To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Mar. 19 - 21 — International Academy of Astronautics/American Astronautical Society's Conference on Dynamics & Control of Space Systems, Hotel Ipanema, Porto, Portugal. For more information go to www.astrodynamics.org.pt Mar. 19 - 22 — Introduction to Aeronautics, National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, Va. For more information call (970) 887-3155 or go to www.practicalaero.com
BARCELONA, Spain — French researchers hope to complete a number of qualification tests over the coming months to clear the way for the start of hypersonic flight trials beginning late next year.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: Florida’s longtime Democratic senator and two recent tea party additions to the state’s congressional delegation are teaming to have the Space Coast designated a special zone in need of extra government assistance. The would-be Shuttle Workforce Revitalization Act, cosponsored by Sens. Bill Nelson (D) and Marco Rubio (R), looks to designate Brevard County as a “historically underutilized business zone,” or HUBZone. The designation gives small businesses in areas deemed economically challenged preference when the government doles out contracts.
The stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter — as well as other advanced aircraft and ships — have a newly emerging vulnerability. Their continual, wide-angle field-of-view radars can be attacked with cyberweapons. Such electronic invasion devices form data-beams packed with malware and direct them into a target radar’s antenna. They are being developed in the Asia-Pacific region by several nations, particularly China, specifically to electronically attack, jam, invade and exploit high-value airborne targets, according to U.S. electronic warfare (EW) specialists.
SERVICE COMPETITION: According to the Government Accountability Office, in fiscal 2011, the competition rate for Pentagon dollars obligated on contracts and task orders for non-research and development services was 78% versus for 41% for products. The R&D services competition rate was 59%. A Defense Department procurement official explained that non-R&D services may be more commercial in nature than products, so there are more providers available to compete.
Jilted by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to press ahead with its ExoMars program in partnership with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which plans to contribute Proton launch vehicles and a new entry, descent and landing system to the ambitious two-pronged Mars mission in 2016 and 2018. Russia’s arrival as the savior of ExoMars is not without cost, however, as ESA now will have to fund development of a rover for the 2018 mission that NASA had previously planned to share.
BARCELONA, Spain — Thales is readying for the first flight trials of its Dual-Mode Airborne Seeker (Dumas), with the goal of validating the technology in the coming months before embarking upon a more extensive program later this year. An initial series of flights will focus on demonstrating the basic functionality of Dumas, which combines an imaging infrared sensor for wide-area search with a laser radar for target detection and identification. The lidar image will be used by automatic target-recognition algorithms.
After Lockheed Martin completes flights of the flying-wing X-56A for the U.S. Air Force, NASA plans to use the experimental unmanned aircraft to develop active control systems for slender, flexible wings on future, highly efficient transport aircraft. Transfer of the aircraft from the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is expected around the end of the year, with NASA flights planned to begin by the end of 2013, following development of a new research flight-control system, says NASA Dryden Flight Research Center engineer Starr Ginn.
Lockheed Martin is preparing for the first flight test of a low-cost interceptor designed to counter rocket, artillery and mortar threats. The control test vehicle flight, planned for May, is to be followed in late summer by the first intercept test. The vertical-launched missile is being developed under the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center’s Extended Area Protection and Survivability (EAPS) science and technology program.
NEW DELHI — Mirroring China’s military buildup, India is raising its defense spending by 13% to 1.93 trillion rupees ($38.6 billion) to fast-track the modernization of its armed forces. In real terms, the boost in defense allocation amounts to 224.7 billion rupees over the revised estimates of 1.71 trillion rupees for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012. Discounting this increase of 65.22 billion rupees, the hike comes to 17.6% over the 1.64 trillion rupees originally allocated.
NEW DELHI — India’s budget for space projects will see a slight increase of just over 1% for the 2012/2013 fiscal year, as the country’s space agency prepares human spaceflight missions and readies its long-awaited Geostationary Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk. III, designed to make India self-reliant in boosting heavier communication satellites.
BARCELONA, Spain — The German defense ministry is considering an upgrade of the Taurus cruise missile currently operational on its Tornado fighter. A key element of the upgrade would be a data link to allow the missile to provide battle damage information, and possibly inflight retargeting, also providing an anti-ship capability to the weapon. The full scope of the upgrade package has not been set, however.
April 2-3, 2012 Dallas, TX Dallas Convention Center Engine MRO comes to North America — the largest engine market! Co-located with MRO Americas -- Free access to the exhibition! Registertoday! www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
CLEVELAND, Ohio — NASA should cut back on the breadth of its aeronautics research to free up funds within a flat budget to return to X-plane flight research, says a new report by the National Research Council (NRC). At only 3% of the space agency’s budget, aeronautics research funding is spread too thinly and unable to advance projects to the flight stage, which is vital to convincing industry and regulators to adopt new technologies, the report says
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Launch of the next hypersonic flight experiment under a U.S.-Australian joint program has been scheduled for May 1, from Kauai, Hawaii, carrying a supersonic-combustion ramjet payload to Mach 8.5 on a two-stage sounding rocket. Stakes are high following the failure of the second X-51A scramjet engine demonstrator flight in June 2011. The hydrocarbon-fueled, free-flying X-51 is expected to fly again in the summer, but the hypersonics research community needs a success.
An Astrium-built Russian satellite stranded in a useless orbit by a Proton launch mishap last summer may be salvaged to provide broadband satellite links to scientists working in Antarctica, according to one of the effort’s organizers. A working group of Russian agencies and companies with a stake in the disposition of Express-AM4 will decide later this month what to do with the spacecraft, which has been declared a total loss by its insurance underwriter (Aerospace DAILY, Sept. 12, 2011).
LONDON — European engine makers MTU and Avio have followed the lead of aircraft makers EADS Cassidian and Alenia Aermacchi in teaming up for potential cooperation in the field of medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) engines.
INDUSTRIAL STRATEGY: The British Parliament will scrutinize whether the U.K. government’s new defense industrial policy will provide the potential to address future threats. The body’s defense committee has just launched the new inquiry, only six weeks after the Defense Ministry published its industrial strategy white paper. That document caused some anxiety in industry because of its emphasis on buying off-the-shelf equipment and its lack of concrete steps to preserve industrial capabilities.
U.S. Air Force planners expect commercial communications satellites to have an ever-larger role in the operation of remotely piloted aircraft (RPAs) as war-on-terror funding dwindles and the U.S. military’s focus shifts to other theaters, including Africa, Latin America and the U.S. border regions.
HOUSTON — Robonaut 2, NASA’s five-year-old collaboration with automaker GM, has generated a prototype Human Grasp Assist device, or Robo-Glove, that shows promise as an aide to manufacturers and their workers by lowering the risk of costly repetitive-stress injuries as well as to spacewalking astronauts by enhancing their grip.
