Don T. Moore, president of the NavRadio Corp., and his small band of engineers for building and demonstrating a breakthrough differential eight-phase shift keying transceiver. D8PSK could enable a variety of commercial and general aviation digital information services.
Regina A. Alleruzzo, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory specialist in threading and soldering delicate wiring, for her work in a time-critical situation to repair the wind instrument on the Pathfinder Mars lander spacecraft prior to launch at Cape Canaveral. As Pathfinder was being folded into its launch configuration, technicians noticed that a critical wind sensor wire had been broken accidentally.
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), which pledged last summer to work toward development of smaller satellites, appears to be keeping its word. The spy satellite agency recently shifted three classified payloads from Lockheed Martin's heavy-lift Titan 4 boosters to the company's smaller--and less costly--Atlas launchers. The NRO payloads are scheduled for launch in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The three freed-up Titans, which were to launch at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., are now apt to be switched to Cape Canaveral.
Former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn (D.-Ga.) for lifetime achievement as shown by his years of service as the most knowledgeable and rational voice on military affairs in the Senate until retiring at the end of 1996. As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Nunn brought a keen intellect to bear on complicated defense issues and was both a strong supporter of and stern taskmaster for the military services. Also, Nunn with U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar (R.-Ind.) for their unceasing efforts throughout the 1990s on behalf of U.S.
If Russia's new policy of selling top-line military aircraft and production rights to keep its aviation industry alive is successful, there will be sharper competition in the international market and advanced fighter technology will proliferate into new parts of the world, according to a new report being circulated among top Pentagon officials.
THE SWEDISH SPACE CORP. has established GP&C Sweden AB as a wholly owned subsidiary to provide global positioning and communication (GP&C) transponders to aircraft and ships. The systems use a patented self-organizing time division multiple access technique. The GP&C system has been proposed and demonstrated for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), which will be crucial for the new air traffic management systems (AW&ST July 31, 1995, p. 40).
Mark H. Cumm has become manager of government technology management for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. He was manager of corporate and international programs for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The U.S. Air Force's wing of six B-2s has a new nuclear bomb for destroying underground targets, and a second nuclear weapon--a standoff glide bomb--is on the drawing boards. Sandia National Laboratories recently delivered a number of B61-11 weapons to the Air Force, according to Paul Robinson, director of Sandia National Laboratories. The weapons are not newly manufactured, but they have been repackaged.
Developing and certificating a new, advanced commercial transport on schedule is one thing--but the true test of a design is how smoothly it enters service. Simply put, today's commercial transports are money-making machines in an intensely bottom-line industry. With 14-17-hr. daily utilization schedules, 1-hr. airport turnarounds and globe-girdling flight legs, there now is little slack for the ``teething'' headaches and performance shortfalls formerly considered part and parcel of all-new transport operations.
NEW IMAGES FROM THE HUBBLE space telescope have provided the most detailed global view of Mars ever obtained from Earth's vicinity. Taken by Hubble's Wide-Field Planetary Camera-2 on Mar. 10 during three HST orbits, the images show the planet during the transition between spring and summer in the northern hemisphere. An annual cap of carbon dioxide ice at the north pole is rapidly evaporating from solid to gas, revealing a smaller permanent water ice cap. A dark, circular ring of sand dunes can be seen surrounding the pole.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) weather researchers are conducting a two-month study of turbulence near the Colorado Springs, Colo., airport. Flight data collected by an instrumented University of Wyoming Beech King Air are augmented by balloon, Doppler lidar, infrasonic and other information sensors in the area. The research effort stems from the unsolved crash of a United Airlines Boeing 737, which rolled sharply and dove into the ground during an approach to the airport six years ago.
Astronaut Shannon Lucid, for her six-month stay on Mir and astronaut Story Musgrave for six flights on the shuttle. Lucid and Musgrave have helped rekindle the American public's interest in the adventure and promise of space flight. Also, Bill Gerstenmaier, the NASA operations leader, and Dr. Gaylen Johnson, the NASA flight surgeon at the Russian flight contol center near Moscow, who were Lucid's key links on the ground. She credits Gerstenmaier and Johnson with being primarily responsible for the success of her record mission.
