John H. Marberger, 3rd, director of President Bush's Office of Science and Technology Policy, may have inadvertently revealed the stakes incoming NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe is facing as he wrestles with cost overruns on the International Space Station (see p. 410). ``We remain committed to the success of the project, but we've got a problem that we have to address forcefully right now,'' Marberger told a press conference.
Burt Edelson, a top-ranking scientist at NASA headquarters who laid the groundwork for one of the most productive instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope, died of a heart attack Jan. 6 in New York. He was 75. A 1947 Naval Academy graduate, Edelson specialized in satellite communications at the Naval Research Laboratory and later Comsat Corp. Named associate NASA administrator for space science and applications in 1982, he approved the second Wide-Field/Planetary Camera and pushed the space-based Earth science programs that later became known as Mission to Planet Earth.
Cathay Pacific Airways has offered to carry Pakistan International Airlines passengers to Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore following India's refusal to allow PIA to transit its airspace. The agreement is to be valid until June. PIA's 12 weekly flights were severely affected by the ban because it was forced to fly over China and Sri Lanka, making the operations unprofitable. Following a Sept. 28 suspension, Cathay resumed flights to Karachi last week, routing its three weekly services through Bangkok.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe wants to initiate much closer cooperation between his agency and the Pentagon, with a possible resumption of classified space shuttle flights on military missions and perhaps a new White House space policy that orders joint NASA/Pentagon efforts across the board.
Pentagon officials say the new government of Chile, faced with a Jan. 7 deadline to sign the deal for 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds, two KC-135 tankers, spares and training, has asked for and received a 30-day extension. That will allow the incoming administration of President Ricardo Labos to get its feet on the ground and familiarize itself with the $700-million deal. It would be the largest U.S. arms sale to Latin America since the 1983 sale of 22 F-16s to Venezuela.
Singapore police said last week that they had arrested 15 people in December from a clandestine organization called Jeemah Islamiah. Several others are said to have fled the country. They were detained under Singapore's Internal Security Act, which empowers police to hold them for at least 60 days. Malaysia has a similar law. Police said they seized detailed information on bomb-making as well as photographs and video surveillance of potential U.S. establishments, including the U.S. embassy. Jeemah Islamiah's activities include fund raising for terrorist groups.
SINCE THE EARLY 1980s, operators flying under FAR Part 135 in Alaska have had the highest number of accidents involving controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). According to the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, about 30% of accidents involving Part 135 operations in the 50 states occur in Alaska. An informal survey found that pilots are often under extreme pressure to fly in marginal weather conditions.
Wilson LT is a polypropylene-based material used to create lightweight shipping cases. Construction is nondirectional, without the directional grain that can lead to weak spots. The material is reinforced with talc for rigidity. It is moisture resistant, UV tolerant and chemically inert, making it suitable for transport and storage of all types of equipment. The light weight also helps to reduce shipping costs. The cases are constructed with heavy-duty locks, reinforcements and hardware similar to that used on standard plywood cases. The material can be recycled.
London-Luton based low-cost carrier EasyJet is touting a major fleet expansion plan, with up to a further 75 aircraft to be acquired by 2007. If an order for 75 aircraft is concluded, it is estimated to be worth around $3 billion and would more than double the size of the EasyJet fleet. The airline is in discussions with Boeing and Airbus, with the 737-700 and the A319, respectively, the two types under consideration. EasyJet presently operates an all-Boeing fleet of 18 737-300 and nine 737-700 aircraft.
In a swirl of legislation and Pentagon memos that included at least two major misunderstandings, a $1-billion effort to build a joint-service family of signals intelligence systems that could be plugged into a range of aircraft has foundered. But U.S. Air Force officials promise they soon will resurrect the program.
The DGx high-resolution digital recording system captures, compresses and stores images up to 1280 X 1024 pixels. Computer, radar, video and audio acquisition, time code and even markers are supported by this system. Designed for applications in simulation and training, command and control, and monitoring, the unit accepts up to four image sources for recording to digital tape or disk. Inputs may be computer, radar and other high-scan-rate video signals. Each image's original resolution is preserved.
THE EUROPEAN JOINT VENTURE COMPANY, Sostar GmbH., will develop the new European all-weather ground surveillance system for the governments of France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain. The stand-off surveillance and target acquisition radar (Sostar) will use an active electronically-scanned array for manned or unmanned surveillance of large areas, for crisis and conflict management. The goal is to detect and track slow-moving targets and to provide high-resolution imaging and classification of fixed targets.
Boeing and the U.S. Air Force are nearing a deal for 60 more C-17s, but a move to augment that force with a commercially operated version of the airlifter has slowed. Negotiations for the next multiyear C-17 contract are about 90% complete, said Col. Ted F. Bowlds, program executive officer for airlift and trainers. The deal, estimated at more than $9 billion, will maintain the C-17s current production rate at 15 aircraft per year until the service has bought 180 transports--the existing contract will bring USAF's inventory to 120 aircraft.
