Rolls-Royce has upped its forecast for global engine demand, projecting a market for more than 48,100 new engines, including spares, over the next 20 years with an overall value of $337 billion.
Researchers at Sandia National Laboratory have developed a computer program that provides group intelligence for a swarm of mini-robots. Being tested as a method to help rescuers more quickly find avalanche victims equipped with radio beacons, the technology, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is actually intended to precisely locate friendly and hostile radio frequency senders in enemy territory or trace biological or chemical plumes, according to Rush Robinett.
ANALOG DEVICES HAS DEVELOPED a full-duplex, digital-signal speech processor on a single chip. Full duplex permits talking and listening at the same time. The first market will be for hands-free car kits for cellular phones, but aerospace applications should not be far behind.
THE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY DIV. OF INTEVAC INC. will develop a low-light surveillance and targeting camera for the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, sharing the $10-million development cost under the dual-use science and technology program. The camera will use a pulsed laser operating at 1.5 microns as the illumination source. The National Institute of Science and Technology is developing the electron-bombarded active pixel sensor (EBAPS) technology for the camera under a separate contract.
Frank Cappello has been appointed vice president/chief financial officer of Cleveland-based Sifco Industries. He succeeds Richard Demetter, who is retiring. Cappello was vice president-finance and administration of Ashta Chemicals.
Robert B. Carter is scheduled to become executive vice president-information technology/chief information officer of the FedEx Corp., Memphis, Tenn., when Dennis H. Jones retires at the end of the year. Carter has been senior vice president/chief technology officer.
Eric Novotny has become vice president-marketing and sales, Michelle Lyle vice president-corporate affairs, Phil Slack vice president/chief financial officer and James Youdale vice president-commercial launch programs, all for International Launch Services of San Diego.Novotny was vice president/general manager of international operations for Orbcomm Global Data Communications, while Lyle was director of communications for Iridium.
Jon H. Lax has been promoted to director of customer service administration from director of service engineering at the Dassault Falcon Jet Corp., Teterboro, N.J. He succeeds Gerald A. Goguen, who has been promoted to senior vice president. Donald J. Pointer will succeed Lax and has been manager of service engineering.
Steady progress toward creating a common European defense capability is leading military leaders to reassess Europe's ability to project and support such a force. The European Council has set a target deployment date of 2003 for a joint rapid reaction force, which is to be the centerpiece of this new capability. Three elements have been approved so far: -- A NATO Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). -- The European Air Group, encompassing airlift and aviation support capabilities and, eventually, air combat units.
The U.S. Army plans to determine through experiments whether it can use its Shadow 200 tactical unmanned aerial vehicle (T-UAV) for signals intelligence. Conducting Sigint from the UAV could force the service to buy more of the AAI-built air vehicles.
Artisan Software Tools of Portland, Ore., which produces Real-time Perspective (RtP) object-oriented modeling software, has made its general design methodology freely accessible in an ``RtP Mentor'' online tutorial at www.artisansw.com. Object-oriented design techniques are widely applied in information systems computing. . . . Mechsoft.com of Austin, Tex., says its MechSoft.com mechanical design automation software can be integrated with SolidWorks 2000. The addition of MechSoft.com should allow engineers to design by function as well as form. SolidWorks Corp.
Atlas Air says it can comfortably add an additional 5-7 large freighters a year to its fleet in each of the next several years as world cargo markets experience strong growth fueled by the spread of e-commerce internationally, lower product life cycles and the increase of just-in-time manufacturing from global supplier networks.
Aniello Riccio of the Cira Italian research agency and Jouke Hijlkema of the Onera French aerospace research agency have won the Pratt&Whitney/Assn. of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics Prize. Riccio studied non-linear procedures to analyze damage composite materials, and Hijlkema worked on applications of kinetic modeling and numerical simulation of a dense liquid spray to solid propellant rocket boosters.
The U.S. Senate unanimously adopted a $54.7-billion Fiscal 2001 Transportation Dept. appropriations bill that fully funds the FAA's Office of Aviation Regulation and Certification, but falls short of the Administration's $6.59-billion request for FAA operations. The Senate approved $6.35 billion. Aviation lobbyists voiced concern about the shortfall, but praised the bill for shunning nearly $1 billion worth of White House-proposed user fees. In total, the FAA would receive $12.4 billion next year under the Senate bill, well above the current $10 billion.
The online travel agency that was founded by five U.S. major airlines, and is slated for debut later this year, now has a name on its birth certificate--Orbitz.com. Alex Zoghlin, the Web site's chief technology officer, said consumer testing indicated the name Orbitz best fit the business mission of the site--to expand choices for consumers as they buy air transportation and select hotels, rental cars, tours and cruises. One rejected name was Escape.com.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has been selected by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for spacecraft systems support services in a contract valued at $16 million the first year. Under the agreement, Orbital will conduct prototype spacecraft system and subsystem research, analysis and development, as well as integration, testing and data processing activities.
Propulsion specialists in the Defense Dept., NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) are charting a long-term propulsion technology road map that will challenge today's most basic views of how turbine engine technology is conceived, nurtured and developed.
Studies are underway on block changes and future derivatives of the Eurofighter, including a stealthier version with an internal weapons bay. This would meet the U.K.'s requirement for a Future Offensive Air System to replace Tornados used for deep strike missions. The under-fuselage weapons bay would take the place of a center fuel tank. Conformal fuel tanks would be added to the upper fuselage to compensate. A ``wet,'' or fuel-carrying, vertical stabilizer also is being considered to provide additional fuel volume.
A software flaw has forced the U.S. Navy to delay flight testing of the interceptor for the Area Wide ballistic missile defense system. It is the second test delay for the Standard Missile SM-2 Block IV-A. Navy officials hope the missile software can be fixed in a few weeks.
Perfect Image of Kirkland, Wash., has the first of two Kongsberg KartoScan FB 3 digital flatbed scanners up and running. The equipment precisely converts nondimensioned aircraft and engine component drawings and circuit board diagrams made on stable media, such as Mylar, into a digital format for manufacturing or archiving. The digital scanning system can scan drawings up to 60 in. wide, is laser-calibrated and has been independently certified to a 0.002-in. repeatable accuracy.
Raven Industries earlier this month conducted a successful flight test of a scaled-down ``super pressure'' Ultra Long Duration Balloon (ULDB). The second prototype, only 10% the size of the planned research balloon, stayed aloft 27 hr. A previous attempt in October reached high altitude but ruptured. A full-scale ULDB engineering test version is scheduled to be launched next year and is being designed to stay aloft at altitudes up to 115,000 ft. for as long as 100 days, and to carry more than a ton of scientific instruments.
Gary Kenmir has been named vice president of the Wolverhampton, England-based Aerospace Europe business of the Timken Co., Canton, Ohio. Other recent appointments were: James R. (Ron) Menning vice president of the Lebanon, N.H.-based aerospace sector; Thomas J. Uhlig vice president of the Keene, N.H.-based super precision sector; John D. Breen controller and Robert M. Rooney director of organizational development for the aerospace and super precision sectors; and Richard A. Knepper director of technology.
A photo caption in the May 29 issue (p. 54) erroneously identified Mikhail Simonov as the former general designer at Sukhoi. He is still the general designer at the Sukhoi Design Bureau.
