LOCKHEED FORT WORTH CO. said Friday that Robert T. Elrod has been named vice president of F-16 programs, and that the appointment became effective March 15. Elrod, who joined the company in 1978, has been vice president and deputy program director for F-16 programs since 1992. He succeeds Dain M. Hancock, who was appointed president of Lockheed Fort Worth Co. as of March 15.
ASAP panelists think NASA should buy enough Simplified Aids for EVA Rescue (SAFERs) to go on all U.S. Space Shuttles, the International Space Station and Russia's Mir station, instead of only buying five of the self-rescue units for spacewalking astronauts.
Virtual astronauts will explore the universe by remote control long before their counterparts in spacesuits set foot on alien worlds, Jack Gibbons, President Clinton's science advisor, tells a Washington audience. Spacecraft "no bigger than your fist" based on microelectromechanical devices under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory will give humans "the ability to put our minds where our feet can never go," Gibbons says.
Among key issues the U.S. Army must resolve in its move to digitize the battlefield are interaction with allies and how to proceed when digitized systems fail, officials said yesterday at a conference in Arlington, Va. The Army Digitization Office (ADO) is talking to France, Germany and a number of other European allies to ensure connectivity and commonality, Maj. Gen. Larry R. Jordan, chief of the Army Armor Center, told industry representatives at a digitzation conference hosted by the Technical Marketing Society of America.
British enginemaker Rolls-Royce bought Indianapolis-based Allison Engine Co. in the early hours of Friday morning for $525 million, giving it a way into the regional turboprop market just in time for its expected boom, and for a fraction of the cost of a full-scale development program for any single engine. The company won all the necessary government approvals both in the U.S. and the U.K., thanks in part to a plan to wall-off the portion of Allison involved in deeply classified U.S. high-performance engine work and create a new unit called Allison Advanced.
Members of the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) disagree on the use of Russia's Tu-144 supersonic transport for sonic boom and other tests in NASA's High Speed Research program (DAILY, Aug. 29, 1994, page 325). Outgoing ASAP Chairman Norman R. Parmet says he and some panel members can't see why NASA doesn't use the European Concorde or the U.S. SR-71 for the tests, given the poor safety record of the Russian SST. But panel member Norris J.
Pratt & Whitney wrapped up nearly four months of tests on a more durable version of its F100-PW-229 turbofan in early March, P&W reported Friday, paving the way either for U.S. Air Force buys of the new engine, the -229A, or retrofits of its new fan. The upgraded engine, which benefits from work still underway in the government's long-running Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) initiative, completed more than 110 hours of testing at simulated flight conditions ranging from Mach 2.3 at 36,000 feet to Mach 1.15 at sea level.
Four military helicopter contractors and three commercial ones are "adequate for anything we need," says U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Peter C. Franklin, assistant deputy for systems management in the office of the assistant Army secretary for research, development and acquisition. Stating the obvious, he tells the House Appropriations national security subcommittee that the concern is whether there will be enough work for all the companies.
U.S. Army witnesses tell the House Appropriations national security subcommittee it has shortages of ammunition across the board, especially for artillery and missile systems. It's also short of trucks and small arms. The testimony Friday came in response to a question from subcommittee chairman Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), who has been asking the services about shortages to bolster his efforts to get more money for them.
Operational tests of the atmospheric probe on NASA's Galileo spacecraft have demonstrated that the Hughes-built probe is ready for its high-impact plunge 400 miles into the clouds of Jupiter Dec. 7, the space agency reported. Following their first engineering interrogation of the probe in 27 months, Galileo managers said Wednesday the capsule's three lithium battery modules and both accelerometers in the atmosphere structure experiment were functioning normally.
The Defense Dept. is not considering a transition to a single mode of rocket lift, U.S. Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Thomas Moorman assures House Appropriations national security panel Chairman C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.). He says the White House space policy includes both reusable and expendable launchers. "The Shuttle experience was a sobering experience for all of us, and we want the flexibility of that dual track," Moorman says.
A final decision on the SBIRS LEO component will be made around the end of century, with a first demonstration spacecraft being launched in 1999. Ultimately, the LEO component will consist of 16 or more spacecraft. They will be joined by four geostationary satellites and two in highly- elliptical orbit, according to Kaminsky.
The Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday approved a $1.935 billion supplemental funding bill for the Defense Dept., offset by $1.963 billion in rescissions, by a vote of 28-0. But senators refused to go along with the House's high-profile funding rescissions for the SR-71, NASA wind tunnels and EF-111A improvements, instead launching rescissions of their own from McDonnell Douglas' AH-64 Apache helicopter program and the Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle program.
