Raytheon Co. has completed site acceptance testing of the Beijing Expansion system, which will double the number of radar controller positions in the Beijing air traffic control center. The expanded system will further allow the Civil Aviation Administration of China to handle the growth in air traffic and provide improved safety for the Beijing region, Raytheon said. Y2K tests were successfully implemented in June.
MORE PILOTS STAYING: The U.S. Air Force may have solved its pilot retention problem, according to Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Ryan. More experienced pilots are choosing to accept a signing bonus and stay with the service. This year, 41% of eligible pilots are renewing their contracts with the service, rather than leave at the end of their first tour of duty. Only 27% made similar decisions last year.
HIGH SPEED: The Pentagon's Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Technology (IHPTET) program is tapping into technology developed under NASA's High Speed Research (HSR) program, which the U.S. space agency cancelled in its fiscal 2000 budget request. During an Institute for Defense Analyses workshop at the Ohio Aerospace Institute last month, researchers from NASA's Glenn Research Center briefed their IHPTET counterparts on combustor, nozzle, fan, inlet, disk/blade and propulsion system integration, according to Glenn Center Director Campbell.
Hughes Space and Communications Co. has acquired exclusive rights to develop a high-performance, all silicon microgyroscope for commercial space applications, drawing on technology it developed with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Europe's Arianespace consortium launched a Lockheed Martin A2100 communications satellite for Indonesia's P.T. Telekomunikasi late Thursday, putting the 5,800-pound satellite into geostationary transfer orbit.
NEW HELO MISSIONS: Rear Adm. Jim Robb, head of naval aviation plans and requirements, predicts helicopters will no longer be relegated to support roles in the U.S. Navy. "They are becoming a part of the main battle group [aboard carriers]," he says. The Navy is moving to fewer aircraft and assigning more missions to each one, and helicopters, like the SH-60R just entering the flight test phase, are no different.
A new C-130H3 weapon system trainer that will train 180 aircrews a year has been fielded at Dobbins Air reserve Base in Marietta, Ga. Raytheon Co., which built the simulator, said it will be used six days a week, 18 hours a day.
Workers at Boeing's Everett, Wash., plant have begun assembling the main-deck floor grids of the 747-400F aircraft that will become the carrier of the U.S. Air Force's first Airborne Laser (ABL). This week, major assembly work begins on the wing, followed the next week by work on the airplane's body sections. Rollout is scheduled for December 1999. The plane will then be delivered to Wichita, Kan., for an 18-month modification program.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) said it has acquired a 33% interest in a new South African defense electronics company, Reutech Radar Systems. DASA gave no financial details, but said it views the deal as "a first strategic step in a comprehensive partnership." Purpose of the arrangement, it said, is "mutual support in opening new markets in Africa and Western Europe." Reutech specializes in ground-based and shipborne radar systems, and is active in the air defense, airspace control and air traffic control markets, DASA said.
GPS HEADS-UP: GPS satellites are slated to roll over into a new 1,024-week cycle on Saturday, Aug. 21. The U.S. Air Force doesn't expect any major problems but is the offering some advice to consumers with non-compliant systems. "To counter possible EOW (end-of week) problems, users should have contingency plans with suitable workarounds or recovery procedures," it says. "For a majority of problems that could be encountered, simply cycling the power of the receiver, clearing the memory and obtaining a new almanac should solve the problem."
The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) flew about six miles in its first successful unpowered guided flight last week, according to Dale Bridges, technical director of the program for the U.S. Air Force. All objectives were achieved in the flight, which followed launch by a F-16 at 15,000 feet and .7 Mach over White Sands Missile Range N.M. (DAILY, Aug. 13).
JAPAN JOINS U.S. ON TMD: The U.S. and Japanese governments today are slated to formally sign a memorandum of agreement to conduct a five-year cooperative research and development program on naval theater missile defense (TMD). The effort will focus on technology related to the U.S. Navy's Theater Wide program, centering on components related to Standard Missile III including the nose cone, sensor and advanced kill vehicle, according to U.S. government officials. The plan, in the works for months, includes a 50/50 cost share.
