NASA ended the nine-year career of the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory successfully last week when the remains of the 33,000-lb. spacecraft fell into the Pacific Ocean where they were forecast to impact.
Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector has been awarded a $3.2-million contract by the U.S. Air Force to continue wing design for the T-38 Talon supersonic trainer aircraft.
Thomas J. Connolly, interim chancellor of the Daytona Beach, Fla., campus of ERAU, has received the Civil Air Patrol's Crown Circle Award for 2000. The award honors aerospace educators for innovative leadership and commitment to professional growth.
Eldec Corp. has won a $2.5-million contract from the U.S. Air Force to produce the company's ``motorless'' fuel flow transmitters for C-5 transports. The transmitters, paired with L-3 Communications' vertical scale liquid crystal display indicators, will replace support-intensive motor-driven transmitters and electromechanical fuel gauges.
Gregory J. Smith (see photo) has been appointed vice president-operations for VertexRSI, Gastonia, N.C. He was vice president-worldwide operations for Avex Electronics Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
Failure of NASA's faster-better-cheaper (FBC) spacecraft may be predictable, according to an Aerospace Corp. examination of the last decade of FBC missions. The study found that missions that crossed into an area of high complexity and low development time inevitably failed.
The U.S. Navy is about to award several contracts to explore how to replace its P-3 and EP-3 land-based fleet support aircraft, although few military and industry officials believe the Navy can afford a new aircraft. Senior Navy officials already had endorsed the idea of remanufacturing and upgrading the existing P-3s, but Defense Dept. officials instructed the service to take a broader look and consider other options for the so-called Multimission Maritime Aircraft (MMA). Service officials have even welcomed the outside influence.
C. Richard Harrison has been named president/CEO of the Parametric Technology Corp., Waltham, Mass. He was president/chief operating officer. Harrison succeeds Steven C. Walske as CEO, but he will remain chairman and is chief business strategist for Internet-based collaborative commerce.
Jean Breedlove (see photo) has been promoted to general manager of the Systems Engineering Div. from principal director of the Space-Based Infrared System-Low organization at The Aerospace Corp. of Los Angeles. She succeeds Dwight Abbott, who has retired.
Daniel L. McGinnis has been named to the board of directors of Atlantic Coast Airlines Holdings Inc., Dulles, Va. He is president/CEO of Sotas Inc. McGinnis succeeds James J. Kerley, who is retiring.
THE U.S. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS Commission has issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to permit unlicensed operation of ultrawideband devices--a major step toward unleashing the tremendous potential offered by UWB technology. Planned applications of UWB devices include covert secure communications, radar imaging of objects behind walls or buried underground, and short-range, high-speed, broadband data links. FCC approval will depend on the results of testing aimed at demonstrating UWB devices do not interfere with ``safety services'' such as the Global Positioning System.
Brooke Mead has been appointed marketing team leader for Irvine-Calif.-based Parker Aerospace's Control Systems Div.-Military. She was a director of programs for the Customer Support Military Div.
Four European nations will acquire an initial batch of 366 tactical transport and naval frigate helicopters in one of the largest defense deals ever to be concluded in Europe.
The House handily cleared a $288.5-billion defense appropriations bill for Fiscal 2001 that contains $61.5 billion for weapons procurement, a tad more than $40 billion for R&D and $97.5 billion for operations and maintenance. As a whole, defense money for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 would be nearly $20 billion higher than the current level under the House version of the bill, and nearly $4 billion above President Clinton's request.
Jean Pierson, former president/chief executive of Airbus Industrie, is scheduled to receive the Distinguished Achievement Award from The Wings Club of New York on Oct. 17.
The F-22 stealth fighter, which hasn't yet gone into production, is already carrying parts that are no longer built because they represent old technology--left behind by industries that can make their own products obsolete in as little as 18 months. In fact, the problem is advanced to the point that the F-22 program sets aside tens of millions of dollars per year for such unpredictable technical and budgetary perturbations.
IN A SIMULATED TWO-AIRCRAFT FLIGHT, Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter team demonstrated prototype air vehicle prognostic and health management and joint distributed information systems. The systems detected an incipient radar failure intentionally induced in one aircraft and then communicated with the other aircraft while providing radar information to both aircraft.
Passengers are filling U.S. commercial airplanes at record-breaking levels, far in excess of the 71% system load factor achieved in 1999. In May, Northwest Airlines' aircraft were 79.4% full, up 4.5 percentage points from May 1999, followed by Continental's at 75.9%. United's load factor jumped nearly 6 percentage points to 73.3%, while American's rose 4.7 percentage points to 74%.
Diehl Corp. of Germany and Thomson-CSF/Sextant of France plan to create a joint venture in avionics that is expected to strengthen Sextant's presence outside the cockpit while giving Diehl the scope needed to compete in world markets. The venture will see a spinoff of Diehl's BGT Control and Navigation and VDO Lufthfahrtgeraete Werk, of which Sextant already owns half, into a new company--Diehl Avionik Systeme. Sextant will comanage Diehl Avionik Systeme and pay DM35 million ($17.2 million) for a 49% share.
The U.S.-German X-31 Vector (Vertical Extremely Short Take-Off and Landing, Control Tailless Operations Research) program is getting underway at the U.S. Navy's Patuxent River, Md., flight test center. First flights are scheduled to begin this summer with two further series of test flights continuing until 2002. The project is aimed at developing and testing thrust-vectoring (TV) and supporting technologies to enable complete flight control/engine/TV integration for extremely short take-off and landing and tailless flight.
ASI Entertainment (www.asie.com.au) has developed the Data3Mail Aircraft Communication and Mail Server (ACAMS) to connect airline passengers to the Internet. Instead of using a $10/min. passenger telephone, it operates via the cockpit's satellite link and charges by the kilobyte. Crew communications gets top priority, of course. ASI has tested ACAMS with the Inmarsat, Comsat and Sita satellite networks, and claims it is five times cheaper and 10 times faster than other systems. Wiring is not required.
