A new research project led by the U.S. Air Force seeks to develop an integrated solution to the cockpit problem of spatial disorientation, cited as the leading cause of serious accidents for both military and general aviation pilots.
Any move to defend airliners from shoulder-fired missiles would be a multi-faceted affair, and Congress may therefore want to consider implementing combinations of alternatives, the Congressional Research Service says. "Most believe that no single solution exists to effectively mitigate this threat," CRS says in a report titled "Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles."
CPI Aerostructures, a maker of aerostructure components for the C-5A Galaxy, T-38 Talon and E-3 Sentry aircraft, said 2002 revenues rose nearly 37 percent over 2001 partly because of higher contract awards. Revenue for the year totaled nearly $24 million, compared with about $15 million in 2001. Net income for 2002, which included an $800,000 tax benefit, totaled $4.4 million, compared with a loss of $11.6 million in 2001. The gains partly were due to the closure of the company's Kolar machining business.
NEW DELHI - Israel and Russia have resolved a dispute over payments for upgrading Russian aircraft that India wants to use for airborne early warning (AEW), sources here said. Israel has agreed to pay royalties to Russia to upgrade Indian Ilyushin IL-76 aircraft with Israel's Phalcon radar. India plans to buy two or three of the radars.
In mid-April, the Global Positioning System (GPS) program office will provide Peter Teets, the Air Force undersecretary for space, a package of options for accelerating the GPS III program, according to GPS Program Manager Col. Wesley Ballenger. To help fund other priorities, the Air Force decided earlier this year to delay the award of the GPS III prime contract and cut off all funding in FY '04, in anticipation of quickly ramping up the program later for a scheduled 2012 first launch.
The top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee is proposing to accelerate funding for NASA efforts to develop technology aimed at improving civilian aviation security and safety.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A study of payloads to be completed in late April or early May will feed into an analysis of alternatives of operationally responsive spacelift, said Col. Pamela L. Stewart, who is directing the spacelift study for Air Force Space Command. Payloads that can begin working quickly once in orbit are just as important as new rockets that can be launched faster, Stewart said March 27 in a telephone press conference from Peterson Air Force Base here.
AEROSPACE AWARD: The National Space Club has presented teams of scientists and engineers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Northrop Grumman Corp. the 2003 Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Award for their work on NASA's Aqua Earth Observing System satellite. The award is presented annually for outstanding contributions to the missile, aircraft and space fields. Aqua, which is studying the Earth's water cycle, was launched in May and began returning data a month later (DAILY, June 25, 2002). The spacecraft was built by TRW Inc., now part of Northrop Grumman.
Several technologies envisioned for deployment with the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program were tested successfully in a recent "simulated demonstrations" at Fort Knox, Ky., according to company officials involved with the program. Called Capstone, the simulation was conducted by nearly 50 soldiers from across the Army's command structure.
The House Financial Services Committee approved a four-year reauthorization of the Defense Production Act (DPA) on March 26, six days after the committee's technology subcommittee took similar action (DAILY, March 25). The DPA authorizes financial incentives and other tools to ensure U.S. industry produces adequate supplies for the military. The Senate Banking Committee is expected to begin considering DPA reauthorization legislation sometime after the April 14-25 congressional recess (DAILY, March 26).
MUOS TEAM: Boeing will join the Lockheed Martin-General Dynamics team competing for the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS), the company said March 31. MUOS is a next-generation satellite system intended to replace the Navy's UHF Follow-On fleet. The Navy is scheduled to select a final design for MUOS in 2004.
AWARD: The Missile Defense Agency announced late March 31 it has awarded concept design contracts to Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman for the kinetic energy interceptor (KEI) program, which seeks to develop a land- and sea-based capability to shoot down ballistic missiles in their boost phase. Each contract is worth $10 million and will last for eight months. The selection of a single team to be the prime contractor is expected in early 2004. Lockheed Martin's team includes Boeing Co., while Northrop Grumman is paired with Raytheon Co.
