Space Shuttle Endeavour will deliver three commercial experiments to the International Space Station Alpha as well as delivering the station's next-generation robotic arm, according to NASA. Endeavour is scheduled for liftoff on April 19 carrying the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, known as the Canadarm2, (DAILY, April 9, 17) but it will also bring along the second Italian-built logistics module, named Raffaello.
Spar Aerospace Limited of Toronto has been awarded a contract by Canada's Department of National Defence (DND) to prototype a CC-130 Hercules aircraft to incorporate improvements to its structure and electrical system, the company announced April 17. The program is a continuation of several DND initiatives intended to sustain Canada's CC-130 fleet throughout its operational life.
Chinese F-8 fighter jets that intercept U.S. Navy EP-3Es likely carry Chinese-made PL-9 missiles based on 20-year old Israeli technology, sources tell The DAILY. Videotaped footage and photos of the F-8s aggressively maneuvering around an EP-3E show the F-8 was carrying a missile that resembles an Israel Python-3. However, according to several sources, China now makes its own version of the short-range air-to-air Python-3, called the PL-9, based on Israeli technology. Israel sale of Python-3 to China
Concerned that certain stainless steel flight control cable terminals could crack on thousands of small airplanes, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board urged the Federal Aviation Administration to require repetitive inspections of older Cessna and Piper aircraft for evidence of damage. The safety board also asked FAA to find out what other aircraft may contain the subject flight control cable terminals and require inspections on those aircraft too, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
CACI International of Arlington, Va., has been awarded a five-year, $8.5 million delivery order contract by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Sensors Directorate at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio. The Integrated Electronic Warfare Threat Environment Applications Research contract helps the research laboratory's evolve advanced electronic warfare technology.
The U.S. Air Force's Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle will attempt to set an aviation record on Sunday, April 22, when it attempts to cross the Pacific Ocean, flying non-stop from Edwards AFB, Calif., to Edinburg Air Base in Australia. If the flight is successful, it would be the first time than an unmanned, powered aircraft will have crossed the world's largest ocean, the Air Force Flight Test Center of Edwards AFB announced April 17.
Lockheed Martin's "Sniper" targeting pod, contending for the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Targeting Pod acquisition, continued to track targets and presented a stable image during a four-minute, Mach 1.12 "speed-soak" in recent testing, program officials report. Shock waves from the inlet-mounted, wedge-shaped pod didn't interfere with the F-16 test aircraft's engine operation, nor did they degrade infrared and visible-light images presented on cockpit displays, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported. Tracked B-52 bomber
NASA officials came to Danville Regional Airport April 17th to tout their new Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) program, and make the point that small airports like Danville's could benefit from SATS. The program, which is overseen by the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., is intended to make greater use of the nation's 5,000 small airports to relieve congestion at the 400 major airports and make flying more accessible to people in small towns, suburbs, and rural areas.
The Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center is buying a United 747SP which it will use to test both ground-based and aircraft-based fuel tank inerting to remove flammable air and fuel mixtures, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators will be carrying very different agendas when they sit down April 18 to begin tense talks in Beijing over whether and how the U.S. will get its stranded EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane back from Hainan Island. According to the terms of a U.S. diplomatic letter to China that won the crew's release last week, the talks were supposed to be about the plane, its return, its April 1 collision with an F-8 fighter, and ways to avoid any more such incidents.
The new European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company office in Washington, DC, will handle strategy and provide direction for the multinational company's subsidiaries in the United States in a drive to achieve rapid growth. "We have a rather large presence in the U.S.," Chief Executive Officer Philippe Camus said April 17 in announcing the opening of the office. Currently, EADS has more than a dozen subsidiaries in the U.S. employing more than 1,500 people, and pumps at least $4 billion dollars into the U.S. economy each year.
Faced with mounting fourth-quarter losses and questions about its liquidity, Orbital Sciences Corp. has announced plans to sell 12.35 million shares of its MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. subsidiary to a Canadian investment group for about $111 million.
Shareholders of the the BFGoodrich Co. approved its name change to Goodrich Corp. at the Charlotte, N.C.-based company's annual meeting, the company announced April 17. The approval means the company can make the change official on June 1 to highlight Goodrich's transformation from a manufacturer of rubber products, including tires, to its present incarnation as an aerospace and industrial company.
