Northrop Grumman is preparing to conduct flight tests aimed at demonstrating the capability of an aircraft with a reshaped forward fuselage to reduce the intensity of sonic booms at ground level. Charles Boccadoro, Northrop Grumman's Quiet Supersonic Platform (QSP) program manager, said the demonstrations will involve the use of a pair of baseline and modified F-5E aircraft to conduct about 18 flights at different altitudes and in various weather conditions. The tests are to begin in about one year.
Belgium's Sabena wants to slash 1,600 jobs and sell several company divisions to achieve a financial turnaround. Among the divisions up for sale are Sabena Catering, Technics, cargo and hotels. Sabena CEO Christoph Mueller said he wants to focus on 11 Airbus A330s as a long-haul fleet. The carrier will reduce its short-haul fleet from 66 to 60 aircraft. Regional jets may be added from April 2002. Because of strikes, the airline had to cancel close to 200 flights late last week.
Dy 4 Systems released SVME/DMV-570, a flash nonvolatile mass memory module designed for harsh and rugged applications where large amounts of nonvolatile, mass memory are required to store extensive databases such as theater area maps or video/satellite imagery. The SVME/DMV-570 provides solid-state nonvolatile memory without the need for shock and vibration isolators and environmental enclosures normally required for media mass storage devices.
Scientists and pilots are converging on Florida for a six-week research campaign that will use a fleet of satellites, aircraft and sea-skimming unpiloted ``aerosondes'' to probe the fury of Atlantic hurricanes from the cloud tops to the sea surface.
Grizzled oldtimers claim that the latest Beltway soap opera, starring threatened cuts to air force squadrons and army divisions in favor of new luster for glamour-grabbers like missile defense, is the same old show. Currently at center stage, they say, is the Defense Dept.'s wobbly choreography of the Bush team's strategic review, Quadrennial Defense Review and 2003 budget request. Then there's the aging episode about strategy and force size. To pay for modernization, the Bush team is said to be ready to retreat from the two-regional-war scenario.
Sidney P. Saucier III, a rocket propulsion engineer who was associate director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, died Aug. 6 of cancer. He was 65. A graduate of Mississippi State University, Saucier joined NASA at Marshall in 1962. He was project engineer on the RL-10 cryogenic engine in the old Propulsion and Vehicle Engineering Laboratory, and later managed the Inertial Upper Stage Project. He was named manager of the Science and Applications Project Office in 1987, and in 1996 became director of the Propulsion Laboratory.
The intellectual storm that has burst over President Bush's bid to revolutionize deterrence centers on whether missile defense will inhibit or incite more proliferation of missile technology. The Administration resoundingly proclaims that ballistic missile defense (BMD) will curb proliferation simply by diminishing the practical value and usefulness of offensive missiles.
Northrop Grumman has delivered the first Block 20 E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint-STARS) to the U.S. Air Force. The four-engine jet, assigned to the 93rd Air Control Wing at Robins AFB, Ga., features COTS computers to operate surveillance equipment. These systems include 20 Compaq Alphaserver ES40CV systems running the OpenVMS operating system to support 18 workstations, one central computer and a central backup computer. The Air Force has a fleet of 11 Joint-STARS aircraft.
The FAA is using SimAuthor's FlightViz visualization software for its Aviation System Standards program, which develops, flight-inspects and publishes the agency's instrument approach procedures. . . . Tecnomatix will integrate its eMPower manufacturing process software into mySAP's product life-cycle management suite.
Canada 3000 plans to inaugurate direct polar route service twice weekly from Toronto to Delhi on Oct. 8 and weekly from Vancouver to Delhi on Oct. 10 with Airbus A340-300s. Canada 3000 claims they are the first direct scheduled flights between Canada and India. On Nov. 4, the carrier plans to begin service between Toronto-Mumbai, with Airbus A330-200 aircraft. This service will have a 1-hr. stop at London-Gatwick. Sample economy round-trip fare from Toronto to Delhi or Mumbai is C$1,499 ($977) and from Vancouver, C$1,649.
