A high cycle fatigue problem has cropped up in GE Aircraft Engines' GE90 turbofan, leading to a small crack on a rotating seal in the engine's high-pressure compressor, GE reported yesterday. But GE engineers say the crack is "stable," and well understood. Of the five British Airways GE90s inspected so far, one has been removed from service for further testing, while three are flying again. GE expects to replace components on a one-time basis throughout the fleet, but only on high-time engines, a GE spokesman said.
Florida's state spaceport authority, which expects to host the first launch from a commercial spaceport early next year, is working with the Air Force to develop a three-pad facility that would offer 72-hour "launch-on- demand" services to scientific, military and commercial customers.
Boeing is in talks with Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) about the supply of LOX/LH2 fuel regulator valves for Boeing's Delta IV launch vehicle engine - a McDonnell Douglas program inherited when Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas earlier this year. If MHI - with hardware on its LE-5 and LE-7 engines for the H-2 rocket - wins, it will supply the first four valves for a ground test vehicle.
The Pentagon failed to obtain the most useful data during last week's lasing of the Air Force's MSTI-3 satellite by the Army's Mid-Wave Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser because of a communications glitch, Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said yesterday.
Rolls-Royce's Allison Engine Co. unit won a $189 million contract from the U.S. Army to supply as many as 600 Model 250-C30R/3 turboshafts for new and re-worked OH-58D Kiowa Warrior armed reconnaissance helicopters. Deliveries start in the first quarter of next year.
Hughes Space and Communications will build a direct-to-home satellite system for a private Russian media conglomerate in a deal that leapfrogs the U.S. company's attempts to sells satellites to the Russian government. BONUM-1, a subsidiary of the Media Most group, has ordered an HS-376 high-power satellite, along with ground control equipment, operator training and a November 1998 launch on a Boeing Delta II. Hughes did not disclose terms of the contract yesterday.
A special task force established by Defense Secretary William Cohen last spring to propose ways to streamline the Office of the Secretary of Defense will report "revolutionary" findings soon, Cohen told a Capitol Hill conference last week. The Defense Reform Task Force report will be "provocative" and "quite revolutionary in terms of its scope," Cohen, who has seen a preliminary draft, said at a Business Executives for National Security conference on the Hill. He said last Thursday the report would be out in about two weeks.
With its narrowbody problem more or less solved, US Airways is now turning its fleet-replacement attention to its transatlantic service. Chairman and CEO Stephen M. Wolf says that in addition to the newly secured engine order (see previous story) "we also will enter into discussions immediately for new widebody aircraft," looking at both Boeing's 777 and Airbus Industrie's A330 widebody twins.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS has rescheduled for next week the first flight of its Outrider unmanned aerial vehicle fitted with a new engine after incurring a two-week delay because of lessons learned from a test flight earlier this month. The Oct. 15 flight tested Outrider's stabilization system in climbout. It ended early after Outrider's McCullough engine lost power. A small part of the delay was prompted by the investigation into the McCullough engine failure. The main reason for the delay, however, was to make software adjustments to the stabilization system.
The intelligence community has reduced its focus on Russia more than is warranted, Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Lt. Gen. John A. Gordon (USAF) told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday.
Vienna, Va.-based Atlantic Research Corp. (ARC) won a $3.6 million deal to develop a High Performance Hall Thruster Propulsion system from the U.S. Air Force Research Lab's Propulsion Directorate at Edwards AFB, Calif. Hall thrusters work by ionizing and accelerating xenon gas.
Pratt&Whitney Canada's PW306B turbofan for Fairchild Dornier's new 328JET completed its first test runs without a hitch, the aircraft company reports. The first 328JET is due to roll out in December, and first flight is planned for January, with certification in March. The company has 15 orders and options in-hand.
EUROPE'S ARIANE 5 has been rescheduled for launch Oct. 30, after a check of the vehicle at the Guiana Space Center turned up no problems with the engine supply line mountings on the big rocket. The Oct. 28 launch date was slipped when similar mountings on vehicles still in the factory were found to be faulty, leading managers to order a recheck of Ariane 502 (DAILY, Oct. 21). Under the present schedule, a final launch readiness review will be held Oct. 27-28, with the rocket moved to the pad Oct. 29 if no more problems arise.
Saab Aircraft AB of Sweden is considering whether to cease production of the Saab 340 and Saab 2000 regional turboprops and does not believe development of a new regional aircraft is an option, the company said yesterday.
The Pentagon's Defense Science Board has been told to set up a task force to examine the relationship between the National Reconnaissance Office's Future Imagery Architecture and the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Starlite synthetic aperture radar satellite constellation.
The National Guard should take on new roles including ballistic missile defense and counter-terrorism, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Edward Baca, the chief of the National Guard, told reporters yesterday in Washington. "These are the types of missions that can be turned over to the Guard," Baca said during a breakfast meeting. He noted that the Guard can do the job at lower cost than the active force for a number of missions.
CFM International's win this week over International Aero Engines in the contest to power US Airways' huge fleet replacement order of some 400 Airbus Industrie narrowbodies restores CFM's commanding market share on that aircraft, to some 60% overall based on firm orders, CFM partner GE Aircraft Engines says.
Echoing assessments earlier this year by the Defense Science Board and various Pentagon agencies, a White House commission has concluded that the information warfare threat to the U.S. is real, and recommended spending $1 billion by 2004 to develop ways to keep civilian infrastructure safe.
Senate and House defense authorization conferees believe the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) should be accelerated to meet U.S. Navy requirements as soon as possible and that a fully funded alternate engine program is essential. The conferees provided $463.9 million for the Navy JSF development, $15 million more than the president's request. They funded the $458.1 million request for the Air Force JSF development and $23.9 million JSF development within the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
House National Security Committee Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) yesterday filed a compromise fiscal 1998 defense authorization despite the threat of a Senate filibuster and a potential presidential veto over the explosive military depot issue. Asked shortly before he filed the conference report in the House if he would still go ahead even though the White House was not satisfied with some of the report's language on the depot issue, Spence replied: "Yes. The White House will never be completely satisfied."
TRW'S ODYSSEY satellite telephone system has won a third patent from the European Patent Office, this time for features of the Odyssey spacecraft's antenna-pointing system. The company has sought patent protection in Europe, the U.S., Taiwan and elsewhere for its medium-Earth-orbit (MEO) concept.
Rolls-Royce customer Qantas Airways of Australia wants a competition to power its planned new Boeing 747-400s. Enough engines to power three of the four-engine aircraft are up for grabs, although Rolls RB211s power the 31 747s Qantas already flies. A decision is seen by the spring.
PATS, Inc., an aftermarket hardware specialist best-known for its extra fuel tank systems on Boeing aircraft, has decided to jump into the auxiliary power unit market with a modification of a rotary engine, designed to run on jet fuel. With a "pricing objective" of one-half that of today's offerings, PATS President Jack Frost says his program is aimed at commuter, corporate and public-use aircraft.
BOEING, DASA AND RSC ENERGIA have gotten the go-ahead from NASA's Johnson Space Center to begin work on a free-flying "inspector" spacecraft that will give International Space Station crews a way to observe the outside of their vehicle without leaving it. The "ISS-Inspector" will be based on the Mir-Inspector delivered to the Russian orbital station Oct. 8 for upcoming tests (DAILY, Oct. 14).
