The futuristic ion engine powering NASA's Deep Space 1 probe toward an encounter with Comet Borrelly this September has run for more than 10,000 hours - 50 times longer than was initially required. The engine only needed to complete 200 hours of operation to be considered a success. But on March 21, it passed the 10,000-hour mark and it is expected to exceed 14,000 hours by the time it wraps up the mission at the comet, NASA said.
Agusta Aerospace Corp. has selected the BFGoodrich Co.'s collision avoidance, navigation and standby instrumentation systems for the A-109 E Power helicopter, which it supplies to the U.S. Coast Guard. The initial order is to outfit the helicopters with the BFGoodrich TCAS I Collision Avoidance Systems and Tactical Air Navigation (TACAN) systems as well as model AI-803 Standby Attitude Indicators.
Delivery of the Air Force's newest C-17s, which include new equipment, began in late March, the Air Force announced April 5. The Block 12 C-17s are the first to incorporate Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) and the Extended Range Fuel System (ERF). GATM is a concept for satellite-based communication, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management, and give the C-17 the capacity to fly in civilian routes. It includes an improved Multifunction Display and the Traffic Collision Avoidance System.
SPEEDIER SUPPLEMENTALS: House Armed Services Committee member Walter Jones (R-N.C.), whose congressional district includes Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station and several other military and Coast Guard installations, is proposing legislation that would set up an expedited process for Congress to consider Defense Dept. and Coast Guard supplemental spending bills. Jones' bill would restrict debate and procedural motions and limit a supplemental to ammunition procurement and other critical items.
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of April 6 gave the wrong name for the nominated commander of the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command. He is Major Gen. Joseph Cosumano.
UCAVS AT SEA: The Navy is on track to eventually deploy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs) at sea, although there are still safety issues that must be addressed, according to Rear Adm. John V. Chenevey. "Clearly we have a roadmap that takes us to a carrier-based UCAV, and we will get there," says Chenevey.
QUINTEK TECHNOLOGIES, Inc. will provide NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with aperture card imaging equipment to give JPL an automated means of producing 100-year aperture card media directly from online image files. The media will be used primarily for archiving engineering drawings and other critical information. Quintek supplies chemical-free equipment, software, media and services used to reserve digital data and insure against information due to catastrophic events, computer viruses, technological obsolescence, media degradation and other problems.
A review panel examining the Osprey V-22 tiltrotor program will hold its second open meeting on April 18, 2001. It will begin at 9 a.m. and end no later than 12 p.m., according to a notice from the Dept. of Defense in the Federal Register. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1489 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Ballroom, Mezzanine Level, in Arlington, Va. Public seating will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
CAE of Toronto is joining Team Cormorant in its bid for the Maritime Helicopter Program, the $2.9 billion (Cdn) project to replace the Canadian Navy's aging Sea King helicopters, the company announced April 5. Team Cormorant partners include the founding companies, Agusta, Westland and EHI, as well as Bell Helicopter Textron of Mirabel, Quebec and the Boeing Co.
Fairchild Dornier said it completed an initial round of test flights of the 728JET fly-by-wire flight control system using a Veridian Flight Research Group Learjet, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported. Ten test flights were flown at Veridian's facility in Buffalo, N.Y. with 728JET aerodynamic characteristics and flight control parameters loaded into the specially configured Learjet's computers to replicate the stability and control characteristics of the jetliner.
Two members of the House Science space subcommittee revealed yesterday they plan to introduce bills that would provide tax incentives to encourage commercial investment in space. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), who chairs the space panel, is writing a bill that would impose a 25-year tax moratorium on commercial items made in space, an aide told The DAILY. The "zero gravity, zero tax" legislation will be similar to bills he has introduced in previous years.
Iridium Eurasia head Yuri Prokhorov said his company may ask Russia's Ministry of Telecommunications to ban Iridium satellite network use over its territory due to concerns the satellite telephones are being used by Chechen insurgents. Iridium Satellite LLC, which bought the assets of the bankrupt Iridium LLC Dec. 12, 2000, announced March 28 it had launched a new satellite telephone service (DAILY March 29).