Dennis A. Zalupski has been named senior vice president-sales of the Commercial Div. of Kellstrom Industries Inc., Miramar, Fla. He was general manager of sales for General Electric's Aircraft Engine Services Div.
The Series H42S high-torque, 42-mm. hybrid step motor has improved performance and competitive pricing. The 1.8 deg. step motors--measuring 42 mm. square--are available in four lengths: 25, 34, 40 and 48 mm. These high-efficiency motors come in both unipolar and bipolar versions, have a holding torque range of 156-441 mNm., and weigh 150-340 g. They feature a 5% per step, step angle accuracy and temperature rise of 80C (max.).
KAISER ELECTRO-OPTICS HAS DEVELOPED transmitter optical assemblies for the AN/AAQ-24 (V) directed infrared countermeasures (DIRCM). It is designed to detect and track an incoming IR missile fired at an aircraft, and to focus high-power arc-lamp countermeasures at the missile seeker to confuse it. It is the optical assemblies that transmit the high-powered arc-lamp beam with its IR countermeasures. Northrop Grumman teamed with BAE Systems jointly developed DIRCM for the U.S. Special Operations Command and for the U.K.
Exactly how did the bicycle-making brothers from Dayton achieve the first controlled, powered flight? Curious visitors sought the answers at the Wright Experience Project exhibit at EAA's Countdown to Kitty Hawk Pavilion--tantamount, to many, as a visit to Wilbur and Orville's workshop. Here, volunteers recreated some of the Wrights' wind tunnel tests, propeller-making techniques and engine runs, to give visitors a deeper understanding of the scientific undertakings that led to the brothers' ultimate accomplishment.
Fred deLeeuw has been promoted to senior vice president-strategic planning from vice president-corporate finance of Atlas Air Inc., Purchase, N.Y. Richard A. (Tony) Galbraith and Ronald B. Woodard have been named to the board of directors of Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings Inc. Galbraith retired as treasurer of British Airways in 1998. Woodard was president of the Boeing Commercial Airline Group from 1995-98. He is president/CEO of the MagnaDrive Corp.
Edo Corp. has won a contract valued at $17.4 million from the USAF Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., for continued production of BRU-57 Smart Bomb Rack Units slated for the F-16 Falcon.
Asecna, Central Africa's agency for air navigation safety, is significantly boosting investment in traffic control systems while seeking accords with neighboring countries in a long-term effort to improve flight operations and safety in the region.
The introduction of new technology that simplifies the use of defibrillators on U.S. carriers has prompted Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare to relax rules for their operation on Japanese carriers. The Health Ministry previously required that only physicians or trained medical personnel use the devices. Japan Airlines was the first to act, requesting the ministry's permission to put one of the new defibrillators on a Boeing 747 as of Oct. 1, with plans to equip the rest of the fleet by March 2003.
After more than 20 years of research, U.S. military officials believe they are on the verge of demonstrating the ability to destroy a boosting ballistic missile using a high-power laser. The Pentagon is betting heavily on directed-energy weapons because the timelines for a boost-phase intercept kill are extremely short. With less than 5 min. of boost time of the target, using a missile to catch it is a daunting problem.
Long before Boeing became involved in the Exostar e-marketplace, it was thinking of ways to buy supplies over the Internet. In fact, it was thinking that way before its McDonnell Douglas and Rockwell mergers. And so were they.
The Administration's antitrust enforcers will not be the sleeping watchdogs that many in industry had been hoping for. The Justice Dept.'s new antitrust boss, Charles James, indicated in his maiden speech last week that a reflexively pro-business Republican White House does not translate to blind-eye enforcement. With the United-US Airways merger gone the way of all flesh; with an American Airlines predatory practices appeal in the works, and with transatlantic airline antitrust immunity applications on the horizon (see p.
Astronaut Robert D. Cabana, who commanded the first International Space Station assembly mission, has taken over in Moscow as NASA's top liaison to the Russian space program. In that capacity, he will represent the ISS program manager and the Johnson Space Center director in all human spaceflight discussions with NASA's principal station partner.
