After 25 years in the laboratory, the Dutch-developed Glare material is getting its first production use as primary structure in the A380 fuselage. The material is made of alternating layers of aluminum and fiberglass bonded together, which gives the name Glare (GLAss fiber REinforced aluminum). Its key structural property is better fatigue resistance, and in fatigue-critical areas it can take 20-25% higher loads than conventional aluminum. Engineers estimate it will save 15-20% weight in the upper fuselage skin areas where it is used.
This new line of snap-and-lock sockets is compatible with Leach's Series J, K, JA, KA, KL and TDX subminiature relays. Designed to snap and lock into a relay panel without the use of hardware, the SSL series reduces installation time and cost. The sockets mate with either the Leach captive-hardware-style relay or the Leach standard socket-mount relay. The SSL series is available in both two- and four-pole models and is designed to the performance requirements of MIL-PRF-12883/40 and /41. It is recommended for aircraft, space and other high-reliability applications.
Fluidic Systems is introducing a pump technology for its PK2/PK3 component dispensing systems. Current applications include three component waterborne CARC camouflage coatings and polysulfide aircraft sealants for the Marine Corps. The system is based on a microprocessor-controlled DC drive coupled to a new patent-pending linear displacement pump. The positive displacement pump system provides continuous pulse free flow from 0-3,000 psi for air and airless applications.
Jeff Krolopp (see photo) has been appointed vice president-strategic marketing for Bearing Inspection Inc., Los Alamitos, Calif. He was director of marketing and sales for the Airpax Corp.
Pushp Kumar Sharma (see photo) has been promoted to vice president/chief information officer from vice president-information systems for TriPoint Global Communications, Gastonia, N.C.
Effective, broad-ranging intelligence can be a mixed blessing in that U.S. Air Force planners are now realizing how much danger there is in the world, not just to those in the cockpit but also to service members and families in garrisons across the globe.
If you have the right security clearances, there is a place here you can go to find an answer to the warfighter's most crucial question, ``Where are the bad guys today?'' The Joint Analysis Center (JAC)--European Command's intelligence factory--employs 1,500 people, many of them intelligence specialists, and is the only growth industry at this otherwise somnambulant base northeast of London.
Three major airlines have tentatively agreed to partner with Boeing's Connexion business unit to bring high-bandwidth inflight Internet, e-mail and live TV to passengers via wireless links to laptop computers or handheld devices. The service would start in mid-2002.
Stephanie Snyder has been named director of marketing and customer service, Jane E. Rovolis director of event marketing and Jennifer Giffen director of staffing and diversity, all for the Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga. Michael Chase has been promoted to director of market research from manager of sales research and analysis. Clayborne Roberts has become customer program manager based in Long Beach, Calif. He was an aircraft manager.
Green Hills Software introduced its Integrity real-time operating system for Rational Rose RealTime visual development environment. The Integrity RTOS provides a secure environment for taking applications developed under Rose RealTime and executing them on an embedded target system. RealTime facilitates a top-down approach to software design that makes it easier to conceptualize and structure complex applications.
Thales Defense Communications is to provide the ground station communications infrastructure for the U.K.'s Airborne Stand-Off Radar (Astor) program. Thales' system, selected by Astor prime contractor Raytheon Systems Ltd., will provide a full range of voice, image, video and data multimedia services.
Gail E. Bingham (see photo), senior scientist with the Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory and a research professor with the state's Plants, Soils and Biometeorology Dept., has received a Governor's Medal for Science and Technology. Bingham was cited for his role in securing a $50-million NASA contract to develop a key instrument for the Geostationary Imaging Fourier Transform Spec- trometer program. He also has been involved with using a prototype greenhouse to train astronauts in how to operate a new growth chamber of the International Space Station.
NATO air forces are in trouble. The over-crowded airspace of Italy and Germany had already squeezed out most low-level flight training when a seemingly unrelated farm-industry catastrophe doomed those remaining in Britain. That nation's foot-and-mouth epidemic shut down for an indefinite period low-level night flying at the best ranges left to NATO. British officials feared that low-flying aircraft would contribute to spread of the airborne cattle infection.
Mary Trupo, former assistant to the secretary/director of public affairs for the U.S. Transportation Dept., has become vice president-corporate communications and government relations of Rosenbluth International of Philadelphia.
Designed for light aircraft and helicopters, the FTS-250 SS uses a 250-gal. stainless steel holding tank, a pumping system powered by either 110VAC, 12VDC or 24-28VDC, pumping rate 18 gpm., filter system, sump drain, 20 ft. of 1-in. hose with nozzle, retractable ground cable, control panel, top-mounted fill port with pressure relief valve, plus a fuel gauge measuring fuel both to and from the plane. All components are approved for aircraft fueling and suitable for all aviation fuels.
J. Robert Kerrey, president of the New School University in New York and a former Democratic U.S. senator from Nebraska, has joined the board of trustees of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif.
Janco Corp. has completed the design and testing of a triple concentric shaft miniature rotary switch. Based on the manufacturer's EF series, the switch has three concentric shafts to control three separate but related electrical functions. The two outer shafts control two rotary decks and the inner shaft is a momentary push function. The switch is tested to exceed 250,000 cycles while switching 0-50 milliamps make and break. The design uses several technological advances in design and materials to achieve that performance.
The European Space Agency and its 15 member nations are beginning to forge ``Project Aurora,'' an expansive new multi-national space effort envisioned as ``Europe's Apollo Program.'' The Aurora plan is to define a 20-year strategy for European solar system exploration, including the potential for European-led manned missions beyond Earth orbit to the Moon, Mars or asteroids by the 2020 time frame. Aurora unmanned precursor missions, rich in new European technology, could begin by about 2005.
Meggitt is to unveil its new Voodoo aerial target system at the Paris air show this week. The U.K. company said Voodoo, capable of 330-kt. speeds and 90-min. flight duration, will be aimed at the high, subsonic-speed target sector. Meggitt officials said Voodoo, powered by a 145-hp. piston engine, will be priced at more than 50% less than similar jet-powered target drones. Wind tunnel tests have been completed, and first flight is scheduled for August. Voodoo is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2002.
Lord Corp. will supply an active vibration control system for the Bell/Agusta 609 tiltrotor, which is being developed by a joint venture between Bell Helicopter Textron and Agusta.
The State Dept. is pleased with the level of European burden-sharing in the Balkans--usually a sore point on Capitol Hill--but lawmakers are worried nonetheless that the incipient civil war in Macedonia will spin out of control. Ambassador James Pardew told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Europe is picking up almost 75% of the peacekeeping tab in Kosovo. Conversely, the Pentagon mans only 8% of the U.N. mission in Bosnia. But the foreign relations panel's new Democratic chairman, Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
William Vantine has been named vice president/general manager of the Houston-based Aerospace and Technology Services Div. of the Ares Corp. He was vice president-business development of Ares Aerospace.
Brazilian aviation authorities on June 6 issued an emergency airworthiness directive about handling the Brazilian-made EMB-120 twin-engine turboprop in icing conditions. The Departmento de Aviacao Civil (DAC) said experience with ``loss of control'' events in icing indicate that pilots could be misjudging both the severity of the ice accumulating on the aircraft and the need to take immediate action to prevent excessive loss of airspeed, especially when using the autopilot.
