Mir Cosmonauts Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov installed a new solar array outside the Russian orbital station yesterday, but moisture- related problems on the hatch they used as an exit for their spacewalk left in doubt whether it was properly sealed against vacuum. In an extravehicular activity (EVA) lasting six hours, 12 minutes, Solovyov and Vinogradov attached a new array delivered by the Space Shuttle Atlantis at the site they cleared Monday by removing a worn-out array (DAILY, Nov. 4).
The Pentagon hasn't gone far enough in increasing the jointness of weapons requirements and could cut at least $10 billion from its annual budget by doing more in the consolidation of requirements, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman William A. Owens told the House National Security Committee's panel on procurement yesterday. "We are now faced with what I believe is a crisis in the [U.S.] defense budget and an opportunity to make important changes through new radical technology and the jointness among our four services," the retired admiral said.
Turbomeca Aerospace Corp. designated Canada's Orenda Aerospace as the approved overhauler for Turbomeca's Makila 1A2 turboshafts powering the Eurocopter Cougar Mk. 2 helicopter, in the running to become the Canadian Armed Forces' next search-and-rescue helicopter.
PLATFORMS INTERNATIONAL CORP. will supply the flight control system for Hamilton AeroSpace's Long Range Remote Piloted Vehicle Project. Platforms International, based in Redlands, Calif., said it was selected because of work it has done on the Airborne Relay Communications System unmanned aerial vehicle.
GE Aircraft Engines recently won a $6.6 million U.S. Air Force contract to design and flight-qualify an Ejector Nozzle Kit for the F110 fighter turbofan which powers F-16C/D aircraft, with the goal of boosting nozzle life four-fold and cutting maintenance time by as much as 90%. Flight testing should be completed in 1999.
The first of 25 F-15I fighters for Israel was rolled out yesterday by Boeing Co. in St. Louis. The plane was formally accepted during a ceremony at the company's McDonnell Aircraft and Missile Systems Group by Itzchak Mordechai, Israel's defense minister. Boeing said the Israel Air Force's first F-15I has flown three times since its initial flight on Sept. 12. The first two F-15Is are slated to be delivered in January. Israel chose the jet in January 1994 after an evaluation of several candidates. The two-seat plane, like the U.S.
The U.S. Air Force is planning future upgrades of its EC-130H Compass Call aircraft even as the newest version, the Block 30, is being fielded with the 41st Electronic Combat Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. The Air Force has taken delivery of the first three of six Block 30s, and plans to receive the rest by the middle of 1999, Lt. Col. Greg Crystal, chief of Air Combat Command's Information Warfare Div., said in a telephone interview from Langley AFB, Va.
NATO yesterday decided to defer for about six months a decision on how to proceed with its plans to acquire an Alliance Ground Surveillance system. Top acquisition officials from NATO's member nations discussed AGS yesterday in Brussels as part of the twice yearly meeting of the Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD). They "tasked the provisional project office to study the issue and come up with an affordable solution for the 1998 CNAD meeting," which is scheduled for April, a NATO spokesman said yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force needs one more squadron of C-17 airlifters than is being procured under the existing multi-year procurement program, according to Gen. Walter Kross, commander of U.S. Transportation Command and the AF's Air Mobility Command. "Special operations represents an additional tasking above that factored into the 120 C-17 buy decision," Kross wrote in AMC's recently published annual strategic plan.
The Trent derivative of the Rolls-Royce RB211 series won its first Canadian customer this week in Air Canada, which handed Rolls a $450 million order for Trent 700 series engines to power nine firm and ten option Airbus Industrie A330-300 widebody twin jetliners. Air Canada's decision comes only a few months after it committed publicly to be among the launch customers for the Trent 500-powered Airbus A340-500/-600.
Jet-engine pioneer and GE veteran Gehard Neumann, 80, died Nov. 2 of complications from leukemia. Before retiring as head of GE Aircraft Engines in 1979, Neumann amassed eight patents and is widely credited with being the father of the highly successful CFM International partnership between GE and France's SNECMA.
Rolls-Royce has all but sewn up its place on American Airlines' prospective new Boeing 777 widebody twins, because the carrier's move to look at the newer -200X/-300X version of the aircraft has pushed the thrust requirements to a level higher than either General Electric or Pratt & Whitney is willing to pay to reach. The new series, which would result in a much heavier 777 with a range well over 8,000 miles, would require an engine in the 105,000-110,000-lbst. range.
