ST. HUBERT, QUEBEC — Dextre, the special-purpose dexterous manipulator sometimes described as the hand for Canadarm2 on the International Space Station (ISS), is almost ready to begin serving as a backup for spacewalking astronauts and cosmonauts.
SIGNAL NOISE: U.S. Air Force officials say signals from the newest GPS IIF satellite are operating within specifications, though there is a variation that officials are investigating. During initial testing, Germany’s national aeronautics and space center detected more residual errors than expected when combining the satellite’s L1, L2 and L5 signals, using a technique to detect sources of location errors. Air Force officials say this variation coincides with the orbital period during the satellite’s noon and midnight turns, so it could be from thermal variations.
LONG HAUL: Qinetiq’s Zephyr solar-powered unmanned aircraft landed at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., on July 23 after 14 days and 21 minutes in the air. The U.K. technology firm is awaiting Federal Aeronautique International confirmation before claiming a record, but the flight beat the current official world record for unmanned aircraft flight duration of 30h 24min (Global Hawk), the unofficial unmanned record of 82h 37min (set by Zephyr in 2008) and the record for non-stop unrefueled flight by any aircraft of 9 days and 3 minutes (Rutan Voyager in 1986).
HELO ORDER: Oboronprom says it has sold four helicopters to Global Vectra Helicopters of India, including the first Kamov units to be acquired by an Indian operator. CEO Andrei Reus said Vectra will take two Ka-32 A11bc firefighting helicopters and a pair of Mi-172s in a deal valued at around €30 million ($36 million). The Mi-172s will be used for civil applications. Deliveries will begin in late 2010-11. Oboronprom also is tendering its Ka-226T, powered by a French Turbomeca turboshaft, for the Indian air force’s 197-unit scout helicopter award.
Flir Systems beat analysts’ expectations for second-quarter results with revenues of $331.1 million, up 19% from the same period in 2009. Flir reported operating income of $89.8 million, up 6% from 2009, and second-quarter net income of $59.5 million, compared with $55.7 million last year. “We are pleased with our performance in the second quarter as the company continues to perform well across markets and geographies,” CEO Earl Lewis told analysts July 22.
ITALIAN EYES: Italy will field Textron AAI Shadow 200 unmanned aircraft under a €51-million ($68-million) contract. Italy is the second European export customer for the Shadow 200 after Sweden, which plans to field its first systems next year. Italy is buying four systems with four air vehicles each.
FLYING AGAIN: The Australian Defense Force says its MRH90 Multi-role Helicopters will recommence flying operations imminently. This follows an incident north of Adelaide in April when an MRH90 suffered a failure in one of its two main engines. “Extensive work has been conducted by Rolls-Royce Turbomeca and our industry partners with support from the Defense Science and Technology Organization to identify the cause of the engine failure,” says Rear Adm. Mark Campbell.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Donna Thomas at [email protected]. (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) JULY 26 - 28 — Performance-based Logistics Conference, Marriott Crystal Gateway, Arlington, Va. For more information call +1 (888) 482-6012 or go to www.wbresearch.com JULY 26 - 29 — Practical Aeronautics Short Course “Introduction to Aeronautics: A Practical Perspective.: Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Call +1 (970) 877-3155 or see www. practicalaero.com
WORKER ANGST: With U.S. congressional committees enjoying a spurt of activity toward authorizing and funding NASA now that a compromise is emerging with the White House, the Aerospace Industries Association is nudging Congress to wrap up lawmaking so businesses have more certainty as they finalize hiring plans for next year. “Because many companies will be making staffing decisions for fiscal 2011 in the next month, a quickly completed NASA authorization bill is absolutely critical for the health and future vitality of the U.S. space industry,” AIA states.
LONDON — Saab is no longer promising a profitability increase, dialing back its financial outlook for the full year. The revised projection is part of the Swedish aerospace company’s half-year financial guidance, which now predicts sales and profitability will be roughly flat year-on-year. The company has dropped its earlier projection, which stated that “due to the effect of continued business improvement activities we expect profitability to increase.”
MARITIME EXERCISE: The world’s largest maritime exercise, which started off the coast of Hawaii June 23, is scheduled to wrap up August 1. Fourteen nations are participating in Rim of the Pacific (Rimpac) 2010, including Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, France, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Peru, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and the U.S. The exercise involves 32 ships, five submarines, more than 170 aircraft and more than 20,000 international military personnel.
