Regarding J2X rocket engines for Ares launch vehicles and your In Orbit item “Billion-Dollar Baby” (AW&ST July 23, p. 15), it is an unfortunate result of the rush to return to the Moon and venture to Mars that the U.S. will spend $1.2 billion for eight engines, or $150 million each. This is an exorbitant amount for powerplants that have been developed and successfully flown, but which are inefficient and polluting.
If the Russian cyber-attack on Estonia’s government and banks was the first shot of the cyberwar, the U.S. may have fired the second into Al Qaeda’s network of jihadist web sites—or third or fourth, depending on how they’re counted.
USN Rear Adm. (lower half) William E. Shannon, 3rd, has been appointed vice commander of Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. He was assistant commander for logistics and industrial operations. Shannon will be succeeded by Rear Adm. (lower half) Michael D. Hardee, who also will be commander of the command’s Navy Fleet Readiness Centers.
Orbital Sciences Corp. has selected Aerojet AJ-26/NK-33 liquid oxygen/kerosene engines for the first stage of its Taurus 2 mid-class launch vehicle, which is in development as a proposed Delta 2 replacement. The original Soviet NK-33 design was used in the first stage of the N-1 Moon rocket (see photo), which failed in four unmanned test flights.
The ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system has logged more than 50,000 flight hours since it was deployed in 2004 by the U.S. Defense Dept., including 11,000 with the U.S. Navy. ScanEagle is also logging extensive combat flying hours with the U.S. Marine Corps in Iraq.
Ukraine and Russia are attempting to rebuild their sometimes strained relationship in aerospace using the Antonov An-148 regional jet program as a template.
Yuri Gawdiak has been named head of the Systems Analysis Support Div. of the U.S. Joint Planning and Development Office. He was manager of the Engineering for Complex Systems program for NASA. Sherry Borener has become special assistant to the JPDO director for industry affairs. She was head of the Systems Engineering and Analysis Div.
Rockwell Collins is sharing a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) with dealers to facilitate installation of Pro Line 21 integrated display systems on Dassault Falcon 50 aircraft. The liquid crystal display upgrade incorporates existing TCAS, terrain-awareness warning systems, communications equipment and flight management systems. Rockwell Collins also owns STCs for Pro Line 21 on Piaggio P-180s and Hawker 800As, and has them pending for Hawker Beechcraft King Air 200s and C90s.
National Nuclear Security Administration officials have converted the only civilian research reactor in Vietnam, in the mountain town of Dalat, from highly enriched uranium to low-enriched fuel, and they returned 10 lb. of remaining highly enriched uranium to Russia. The U.S. removed its fuel from the facility in 1975 in a secret, two-aircraft operation only hours before the town fell to North Vietnamese forces.
Wayne H. Goodman (see photo) has been appointed general manager of the Military Satellite Communications Div. of The Aerospace Corp. , El Segundo, Calif. He has been general manager of the Launch and Satellite Control Div. Goodman succeeds Manuel De Ponte, who has been named senior vice president of the corporation’s National Systems Group, Chantilly, Va. De Ponte, in turn, succeeds Wanda M. Austin, who will become president/CEO on Jan. 1. Principal engineer Frederic J. Agardy (see photo) has been appointed the division’s chief architect, and John S.
USAF Maj. Gen. Robert M. Worley, 2nd, has been appointed director of programs/deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs at the Pentagon. He was deputy director. Brig. Gen. Gregory A. Biscone has been named deputy director of operations at U.S. Central Command, MacDill AFB, Fla. He was commander of the 509th Bomb Wing of Air Combat Command (ACC), Whiteman AFB, Mo. He will be succeeded by Brig. Gen. (select) Garrett Harencak, who has been deputy director for requirements at ACC Headquarters, Langley AFB, Va. Brig. Gen. Michael A.
Saab has not entered the bidding for Airbus facilities, but the supplier still hopes that even without a direct industrial stake it will be able to secure important supplier contracts on the A350XWB twin widebody.
Symmetricom Inc.’s XLi SAASM Ground-Based GPS Receiver Application Module (GB-GRAM), an ultra precision time-and-frequency instrument, has been granted security approval by the GPS Wing, meeting the latest requirements of the U.S. Defense Dept. The GB-GRAM program fulfills an initiative to migrate to a defined, open system architecture for ground-based embedded military applications.