The $5 Billion Misunderstanding, The Collapse of the Navy's A-12 Stealth Bomber Program, by James Stevenson, recounts the events that eventually led to the stealth bomber's cancellation. Stevenson cites many examples of the mismatch between perception and reality experienced by Navy program managers, the Defense Dept., Congress and the contractors.
GEORGIA TECH RESEARCHERS have demonstrated the first circular atom storage ring--a step that could lead to much more accurate gyros and navigation systems for aerospace. The concept is analogous to fiber optic gyros, but would detect changes in motion using atom instead of optical interferometry. Improved performance would result because the sensitivity of any given-size interferometric gyro is proportional to the mass of the particles, and the mass of an atom is about 10 orders of magnitude larger than a photon.
The Model BS-112 miniature linear gage sensor can measure dimension, thickness, curvature, eccentricity, displacement, height, depth, flatness, run-out, roundness, distortion, deflection and position. It produces measurements of 0.00004 in. with a range of 0-10 mm. The sensor was built to fit extremely tight quarters where conventional sensors are impractical, and can be mounted inside of machinery with limited access space. The sensor has a waterproof seal, and a dust bellow is included for additional protection in harsh environments. Included is a 6-ft.
A tracker can be useful for three-dimensional pointing, simulation, computer-aided design and other aerospace tasks. Ascension Technology (www.ascension-tech.com) has come out with pciBIRD, a six-degree-of-freedom magnetic tracker with a processor card that plugs into a PCI slot in a personal computer. The sensor works within a 3-ft. radius from a magnetic transmitter base station, and provides real-time position and angle information at up to 105 measurements per second. Resolution is 0.02 in. and 0.1 deg., and absolute accuracy is 0.07 in. and 0.5 deg.
A soft business jet market will cost about 800 Bombardier Aerospace employees their jobs. The company expects to cut about 550 people at its Tucson Completion Center, which works on various Bombardier business jet models, and about 250 people at its Wichita factory that assembles Lear 31A, Lear 45 and Lear 60 business jets. The workforce reduction will take place over the next 12 months.
British air traffic management provider National Air Traffic Services (NATS) is pushing to be allowed to modify planned reductions in en route charges as a result of the post-Sept. 11 commercial air travel downturn. Under a deal hammered out with the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in mid-2001, NATS en route charges were to be cut by 4% in 2003, followed by further cuts of 5% in 2004 and 2005. As a result of the traffic dropoff, NATS will apply to the CAA later this month to reevaluate the pricing structure, a process expected to take three months.
Malaysia Airlines said it expects to raise 5.6 billion ringgit ($1.5 billion) from the sale of six 747-400s and two 777-200ERs in a lease-back agreement to raise cash to pay down debt.
There are many books available on aircraft to be found in dusty bins and as new editions in book stores. As an aircraft enthusiast, I have looked at many of these over the years. Some are so weighted down with technical detail, they are only used for reference. Other books discuss specific aircraft and their attributes, but often do not give you a sense of history. And as we all know, every aircraft flying has tales of challenges, woes and triumphs following in their slipstream.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey is just as averse to letting up on efforts to manage aviation demand as she is on backing off from those to expand capacity. Announcing revisions--but no slowdown--of her agency's 10-year plan to improve air traffic control systems and procedures (AW&ST Jan. 7, p. 22), Garvey said it's time to resume deliberations toward market-based demand-management measures at airports--congestion and peak-hour pricing, slot auctions and the like. The agency sought public comment on the issue last Aug. 21 but suspended the Nov.
BOEING PHANTOM WORKS has evaluated a solid state cooling technology that could offer lighter, more efficient, localized cooling in the future, and has taken the right of first refusal for aerospace applications, according to research and development company Borealis Exploration Limited. Borealis' Cool Chips thermal-management approach uses a form of a vacuum diode, that pumps heat from one side of the chip to the other for localized cooling. The thermionic technology delivers up to 80% of the maximum theoretical (Carnot) efficiency for heat pumps, according to Borealis.
The BoltMike III ultrasonically measures tension and clamp load of threaded fasteners. The instrument weighs 2.5 lb. and has an easy-to-read display. It runs up to 40 hr. on standard ``AA'' batteries. Typical applications include control of tightening of critical bolted joints in engines and structures; and verifying tension on bolts clamping wheel assemblies. The product is manufactured in a facility with processes conforming to ISO9001, and it has a two-year warranty on parts and labor, excluding transducer and cables. StressTel, 2790 W. College Ave., State College, Pa.
Avionics software is often certified to the DO-178B standard, and Virtual Prototypes has been working on an embedded graphics development tool to help them produce qualified code (AW&ST May 15, 2000, p. 19). Virtual Prototypes is now shipping its Qualifiable Code Generator to initial customers and says it is the first such tool to be made under DO-178B standards itself, which should speed its customers' qualification processes. These customers include Boeing, EADS, Rockwell Collins, Smiths Industries, Barco, Eurocopter, Datel Defence and Elbit Systems.
