BOEING BUSINESS JET made its first flight Sept. 4 BOEING BUSINESS JET made its first flight Sept. 4, taking off from Renton Municipal Airport, Wash. The aircraft, designed for corporate and VIP applications, is a joint venture with General Electric. It combines the size of the 737-700 fuselage with the strengthened wings and landing gear of the larger and heavier 737-800.
The agreement signed Sept. 2 between President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin for Russia to share U.S. early warning data on missile launches can be put into place very quickly - perhaps in a year - and at relatively low cost, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The General Accounting Office has concluded that the Pentagon may be several years away from achieving its goal of establishing information superiority because of the pace of progress being made to establish a command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) architecture.
At the same time, the Army's vision of itself in coming years is already pretty defined because little of its projected new force, called Army After Next, will actually be new. Hoeper says about 70% of the systems that will be part of AAN already exist, or will be fielded in the near future.
NASA accepts U.S. Node from Boeing NASA ACCEPTED the "Unity" pressurized node that will be the first U.S. element attached to the International Space Station after an acceptance review board approved the action last week, the U.S. space agency reported Friday. Boeing built the pressurized connector at Marshall Space Flight Center and equipped it with two pressurized mating adaptors fabricated at its Huntington Beach, Calif., facility.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen has set up a special advisory panel to examine security issues and risk from the increasing globalization of the defense industry. The panel on National Security and the Globalization of Business and Industry will be headed by retired Army Brig. Gen. Peter M. Dawkins, the chairman and CEO of Diversified Distribution Services, Inc., a unit of the Travelers Group. One of the main issues will be the impact of U.S.-owned defense contractors overseas and foreign ownership of U.S.-based suppliers.
The special House committee investigating the national security implications of Chinese launching of American satellites apparently has not looked into Motorola's Iridium satellite program despite House Space Subcommittee Chairman Dana Rohrabacher's (R-Calif.) charge that the Iridium program helped China gain MIRV technology (DAILY, Aug. 13). Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), chairman of the special panel, says "Motorola has not been at a hearing," although the committee has had 60 hours of closed hearings in the last month.
Large laser arrays may be the answer to a couple of tricky space technology questions that could come up in the 21st century. Researchers studying a robotic science mission to Alpha Centauri believe that a huge light sail pushed by laser light beamed from Earth would be a promising propulsion technology to pursue for the interstellar mission. The same lasers might serve to protect Earth from collisions with wayward asteroids and comets.
Rep. Neil Abercrombie (Hawaii), second ranking Democrat on the House National Security Committee's research and development subcommittee, considered in a close contest for reelection because of the recession in Hawaii caused by a dropoff in trade with Asian nations, got a break recently. The Republican who had been running neck and neck with Abercrombie in the polls dropped out on Aug. 26 due to complications growing out of pneumonia.
Airbus Industrie said a 100-seat aircraft project with China has been dropped. It said that an after a study with Aviation Industries of China, Alenia and Singapore Technologies, it was "jointly concluded that no solid common basis was found for further developing this new aircraft." AVIC and Airbus have "therefore agreed to develop their cooperation by discussing a new project."
NASA's new Fastrac rocket engine is set for its first hot-fire test in mid-October at Stennis Space Center. The low-cost liquid oxygen/kerosene engine was shipped to Stennis early in August, and is in preparation for a static test program scheduled to last through August 1999. The 60,000 lbst. engine for the X-34 flying testbed and other small launchers was built using a simplified design that let non-traditional manufacturers supply components, which have already been tested (DAILY, Aug. 7).
The U.S. Army has completed a test firing of two Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) Block 2 missiles, each carrying 13 Brilliant Anti-Armor (BAT) submunitions. In the Aug. 29 test at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., all submunitions were delivered to their intended target areas, according to ATACMS prime contractor Lockheed Martin. Three of the submunitions carried live warheads. The Block II missile has a range of more than 80 miles. A longer ranger version with fewer submunitions is also planned.
The U.S. Air Force today plans to launch four B-2 bombers to Andersen AFB, Guam, for 30 days of "training operations" to demonstrate the plane's rapid response capability. The stealthy aircraft will take off from Whiteman AFB, Mo. One will serve as the usual airborne spare and turn back, Brig. Gen. Leroy Barnidge, commander of the 509th Bomb Wing told The DAILY yesterday. The Block 30 aircraft are the Spirits of Arizona, Missouri and South Carolina. The Spirit of California will fly as the backup.
The first stage of North Korea's Taepo Dong 1 test missile landed in the Sea of Japan, not the entire missile, as reported in a story in The DAILY of Sept. 1. The lead story on that page correctly reports that the missile overflew Japan.
LOCKHEED MARTIN and its joint venture partner Rafael have been awarded a $67.8 million U.S. Air Force contract for 90 AGM-142 missiles, two datalink pods, three captive carry training missiles and support. The datalink pods will go to Australia for its AGM-142s, which are carried by the Royal Australian Air Force's F-111s. Israel will receive 39 missiles. Lockheed Martin and Rafael cooperatively market and sell the AGM-142 under the PGSUS Limited Liability Co. joint venture.
FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS filed suit to force the Central Intelligence Agency to disclose the amount of the budget request for U.S. intelligence activities in fiscal year 1999. A suit by the Washington-based group last year led to the disclosure of the total intelligence appropriation for FY '97 ($26.6 billion) and FY '98 ($26.7 billion).
The International Joint Venture Co. received a contract from the Project Horizon Joint Project Office for further project definition work on the Anglo-French-Italian Common New Generation Frigate (CNGF), according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The contract covers the outline design of the ship, the design of the combat system, the selection of all major combat system equipment and sub- systems, and the selection of marine engineering.
Shaded areas at the moon's north and south poles contain much more water than estimated after an initial reading of data from NASA's Lunar Prospector probe earlier this year, a more detailed analysis of the data has revealed.
Formally confirming the name "Typhoon" for the Eurofighter 2000 (DAILY, Sept. 1), Eurofighter managing director Brian Phillipson said it would be applied only to the planned export version, for which active marketing has now started.
Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, has received its first Milstar ground terminal, which will provide the 11th Air Force and 3rd Wing access to the highly secure satellite communication constellation. The AF said the ground terminal was installed at Elmendorf in July. The system is slated to become operational Oct. 1. Additional users of the Elmendorf terminal will include the Alaskan Command, the Alaskan North American Aerospace Defense Region, and the 611th Intelligence Flight, the AF said.
The Russian government has authorized the Khrunichev State Space Science and Production Center to boost production of Proton launchers by one third, which will enable the company to increase the supply of launch services to foreign commercial customers from eight to 12 launches per year.
An ADS-B (Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast) system is being flight tested on a United Parcel Service 727 in the dense airspace around Los Angeles this week by II Morrow and FAA Technical Center specialists.
A team will attempt to recover the voice and data recorder from a Swissair MD-11 that crashed Wednesday night at about 9:20 p.m. EDT off Nova Scotia, Canada, killing all 229 aboard. Smoke in cockpit forced the Geneva-
The U.K. will participate in the U.S. development program for the XM177 Lightweight 155mm artillery gun, the U.K. Ministry of Defense reported Tuesday.
