American Microsystems Inc. has expanded its wafer-stitching technology to allow the fabrication of large, seamless arrays with more than four million pixels. The technique has the potential of improving resolution, expanding field size and reducing production costs in a wide variety of sensors, imagers and electronic displays, according to the Pocatello, Idaho-based company. AMI's Very Large Scale (VLS) arrays are produced using a stitching process that connects adjoining blocks of circuitry having repetitive patterns.
Racal Defense Electronics has been awarded a 12.8-million-pound ($20.7-million) contract for a transportable Joint Tactical Information Distribution System network management facility for U.K. aircraft. The portable facilities will provide JTIDS Link 16 management and command and control functions for aircraft within the U.K.'s Joint Rapid Reaction Force.
The SPS-5 series provide a 5 V. TTL compatible pulse output, which has a ``timing mark'' trigger for stroboscopes, spectrum analysis equipment, vibration data collectors and waveform analyzers. The Remote Optical Sensor is capable of generating a pulse from reflective tape at distances up to 3 ft. and angles up to 45 deg. from a target. A remote laser sensor and an infrared sensor are also available. Self-powered sensor systems can be customized by ordering an interface module, recharger and one of the four remote sensors.
The large, critical Sun-shade door protecting the mirror assembly of the NASA Chandra X-ray observatory is to be commanded open next week, one of the final steps before ``first light'' planned for late August, when the telescope's instruments are to return the first real data from X-ray sources in deep space. If the door fails to open, controllers at Chandra's Cambridge, Mass., center will be ready with multiple backup commands to ensure the critical event is achieved. Once opened, the door will never be closed again.
Swissair, Delta Air Lines and Boeing offered on Aug. 5 to share liability for the Sept. 2, 1998, crash of an MD-11 off Nova Scotia if relatives of the 229 people killed agree not to seek punitive damages. Swissair Flight 111 crashed after its pilots reported smoke in the cockpit, diverted to Halifax and declared an emergency. Delta sold seats under its code-share pact with Swissair. The offer came in a pretrial hearing at U.S. District Court in Philadelphia on lawsuits stemming from the crash. Swissair faces claims of $16 billion.
Potential Australian discount carriers are gaining heart from a new breed of no-frills airline that has learned to survive alongside Europe and Canada's better-established carriers.
The Air Force's electronic warfare (EW) capabilities could be due for a jump-start. Rand's Natalie Crawford is completing a study that will recommend changes in three areas. First, EW would be put on an organizational par with stealth. Many believe the move is overdue, since a stealthy F-117 was shot down. ``Seeing the results of operations in the Balkans, we realize the Air Force needs to get back to basics, and organization is the first place to look,'' says one study participant.
Italy's Air Europe will acquire a 339-seat Boeing 777-200 twinjet from the International Lease Finance Corp. The aircraft will operate to destinations such as Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
The largest source for pilot career information, Airline Fleet and Sim Directory has information about the fleet mix at 14 U.S. major and 36 national carriers, as well as at 76 smaller jet and turboprop operators. The 64-page directory includes aircraft orders and options, owned and leased data through 2003 with aircraft delivery and retirement schedules, plus more than 550 simulators, and 43 simulator operators from 57 U.S. locations. Aviation Information Resources Inc., 3800 Camp Creek Pkwy., Ste. 18-100, Atlanta, Ga. 30331-6228.
NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTER AND NASA Acquisition Internet Service will use the Integrated Messaging Exchange of Tumbleweed Communications Corp. in Redwood City, Calif., to manage electronic contract proposals. Tumbleweed's software and service provide trackable and secure on-line communications and will enable NASA Ames to shift from paper to on-line contracting without sacrificing security and control, according to the agency.
A House/Senate conference committee wrapped up a $289-billion defense budget for Fiscal 2000, but final passage will have to wait until after Labor Day, when Congress reconvenes. Just over $8 billion higher than the Administration's request, the bill contains a mandate reorganizing the Energy Dept. in response to alleged Chinese espionage.