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS has delivered the components for the new Canadian CF-18 Air Combat Maneuvering Instrumentation (ACMI) system which will replace an existing system used by fighter pilots for training at Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake, Alberta.
A recent government decision to put the Ministry of Defence's Defence Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) on a more commercial basis was confirmed April 5 by Armed Forces Minister John Spellar, who announced a formal change in its status to that of a Trading Fund. "DARA is now at the threshold of a new era, which will open many commercial doors for the organization," he said.
New findings from two X-ray satellites, including NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, suggest that gamma-ray bursts may be created in the same area of the universe where stars are born. Dr. Luigi Piro of the Consiglio Nazionale delle Richerche in Rome, Italy, presented data from the Chandra observatory and the Italian-Dutch ASI BeppoSAX observatory at the Gamma Ray 2001 conference in Baltimore, Md., on April 4.
MICROVISION, Inc. of Bothell, Wash. announced April 4 it will receive a contract modification for an additional $7.5 million from the U.S. Army Aircrew Integrated Systems Product Office, awarded through the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD). Microvision will modify the Virtual Cockpit Optimization Program (VCOP) and the Aircrew Integrated Helmet System (AIHS) for use in attack and utility helicopters, the company said.
TRW has announced the launch of TRW Aeroservices, which it said is available for all aircraft parts regardless of the original manufacturer. "The service provides a one-stop shop for all repair orders and optimizes customer services by placing orders at the lowest turn-time repair shop to any TRW-owned or independent approved repair shop worldwide," it said. The service, www.trw.com/aeroservices, has been beta-tested with several customers and is now available for commercial use, the company said.
Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., has been awarded a two-year, $9.4 million production contract for telemetry modules supporting the U.S. Air Force Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM). This is a follow-on to the original contract awarded to Harris in 1991, bringing the overall value of the program for Harris to $92 million. There are also options for up to an additional 150 units, for a potential value of $105 million by 2003, according to the company.
DERCO AEROSPACE, Inc. of Charlotte, N.C. will use the BFGoodrich Co.'s GH-3000 Electronic Standby Instrument System for its avionics upgrade work for the Botswana Defence Force's C-130 fleet.
NASA's European partners on the International Space Station Alpha may be able to build some crucial pieces of the station that the U.S. space agency has had to forego in the face of a projected $4 billion cost overrun, NASA told Congress on Wednesday. The Italians, for example, are interested in building the long-planned U.S. habitation module that could stretch the size of the station's crew from the current three members to seven, Aerospace Daily affiliate AviationNow.com reported.
As the U.S. Army moves forward with its major transformation effort, its Aviation Branch plays a key role in the "systems of systems" concept of the objective force. The Army must still sustain readiness and availability as it moves to the objective force, which requires upgrading the capabilities of aging systems. The Army plan is to fade out its legacy force by 2008 as it moves into its objective force, with the interim brigade serving as a bridge from 2006 to 2007.
The Senate agreed late Wednesday to add $8.5 billion in defense spending to the fiscal 2002 budget resolution but rejected an amendment to add $100 billion for the military over the next decade.
A passive radiative cooler built by business and technology consulting firm Arthur D. Little will be a critical part of NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission, which is scheduled for launch Saturday, the firm said. The company's passive radiative cooler has been customized for use in 27 previous space launches, but this is the first time it will go to Mars, according to the Massachusetts-based firm.
The U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center hopes to speed painfully slow conventional procurement processes by inviting potential info-tech system suppliers for air operations centers to set up demonstrations on site, where users can test-drive systems without any commitment and decide right away what they need. The air operations centers, or AOCs - nerve centers of any air campaign - need injections of information technology, and fast. But today's info-tech companies advance the state of the art faster than the service can buy it.
Northrop Grumman, larger and more diversified after its recent purchase of Litton Industries, estimates it will increase sales from $15 billion in 2001 to $18 billion in 2003, said Kent Kresa, the chairman, president and CEO of the corporation. Even at the $13.7 billion mark for last year, Kresa said, Northrop Grumman ranks third in defense and federal business revenue behind Boeing at $22 billion and Lockheed Martin at $24.3 billion.
