GASL Inc. has delivered a 30-inch-long scramjet engine to NASA for high-speed ground testing at Langley Research Center, Va., as part of the scaled-down "Hyper-X" effort to demonstrate hypersonic propulsion technology in flight. An identical engine will be mated to its X-43 flight vehicle next February for the first of three flights at Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., from a modified Orbital Sciences Corp. air-launched Pegasus booster. First flight is scheduled for early 2000.
A Boeing team investigating the failure of the first Delta III space launch vehicle last week is trying to determine why, despite the new thrust vector control system mounted on three of the vehicle's nine solid-fuel boosters, the system was unable to stop a slow oscillation that developed at about 55 seconds into the flight. Instead, the system consumed all of the hydraulic fluid which was calculated to inclucde a comfortable margin had the fluid lasted another five seconds or so.
The prototype L-159 Advanced Light Combat Aircraft with a Boeing- designed avionics suite flew for the first time Aug. 18 at the Aero Vodochody airport near Prague, Boeing reported. During the 28-minute flight, it said, Aero Vodochody Chief Test Pilot Miroslav Schutzer performed positive 6 g and negative 1 g maneuvers, with the aircraft, engine and systems performing as expected.
General Dynamics Land Systems has won a $20.7 million U.S. Army contract to refurbish M1A1 tanks under the Abrams Integrated Management (AIM) for the 21st Century program. Under the contract, from the Tank Automotive and Armaments Command, General Dynamics will deliver 45 refurbished M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks by July 2000.
Embraer posted $40.8 million in earnings on $563.1 million in revenues for the first six months of 1998. The Brazilian company lost $80.3 million on $248.2 million in revenues for the first half of 1997.
Experts from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have determined that the big solid rocket motors strapped to the sides of the Titan IVA that blew up over Cape Canaveral Aug. 12 did not cause the launch failure. Caroline Griner, acting MSFC director, tells the NASA senior staff the solid rockets are under "no further suspicion," according to minutes of the staff meeting. A faulty repair to a solid booster was blamed for the August 1993 failure of a Titan IVA (DAILY, Aug. 4, Nov. 29, 1993; March 16, 1994).
The USAF's Air Combat Command is studying where to base high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicles. Although no decision has been made, Lt. Gen. Marvin Esmond, AF deputy chief of staff for aerospace operations, says Beale AFB, Calif., home of the U-2 fleet, "would be a likely place." Co-locating UAVs with a similar mission "seems to make the most sense at this point," he adds. Some of the UAVs may also be forward-deployed at times, just like U-2s.
NASA has received nine proposals for the "Triana" imaging satellite Vice President Gore wants to put at the Lagrangian point so web surfers can get a look at the whole Earth, and now must go to Capitol Hill for the funds to pay for one of them. The U.S. space agency hopes to pick a winner by Sept. 25, but language in NASA's appropriations bill reserves another look for Congress before the estimated $35 million the project will cost in fiscal 1998-99 will be released (DAILY, July 6).
Hawker Pacific Aerospace, Sun Valley, Calif., signed a three-year service agreement for American Trans Air's fleet of Lockheed L-1011s, Hawker reported yesterday. Hawker will perform landing-gear repair and overhaul services on 19 ATA wide-body jet aircraft at Hawker's Sun Valley facility. The contract also includes a renewal of ATA's fleet of 24 727s, which have been supported by Hawker since December 1995.
DRS Technologies signed a definitive agreement to acquire NAI Technologies Inc., a provider of rugged computers, peripheral equipment and integrated systems for military, government and commercial applications. The agreement, announced Wednesday, follows an announcement in April of the signing of a letter of intent for NAI to merge with a DRS subsidiary in a stock transaction. DRS is based in Parsippany, N.J., and NAI is headquartered in Huntington, N.Y.
The Pentagon has warned congressional defense appropriators that if they cut the Army's Joint Land Attack Elevated Netted Sensor (JLENS) program as proposed by the House, it will disrupt the demonstration schedule and evolving plans for a cruise missile defense architecture. The Senate appropriators funded $45 million of the $103.9 million request for JLENS. The House zeroed the funding.
