A NASA technique used to automatically tune compression of space imagery is now commercially available from Hawaii-based Six D Inc. (www.sixd.com). The ``DCTune'' technique, developed at the Ames Research Center, is based on the JPEG compression scheme and uses a computer model of human perception to adjust the JPEG parameters to produce an image with the least perceptible error in the smallest file size. . . . Forming Technologies Inc. (www.forming.com) has added its ``Fast Suite'' sheet metal expertise to the tools available under Dassault's V5 design system.
Trimble will design, test and qualify the GPS receiver for Raytheon's Miniature Airborne GPS Receiver (MAGR) 2000, under a $2.1-million contract. The new receiver is being developed to meet the military's navigation warfare requirements as well as the integrity needs for civil air navigation. Trimble's Force 5 Gram-S GPS module will give the new MAGR 12-channel tracking of all satellites in view, compared with five channels on the original MAGR. It incorporates a selective availability antispoofing module (Saasm) using the architecture selected by the Defense Dept.
Magellan Aerospace Corp. has won a $121.8-million contract award from the U.S. Air Force to perform repair and overhaul on General Electric J85 engines and components.
Larry Lynn, director of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has received the Singapore Defense Technology Distinguished Fellowship. The award recognizes Lynn's contributions in forging links between the U.S. and Singapore in defense science and technology.
The House of Representatives is poised to make incremental increases to President Bush's $70.2-billion weapons procurement budget request for Fiscal 2003, adding funds here and there to a number of aircraft programs, as well as to missile defense.
John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies will be the 14th recipient of Aviation Week & Space Technology's John Curtis Sword. Hamre was deputy U.S. Defense secretary from 1997-99. Previously, he was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) for four years and a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The presentation to Hamre will be a featured event at the Society of British Aerospace Companies' Farnborough International dinner on July 23.
David Adams has become group vice president of Curtiss-Wright Sensors and Controls, Gastonia, N.C. He was vice president-marketing and business development of Curtiss-Wright Flight Systems.
ITT Industries Night Vision Div. received a U.S. Army Omnibus VI procurement for Generation 3 night vision (image intensification) devices. The potential value of the five-year award is $450 million and consists of two separate contracts: an aviators' night vision equipment (``winner-take-all'') and a ground forces' night vision equipment (60/40 split) arrangement. ITT received 100% of the aviation contract and 60% of the ground contract. Northrop Grumman received the remaining 40%.
The Indian Air Force grounded six MiG squadrons comprising 72 aircraft last week following the May 3 crash of a MiG-21 into a building that killed eight people on the ground. The crash struck a two-story bank after the pilot ejected successfully. It occurred in Jullundur, 60 mi. from the Pakistani border in the state of Punjab. In addition to the eight dead, local authorities said 16 people were injured by fire following the explosion of some 1,000 gal. of fuel after the impact. ``I was flying at 6,000 ft. when the engine failed,'' a Flt. Lt.
Gene Carpenter has been named market and business development director for AirLiance Materials of Chicago. He was vice president-marketing and sales for AAR Engine Component Services.
Occar European armaments procurement agency has awarded a $45-million contract to the Dornier defense electronics division to supply 160 EuroGrid digital map systems for Eurocopter Tiger helicopters.
Schweizer Aircraft Corp. has received certification for its turbine-powered Model 333 helicopter from Italy's Ente Nazionale per l'Aviazione Civile. The first aircraft has been sold by Elialpi Helicopters in Rivanazzano to a private operator. In addition, the company's first Model 300 Cbi has been sold to CSE Aviation Ltd. in Oxford, England. CSE officials plan to exhibit and demonstrate the lightweight, piston-powered helicopter during the Farnborough air show late in July.
John H. Walker, CEO of the Weirton (W.Va.) Steel Corp., has been appointed to the board of directors of the UAL Corp. He will take the seat that had been occupied by Jack Creighton before he was named chairman/CEO.
The Nov. 12, 2001, crash of American Airlines Flight 587--the NTSB's first airline probe involving an inflight failure of a major structural component made of composites--marked a ``new day'' in terms of accident investigation, said NTSB Chair Marion C. Blakey on a recent visit to NASA Langley Research Center. Blakey emphasized ``many more months'' of work lie ahead before it is determined why the tail fin separated from the Airbus A300-600 and led to the deaths of 265 people.
Top NASA managers chose Air Force Maj. Gen. (ret.) Michael C. Kostelnik to be the program executive officer for the International Space Station, although he won't have exactly that job title. Like Pentagon PEOs, Kostelnik will coordinate program activities relating to ISS across the agency, including space shuttle flights to the orbiting facility (AW&ST Apr. 15, p. 19). Kostelnik's Air Force career, which ended with his Jan.
General Electric's F404-102D has been selected to power Boeing's X-45B unmanned combat air vehicle. The engine, a derivative of the one used on the F/A-18 and F-117, will replace Honeywell's F124, which is being used to power the X-45A. The size of Boeing's UCAV has grown and with it the need for a more powerful engine. GE is to supply three engines for the flight test program. It said the new F404-102D is designed specifically for single-engine applications with reliability and redundancy. It will also have low-observable features.
C. Phillip Joy has been named presi- dent of Stewart & Stevenson Tug of Houston. He succeeds John Keating, who has become corporate vice president-special projects. Joy was president of Trilectron Industries.
Faced with a serious aging problem of its trainer aircraft, U.S. Navy officials have devised a shrewd plan to modernize the fleet despite massive procurement bills coming due for other programs. Operational aircraft are growing old, too, with an average age of about 19 years. The situation in the training command is even worse, where aircraft age averages 25 years. The problem is the result of a decade of not buying enough replacements, says Rear Adm. John E. Boyington, chief of Naval Air Training.
George Ferito has been appointed manager and Scott Tidwell assistant manager of FlightSafety International's Fort Worth Learning Center and Mike King manager of FSI's two Learning Centers at Lambert St. Louis International Airport. Tidwell succeeds Ferito as assistant manager of the FSI Training Center at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Tidwell was the center's Gulfstream 200 program manager. King was manager of FSI's Sabreliner center at Lambert.
A USAF F-15E from Edwards AFB, Calif., releases five independently targeted 2,000-lb. Joint Direct Attack Munitions during an Apr. 30 test. Dropped from 25,000 ft., the GPS-guided weapons hit five separate, predetermined targets on the Navy's China Lake, Calif., range.
Administrator Jane Garvey isn't the only top FAA official who will be out the door when her term expires Aug. 4. Monte Belger, who has been de facto deputy administrator throughout Garvey's five-year term--nominated but never confirmed, and serving well beyond the time limit of an ``acting'' designation--will leave the agency July 31. Steve Zaidman, associate administrator for research and acquisition, left recently and is succeeded by Charles Keegan, who has overseen the Operational Evolution Plan and, before that, the Free Flight program office.
Europe's Spot 5 remote-sensing satellite has sent back the first black-and-white images from its high-resolution geometric instrument, which can produce 2.5-meter resolution imagery over a 60-km. swath. The high-resolution stereoscopic imager, intended for very-wide-area and 3D views, was also switched on, along with the Vegetation instrument and Doris orbital determination system. The first adjustment to bring the spacecraft to its final orbit of 832 km. was accomplished on May 7, and final adjustments were planned this week.