The Titan Corp. has received a $3.8-million, three-year contract from the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency, for creation of a computer model that is designed to provide forecasts of the effects of chemical and biological warfare.
Samsung Aerospace and Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems expect to release formal drawings for detailed design of the KTX-2 supersonic jet trainer/light combat aircraft next month. They completed the preliminary design review at Samsung's Sachon, South Korea, plant in mid-July. The Korean air force is to buy 100 KTX-2s. The trainer is expected to be an early product of Korean Aerospace Industries Corp., the consolidated company formed by Samsung, Daewoo and Hyundai. LMTAS and Aerospatiale may become foreign partners in it as well.
``Sniff-IR'' is a stand-alone detector that can spot even faint traces of leaking hydrocarbon gases. It is a direct plug-in replacement for conventional catalytic-type units that reacts swiftly to any hydrocarbon gas--propane, methane, gasoline and such. To guard against false alarms, two precision sensors are tuned to different IR frequencies. Changes in the ratios trigger an alarm. A control algorithm compensates for component aging and environmental changes. The 6.5-in.-long unit has an input of 10/30 VDC. Sensor Electronics, 5500 Lincoln Drive, Minneapolis, Minn.
Randall J. Weisenburger has been named to the board of directors of the CTS Corp., Elkhart, Ind. He was president/CEO of Wasserstein Perella Management Partnership Inc., also in Elkhart.
DefenseNet is a database for international defense news. The defense and aerospace intelligence service contains hundreds of thousands of facts, covering more than 170 countries and nearly 10,000 companies and organizations. It allows access to a powerful, fixed-fee in-house intelligence system. GDI is coproduced by the United Communication Group, the U.S. Naval Institute and Teldan. Teldan Information Systems Ltd., P.O. 18094, Tel Aviv 61180, Israel.
SKY SOLUTIONS LTD. HAS BEGUN CONSTRUCTION on the New Scottish ATC Center at Prestwick. The U.K.'s National Air Traffic Service awarded the contract to the consortium of Lockheed Martin U.K. and construction giant Bovis Ltd., with funding of $7.7 million for the first two months, July and August. The New Scottish Center will join the New En Route Center at Swanwick, England, consolidating ATC at two installations. The Scottish center is expected to be operational in 2005-06.
Alaska Airlines is the first customer to sign up for a new Boeing program that provides replacement fuselage insulation blanket kits for its transports. The kits are to be available for all Boeing- and Douglas-built commercial transports and are intended to reduce airline repair costs and downtime by allowing replacements to be performed on a planned basis, according to Darce Lamb, vice president of airline logistics support for Boeing.
Trinity Aerospace Engineering of the U.K. has garnered a five-year contract from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines for the repair and overhaul of landing gears and components on its Boeing 737 fleet.
An increasing number of airlines are adopting the stricter maintenance and operating practices set out under FAA's Extended Range Twin-engine Operations rules to improve the reliability and flexibility of their non-ETOPS and four-engine transport fleets.
Higher speed communications is calling for higher speed encryption, and the Sandia National Laboratories has built what it believes is the fastest encryption chip, coding 6.7 billion bits per second. That was the top speed of the tester; simulation shows the chip should work at 9.28 gigabits/sec. using the SNL Data Encryption Standard. The application-specific integrated circuit will also work with more secure algorithms such as the Advanced Encryption Standard. It can change keys and modes between clock cycles.
Airbus Industrie's threat to withhold parts and product support for A340s marketed by Boeing that were trade-ins from Singapore Airlines for new 777s has met with incredulity and disbelief among airline executives. Senior executives would not say so for attribution but they had plenty to say off the record. ``Do you mean to say, if ILFC want the aircraft, Airbus will not support their biggest customer?'' one executive chairman commented, referring to International Lease Finance Corp. of Los Angeles. ``I don't think so.''