Ramon Lugo has been named deputy director of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. He succeeds Richard S. Christiansen, who has retired. Lugo was deputy manager of the Launch Services Program at the NASA Kennedy Space Center. Other recent appointments at NASA Glenn are: Thomas Hartline, director of safety and mission assurance; William R. Humphries, deputy director of programs and projects; Robert W. Moorehead, director of space flight systems; George R. Schmidt, deputy director of the Research and Technology Directorate; David L.
Development work on the hybrid rocket engine for the Scaled Composites/Virgin Group’s Spaceship Co.’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) commercial space vehicle remains at a standstill while investigators continue to seek the cause of the July 26 explosion that killed three employees during component tests. Scaled President Burt Rutan says, “we still have no confidence in knowing what really caused it,” and adds that all engine testing remains on hold while the inquiry continues.
Industry Canada has approved the acquisition of Telesat Canada by Loral Space and Communications and PSP Investments, a Canadian pension fund. The Canadian green light leaves the U.S. Federal Communications Commission as the final regulatory hurdle to be cleared in the $2.95-billion deal.
The art and science of computer forensics—capturing images from “erased” drives and reconstructing files—sometimes happens at computers or workstations in the field. Acme Portable Machines Inc.’s lunchbox-style portable workstation is capable of capturing evidence from off-site SCSI, IDE and SATA drives—three at a time, according to the company. The unit employs a 2.13-GHz. Intel core 2-duo E6400 processor backed by 2 gigabytes (GB) of RAM (expandable to 8). Gigabyte Ethernet, USB 2.0 and Firewire (IEEE 1394B PCI) are incorporated to speed communications, and a 17-in.
JetAlliance Group has ordered an Airbus A319-based ACJ business jet, powered by CFM56 engines. The Austrian company already is a customer for one ACJ and three A318 Elites. JetAlliance also has ordered 10 Cessna Citation business jets, valued at $105 million, with deliveries scheduled in 2009-10. This is a follow-on to the charter operator’s May order for 25 Citations.
The U.S. Army will continue to retrofit UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters with T700-701D engines under a $30-million contract awarded to GE Aviation. The program could involve more than 5,000 engines, and GE estimates its long-term value at more than $1.5 billion.
Russian bombers have been flying in airspace managed by Finland, Norway and Iceland, and air traffic controllers have had scant information on these aircraft or their intentions, according to one civil ATC official in the region, who adds that this is a cause for concern. The Russian aircraft are being tracked by air defense radars and intercepted by the Royal Norwegian Air Force and the British Royal Air Force. The U.S. Air Force used to base F-15s in Iceland in the 1980s, and some U.S. aircraft remained there until the end of 2006.
A dip in U.S. economic growth would have set off alarm bells across the business jet industry just a few years ago. With North American operators accounting for nearly 80% of purchases, the industry’s fortunes rose and fell in lockstep with the U.S. economy.
Munich Airport CEO Michael Kerkloh has been named German Airport Manager of the Year for the second consecutive year by aviation journal Touristik Report and the Munich daily newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung. Runners-up in the voting were: Michael Eggenschwiler of Hamburg Airport, Christoph Blume of Dusseldorf Airport, Wilhelm Bender of Fraport and Rainer Schwarz of Berlin Airport. Joachim Hunold, the head of Air Berlin, was named tourism manager of the year.
The European Space Agency is gearing up to start work on an operational space surveillance system that would give Europe a capability currently available only in the U.S. and Russia. The so-called Space Situational Awareness (SSA) system would survey and track not only debris, asteroids, satellites and other orbital objects, but also image and evaluate them to determine threats and risks—particularly those associated with attempts to militarize space. It would provide an accurate forecast of space weather, as well.
Correction: A News Break item on an A380 damaging its wingtip fence in Thailand mischaracterized the events (AW&ST Sept. 10, p. 20). An Airbus pilot was at the helm as the aircraft was being pushed back and the wingtip struck a building. The incident has been linked to an oversight by the ground crew in maneuvering the aircraft.
The Air National Guard is already queuing up for the next-generation, long-range-strike bomber mission. Cyber Command, long-endurance UAV units, F-22 fighter, B-2 bomber and Joint Cargo Aircraft airlift squadrons and, quite likely, the next-generation bombers due on the ramp in 2018 or so, will be heavily manned and, in some cases, commanded by Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and Army National Guard personnel.