FARNBOROUGH — Thales announced it has shipped an initial shipset of hardware for a British CH-47 Chinook cockpit upgrade being conducted under the Julius program.
FARNBOROUGH — Lockheed Martin is continuing work on a roll-on/roll-off kit to give a sophisticated intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) collection capability to the Pentagon’s C-130 fleet. Details about the so-called Shadow Harvest are scant, but company executive George Stanbridge says progress is ongoing at the advanced development arm of the C-130 manufacturer. Two kits have been ordered and three to five more are expected, he says. The program is designed to retrofit any C-130 Hercules into an intelligence collector in 24 hr.
CONTRACTOR TOLL: U.S. defense officials believe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made them more aware of the importance of contractors to their operational success — but the wars also have pointed out the need to manage and oversee them properly, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. The U.S. Defense Department’s total workforce in Iraq and Afghanistan counts 19% more contractor personnel (207,600) than uniformed personnel (175,000).
CORE INTEL: In one of the many responses last week by representatives of the U.S. intelligence community (IC) on the heels of an investigative Washington Post series, officials say 70% of the IC budget is spent on contracts, not contractors. “Those contracts cover major acquisitions such as satellites and computer systems, as well as commercial activities such as rent, food service and facilities maintenance and security,” declares the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
JOB SEARCH: According to AVIATION WEEK’s 2010 Workforce study, 40% of young professionals in aerospace & defense are looking for a new job either inside or outside their current places of employment . Preliminary results indicate that employee morale may play a significant role in these results, in addition to uncertainty over the future of the industry. “Smart companies will ‘sell’ themselves to their current employees—not just spend on recruiting outside,” says Carole Hedden, AVIATION WEEK special projects editor.
The future U.S. Army Vessel (USAV) Spearhead is expected to be delivered to the Army’s 7th Sustainment Brigade in 2012. The second ship of the Joint High Speed Vessel program, the future USNS Vigilant, will be delivered to the Navy the following year. The Army and Navy authenticated the keel for the Spearhead on July 22 at the Austal USA shipyard in Mobile, Ala., which traditionally marks the beginning of ship construction.
NASA is considering keeping shuttle Discovery as a donor vehicle after it returns from its last scheduled spaceflight this fall. “We’re having the discussions right now as to when we start to take Discovery off of flight status,” Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon said in an interview. “It may be more beneficial to us to keep Discovery in a flight-ready state as a donor vehicle in case Endeavour or Atlantis needed any parts that we didn’t have sufficient stock of.”
FARNBOROUGH — The Joint Strike Fighter’s distributed aperture system (DAS) could be useful for ballistic missile defense, according to Tom Burbage, executive vice president of F-35 program integration at Lockheed Martin. During a recent flight of the system on Northrop Grumman’s BAC-111 testbed near Baltimore, the electro-optical/infrared system captured the launch of a Falcon 9 rocket from 650 mi. away. Burbage hinted at the development during his JSF briefing to reporters July 19 at the Farnborough International Airshow.
HOUSTON — Spacewalking cosmonauts expect to complete the external outfitting of the new Russian Rassvet mini research and docking module during an excursion outside the International Space Station early next week. The six-hour spacewalk by Fyodor Yurchikhin and Mikhail Kornienko is scheduled to get underway July 26 at 11:45 p.m. EDT.
FARNBOROUGH — Pakistan Air Force (PAF) Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman is here at this year’s Farnborough International Airshow inspecting the two Joint Fighter (JF)-17 Thunder fighter aircraft, initially designed and produced at Chengdu Aerospace Corp. in China’s Sichuan province. The JF-17s are now being produced at the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex in Kamra, and according to the PAF chief, cooperation with China is likely to increase.
A malfunction of seals between the scramjet engine and its nozzle is believed to be responsible for the Boeing X-51A WaveRider experimental hypersonic vehicle failing to reach the planned Mach number on its May 25 first flight. Leakage of hot gases from the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne scramjet is thought to have generated unexpected side forces on the vehicle and resulted in a slower acceleration and shorter duration than planned.
Orbital Sciences reduced its margin guidance for the rest of the year to between 5% and 5.5%, a 50 basis point reduction, due to changes in NASA’s Orion spacecraft program. Apart from that correction, Orbital posted a strong second quarter, with revenues of $337.7 million, up 25% from 2009. Operating income was $12.2 million for the second quarter, compared with $12.8 million last year.
