News of the official blessing of Airbus Industrie's A3XX came as no surprise to Boeing Friday, and officials there continue to believe a super jumbo project is not in the best interests of their shareholders. "It is not true that Boeing sees absolutely no market for an aircraft larger than the 747 category," said a spokesman for Boeing. "We just see it as a small, limited market that doesn't justify the enormous - $12 to 15 billion - cost."
GOING THROUGH CHANGES: Mars experts at Malin Space Science Systems in San Diego have a new mission in life - watching the imagery coming back from the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) to see if there is liquid water flowing around on the surface right now. Dramatic pictures released last week show gullies and other landforms indicative of running water overlaying such youthful features as sand dunes, but it remains an open question if the water is still running.
Pacific Aerospace&Electronics Inc., based in Wenatchee, Wash., signed a $1.5 million contract with UPS Aviation Technologies, a subsidiary of United Parcel Service (UPS), to provide optically enhanced liquid crystal displays. "With our technology, UPS Aviation has a direct sunlight readable LCD display solution with unmatched visual performance," said Werner Hafelfinger, COO of Pacific Aerospace&Electronics. "We believe that sunlight readable optical technology is becoming a fundamental building block of future display systems."
Raytheon Co. finalized the sale of the its optic automated control systems manufacturing business to CBL Systems of Hopkinton, Mass. CBL Systems, formerly Raytheon Control-By-Light, was created to develop new fiber optic technology applications to replace or complement conventional networking media, chiefly twisted pair copper-based wiring.
AV-8B HARRIER pilot ejected safely Wednesday before the aircraft crashed near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twentynine Palms, Calif. The jet, which crashed in the Noble Pass Training Area at about 3:40 p.m., belongs to VMA-211, headquartered at MCAS Yuma, Ariz. The aircraft, according to the Marine Corps, was flying over the area as part of an exercise. Another AV-8B crashed April 15 at Yuma, but the pilot safely ejected (DAILY, April 27).
CHINESE AIR POWER: If nothing derails China's efforts to beef up its military aviation infrastructure, the balance of air power in the Taiwan Strait could shift to Beijing in a few years. According to a new Pentagon report to Congress - "The Military Power of the People's Republic of China" - China should have, or will be close to having, operational refueling and early warning/command and control aircraft after 2005.
Reports that unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down in high numbers during last year's Operation Allied Force over Yugoslavia may actually be good news for companies whose bottom lines could benefit from a slowdown in the so-called "revolution in military affairs," analysts say.
MIRCORP CREW: Russia has started training another two cosmonauts for a mission to Mir, although they are unlikely to fly paying passenger Dennis Tito with them. The Interfax news agency reports Salizhan Sharipov and Pavel Vinogradov are training at Star City for a November mission to Mir. But Tito tells reporters he won't be ready to go on his $20 million space junket until next year (DAILY, June 20).
'MISSILE DEFENSE FOR DUMMIES': Under the heading "Missile Defense for Dummies," a Senate Foreign Relations Committee "memorandum" for "members of the press" announces publication of "Ballistic Missiles: Threat and Response," a guide to anti-ballistic missile and missile defense issues. The guide includes committee hearing records, intelligence community documents, high-level correspondence, treaties and legislation.
Alliant Aerospace Propulsion Co. finished the last of three static test firings of a new solid propulsion graphite epoxy motor, the GEM-60, for Boeing's Delta IV Medium-plus family of launch vehicles. "Thanks to an outstanding team effort by everyone involved, we now have a new and more powerful booster that's ready to fly," said Jeff Foote, president of the Magna, Utah, unit of Alliant Techsystems.
The Airbus partners on Friday announced the transformation of their consortium into "Airbus Integrated Company" and agreed to formally offer the A3XX jumbo airliner to the world's airlines.