LONDON - Britain's Ministry of Defence (MOD) will gain a new chief for its Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) on May 1, when Vice Adm. Sir Peter Spencer of the Royal Navy takes over from long-serving Sir Robert Walmsley, also a former Vice Adm., who is retiring. Spencer will become chief executive as well as leader of the DPA, according to a March 28 announcement.
The Army could use more blue force tracking devices to improve the service's ability to keep track of friendly forces on the battlefield, according to an Army general.
Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com has created a special website to provide coverage of the war with Iraq and informational links. For updated daily coverage from The DAILY and other Aviation Week publications, please visit http://www.AviationNow.com/gulfwar.
AGING TANKERS: KC-135 tankers rank among the U.S. Air Force's oldest platforms, but aircrews in the Iraqi theater have been astonished by how the airframes are holding up despite a hectic operational pace. "They seem to fly better when they're flown a lot," says Staff Sgt. Matthew York, a KC-135 boom operator for the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing based in the region. "Whatever bugs they have seem to work themselves out." But the grueling operational pace and the exposure to highly corrosive sand in the region are expected to exacerbate the "aging aircraft" problem.
Three more people have been tapped to join a congressionally mandated commission charged with assessing the threat to satellites, aircraft and other systems from a high-altitude nuclear detonation. The appointees are: Air Force Gen. Richard Lawson (ret.), former deputy commander of U.S. European Command; Joan Woodard, executive vice president and deputy director of Sandia National Laboratories, and John Foster, former director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Nearly a decade after the first C-17s entered service, the U.S. Air Force heavy airlifters have completed the first combat insertion of paratroopers in the aircraft program's history. A flight of 15 C-17s flying in formation inserted the 173rd Airborne Brigade, with nearly 1,000 paratroopers and their equipment, into the Kurdish-controlled area of northern Iraq on the night of March 26, opening up a small second front on the ground, Air Force officials said.
CLIPPER #7: The Boeing Company is expected to deliver its seventh C-40A Clipper aircraft to the U.S. Naval Reserve in late 2004 or early 2005. The C-40A is replacing the Naval Reserve's aging fleet of C-9B aircraft, which are used to transport cargo and passengers around the world. A military version of the 737-700, the C-40A is certified to operate in an all-passenger, all cargo, or "combi" configuration. Boeing delivered the first C-40A to the Naval Reserve in April 2001 and the sixth in October 2002.
SLAMRAAM PROPOSALS: The Army is targeting April 30 as the day to release a request for proposals for the surface-launched version of the Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), according to the service. The Army previously had said it would issue the SLAMRAAM RFP sometime in April (DAILY, March 11). SLAMRAAM is intended for short-range air defense and will be launched from vehicles. It is designed to protect a wider area than the Stinger missile and address growing threats from cruise missiles, rockets and manned and unmanned aircraft.
HEROIC MISINVESTMENT: Despite its penchant for brilliant engineering, Japan continues to invest in military and commercial aircraft ventures of questionable value, says senior aircraft analyst Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group. "Japan is a nation of brilliant engineering and chronic, almost heroic, misinvestment," he says. The F-2 fighter, formerly known as the FS-X fighter, is an example, he says. The composite wings of the fighter, developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, "are ahead of anything the U.S.
NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) are working out the details of an agreement in which NIMA routinely will use its satellites to take pictures of the space shuttle in orbit without receiving a formal request from the aerospace agency. The new agreement is part of the fallout from NASA's decision not to ask NIMA to image the shuttle Columbia in orbit to look for signs of possible damage that may have resulted from a foam insulation impact shortly after launch on Jan. 16.
ESTOL IN APRIL: The X-31A flight test program expects to conduct the first automated, thrust-vectored extremely short takeoff and landing (ESTOL) maneuver on a real runway by the end of April, according to Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). On March 22 the program completed the final flight of its "up-and-away" test phase, which was devoted to conducting ESTOL landings on a simulated runway at 5,000 feet altitude (DAILY, Nov. 21, 2002).