A Chinese concern which has already ordered 200 gyroplanes from a Salt Lake City, Utah, company may order 300 more, the company said yesterday. Groen Brothers Aviation Inc. said the Shanghai Energy and Chemicals Corp. (SECC) "asked for and received an option to purchase 300 additional gyroplanes" for use in air taxi operations. SECC now has a $50 million order for 200 Groen Hawk III gyroplanes. The option gives it the right to add, for about $220 million, 100 more three-passenger Hawk IIIs, 100 five-passenger Hawk Vs and 100 eight-
AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY CORP., San Diego, won a $400,000 contract, its first military award, to assess the applicability HyperSonic Sound (HSS) technology to detection of infrasonic acoustics associated with high energy events of interest to the Nuclear Treaty Program Office, ATC reported yesterday. Con Brosnan, president and CEO, said the contract is "a springboard for significant opportunities."
The crash of a U.S. Air Force HC-130P aircraft off the coast of California on Nov. 22, 1996, killing all ten aboard, was caused by fuel starvation, the AF said. An investigation of the accident found that the crew used only fuel from the right fuselage tank, that it was allowed to run dry, and that no other tank was used, the service said. Investigators found the aircraft "had a sufficient quantity of fuel on board in the wing and auxiliary tanks for operation of the engines."
The long-term decline in U.S. defense spending has gone too far and isadversely affecting combat readiness of the U.S. armed forces, the Navy League said. Unless a "major immediate reversal" of the current defense funding and deployment policies occurs, U.S. national security can no longer be guaranteed, the organization said in its "Maritime Policy for 1998-1999."
THE F/A-18E/F completed its first lifetime of testing through the full- scale fatigue test airframe (FT50) in St. Louis, Boeing reported yesterday. One lifetime of fatigue testing is equal to 6,000 flight hours, or about 20 years of operational use. FT50, a structurally complete airframe without internal subsystems, began fatigue cycling on June 30, 1997, and reached the one-lifetime milestone one month earlier than scheduled. Completion of the first lifetime is an exit criterion for Navy Program Review III, which is scheduled for November.
Russia is paying special attention to development of advanced systems for air defense missile troops and radiotechnical troops, which are now also part of the Air Force, as it adjusts to the post-Soviet era. "Given finances, we will put into service the first samples [of new air defense systems] as soon as next year," said Col.-Gen. Anatoliy Kornukov, Russian Air Force commander in chief, on the eve of the service's 86th anniversary.
Applied Dynamics International Inc. (ADI), Ann Arbor, Mich., won a contract from British Aerospace Military Aircraft and Aerostructures for ADI's Beacon software to design the General Systems Utility Systems Management System (USMS) software on the Nimrod MRA4, ADI reported yesterday. BAE will upgrade the Royal Air Force's current fleet of 21 MR Mk2 maritime patrol aircraft to MRA4 standards.
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) criticized Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry H. Shelton for rejecting the findings of the Rumsfeld Commission. The commission in July warned the threat to the U.S. of a ballistic missile attack is greater than the intelligence community has reported (DAILY, 17). Proponents of deployment of a U.S. national missile defense system pointed to the report as evidence that NMD development and fielding should be accelerated.
THOMSON-THORN MISSILE ELECTRONICS will be a subcontractor to Alliant Techsystems on the Hard Target Smart Fuze development program, Alliant said yesterday.
Loss of the PanAmSat Galaxy X telecommunications satellite when Boeing's first Delta III booster failed Wednesday night will stretch the commercial provider's ability to serve the U.S. domestic market in the near term, but the company has plans to launch four satellites into U.S. slots over the next 18 months.
High costs of the self-destruct fuze for the Extended Range Multiple Launch Rocket System missile (ER-MLRS) that caught the attention of Congress have prompted the Army to stop buying the missile, the Pentagon told Congress earlier this month in a funding appeal letter. The Army initially was going to restructure the program (DAILY, July 10), but the Pentagon told Congress that the purchase now is being canceled outright. The ER-MLRS has range of about 45 kilometers.
The Dept. of Defense is appealing to Congress to restore fiscal 1999 appropriations for a series of military space programs cut by the House, including restoration of funding for the space-based synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator program terminated by the House.
Raytheon Systems Co., Lexington, Mass., won a $70 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command for low rate initial production of 20 radar-warning receiver systems plus spares for the F/A-18E/F. The AN/ALR-67(V)3 system features advanced techniques to detect radar emitters. The fourth generation system has been selected as the standard radar warning receiver on the F/A-18C/D and E/F. The contract also includes non-recurring production implementation costs, sustaining engineering, software support and logistics engineering.
