JAPAN'S POWERFUL MINISTRY of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has accepted a recommendation that it subsidize participation by Ishikawajima Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries in the development of General Electric's CF34-8C engine version. Japan's participation is expected to cost $103 million, of which $7.5 million will be directly supplied by MITI. The subsidies, which were recommended by MITI's industry advisory group, the Aviation Industry Council, also have been extended to the Boeing 777-300 development program.
COLUMBIA HELICOPTERS NOW OWNS all the commercially held Boeing 234 Chinooks in the world, increasing its fleet to nine airframes with the purchase of a pair of 234s from Helikopter Services of Norway. The newcomers were primarily bought to increase component inventory, but eventually will be worked into Aurora, Ore.-based Columbia's heavy-lift and heli-logging schedule. Overall, Columbia's heavy-lift work increased almost 20% in 1995 to 34,157 hr. Logging was up 50% in volume yarded.
Canadian Fighter Group CF-18s flew against USAF cruise missiles launched from B-52s in a series of tests ending in 1993, including this test in 1989 involving an Aeronautical Engineering Test Establishment CF-18. Missiles were launched from the Beaufort Sea to Cold Lake, Alberta. CF-18 pilots were able to acquire and track ALCMs with radar and visual contact.
The U.S. Air Force plans to field a new version of the AIM-120 AMRAAM within the next three years that would make it a key weapon in the Pentagon's newly emerging plan for combating cruise missiles. The upgraded missile is designed to be particularly effective against the next-generation, low-signature land attack cruise missiles that will be difficult to find and hard to destroy.
The U.S. Air Force is investing in two classified stealthy aircraft, but advocates fear reduced funding for very low observable (VLO) projects as top-ranking civilians and military officials spar over what kind and what degree of invisibility will be enough in the 21st century.
Rockwell has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Air Force, with a potential value of $1.3 billion, to build the next generation of Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS) spacecraft. The company--which started development on initial Navstar Block 1 spacecraft in the early 1970s--received the contract Apr. 22 for work leading to the production of six GPS Block 2F spacecraft.
After 10 years of work in Earth orbit, Russia late last week was completing the assembly of Mir, the first permanently manned space station. The long process was nearing conclusion with the addition of the Priroda module carrying advanced Earth survey equipment and nearly a ton of NASA hardware for joint U.S./Russian operations.
``EXPERT'' COMPUTER SYSTEMS for the maintenance and fault diagnosis of complex aerospace and weapons equipment now are mature, practical and cost-effective. Such systems, which incorporate artificial intelligence, make quicker and more accurate diagnoses and learn from experience, according to Moshe Ben-Bassat, president of IET-Intelligent Electronics Ltd., Tel Aviv. Expert maintenance systems function by analyzing a set of symptoms and test results and identifying potentially faulty modules.
Aircraft DA3 in the Eurofighter 2000 flight test program is being fitted with 01C standard Eurojet EJ2000 engines with a modified upflow fan and compressor, following the completion of flight tests with O1A standard engines.
THE U.S. AIR FORCE'S ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS CENTER, Hanscom AFB, Mass., will recommend steps to modernize airspace management, while considering issues of air sovereignty, in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Study results will be given at a conference in Bled, Slovenia, Sept. 10-12. The current work is a result of an offer President Clinton made under a ``Partnership for Peace'' initiative at the Prague Summit in January, 1994.
ALTHOUGH KNOWLEDGE OF STRUCTURAL FATIGUE in aging aircraft is advancing quickly, some concerns remain, according to Samuel Kantimathi, president of Fatigue Concepts, El Dorado Hills, Calif. Further study is needed on the effects of multiple, adjacent repairs, which could seriously affect aircraft structural integrity. Insufficient attention also is being given to the damage tolerance of repairs, so that crack growth underneath large repair patches could remain undetected, he said.
SIR ROBERT WALMSLEY, a retired Navy Vice Adm., will take over as U.K.'s Chief of Defense Procurement on May 1. An engineer by training, Walmsley is Deputy Chief of Procurement and Controller of the Navy. He assumes his post at the Defense Ministry at a critical time, with many major defense contracts to be decided by summer.
A U.S. Air Force/Lockheed Martin Titan 4 launched a classified Defense Dept. payload to what appeared to be geosynchronous orbit from here Apr. 24. The Titan and its Centaur upper stage, designated vehicle K-16, lifted off Pad 41 at 7:37:01 p.m. EDT (2337:01 GMT) Apr. 24 and about 6 sec. later began a roll to what USAF officials said was a flight azimuth of 100.4.
IT SEEMS THE NEARLY $30 BILLION A YEAR SPENT on intelligence hasn't answered the question of what the Russians are up to at Yamantau Mountain in the Urals. The huge underground complex being built there has been the object of U.S. interest since 1992. ``We don't know exactly what it is,'' says Ashton Carter, the Pentagon's international security mogul. The facility is not operational, and the Russians have offered ``nonspecific reassurances'' that it poses no threat to the U.S. But Carter wants the Russians ``to tell me what it is''--and soon.
THE U.S. HOUSE SCIENCE Committee cut $373 million from NASA's Mission to Planet Earth (MTPE) and increased science spending $310 million in a markup of the U.S. space agency's Fiscal 1997 budget. Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said the cut could be ``devastating'' to the Earth Observing System (EOS) program. He also warned that the corresponding plus-up for science could actually jeopardize a NASA trend toward cheaper scientific spacecraft.
General Electric has completed tests of its F110-129 powerplant, which should lead to U.S. Air Force qualification of the engine for the F-15 early next year.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is urging the FAA to tighten inspection of General Electric CF6-series engines to prevent uncontained failures caused by fatigue cracking in the high-pressure compressor spool. The safety board and the FAA disagree about how often the stage 3-9 high pressure compressor rotor assembly (spool) should be inspected to detect fatigue cracks. NTSB officials want the inspections conducted more frequently and at lower cycle times than the FAA had stipulated in an airworthiness directive issued in November, 1995.
The UTI Series of residual gas analyzers can be used to monitor space chambers and materials outgassing and for other aerospace applications. They are available in ranges of up to 300 atomic mass units and include a dual Faraday cup/electron multiplier detector. For applications with pressures of greater than 10-4 Torr, dedicated sampling systems are available. The analyzers feature an RF power supply that connects directly to the sensor and a 19-in. rack-mountable controller that interfaces with a personal computer.
The USAF/Lockheed SR-71 aircraft has demonstrated its basic reconnaissance capabilities in the Green Flag intelligence and electronic warfare exercise, but work still needs to be done to prove that its new radar data link is working. With this month's Pentagon shutdown of SR-71 operations, it is not clear when this will be accomplished (AW&ST Apr. 22, p. 18).
Airbus Industrie within two years expects its manufacturing to become agile enough to tie its production rate of new commercial aircraft strictly to firm orders. Such a capability, called ``discontinuous manufacturing,'' will depend on the ability of Airbus' four European partners to speed up the entire manufacturing process. The change will not depend on a planned restructuring by Airbus to create a stand-alone commercial enterprise.
Cold Blocker infrared gas tube heaters are designed for use in small, hard-to-heat environments. The heaters have energy efficiences of up to 84.5%. Features include a 9-ft. 3-in. unitized design, calorized aluminized steel radiant heater emitter tube and aluminum reflectors. Natural gas and propane-fired versions are available in capacities of 20,000-50,000 BTU/hr. The units can be mounted at heights of 6-20 ft. and at angles of up to 45 deg. from horizontal. Space Ray Infrared Gas Heaters, 305 Doggett St., P.O. Box 36485, Charlotte, N.C. 28236.
