Herbert F. Satterlee, III has been appointed president and chief executive officer, with a mandate that includes acquiring funding for the company, accelerating QuickBird satellite development, and revitalizing the Digital Globe database.
The Air National Guard's 109th Air Wing, which is taking over sole responsibility for supporting the National Science Foundation in the Antarctic, is looking to receive three ski-equipped U.S. Navy LC-130Rs and convert them to LC-130Hs, which will also feature skis. The Navy and ANG have shared the support function, but starting around February 1999 the ANG will provide all support. In addition to four C-130H conventional landing-gear Hercules, the ANG already flies seven ski- equipped LC-130Js.
Alliant Techsystems yesterday won the U.S. Air Force competition for engineering and manufacturing development of the Hard Target Smart Fuze, planned for use on penetrator weapons. Alliant got $16 million to develop the burst-point optimizing fuze by October 2001. About 110-120 fuzes will be built in the EMD phase. There is a production option, 1,000 fuzes would be built.
Microvision Inc., Seattle, delivered its second helmet-mounted display (HMD) to Saab and Ericsson Saab Avionics for evaluation in their aircraft simulators. The prototype, a full-color, high-resolution HMD system, features Microvision's Virtual Retinal Display (VRD) technology, and supports the effort with Saab and Ericsson to evaluate VRD for HMDs in fighters.
Boeing Co. on Monday delivered the first of 80 C-17s to be built under a seven-year multi-year procurement program to the U.S. Air Force at Charleston AFB, S.C. The plane will be the 41st Globemaster III in the AF inventory. Boeing said it is also the 29th C-17 in a row to be delivered ahead of schedule. It was scheduled for delivery by the end of the month. The aircraft features an improved mission computer, an enhanced fuel quantity system, new engine nacelles and improved aeromedical evacuation capabilities, Boeing said.
Canada has decided to buy 13 Advanced Harpoon Weapon Control Systems to be used on Halifax-class patrol frigates, according to system prime contractor Boeing Co. AHWCS is used for missile flight planning, including selectable terminal trajectory and multi-target, multi-Harpoon missile engagements, Boeing said. It can be used on ships, submarines, and for ground-mobile launchers. The system is slated to undergo its critical design review in October, with system testing starting in mid-1999. AHWCS deliveries are planned for 2000.
The U.S. Army has slipped the first intercept test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense system because of seeker problems. The test, which was to have been next month, has been delayed until the first quarter of fiscal year 1999, a spokeswoman for the Army's Program Executive Office for Air and Missile Defense Office in Huntsville, Ala., told The DAILY yesterday. She cited seeker hardware and software issues. The decision to delay the program was made in the past few weeks.
Several companies have initiated talks with the U.S. Navy about the commercial use of a non-polluting hydrogen peroxide-based rocket fuel developed by the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Div. at China Lake, Calif., according to the Navy. Researchers are trying to earn patents for the fuel, which relies on the heat-producing decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen, NAWC said late last week. The Navy wouldn't identify the catalyst.
Thomas White has been named senior vice president in charge of American operations in Washington, D.C. Benoot Gosset has been appointed senior vice president in charge of operations for Europe - Africa - Middle East - Asia/Pacific in Velizy, France. Martyn Hurst also in Velizy, France, has been named senior vice president, customer support centers. Jean-Paul Cartoux has been appointed chief financial officer in Velizy. Neal Post has been appointed chief financial officer in Washington, D.C.
Theodore "Ted" McFarland has been named representative director and president of Hughes Electronics Japan Co. Ltd. He also has been named senior vice president - Asia Pacific for Hughes Space and Communications International Services Co.
Hughes Electronics Corp. has cleared two HS-601 communications satellites built by Hughes Space and Communications Co. for launch after pinpointing a relay switch problem as the cause of three on-orbit failures of spacecraft control processors (SCPs) on HS-601s. The company told PanAmSat and the Societe Europeenne des Satellites that its Galaxy X and Astra 2A platforms, respectively, are safe to launch. Hughes traced the on-orbit problems to tin-plated relay switches that, under very specific conditions that have been identified, can grow a hair-
Russia and Ukraine will begin production of the An-70 military transport airplane regardless of whether West European states decide to join the program, according to Lt. Gen. Yuri Klishin, deputy commander-in-chief of the Russian Air Force. Klishin told Itar-Tass news agency that preliminary flight testing of the An-70 has been completed. This month the airplane will be passed to the Air Force State Flight Test Center to continue testing with military pilots.
Engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have raised concerns that a mechanical issue first noted on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) spacecraft may affect the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) now aerobraking into a circular orbit around the Red Planet. NASA managers may decide to delay the planned deployment of the MGS high-gain antenna if engineering tests confirm that it could damage the critical hardware. A final decision won't be made until a review scheduled for Feb. 3, 1999, NASA said yesterday.
The U.S. Marine Corps is reaching the point where it will resist further Joint Strike Fighter performance trade-offs to meet cost and commonality goals. "In our discussions in the Marine Corps we're at that point where any further reduction in capability would be difficult to accept," Brig. Gen. Bruce Byrum, Marine Corps assistant deputy chief of staff for aviation, said in an interview yesterday. "We are basically down to what we consider the minimum" in performance to still want JSF, he said.
Robert M Davis, Jr., has been named the new president and chief exectuive officer. Marc T. Constantine has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Kelly Aerospace, a wholly owned subsidiary of Kelly Space&Technology.
A recovery team of European and NASA engineers has received the first telemetry data from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) since controller errors sent it into a flat spin at the Lagrangian L-1 point in June. NASA and the European Space Agency said yesterday the recovery team was able to build on an initial recontact earlier this month to recharge the on-board batteries for about 10 hours. Using that power, controllers commanded on the spacecraft telemetry and received seven full data sets before shutting down to save power.
