Mark Tucker has been named senior vice president-Enterprise Operations and Engineering and Clyde Woltman executive director of advanced programs for the Defense Business Development Div. of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Sacramento, Calif. Tucker was vice president-special programs for the Aerospace Systems Sector, while Woltman was director of U.S. Navy and Marine Corps programs at Pratt & Whitney.
Reading “From the Ground Up” (AW&ST Oct. 7, p. 54) has me writing yet again to say if ever there was a weapon system that has proved itself worthy of remaining in the U.S. Air Force inventory, it is the A-10. Much like the F-4 it replaced, this aircraft did the job it was designed to do, without exception. It can take a hit, bring the crew home and it has been thoroughly battle-tested in two major theaters of operations, for years on end. Best of all, U.S. Army forces love the airplane for the close air support it provides.
The last-minute Oct. 16 law to restart U.S. government spending and debt authority mentioned few programs specifically, but did aim to protect two weather satellites that are nearing key phases of development. Since Congress could only pass a stopgap measure, which continues funding at fiscal 2013 levels until Jan. 15, 2014, the law does not allow necessary approvals for changes to programs, or new ones to start.
If GE Aviation's use of direct metal laser melting is any indication of how additive manufacturing could radically change parts production and supply chains, the industry should be on alert. GE has used additive manufacturing technologies over the years, but its purchase of Morris Technologies and Rapid Quality Manufacturing (RQM) in November 2012 provided a quantum leap into direct metal laser melting (DMLM), which it views as a disruptive manufacturing technology.
Am I the only one that finds it a bit disconcerting that crewed commercial suborbital launches will depart from near the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) White Sands, N.M., area, as mentioned in “Supersonic Trail” (AW&ST Oct 14/21, p. 36)? Renton, Wash.
The launch of India's first Mars orbiter, which was postponed for eight days due to bad weather in the Pacific, has been rescheduled for Nov. 5. The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) will be boosted by a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was also used for the Chandrayaan-1 Moon mission, on Nov. 5 at 2:36 p.m. local time from the Sriharikota spaceport, Indian Space Research Organization Chairman K. Radhakrishnan says. The MOM will not use a direct trajectory to Mars. Once launched, it will orbit the Earth for 25 days before embarking on a nine-month voyage to the red planet.
Julie Robinson, who oversees U.S.-side science on the International Space Station (ISS), names a one-time dark horse as her No. 1 research result to date from the orbiting laboratory. Medical researchers started running experiments in space more than a decade ago to see if working in microgravity would make it possible to encapsulate cancer drugs in tiny bubbles that could be targeted on specific tumors in the body. It turns out that it was, as the crew of ISS Expedition 5 discovered in 2002.
Intertrade, which facilitated the establishment of the airliner surplus parts supplier business four decades ago, has added engine parts to its portfolio, completing its evolution from a one-product specialist to a full-service used-components supplier.
Raytheon has completed flight tests of a low-cost missile that was developed rapidly to shoot down mortars, rockets and unmanned aircraft, but has yet to find a home for the weapon.
Five companies are designing long-endurance ship-based surveillance and strike unmanned aircraft under the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (Darpa) Tactically Exploited Reconnaissance Node program. TERN is intended to demonstrate the capability to provide Predator-class medium-altitude, long-endurance, unmanned-aircraft capabilities from the flight decks of small ships, primarily the U.S. Navy's Littoral Combat Ship-2 (LCS-2).
The Juno spacecraft's recent Earth swing-by provided inspiration for a concept that transfers the speed accumulated over time by a gravity-assisted object to an awaiting manned vehicle, accelerating it to a similar velocity (AW&ST Oct. 14/21, p. 16). This would be achieved by employing the opposite of an electromagnetic rail gun: the electromagnetic rail target. As the high-velocity object approaches the target vehicle, it divides into electromagnetic “bullets” deployed as a linear chain.
Franklin Miller has been appointed chairman of the board of directors of the Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass. He succeeds John Gordon. New members of the board are Joanne Maguire and Lena Goldberg. Michael Wallace, director of the nuclear energy policy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has been named a member of the Draper's corporation. Miller is a principal at the Scowcroft Group and member of the U.S.
While it may have been a quieter, business-as-usual NBAA show for the established players in the corporate jet engine market, it was the relative newcomers that made the headlines.
The U.K. RAF will retire the last of its Lockheed C-130K Hercules transport aircraft this week as it prepares for the entry into service of the Airbus A400M Atlas. The RAF has operated 66 C-130Ks, the first entering service in 1967. Since then, the type has supported almost every British military operation. The C-130K fleet has dwindled in size since the introduction of the modernized C-130J. The remaining 24 Js are expected to operate until around 2022.
On the eve of the NBAA convention, Bombardier marked Learjet's 50th anniversary by presenting the first two Model 75s off the line to their new owners: a real estate businessman and a Canadian charter company. Both aircraft are replacing Lear 45s. The updated aircraft features a Garmin G5000 flight deck and Honeywell TFE-731-40B engines, and carries a price tag of $13.7 million.
Nextant Aerospace plans to remanufacture Beechcraft King Air C90s, replacing the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6 engines with GE H80 turboprops and the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 with Garmin's G1000 integrated avionics panel. The refurbished aircraft will carry a Nextant warranty. The Cleveland company said it chose to rework the C90 because of its large installed base of more than 1,500 aircraft, and so it would serve as a low-cost entry-level turbine aircraft. The projected price for what Nextant calls the G90XT is $2.2 million, or about half that of a new model.