GEN. MERRILL MCPEAK, former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has been elected to the board of directors of Tektronix Inc., Wilsonville, Ore. Jerome J. Meyer, Tektronix chairman and CEO, said yesterday that "the worldwide perspective [McPeak] gained while running the Air Force will aid us as we work to become more global as a company."
Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) faulted the U.S. Air Force yesterday for canceling the Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile (TSSAM) without having an alternative, and suggested that a replacement may wind up being more costly. Nunn, ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, zeroed in on TSSAM during a hearing on the fiscal year 1996 Air Force budget. In his opening statement, he said he was concerned that neither the Defense Dept.
The Pentagon's latest mobility study concludes that more than 75% of the cargo that must be airlifted within the first two weeks of combat is oversized and outsized-loads that could be difficult or impossible for an off-the-shelf commercial freighter to haul, a top U.S. Air Force official confirmed. Gen. Robert Rutherford, Air Mobility Command chief and U.S. Transportation Command commander-in-chief, told reporters in Orlando Feb.
JAPAN'S SPACE COMMUNICATIONS CORP. has picked Hughes Space and Communications International to build its next Superbird communications platform, the first in the series that will be built by the Hughes unit. The two companies signed an agreement in Los Angeles yesterday for the satellite, a Hughes HS 601 that will be delivered early in 1997. No launch provider has been selected for the platform, which will be built at Hughes facilities in El Segundo, Calif. Designated Superbird C, it will be the third in the series and the first to be built by Hughes.
Although it probably wasn't planned that way, the Clinton Administration's policy initiative to permit sales of offensive weapons to 10 former Warsaw bloc nations is winning friends and influencing some key Republicans on Capitol Hill. Rep. Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.), the new chairman of the House Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, told The DAILY that "whatever we do, we want to enhance the capability of our own industry to compete in the global economy. We don't want to handicap" industry.
MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING to jointly pursue a U.S. Air Force program to upgrade the avionics of the T-38 trainer was signed by McDonnell Douglas and Israel Aircraft Industries. John Capellupo, president of McDonnell Douglas Aerospace, and Moshe Keret, president of IAI, were present at the signing in St. Louis. Under the agreement, MDA will serve as prime contractor and the LAHAV Div. of IAI will be the major subcontractor. The T-38 upgrade program calls for the modification of 425 aircraft and procurement of 16 new aircrew trianing devices.
Seven astronauts blasted off aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour yesterday on a two-week astronomy mission to survey the universe in the ultraviolet wavelengths. Liftoff on STS-67 came at 1:38 a.m. EST, one minute and 13 seconds late because controllers had to shift to a backup heater on the flash evaporator system that cools the orbiter during ascent. Overcast skies that had threatened the launch earlier cleared as the countdown neared its end. With a scheduled duration of 15 days, 13 hours and 32 minutes, STS-67 could be the longest Space Shuttle mission ever.
TRACOR AEROSPACE INC., Austin, Tex., said it will provide the U.S. Air Force with about 400 AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispenser systems under a $27 million contract modification. Tracor said Wednesday that this is the third production lot to be awarded under a previously announced contract valued at more than $100 million. The company recently completed delivery of 285 systems under lot one, and is delivering over 400 systems under lot two.
It doesn't seem that long ago. In 1987, a huge, indoor city-state called Air Force Plant Four-the former General Dynamics fighter works-was cranking out 25 F-16s every month, sometimes more, off a production line that's literally a mile long. By 1989, the Fort Worth, Tex., facility had 31,000 on the payroll and was a $3 billion-a-year business for its owners. Today, 12,500 will spend the next few months building perhaps a single F-16 once a week, using only a fraction of the mile available to them.
Senate rejection of the balanced budget amendment yesterday eased fears raised by Administration defense and space officials since the November 1994 elections put the Republicans in power on Capitol Hill, but the manner of its killing and GOP determination to cut spending don't mean a return to business as usual.
Top U.S. Air Force officials appear to be having a change of heart toward McDonnell Douglas' C-17 airlifter, calling the once-troubled program a "real success story" and saying it has "turned the corner." "I'm very big on the C-17," AF Secretary Sheila Widnall told a packed Air Force Association audience here on Feb. 24. "I'm just in love with that airplane....The more we learn about the C-17, the more we are impressed with its reliability and maintainability.
Senate Appropriations Committee members yesterday rejected House action eliminating $400 million for two state-of-the-art wind tunnels, recommending the funds be spared for continued design study by an industry team. "If we are to maintain our strong position in aerospace, it is clear we must make the investment needed to ensure that American companies will remain the industry leaders in innovation and technology," said Rep. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee, in arguing for the funds.
