Orbital Sciences Corp. revenues grew 15 percent in the first quarter of this year over the same period last year, due largely to a 30 percent increase in the Dulles, Va.-based company's small-geostationary communications satellite product line.
Bell Helicopter Texton's sole flying demonstrator for its Eagle Eye tiltrotor unmanned aircraft crashed April 5 during a test flight due to "unexpected loss of engine power," according to John Rudy, director of unmanned programs business development. The TR918 unit suffered "substantial damage" after falling 300 to 350 feet to a "hard landing." Bell officials are awaiting results of a Bell investigation, to be finished within weeks, to decide whether to repair it or build a new one, Rudy said.
India's decision to fast-track purchase of eight multimission patrol aircraft to replacing aging Tu-142s could lead to its first commercial military purchase from the United States.
The second X-50A Dragonfly demonstrator was destroyed in a crash at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona last week, leaving Boeing and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) pondering whether the envelope-pushing program can continue. The mishap occurred at 7:46 a.m. Mountain time April 12. There were no injuries or property damage and the cause of the crash is not yet known, Boeing told The DAILY. An accident investigation is under way.
Advances in computing power and algorithms are allowing scientists to make some "outrageous predictions" on black holes and gravitational waves based on the largest astrophysical calculations ever performed on a NASA supercomputer.
CROSSFIELD KILLED: Pioneer test pilot Scott A. Crossfield, 84, died April 19 when his Cessna 210A crashed during heavy thunderstorms near Ludville, Ga., in the mountains near the Chattahoochee National Forest. Flying alone, he was en route to Manassas, Va., when Atlanta Center lost radar and radio contact (DAILY, April 20). FAA wasn't able to confirm if Crossfield had declared an emergency or advised controllers of any problems. The aerospace legend and X-15 test pilot was the first man to fly twice and three times the speed of sound.
Northrop Grumman is generally supportive of the Boeing/Lockheed Martin United Launch Alliance merger and is confident that its competitive concerns about the deal are being addressed by the Defense Department, according to Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman space technology
Two Washington think tanks next week will release a report that says the U.S. Army has done a good job of maintaining and protecting its deployed force while also transforming.
MTSAT-1R: Japan's newest metsat, the multipurpose MTSAT-1R (also called Himawari 6) launched in February 2005, lost its ability to send cloud-cover observational data for 19 hours on April 17. The cause was attributed to a malfunction of its altitude control computer. As a result, the nation's meteorological agency had to turn to NOAA17/18 satellites for fill-in data. The malfunction is under investigation. The problem arose at about 1 a.m. Japan time.
HELO REBUILDING: McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. has been awarded a $44.3 million contract modification to rebuild six Apache AH-64D helicopters for the U.S. Army, the Defense Department said April 20. The work will be done in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to be finished by May 2007. The contract was awarded by the Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
General Dynamics' first-quarter revenue in 2006 jumped 16 percent to $5.6 billion compared to the same period last year, the company reported April 19. The company recorded net earnings for the quarter of $374 million, or $0.92 cents per share on a fully diluted basis, compared to first-quarter 2005 net earnings of $336 million. Per-share earnings increased 10.8 percent.
Advanced Ceramics Research's Manta unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) recently wrapped up a series of cloud pollution study flights over the Maldives islands south of India to support research by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. The study required UAVs that could fly in tight circles. Advanced Ceramics Research wrote software to keep three of its Manta AUAVs flying within a 30-meter (100-foot) circle while stacked one above the other at altitudes of 6,000-12,000 feet.
CROSSFIELD MISSING: Famed test pilot Scott Crossfield's Cessna 210 aircraft disappeared off radar late on April 19 in Georgia. National Transportation Safety Board officials still were trying to determine the fate of the plane and its passengers as The DAILY went to press. NTSB officials said they believed 84-year-old Crossfield was on board the aircraft, which FAA officials said went out of radar and radio contact about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta. The Atlanta air traffic control center was reporting thunderstorms in the area at that time.
A 191-foot Lockheed Martin/International Launch Services Atlas V is poised at Cape Canaveral to launch the European SES Astra 1K direct broadcast satellite April 20. The overall value of the spacecraft and launch services combined approaches $300 million. Liftoff from Launch Complex 41 is planned within a 2-hour 49-minute window that extends from 4:27 p.m. to 7:17 p.m. EDT. Confirmation that the spacecraft has separated from the Centaur upper stage in the correct geosynchronous transfer orbit will not come until nearly two hours after launch.
The U.S. Air Force's analysis of alternatives (AOA) for a new long-range strike (LRS) bomber awaits formal approval by the Pentagon's acquisition chief, while the service's prompt global strike (PGS) concept's AOA is about to be published, Air Force Brig. Gen. Andrew Dichter said April 19. "This thing is hung up largely because of the complexity of the discussions of global strike," Dichter said about the new bomber, slated for 2018. "Do we want to just make this very specific and we need to develop that bomber, or do we want to take it holistically?"
The U.S. Air Force is working on a composite, graphite version of the Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) Increment I that offers "very low" collateral damage, according to Air Force Col. Richard Justice.
High-level defense acquisition, technology and logistics (AT&L) officials are looking to establish "strategic governance" over budget priorities and apply a portfolio-management perspective for determining acquisition strategies, according to Diane Wright of the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for AT&L. Wright, director for air warfare and defense systems, said top acquisition officials want to establish a balance among systems so that when the budget is pressed down, the Pentagon can better adjust while maintaining its investment strategy.
UAV CENTER: Northrop Grumman Corporation on April 18 opened its Unmanned Systems Center production facility in Moss Point, Miss., where the MQ-8B Fire Scout and parts of the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be built. The center currently has a workforce of 24 employees, which is expected to grow to 60 by the end of this year. The facility can accommodate 250, which the company says may occur if production demands rise. Initial ground breaking on the $13 million, 101,000 square-foot facility took place April 13, 2004.