'MOST DANGEROUS PLACE': U.S. Air Force Gen. Patrick K. Gamble, commander of Pacific Air Forces, says " ... Korea is the most dangerous place around ... certainly for PACAF and U.S. Pacific Command. PACAF's annual exercise with South Korea is slated for next week. It features no live firing, but it is a continual issue with North Korea.
R.T. JONES, a pioneer of swept-back wing designs, died last Wednesday at his home in Los Altos Hills, Calif. He was 89. A senior scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, Jones developed the swept-wing theory in 1944, for which he was awarded the Sylvanus Albert Reed Award in 1946. At Ames he invented and refined the oblique wing, which pivots a straight wing on a center mount attached to an airplane's fuselage. The approach has been studied as a way to retrieve Space Shuttle solid-fuel boosters after flight (DAILY, Aug. 3).
FLOW PATH: NASA's Glenn Research Center has hot-fire tested the flowpath for a rocket-based combined cycle engine in its hypersonic test facility, achieving 300 pounds of thrust in a 16% scale flowpath at Mach 6. Glenn Director Donald J. Campbell tells NASA's senior staff work is progressing smoothly as researchers strive to identify performance of the trailblazer RBCC system, which uses ambient gaseous hydrogen as a fuel in the first fueled test of the flowpath.
Table details SAR programs as of June 30 Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) programs as of June 30, 1999, are detailed in the following table, released by the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DAILY, Aug. 3). Dollar figures are in millions. Changes To Date Cost Base Base Current Weapon System Year Year $ Year $ Quantity
Robert L. Sackheim, manager of TRW's Propulsion Systems Center, has been named deputy director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, in charge of space propulsion systems. Sackheim, who started his career in space propulsion on the Titan II as an Air Force officer in 1960, will oversee all space exploration activities at Marshall, which is NASA's lead center for space transportation and microgravity research. He starts work in September, NASA said.
COMMERCIAL STATION: NASA-backed legislation that seeks to ease commercialization on the International Space Station hasn't really gathered traction on Capitol Hill, having arrived too late to attract much interest before the August recess. But the U.S. space agency is forging ahead with negotiations on commercial deals anyway, and has signed at least one preliminary agreement that cleared the way for agency representatives to talk serious money with would-be space entrepreneurs.
HOT SEAT: U.S. Air Force maintenance personnel at Luke AFB, Ariz., are in the hot seat following six F-16 crashes there since October. But Maj. Gen. Paul Bielowicz, the AF's director of aircraft engines, tells them that parts shortages and long hours are "not business as usual." He says that "We are faced with a situation now where the combination of ops tempo and funding shortfalls have created a bow wave of requirements for aircraft engines." But he is optimistic that funding is in the works for replacement parts.
The U.S. Army H-1 Huey program office is seeking money in the next Pentagon budget proposal to join the U.S. Marine Corps Huey upgrade program, officials in both program offices have confirmed.
The recent discovery of a crack in a transmission gearbox case in one of the Royal Air Force's 31 Boeing Chinook HC.2 medium-lift helicopters during a routine inspection has re-opened a controversy in the U.K. concerning the CH-47D's safety record.
U.S. AIR FORCE Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) completed its first successful unpowered guided flight yesterday after launch from an F-16 over White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The missile separated from the fighter in level flight at 15,000 feet and 0.7 Mach, said Buff Tibbits, head of test and evaluation for the Air Force on the program. "All objectives were achieved," he said.
The U.S. Air Force's new air combat training facility, the Nellis Air Combat Training System (NACTS), completed site systems testing at Nellis AFB, Nev., Cubic Defense Systems reported. Cubic Defense, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Cubic Corp., is building and installing the system under contract with the Air Force.
New Zealand's government approved the purchase of a fifth Kaman SH-2G(NZ) Super Seasprite helicopter for the Royal New Zealand Navy, the Ministry of Defense reported yesterday.
Raytheon Co. won a $12.8 million subcontract from Motorola to integrate Army Tactical Operations Centers (TOCs). The 4-1/2 year contract supports Motorola's recently awarded prime contract with the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command for the development and fielding of updated TOCs to the Army's 4th Infantry and 1st Cavalry Divisions. They are the first Army Divisions to be provided with command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) equipment featuring modern digital electronics.
