A U.S. Air Force F-15C FIGHTER crashed yesterday near Grasmere, Idaho, but the pilot safely ejected, an AF spokesman said. The aircraft went down at about 2:30 p.m. EDT while on a routine training mission. It was assigned to the Air Combat Command's 390th Fighter Squadron at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The crash followed a one-day ACC stand-down on Friday to review flight safety.
TWA Flight 800 was vectored about 15 miles northwest of a so-called "hot area" off Long Island activated by the military as an exclusion zone, FAA sources and the Navy acknowledged yesterday as investigators continued to draw a blank on what caused the July 17 explosion of the TWA Boeing 747- 100, which killed all 230 passengers aboard. Investigators probing the disaster have not ruled out a missile as one of three potential causes for the accident, which occurred within missile range of the exclusion zone.
Boeing is boosting production rates on its newest aircraft, the 777 widebody twin, outlining plans yesterday to hike rates from five per month to seven per month next July to cope with strong demand. Although buoyant demand has led Boeing to revise its plans three times since December, the 777 ramp-up was untouched in the last major round of changes, holding steady at two aircraft per month, rising to five in early 1997 (DAILY, March 19).
The arm of the U.S. Defense Dept. charged with evaluating weapon systems of other countries is feeling the effects of the increasing complexity of such weapons, and must also deal with the rising costs of evaluation.
NASA established a $25.8 million program to develop supercomputer applications that run 10 times faster than possible today. Under a series of cooperative agreements with Cray Research and nine investigator teams, the U.S. agency will establish a facility at Goddard Space Flight Center that will use a Cray T3E supercomputer as a testbed for scalable parallel computing. Possible applications include modeling global climate, simulating stellar evolution and processing remote sensing imagery.
The U.S. Air Force is preparing for the demonstration of enhanced computer processing technology that could lead to fully autonomous satellite operations, according to an Aug. 27 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) and The Aerospace Corp. plan to push into the commercial space marketplace, both in the U.S. and internationally, if they can consummate a merger deal announced yesterday.
A disagreement between the U.S. Army and Air Force over forward control of the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle has been settled and leaves total pilot responsibility with the Air Force, an AF official said. The Army has been looking to control the Predator when it is flying in support of ground forces, but the AF has resisted.
ROCKWELL'S North American Aircraft Div. said Thaddeus H. Sandford has been named vice president of research, engineering and advanced programs, replacing Don Carter who has been named vice president- deputy general manager and naval systems technical director for the Navy Submarine Program of Rockwell Australia Limited. Rockwell said Sandford returns to NAAD from an assignment as X-33 program director at Rockwell's Space Systems Div.
A U.S. Air Force test crew, conducting an airborne command, control, communications, computers and intelligence (C4I) demonstration, is bringing the intelligence community's Internet to the skies. In a series of tests, being conducted as part of the 1996 Joint Warrior Interoperabilty Demonstration, the crew of the "Speckled Trout," a modified C-135 aircraft, has shown the capability of a new combat intelligence system to provide airborne access to Intelink-X, the intelligence community's Internet.
Spacehab Inc., the private company that has found a commercial space niche selling pressurized payload volume on NASA's Space Shuttle, is looking ahead to market opportunities for the International Space Station era as it begins using an expanded facility to ferry supplies to Russia's Mir station.
An Arrow 2 anti-tactical ballistic missile hit its target at a speed of Mach 8 in its first intercept test on Aug. 20, Israeli sources told reporters yesterday. Releasing additional details on the test, which took place in Israel (DAILY, Aug. 21), the sources said it took less than a minute for the interceptor to travel 50 kilometers downrange to impact its target, a modified Arrow 1. The ultimate goal is to be able to hit a target at 100 kilometers or more, one source noted.
Lockheed Martin Federal Systems has protested the U.S. Air Force's selection of McDonnell Douglas as the prime contractor for the T-38 trainer upgrade. McDonnell Douglas and team member Israel Aircraft Industries won a $45.7 million contract on July 31 for the design and development of a T-38 avionics upgrade and delivery of two improved aircraft. The total contract could involve modification of 425 aircraft.
TAIWAN is set to receive 1,299 Stinger missiles pending congressional approval, according to a Pentagon announcement. Reports last week said the sale was on hold because of concerns expressed by China, but a Pentagon spokeswoman said Friday there was no delay. The $420 million deal includes, in addition to the missiles, 74 standard vehicle-mounted guided missile launchers ; 96 HMMWVs; 74 captive flight trainer missiles; 500 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition and related support.
A new virtual theater missile defense (TMD) communications system is one of the newest technologies being tested in the Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) now taking place at several military bases on the U.S. East Coast.
RAYTHEON CO.'s Electronic Systems Div., Bedford, Mass., received a $10.8 million addition to an earlier contract for an anti-cruise missile upgrade to the Patriot missile. The Dept. of Defense said yesterday that the contract was awarded by the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal, Ala.
The U.S. Army's RAH-66 Comanche helicopter returned to flight on Saturday after a break of more than seven months caused by a series of mechanical problems. The Boeing-Sikorsky prototype flew at Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Fla., facility for 54 minutes, logging five takeoffs and landings, and spent about another half hour in ground maneuvers, a Boeing spokesman said. Sikorsky's Rus Stiles piloted the aircraft and Boeing's Reggie Murrell flew as copilot during the flight, the first since the initial flight at West Palm Beach on Jan. 4.
August 19, 1996 Cubic Defense Systems Cubic Defense Systems, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $23,978,564 face value increase to a firm fixed price contract to provide for 15 Ground Data Terminals applicable to the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS). Contract is expected to be completed February 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Electronic System Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, is the contracting activity (F19628-93/C-0166, P00020).
August 22, 1996 Northrop Grumman Corporation Northrop Grumman Corporation, Pico Rivera, California, is being awarded a $48,692,584 face value increase to a cost plus award fee contract to provide maintenance and repair capability for the aircraft. Contract is expected to be completed December 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, is the contracting activity (F33657-87/C- 2000, P00569).
Israel Aircraft Industries and Tracor Aerospace of Austin, Tex., won a $20.8 million U.S. Air Force contract for two Astra SPX executive jets to replace C-21A Learjets currently in the USAF inventory. Delivery next year will mark first entry into the USAF fleet of Israeli-built aircraft, according to IAI officials in Washington.
Indonesia has no problem with the U.S. if Washington cancels a deal to sell it nine F-16s originally bound for Pakistan - so long as the deal's cancellation isn't linked to U.S. discomfort over a political crackdown in Jakarta. "If they plan to cancel the sale now, it will not be a problem for us," State Secretary Murdiono, President Suharto's chief aide, told reporters Friday. "Many countries sell aircraft....If they link it with the situation in Indonesia, we will have strong objections."
The U.S. Air Force is testing a new autonomous landing system aboard its premier command, control, communications, computers and intelligence testbed aircraft. The system is expected to ultimately fuse an image from a millimeter wave radar with another image from a forward looking infrared sensor to produce a real time image of a runway in foul weather.
LITTON INDUSTRIES said Steven A. Lambert has been appointed president of the Electro-Optical Systems division, which has operations in Garland, Tex., and Tempe, Ariz. Lambert, who had been Litton's director of night- vision products for the past year, joined the company when the Ni-Tec division of Varo Inc. in Garland was acquired by Litton in 1995. He had been employed by Varo since 1974, advancing from manufacturing engineer to vice president and general manager.
McDonnell Douglas has won a U.S. Air Force contract to investigate the potential of an "active aerolastic wing" to offset aileron reversal, a phenomenon experienced by aircraft at high subsonic speeds.
