Lockheed Martin Astronautics will draw on its experience with the highly successful Mars Global Surveyor to build NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, set for launch in 2005. NASA awarded the Denver-based unit of the company a $145-million contract Oct. 3 to develop the spacecraft, which will carry a camera with five times the resolution at the surface of anything that's gone to Mars before. The company also will provide operations support during the 5.5-year mission, when the spacecraft is expected to return some 27 terabits of data.
Test results from Boeing's X-32 demonstrators have been submitted as part of the Joint Strike Fighter competition with Lockheed Martin. A winning contractor is scheduled to be selected at the end of the month (AW&ST Sept. 24, p. 52). Boeing addressed questions raised about the fidelity of the X-32 tests--the configuration of the delta wing demonstrators that differs from the separate-tail layout in the company's bid, and the removal of the inlet cowl for most short takeoff/vertical landing (Stovl) tests.
The 14 X 22-ft.-subsonic wind tunnel at NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., is undergoing upgrades that include the installation of a new electric motor to turn the facility's nine-blade fans, which span 40 ft. The 80-ton motor, built specifically for the tunnel by ALSTOM in France, is rated at 6,600 volts and produces up to 12,000 hp., according to NASA. To install the motor requires removing the top of the tunnel and using a 300-ton mobile crane to lower the unit into place. The facility is tentatively scheduled to resume operations in December.
Despite a pronounced U.S. lead in active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar development, a key element of the F-22 and Joint Strike Fighter programs, Russia's renowned Phazotron-NIIR radar house is pursuing its own version of the technology. Phazotron is looking to European manufacturers for a more affordable way to build such systems. Nonetheless, company officials displayed their prototype, a multi-function Sokol radar with AESA-like, Phased Array Antenna (PHAA) technology, for the first time at the Moscow Air Show.
The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a $343.5-billion defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2002, and House and Senate conferees will have to square differences in their respective versions on ballistic missile defense (BMD) and a new round of base closures in 2003.
In an unusual move, the White House intends to appoint Maj. Gen. Claude M. Bolton, Jr., to become the Army's acquisition chief. What's so odd about a senior officer with years of acquisition experience getting the job? Bolton wears Air Force blue and until recently oversaw acquisition of the service's fighter and bomber programs. Bolton has terrific credentials, including a strong hand in reorganizing the F-22 test program to make it more credible.
A FedEx 727-200 aircraft recently made the first civil precision-instrument approach using a GPS-landing system developed for the military. The aircraft made 16 successful Category 1 instrument approaches, followed by six full-auto landings at Holloman AFB, N.M., using Raytheon's Joint Precision Approach and Landing System (JPALS). The aircraft was guided by differential GPS with corrections, integrity monitoring, and precision approach-path transmitted by a JPALS ground station. Accuracies were sufficient to meet the requirements for Cat. 2 and 3, according to Raytheon.
The FAA should move to establish occupational health standards for flight attendants or risk losing the authority to do so, according to the Transportation Dept. Inspector General. In 1970, when Congress created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), it allowed federal agencies to retain authority in their areas of responsibility, and the FAA did so in 1975. Since that time, the agency has focused on design and operational factors affecting safety and has limited health measures to non-mandatory advisory circulars.
The European Space Agency is proposing a major overhaul of its launcher strategy, involving cooperation with Russia and the U.S., to meet the evolving market and make up for a lag in future reusable launch system development. The existing strategy, or at least the way it is being implemented, is no longer adapted to present-day conditions, acknowledged ESA's new launcher director, Jean-Jacques Dordain.
The FBI is trying to learn more about the hijackers involved in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington including their true identities and activities on and before Sept. 11. Mug shots of all 19, including those suspected of being the pilots, are posted on the FBI Web site: http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/092701hjpic.htm.
A Siberia Airlines Tupolev Tu-154M transport exploded in cruise over the Black Sea on Oct. 4, with fragments raining into the water. Conflicting reports suggested terrorism or an errant Ukrainian missile as possible causes. Flight 1812 was en route from Tel Aviv to Novosibirsk, Russia, when it disappeared from radar screens without emergency signals at about 1:45 p.m. Moscow time. Approximately 76 passengers and crewmembers were on board. The crash site is at about 42-43 deg. N. Lat. and 37-38 deg. E. Long.