The U.S. Air Force and Lockheed Martin have completed the first development test of the Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser in preparation for a low-rate initial production decision early next calender year. In the Oct. 27 test here, the WCMD, carrying the CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition, was dropped from an F-16 flying at 30,000 feet, according to Col. Bill Wise, the Air Force's program director for area munitions. Wise said in an interview that the WCMD, launched against a headwind of 115 mph, achieved an accuracy of 14.1 feet.
A U.S. Air Force plan to restructure the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program by awarding engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) contracts to both Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp. has been approved by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The AF was going to downselect next year to one EMD contractor, but has decided, for still undisclosed reasons, to retain both competitors in the $1.8 billion EMD phase.
The Pentagon's Joint Combat Rescue Agency has advanced a proposal that would improve CSAR representation in each of the military services and on the Joint Staff. The proposal was put forth when CSAR officials from throughout the U.S. Dept. of Defense met for the first time last week to discuss search and rescue and personnel recovery issues, according to Col. Denver Fletcher, chief of the Joint Combat Rescue Agency at Air Combat Command, Langley AFB, Va.
US Airways pilots have ratified their contract by an 84.2% margin, enabling the airline to go ahead with its $14 billion, 400-aircraft order with Airbus Industrie. First deliveries are set for the fourth quarter of 1998. Airbus said the airline signed a firm contract for 124 aircraft in the single-aisle family. Six A-319s will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 1998, and 15 more in 1999, along with five A320s, it said. All options and orders to be confirmed total 400 jets, the European consortium said.
The Northwest Europe Loran-C System (NELS) Steering Committee has given its go-ahead to implementing the Loran-based "Eurofix" navigation system on all NELS transmitters. The action, taken Oct. 30, follows successful trials of transmitting Global Positioning System differential corrections using the Loran-C transmitter at Sylt, Germany. Modification of the transmitters, expected to take a year, would enable NELS to provide GPS and Glonass differential corrections throughout Europe.
Apparently following the lead of Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Lester L. Lyles yesterday disowned the $325 million theater missile defense increase that Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) initiated to deal with an Iranian threat. The numbers in Weldon's plan were based on BMDO advice.
American Airlines and US Airways are among the creditors and clients who claim a total of 26 billion Dutch guilders ($13.3 billion) from Fokker, according to receivers of the bankrupt Dutch aircraft manufacturer. American and US Airways demand payment of 460 million and 320 million guilders, respectively, on grounds that the value of their Fokker fleets decreased after the bankruptcy of March 1996, and that the manufacturer was unable to meet its commitments, the receivers said this week in The Hague.
NASA is looking for ways to apply the "faster- better-cheaper" approach to gaining access to microgravity for experiments before they are flown on the Space Shuttle or International Space Station, including use of the X-34 reusable launch vehicle prototype for parabolic microgravity flights.
DERLAN INDUSTRIES LTD., Toronto, said its D-Velco subsidiary of Phoenix received a $27 million contract from Sundstrand Aerospace's Power Systems Div., San Diego, for components of Sundstrand's auxiliary power unit on the Airbus A320 aircraft. Shipments are to begin in the second quarter of 1998.
The House passed the Commercial Space Act of 1997 directing NASA to study commercial possibilities for the International Space Station and promoting expanded business opportunities for the commercial space industry across the board. H.R. 1702, passed by voice vote Tuesday night, legalizes re-entry of spacecraft by directing the Transportation Dept. to set up a licensing and regulatory process for reusable launch vehicles.
The U.S. Army should be allowed to buy the Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle even if the UAV can't meet all its requirements, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Dennis Reimer told reporters yesterday. Outrider "is still saddled with the requirement to meet joint specification," Reimer said, "but regardless, we need a UAV out there for our soldiers." Requirements for the vehicle are laid out in a tri-service document.
The French government wrote to the European Commission Tuesday demanding information on the aircraft sale contract between Boeing Co. and Delta Airlines, according to French European Affairs Minister Pierre Moscovici. The Commission does not have the required information yet, since Boeing was granted a delay until the end of this week too provide it, but France is nevertheless putting pressure on the European competition watchdog. "The surveillance of these agreements is to France an essential commitment," Moscovici told the French parliament.
