojet. The engine, Hamilton Sundstrand's TJ-30, at 12 in. high and 18 in. long, can drive a miniature missile or unmanned vehicle at near-supersonic speeds for more than 250 mi. For the NetFires test, it flew 11 min. and made two racetrack circuits.
Shanghai Little Eagle Science and Technology Co. and Sikorsky expect to receive a license in the third quarter from the Civil Aviation Administration of China to establish a joint venture in Shanghai to produce 2-3-seat helicopters for sale to individuals or businesses, according to China Aero Information, an affiliate of Aviation Week & Space Technology. China has only about 100 civil helicopters, so it's regarded as a large untapped market. Little Eagle is to hold 51% of the company, Sikorsky the rest.
General Electric is executing a wide-ranging technology development and maturation effort to acquire and bank the technologies that will be needed for widebody transport engines entering service between 2008 and 2015. The efforts are being conducted under two programs, the Generation X project, which is seeking 2008 engine technologies like those needed by Boeing's Mach 0.98 Sonic Cruiser; and Generation Y, a longer-term endeavor aimed at powerplants coming into service around 2015.
Gulfstream is using SimAuthor's FlightViz data visualization program in its flight test, maintenance, training and safety departments for better understanding of complex dynamic events. Windows-based FlightViz gives an animated and interactive 3D view of the aircraft with the actual runway and terrain, cockpit instruments, navigation aids, and approach plates, based upon information from a flight data recorder or simulator (right). Airport scenes are derived from an Evans & Sutherland database for full-flight simulators (AW&ST Feb. 25, p. 23).
Northrop Grumman's Pegasus drone started taxi tests earlier this month, and officials hope to make a first flight by the end of the summer. The X-47A Pegasus demonstrator is part of Northrop's bid for the Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV-N) program to build an autonomous carrier-based surveillance and attack drone, for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Navy.
Air taxi and charter operators are grappling with how or if they can meet a mid-September deadline for putting into place a Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-dictated slate of crew and passenger security measures for aircraft weighing 12,500 lb. or more. The measures will affect a large cross section of the flying public--from sports teams to corporate employees--many of whom turned to air taxis and private charters both before and after Sept. 11 to bypass congested airport terminals or overflowing security checkpoints.
The Army is backing a U.S. Special Operations Command proposal to procure an additional 25 MH-47 and 10 MH-60 helicopters to support regional commanders, according to an Army official. The subject was first mentioned last week by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. John Keane at a Defense Writers Group breakfast. He talked about an additional aviation battalion and said the idea is now working its way through the current POM (program objective memorandum) process, adding that the Army agrees with the proposal in principle.
Chad Thorne (see photo) has become manager of weight and balance systems for Crane Aerospace, Lynnwood, Wash. He was head of the Crane Aerospace Wichita (Kan.) Regional Center.
Six airline unions took aim last week at aviation industry attempts to develop political support for baseball-style arbitration of airline labor disputes. They urged senators to oppose an August 2001 bill introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), legislation that is all but dead for the 107th Congress. An official of the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Dept. said the unions are concerned about an extensive pro-arbitration lobbying campaign underway by airlines, bill or no bill.
Alaska Air Group, parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, reported a net loss of $4.5 million or $0.17 per share in the second quarter, compared with a net profit of $3.9 million or $0.15 per share in the same quarter last year. Group Chairman and CEO John F. Kelly said the increase in capacity and traffic was ``encouraging,'' but decreased yields ``continued to reflect a lower mix of business versus leisure travelers.'' Alaska Airlines passenger traffic was up 2.5% on a capacity increase of 5.2%, and its load factor decreased 1.9 points to 68.4%.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has awarded Boeing's Phantom Works a $92.4-million contract to design, develop and test-fly a Mach 6, hypersonic demonstrator missile. Eight powered test flights of the demonstrator weapon, which will rely on a dual combustion ramjet for sustained hypersonic speeds, are planned between 2004 and 2006 under the HyFly program.
A new waveform technology developed by Rockwell Collins in collaboration with the Office of Naval Research and Naval Air Systems Command increases the data rate of information that can be transmitted over UHF satcom channels. The Bandwidth Efficient Advanced Modulation (Beam) waveform technology provides data rates up to 80 Kbps. over a standard 25-KHz. channel. The conventional rate for such channels is 16 Kbps., and the highest without Beam has been 56 Kbps., but that required three times more signal power than Beam.
British Airways has selected Goodrich to supply cockpit-door video surveillance systems for its long-range aircraft, including Boeing 747s, 767s and 777s, as well as BA's Concorde aircraft. A large Asia-Pacific carrier also has given Goodrich a purchase order. Goodrich was selected earlier this year by Airbus to provide the systems for all new-production Airbus aircraft models, and Virgin Atlantic also plans to retrofit its entire Boeing fleet. Altogether, the company expects to deliver 500-600 of the $25,000 systems by mid-March 2003.
Faced with a transportation security supplemental budget request that's been slashed by more than $1 billion, the Bush administration is waffling on its heretofore staunch commitment to federalize screeners at 429 airports by Nov. 19 and to begin probing all checked bags for bombs by Dec. 31. ``The extraordinary delay in approving funding and new restrictions have dramatically undermined our ability to get the job done,'' said Transportation Secretary Norman Y.
Aviation Technical Services, an aircraft heavy maintenance shop at Everett, Wash., is using handheld wireless devices, scheduling programs, and the Internet to speed work and keep customers in touch with what's happening to their aircraft. Quality inspectors carry the handhelds as they inspect the aircraft to report what they find, and the system automatically generates work orders. A critical-path scheduling tool optimizes the work flow and calculates when the aircraft will be delivered based upon work completed. This information is updated every 4 hr.