To bring a more computer-like experience to airline passengers, Rockwell Collins is adding Windows operating systems to the hardware of its TES cabin entertainment system, resulting in the eTES system, scheduled for first delivery in mid-2002. The idea is that Windows provides a stable architecture that can accept new features, with a wide range of developer tools. Features can be introduced at the airline's pace, including e-mail, Internet access and audio and video on demand. The eTES server will run Windows NT, and passenger units will run Windows CE.
Lawmakers are locking horns over federalizing airport security. Some Democrats say screeners should be civil servants. Many Republicans want screeners to work on contract. Key legislators had expected to meet late Friday with Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, who's been mediating between the camps, but the session was abruptly canceled. A Senate bill calls for civil-service screeners at 140 larger airports with state and local authorities taking charge at smaller airports. Mineta says that would require 28,000 civil servants and $1.8 billion a year.
The era of gigantic computer rooms is not quite over. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory recently unveiled ``ASCI White,'' rated in June as the world's fastest computer by the Top500 group (www.top500.org). ASCI stands for the government's Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative, and the computer is primarily for modeling nuclear weapons. The $110-million machine has 8,192 IBM Power-3-II microprocessor nodes linked to give a speed of 12.3 trillion floating-point operations per second.
TETHERED BLIMPS COULD RAISE PSEUDOLITES to an altitude of 2,000 ft. to create an artificial GPS constellation, as another approach to overcoming GPS jamming and preserving navigation capability for friendly forces. AW&ST recently reported on a Darpa plan to put pseudolites in UAVs (AW&ST Sept. 10, p. 54). Carolina Unmanned Vehicles is proposing its Helikite Elevated Platform, which would have a line of sight of approximately 60 naut. mi. from that altitude, and could also provide temporary cell-phone capability for emergencies.
The F-22 Combined Test Force met another key milestone last month when Raptor 4005 fired a guided AIM-120 Amraam, scoring a ``hit'' on a subscale aerial target.
National security experts say terrorism is a distinct facet of globalization that will take decades to grind down, a phenomenon whose nature is apt to make everyday life, homeland defense and strategic security increasingly synonymous.
The table entitled ``Terrorism's Impact on Airline Operations'' (AW&ST Sept. 24, p. 34) contained incorrect reduction figures for three airlines. Japan Airlines and Korean Air each had about a 10% reduction in their transpacific flights after they resumed operations following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S. Singapore Airlines had none.
ITS ELECTRONICS, THE PRIME CONTRACTOR for the second phase of the Electronic Warfare upgrade of the Canadian Forces CH146 Griffon helicopters, sees cooperation with Israel's Elisra Electronic Systems as opening the door for new business opportunities. Elisra supplied 10 of the SPS-65 radar and laser warning receivers (RLWRs) in the first phase of the program and is working to integrate missile warning and expendable countermeasures systems into the Canadian Forces version of the Bell 412EP helicopter.
Executives at EADS are coveting a larger presence in the U.S. to reach the ambitious growth targets they have established for their military operations. Exactly how the foray into the U.S. will take shape has not been decided, but mergers and acquisitions are expected to play a large role, said Stefan Zoller, president of EADS' Systems and Defense Electronics business. The U.S. isn't the only area the organization is targeting, but because of its size it is seen as the most important market to succeed in.
BAE Regional Aircraft is in the final push to get its RJX family of aircraft through flight testing, even as questions are mounting what will happen to the market for those and competing aircraft. Economic problems in the U.S. and other regions were already depressing the outlook for the regional jet business, but the terrorist attacks in the U.S. could further hurt companies. Nevertheless, BAE Systems officials believe their business plan should allow them to weather a downturn.
The 33rd Session of the Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization, convening in Montreal last week, worked assiduously to approve a resolution that strongly condemns terrorism and countries that harbor terrorists. The primary purpose of the assembly, according to ICAO Council President Assad Kotaite, is ``to identify the means by which to eradicate this new threat [aircraft used as weapons of destruction] and restore confidence in a system that remains fundamentally safe, secure and efficient.''
British Airways plans to restart its daily Concorde services to New York soon and has completed the first of five scheduled operational assessment flights. The Sept. 11 flight was the first with a full load of passengers since services were suspended more than a year ago after the crash of Air France Flight 4590 near Paris.
Orbital Imaging Corp. will restructure its debt under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy code after losing its Orbview 4 satellite in the failure of a Taurus rocket built by its parent company, Orbital Sciences. The failure also cost NASA an ozone mapper that would have ensured continuous monitoring of polar ozone holes, while Celestis Inc. lost a package of cremated human remains sold as space burials.