Graham T. Allison, Richard A. Falkenrath, Owen R. Cote, Jr., and Steven E. Miller of the Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government for their outstanding contributions to nuclear disarmament, controlling weapons of mass destruction and the preservation of the Conventional Forces Europe Treaty.
Mary Schiavo, the former Transportation Dept. inspector general, is a hot news media item as her controversial new book, ``Flying Blind, Flying Safe,'' hits the street. But airline officials predict the tome won't ruffle the feathers of the flying public. Although she blasts the FAA for being too soft on carriers, especially start-ups such as ValuJet, Schiavo acknowledges the majority of U.S. airlines are safe. Air Transport Assn. President Carol Hallett applauds that conclusion. Regional Airlines Assn.
DARPA HAS SELECTED LOCKHEED MARTIN'S Sanders for a $10.5-million contract to develop and demonstrate a stand-alone X-ray exposure system to allow semiconductor manufacturers to print monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) with dimensions less than 0.15 micron, and using a smaller and less expensive machine than the large synchrotron X-ray sources used by high-volume manufacturers. Smaller and specialized producers need that capability to satisfy growing commercial applications that have joined the military demand for MMIC technology.
USN Capt. Allen Rutherford for his long-term, single-minded efforts to bring the Predator long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicle program to life and to make it operational over Bosnia, first from Albania and now from Hungary. The UAV program won its spurs in combat, materially contributing to American military combat operations that helped end the long conflict in Bosnia and then to monitor the peace. The success and reliability of the program has been crucial in the Pentagon's acceptance of the unmanned aerial vehicle as a serious tool of national defense.
Former FAA Administrator David R. Hinson for spearheading efforts to revamp the agency's archaic procurement and personnel systems and for bringing a new sense of rationale and expediency to a lethargic and overburdened bureaucracy in dire need of strong leadership. During his more than three years as the FAA's chief official, Hinson was a key player in moving the agency out of the ``Dark Ages'' by fighting for, obtaining and implementing streamlined procurement and policy procedures.
SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY'S OS (Open System)/Comet ground system software now includes an icon for Analytical Graphics' Satellite Took Kit (STK) orbital software. OS/Comet is used by satellite ground station and control facilities for a variety of functions, including spacecraft integration and testing, and for processing commands and telemetry data. The STK software is used to analyze and graphically display satellites, orbits, launch vehicles, ground stations and targets. The problem for OS/Comet users, which include the operational controllers of the U.S.
Monty M. Watson, Lockheed Martin's F-14/Lantirn project engineer, for shepherding an economical, fast-track development and acquisition program that gave U.S. Navy F-14 Tomcat squadrons a night, precision weapons capability in 19 months.
American balloonist Steve Fossett for his valiant attempt to break the last remaining major aviation record--to fly nonstop around the world in a balloon. Although two other teams attempted the feat, none succeeded, but Fossett, who flew solo and in the least technically advanced balloon, broke world records for distance and duration.
In 1987, three Motorola engineers, Bary Bertiger, Ray Leopold and Kenneth Peterson, came up with the idea of using satellite constellations in low-Earth orbit to allow voice communications anywhere on the globe via pocket-sized telephones.
NTSB investigators are culling data from static-discharge and aircraft blast tests in an attempt to focus their search for the specific cause of the explosions that destroyed TWA Flight 800 almost nine months ago. Safety board officials believe they understand the sequence of that Boeing 747-131's disintegration over the seas off Long Island, N.Y., several involved with the investigation said, but they remain puzzled as to what triggered the breakup.
British Airways plans to invest $100 million expanding and upgrading the carrier's passenger terminal facilities at John F. Kennedy International Airport. The project will include improving vehicular access to the refurbished terminal, as well as a station for the airport's proposed rail link to Manhattan. Construction on the building is expected to begin this summer and is scheduled for completion in mid-1999. The improved access roads require an additional year for completion.
An impressive array of international spacecraft is trained on the most spectacular visitor to Earth's celestial neighborhood in recent memory--Comet C/1995 01 as it is known to astronomers, Hale-Bopp as it is known to the millions, perhaps billions, who are enjoying its show down below. The Hubble Space Telescope, Ulysses, Polar, the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) and even space shuttle astronauts were either observing or preparing to observe the comet last week.