NEW RUSSIAN MISSILE DEFENSE: House Armed Services R&D subcommittee Chairman Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) says he learned recently from Russian military officials that Russia is developing a "brand new" missile defense system, the S-500. Weldon says the officials told him that Russia has "done all of the preparations for building" the S-500 but can't afford to actually build it. "I challenged them to let us help them with that system, to work together, to do a joint program," Weldon says.
FIRST PRODUCTION Traffic Management Advisor was declared operational June 21 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul en route center, six days ahead of schedule. Charles Keegan, director of FAA's Free Flight program, said the event means the agency has "turned the corner in its airspace modernization effort."
The Senate has eased a proposed restriction on the sale of Stinger ground-to-air missiles by approving the sale of replacement missiles to Persian Gulf countries. The language was approved Wednesday as part of a group of amendments to the Senate's fiscal 2001 foreign operations appropriations bill, which contains the restriction on Stinger missile sales. The amendment would keep that restriction but allow countries bordering the Gulf to buy Stinger missiles to replace those nearing the end of their shelf life.
Alliant Integrated Defense Co. and Textron Systems agreed to jointly develop and produce a tactical munition system that will serve as an alternative to anti-personnel landmines. The companies said they will propose a single concept for the U.S.
A new national poll finds voters more concerned about research that could improve the efficiency and safety of the nation's commercial airways than NASA's dwindling aeronautics research budget would indicate.
SERVICE MODULE SCHEDULE: U.S. and Russian space officials are expected to set a formal launch date for the International Space Station's Zvezda Service Module today, following a joint program review in Moscow and a general designers' review there today. Going into the Friday meeting, July 12 still seemed like the most likely date for the long-awaited keystone to future Station development to lift off on a Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.
The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations trade subcommittee expressed reservations about transferring licensing for commercial satellite exports from the State Dept. back to the Commerce Dept. as a way to reverse the recent sharp drop in U.S. satellite exports.
U.S. AIR FORCE has selected three industry teams to proceed with a competition to develop the Integrated Broadcast Service. Teams headed by BTG, Lockheed Martin and TRW were chosen by the AF's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass. IBS would manage the flow of intelligence data from satellites and sensors to warfighters.
The four Airbus Industrie partners are expected today to confirm a long-overdue agreement to form the Airbus Integrated Co. (AIC) no later than Jan. 1, 2001.
A development Space Shuttle Main Engine shut down five seconds into a 200-second test at Stennis Space Center last week after it overheated during a test of an advanced fuel turbopump designed to make Shuttle engines safer, triggering an investigation into the cause of the mishap.
Rostvertol, the Rostov-on-Don-based helicopter specialist, has presented a new version of the Mi-24 strike helicopter with uprated engines. The new turboshaft TV3-117VMA-SB3 engine modification, developed jointly by St. Petersburg-based Klimov design bureau and Ukraine's Progress engine design bureau of Zaporozhye, is based on the mass-produced TV3-117VMA, delivering take-off power of 2,400 hp, or 10% more than the basic engine.
Critics of the National Missile Defense program who say the system can't distinguish between incoming missiles and decoys are doing so with inadequate information, the director of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization said yesterday. That's because many of the discrimination technologies and techniques that the BMDO can use can't be discussed publicly, Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Research and Development.
Unable to agree on workshares or technology exchange, the European Space Agency's Council is no longer considering a next-generation cryogenic engine jointly proposed by France's SNECMA and Pratt&Whitney of the U.S. to equip an upgraded derivative of the Ariane V booster. Development "will be pursued on a purely European basis, as initially foreseen," ESA officials said.
Revenues of the Sukhoi Design Bureau Joint Stock Company grew almost sixfold in 1999 compared to 1998, generally due to R&D contracts which brought the aviation company 91.56% of its income, according to financial results approved at the annual shareholders meeting June 17. Net profit jumped 9.5 times, up to 213.867 million rubles ($7,584,000). Revenue figures were not disclosed due to the national defense nature of the company's business.