The acting Secretary of the Navy has lambasted environmental groups for putting increasing pressure on the military, and simultaneously criticized public encroachment on land near bases and training ranges. "Every day, there is less and less free space on earth in which people may live," said acting Secretary of the Navy Robert B. Pirie, Jr. at the Navy League's annual exposition in Washington last week. "And it means the business of government will inevitably come into conflict with this dynamic."
The Senate Armed Services Committee has announced that it will hold a hearing April 24 to consider President George W. Bush's nomination of Dov Zakheim to be undersecretary of defense and comptroller.
THE BOEING CO.'s next-generation 737-900 earned type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, the company announced April 17. Validation by Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities is expected by Friday, April 20, according to the company. The certification formally recognizes the 737-900 has passed the design and testing requirements mandated by the FAA and JAA, clearing the plane for passenger service.
The U.S. space intelligence system of the future will have to anticipate the demands of its users rather than respond only to requests as it does today, and offer continuous global coverage instead of periodic views of specific areas, according to an official of the National Reconnaissance Office. Carol Staubach, director of advanced systems and technology for the NRO, also said the new system will have to be controlled by the users, be easy to operate, and offer information from a variety of sources.
ECC International Corp. of Orlando, Fla., announced it has been awarded a $4.5 million contract to produce crew station components for Lockheed Martin Information Systems' Close Combat Tactical Trainer. The contract calls for deliveries to begin in July 2001, and is the third annual CCTT production contract that ECC has received from Lockheed Martin, the company announced April 16. The production effort includes various components and major subassemblies, including new input/output and display systems.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Field Support Services, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla., is being awarded a $6,347,620 firm-fixed-price delivery order against a previously awarded basic ordering agreement (N00019-00-G-0120) to manufacture 63 Drag Tee Kits and install the following systems into the F-14/B&D aircraft: 55 drag tees, 61 nacelle elements, 13 flap slats, 11 flight control backup modules, one wing leading edge, 104 ALE-47s, six airframe changes 710 which includes a fuselage structure and aft deck installation, 10 soft mild detonation cord (SMDC) replacements, and one upgrad
Raytheon Systems Co., Goleta, Calif., is being awarded $7,265,214 as part of a $10,909,566 (base year total) firm-fixed-price contract with an estimated cumulative total of $29,810,894 if all options are exercised. The basic contract award is for 243 Standard Advanced Dewar Assemblies, Type II (SADA II) in support of the Horizontal Technology Integration (HTI) Second Generation Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) Night Vision-80 B-Kit Production Program. Work will be performed in Goleta, Calif., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2002.
Harris Corp.'s RF Communications Division, of Rochester, N.Y., has been awarded an $11 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Electronics System Center, at Hanscom AFB, Mass., to equip its Tactical Air Control Party squadrons with Falcon II AN/PRC-117F multiband/multimission manpack radios. The TACPs will use the radios to request air support using satellite communications and to direct aircraft using the very high frequency and ultra high frequency mode.
SFA, Inc., Largo, Md., is being awarded Task Order 0004 for $6,102,536 to previously awarded contract (N00014-97-D-2008) for 106,900 hours of effort in support of research, development, and application-oriented systems for sensing systems, integrated optics and communications systems supporting the Optical Techniques Development and Measurement Project. Work will be performed in Washington, D.C., and is expected to be completed by July 2002. Contract funds in the amount of $720,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and two other members of the Mississippi congressional delegation have written to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to overturn the Navy's plans to cut production of the T-45 trainer aircraft.
The four members of the Defense Departments's V-22 review panel will go before a key congressional panel in two weeks to discuss their still-unreleased findings. The Senate Armed Services Committee announced April 16 that the panel's chairman, Marine Corps Ret. Gen. John Dailey, will testify May 1, as will the three other panel members - former Lockheed Martin CEO Norman Augustine, Air Force Ret. Gen. James Davis and scholar Eugene Covert.
Imagine a non-visual orientation system that uses the sense of touch to remind a pilot which way is up. The Tactile Situational Awareness System (TSAS), currently under development at the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL) does exactly that. Developers hope that TSAS could one day greatly reduce the number of air accidents caused by spatial disorientation - a common experience among pilots that costs the Department of Defense an estimated $300 million in lost aircraft each year.
