Isogrids are among the lightest and strongest of structures, the lattice pattern of integral stiffening ribs providing extremely high strength-to-weight ratios. Lightweight isogrid panels machined from aluminum plate to produce thin-walled, self-stiffened and damage-tolerant structures are used in launch vehicles and aircraft doors. Advanced grid structures made from composites have been used for components such as payload shrouds, but require time-consuming and costly manual layup. Isogrid Composites Canada Inc.
EAST HARTFORD, Conn. — Pratt & Whitney warns that cutbacks in F-35 procurement and the termination of the F-22 will lead to at least three years of lower-volume production of fifth-generation combat engines, seriously challenging its cost-reduction goals for the Joint Strike Fighter engine. “The challenge is to get to more than 50 engines [per year], and then the volume is flat to down slightly through 2015,” says Pratt & Whitney Military Engines President Bennett Croswell. “That challenge is exacerbated by other systems coming down or going away.”
Northrop Grumman has received a $262 million U.S. Navy contract for development and initial production of the improved MQ-8C Fire Scout unmanned aircraft, based on the Bell 407 light commercial helicopter.
Composites may be replacing metals in aircraft structures, but the use of titanium is increasing both to reduce weight and because of the incompatibility of aluminum and carbon fiber. Boeing's 787 is 50% composite by structural weight, whereas its earlier 777 is only 12%, but a 787 contains almost 90 tons of titanium compared with 55 tons in a larger 777. And titanium can be around 10 times as expensive as aluminum, so pressure is on to reduce costs.
The U.S. Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office has unveiled details of its ORS-4 rail-launched satellite experiment. Dubbed “Super Stripey,” ORS-4 will combine the Scout launch missile rail system at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and at the Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii, with the Stripey target system at Sandia National Laboratory. Working with Aerojet, ORS is developing an expanded, three-stage, solid-rocket version of the original sounding rocket.
When intelligence-gathering matures from finding and following an individual or vehicle to monitoring entire groups to understand their intent, the narrow, “soda straw” field-of-view of conventional video sensors becomes a severe limitation.
As a former Darpa scientist and one of the world's foremost authorities on materials, Leo Christodoulou is accustomed to thinking out of the proverbial box when it comes to problem-solving. At the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, he applied his research expertise to developing revolutionary, new materials for the U.S. military.
BERLIN — Commercial satellite imagery provider GeoEye is proposing to buy competitor DigitalGlobe in a $792 million deal that would create the largest fleet of high-resolution imaging satellites in the world. The two companies have been in merger talks for several months, but negotiations recently broke down, GeoEye CEO and President Matt O’Connell told investors and reporters during a May 4 teleconference call.
Across composite and metallic aircraft structures, technology is being developed and deployed to minimize component lead times, reduce manufacturing costs and increase production rates. Automated processes that can take component geometry data directly from three-dimensional design databases are high on the most-desired list for aerospace manufacturers.
Lockheed Martin has launched a small precision-guided weapon from an AAI RQ-7 Shadow 200 tactical unmanned aircraft under a company-funded R&D program. The 11-lb.-class, laser-guided Shadow Hawk glide weapon scored a direct hit on the target, the company says. The U.S. Army-funded test was conducted at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah.
China specialists contend that conflict with the U.S. is inevitable and that space- and cyber-supremacy, at least for limited periods, will be deciding factors in a confrontation if a Chinese attack is unexpected, short in duration and quick in resolution.
Cutting and drilling of cured composite components during manufacture or repair are a growing challenge as structures become bigger, more complex and costly.
The U.S. faces a dilemma over the possible sale of attack helicopters to Indonesia. Industry executives say Indonesia has issued a letter of request (LOR) to buy Boeing AH-64 Apaches. This LOR comes after the country's deputy defense minister, Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, told state-run news agency Antara in February that Indonesia planned to order eight Apache attack helicopters.
Malaysia's defense needs have long caught the eye of Western arms suppliers. And with general elections due soon, one of the biggest barriers to actual purchases will finally disappear. Plans to buy 18 fighters as well as three airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft are just some of the big-ticket item decisions now on hold as the country sorts out its political future. Although the exact date for elections has yet to be set, there is a mandate that it takes place before the end of March.
Nanotechnology-enabled materials are moving into aerospace. New Hampshire-based Nanocomp Technologies is scaling up production of electrically and thermally conductive yarn, sheet and tape made from long carbon nanotubes (CNT). Spun yarn is being used to replace copper in data cables in aircraft and spacecraft, potentially halving the weight of wiring harnesses. Sheet material was used on NASA's Juno spacecraft, launched in August 2011, to provide electrostatic-discharge protection of attitude-control thruster and main-engine components.
LOST OSPREY: The investigation of the April 11 crash of a U.S. Marine Corps Bell-Boeing MV-22 Osprey in Morocco is still under way, “but we know an awful lot” thanks to the tiltrotor’s crash-survivable memory units, says Capt. Greg Masiello, V-22 joint program manager. “We are confident we know where this may go, and do not anticipate any changes to the V-22 as a result.” The two pilots were killed and two crew chiefs injured when the MV-22B from Marine Corps squadron VMM-61 crashed during a military exercise with Moroccan forces. A U.S.
F-22A costs have more than doubled and fielding has been delayed, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says, because each increment was managed under the same program, instead of as separate acquisitions that require their own justifications and milestones.
The U.S. Air Force is narrowing its focus on new combinations of factors as it explores hypoxia events that claimed the life of one F-22 pilot and plagued the fleet for more than a year.
AEHF-2: The U.S. Air Force’s second Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) spacecraft was successfully placed in orbit May 4 by a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket Liftoff from Space Launch Complex-41 at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., took place at 2:42 p.m. EDT and the rocket’s Centaur upper stage deployed the spacecraft at 3:33 p.m.
Alcoa's 50,000-ton press may not match the heft of a gargantuan 80,000-ton unit being built in China, but the metals manufacturer says its 12-story machine is the most capable in the world. A $100 million redesign and rebuild of the Cold War-era press at the company's Cleveland plant added a new hydraulic system that allows tighter tolerances during the forging of aluminum, titanium, inconel and steel parts, significantly reducing the amount of metal needed while cutting machining costs.
Automotive-style robots are moving onto the aircraft assembly line to save time and cost. Bombardier plans to use six single-arm robots to join the cockpit and fuselage sections of its CSeries airliner, saving more than 40 hr. Each 12-ton robot will be able to drill a hole and insert a fastener in 32 sec. for aluminum-lithium structures and 53 sec. for composites.
RAIDER: Sikorsky is shifting the focus of its private-venture S-97 Raider high-speed helicopter prototype program from competing for the U.S. Army’s Armed Aerial Scout (AAS) requirement to demonstrating technology for the planned Future Vertical Lift (FVL) medium program to replace the company’s UH-60 Black Hawk beginning in 2030. For AAS, the Army plans to decide between an off-the-shelf helicopter and a life extension for the Bell OH-58B Kiowa Warrior. Funded by Sikorsky and its suppliers, the $200 million Raider program includes two prototypes, to fly in 2014.
