HYBRID UAV: Rheinmetall Airborne Systems and Swiss UAV are teaming to offer a hybrid UAV — part helicopter, part fixed-wing aircraft — that they say will meet a wide range of missions. The TU-150, still in the concept phase, was unveiled at the recent ILA Berlin Airshow. Hybrid helo/winged UAVs are not new — there was the ill-fated Bell Eagle Eye for the U.S. Coast Guard — and the Army has eyed a potentially unmanned Quad Tiltrotor idea from Bell Helicopter Textron for years.
Honeywell company UOP has received a U.S. Defense Department (DOD) grant to revamp a refinery on the U.S. West Coast to supply up to 22 million gal. a year of bio-derived diesel and jet fuel. The agreement is part of a Pentagon-led effort to scale up production and drive down the costs of advanced biofuels as drop-in replacements for conventional kerosene fuels.
Two U.S. Marine Corps F-35B pilots executed the first two aerial refuelings for the stealthy aircraft from the service’s KC-130J during an Oct. 2 mission. During the flight, an instructor pilot, Maj. Ty Bachman, and student, Maj. Paul Holst, each connected with the KC-130J and took on fuel, a first for the 33rd Fighter Wing, which handles F-35 pilot training at Eglin AFB, Fla. The aircraft took on only about 2,000 lb. of fuel at a speed of about 230 kt. and altitude of 15,000 ft., Holst tells Aviation Week.
Tests of the high pressure-ratio core for a future variable-cycle fighter engine are to begin this week at General Electric’s Evendale, Ohio, facility under the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory’s (AFRL) Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (Advent) program. Rolls-Royce, meanwhile, delivered its Advent core to the test rig at Indianapolis last week in preparation for testing over the next several months. GE and Rolls will run full engine demonstrators next year under the Advent program.
AIR FORCE United Launch Services, Littleton, Colo. (FA8811-13-C-0001), is being awarded a $1,167,800,000 cost plus incentive fee and cost plus fixed fee contract for launch capability for the Delta IV and Atlas V. The location of the performance is Littleton. The work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2013. The contracting activity is SMC/LRK, Los Angeles AFB, Calif. NAVY
ARMY Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., was awarded a $242,247,456 firm-fixed-price contract. The award will provide for the modification of an existing contract to procure UH-60M Plus-Up Helicopters. The work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of Sept. 16, 2016. One bid was solicited, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (W58RGZ-12-C-0008). NAVY
ARMY General Dynamics Land Systems Inc., Sterling Heights, Mich., was awarded a $395,462,993 cost-plus-incentive-fee contract. The award will provide for the research, development and testing for the Engineering Change Proposal in support of the Abrams tank. The work will be performed in Sterling Heights and Lima, Ohio, with an estimated completion date of April 30, 2020. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with one bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Warren, Mich., is the contracting activity (W56HZV-12-C-0322).
The National Space Biomedical Research Institute’s (NSBRI) Industry Forum is seeking competitive proposals for up to $250,000 in financial assistance under its Space Medicine and Related Technologies Commercialization Assistance Program to make traditional medical services suitable for human spaceflight applications or adapt advances in space medicine for use in traditional medical care. The deadline for submissions in the first of a two-stage competition process is Nov. 5. The Industry Forum will select successful first stage applicants by Dec. 10.
CYBER ACTION: Despite near-unanimous agreement about the need to shore up U.S. cyber defenses, Congress has not been able to agree on the details of cybersecurity legislation. Now Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, is among the lawmakers calling on President Barack Obama to address the issue through his executive authority.
NAPLES, Italy — The space programs of the world are likely to become more competitive in the decades ahead, as industry takes a larger role in human access to space, but space agency leaders say spacefaring nations still must take the lead in pushing the boundaries of human exploration.
United Space Alliance (USA), NASA’s Houston-based space shuttle prime contractor, laid off 157 workers on Sept. 28 as program retirement and transition activities wind down. The losses — 121 personnel in the Cape Canaveral area; 35 in Houston; and one in Huntsville, Ala. — leave the space operations company with a workforce of 2,263. More layoffs are planned for December and January, though the numbers are not clear since disposal of other shuttle program assets and records is continuing, USA spokeswoman Tracy Yates said Oct. 1.
Lockheed Martin is not planning to notify its employees of layoffs related to the potential $1 trillion in federal spending cuts due to take effect Jan. 2. The company’s decision is in response to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) telling contractors the government will assume liability for businesses that do not warn employees of layoffs related to massive potential budget cuts known as sequestration.
LONDON — Initial feasibility studies of a high-speed passenger aircraft designed to fly from Paris to Tokyo in less than 3 hr. have so far unearthed no major environmental obstacles to development, researchers say.
EADS and BAE Systems are facing even stronger headwinds for their merger plans 10 days ahead of the Oct. 10 deadline, with the CEO of major EADS shareholder Lagardere issuing a public statement demanding significant changes to the negotiated arrangements. Lagardere CEO Arnaud Lagardere says that “despite the industrial and strategic logic attributed to it, this plan has not yet demonstrated that it was creating value for EADS.” Therefore “Lagardere considers that the merger conditions between EADS and BAE Systems are currently unsatisfactory.”
BRUSSELS — Astrium Services will procure military satcom services on behalf of five European nations as part of a three-year agreement with the European Defense Agency (EDA), the first such contract awarded under EDA’s new European Satellite Communications Procurement Cell (ESCPC) initiative.
