The VME/4100 is a quad-processor PowerPC board for high-performance defense applications. The board is suitable for aircraft weapons control. The PowerPC design excels at complex decision-making RISC processor operations with comparable performance in certain applications for intensive digital signal processing-type functions. Four superscalar Motorola MPC603r PowerPC processors operating at 200 MHz. form the engine of the VME/4100. Blue Wave Systems, 2410 Luna Road, Suite 132, Carrollton, Tex. 75006.
The Polaris CompactPCI CPU board can be configured with dual Pentium II processors operating at up 450 MHz. with MMX technology running at an optimized 100-MHz. system bus frequency. It is equipped with ultrawide SCSA, AGP video and Ethernet. It is designed to allow maximum airflow for cooling. Polaris provides up to 512 MB of unbuffered and registered SDRAM using two DIMMS. The CPU board has two RS232-compatible serial ports, a bidirectional parallel port, a floppy disk and EIDE interface, and a real-time clock with an on-board, field-replaceable battery.
Northrop Grumman Corp. reported net income of $88 million, or $1.26 a diluted share, for the first quarter, compared with a loss of $12 million, or 18 cents a share, a year ago. The results reflect a charge of $180 million, or $1.70 a share, stemming from the failed merger attempt between the company and Lockheed Martin.
The recently-started Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) full-scale mapping mission has been put on hold due to a problem with a gimbal mechanism which controls movement of the spacecraft's 1.5-meter high-gain antenna. The problem was detected about 9:30 p.m. PST on Apr. 15 when Deep Space Network (DSN) officials reported the spacecraft was transmitting at a low-data rate rather than a planned high rate of data.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will assemble main wing parts for British Aerospace for use on the Airbus A319/A320. It is the second Japanese contract for the Airbus program and is valued at $2.5 million a year. Kawasaki Heavy Industries already makes A321 fuselage panels. Mitsubishi anticipates further Airbus program work, perhaps on the proposed A3XX 650-seat transport. It also is expected to share main wing development and production for the Bombardier Continental business jet program as a risk-sharing partner.
A European Space Agency policy committee is urging that Europe develop a full range of space capabilities, including those related to international security and peacekeeping.
Photograph: A Canadian CF-18 and a U.S. Air Force F-15 are shown at Aviano AB, which houses the largest concentration of NATO aircraft operating over Yugoslavia. Nagging problems plaguing NATO's air campaign are being solved slowly as attacks against Yugoslav targets drag on. But alliance officials involved in the operation see few signs they are nearing their goal of eliminating large amounts of Yugoslavia's military. One of the most serious issues has been coordinating air activity in the very narrow airspace for Operation Allied Force.
Photograph: ABCCC operators usually support ground commanders, but in Operation Allied Force their primary interface is with strike and support aircraft. Most of the U.S. Air Force's aging EC-130 Airborne Battlefield Command, Control and Communications aircraft are playing a critical role in organizing NATO strikes against Yugoslav targets even though the aircraft only recently were slated to be slowly phased out of service.
British Aerospace's facility in Brough, England, will assemble wing attachment units for Saab JAS 39 Gripen multirole fighters, in addition to main landing gear units.
Photograph: Lt. Steve Torpey, (left), Capt. Theodore Le Feuvre, ASM2 Michael Fish and AT1 Fred Kalt and AM2 Harold Honnold (not shown) rescued three fishermen at night during a severe storm. The U.S. Coast Guard awarded Distinguished Flying Crosses to the crew. The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard Sikorsky HH-60J Jayhawk knew it would be a perilous night as they launched from Air Station Sitka on the Alaskan coast on Jan. 30.
Japan's National Space Development Agency has formally approved development of the Hope Transfer Vehicle (HTV) unmanned supply ship for the space station (AW&ST Dec. 8, 1997, p. 75). With a payload weight of 6-7 metric tons, the HTV is to be launched by an H-2A into a 250-km. (155-mi.) orbit. That should bring it to within about 20 km. of the station, where its own thrusters and a GPS system will guide it to about 500 meters (1,640 ft.) beneath the station.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) penned a letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin last week to urge him not to back out of an agreement to establish a joint U.S.-Russian early warning center at U.S. Space Command in Colorado Springs. McCain is concerned Russia may back out of the deal, reached several months ago, because of anger about NATO air strikes on Yugoslavia. ``I hope you would agree that the overriding imperative of preventing a nuclear war should take precedence over our differences regarding the conflict in the Balkans,'' McCain wrote to Yeltsin.
A top student at the Aviation High School in New York receives an award plus a $5,000 college scholarship sponsored by FlightSafety International. Our outstanding student, as recommended by his teachers, is Geoffrey Connick.
As expected, lower demand and exchange rate losses lowered China Southern Airlines' earnings 7.6% to 11.8 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) for 1998 and the Guangzhou-based carrier suffered a 543-million-yuan loss (AW&ST Mar. 29, p. 45). As China Southern endured the fallout of recession elsewhere in Asia, passenger demand declined last year. Deep discounting by Chinese airlines, now prohibited by government regulators, also cut revenues. Appreciation of the Japanese yen hit China Southern because Japanese banks hold notes on many of its aircraft.
The airline industry and Pentagon officials are finalizing a proposal for six U.S. carriers to review the operations of their international code-sharing partners as a means of addressing Pentagon concern about the safety of foreign airlines carrying U.S. personnel.
Photograph: Helimed One team (left to right): paramedic Peter Davidson, winchman David Sullivan and pilot Peter Leigh. Air rescues during storms at sea are extremely difficult, which is why military and coast guard personnel train regularly and are equipped to handle them. But rescues are even more hazardous for civilians when circumstances force them to step in. Just such a situation arose on Dec. 27, 1998, when severe weather struck the 54th running of the Sydney-to-Hobart yacht race in Australia.
Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir is a fascinating and detailed look at the personalities and space agency politics behind the shuttle-Mir program, the series of joint human space flights that the U.S. and Russia undertook as a precursor to building the International Space Station. Author Bryan Burrough captures the drama and psychological stress cosmonauts and astronauts faced on board Mir during missions punctuated by fire, collision with a Progress spacecraft and persistent system problems. HarperCollins Publishers, 10 E. 53rd St., New York, N.Y. 10022.
James A. Abrahamson Lim Chin Beng Alan Boyd Michael Collins Dr. James Harold (Jimmy) Doolittle John Glenn Sergei Ilyushin C.L. (Kelly) Johnson Sir Freddie Laker Sir Roy McNulty David Packard Allen Paulson Rinaldo Piaggio Y.J.M. Pillay Sir Ralph Robins Bernard Schriever Mikhail Simonov Igor Sikorsky Ozires Silva John E. Steiner James Taylor
ICO Global Communications is planning a further issue of stock that, if fully subscribed, will nearly round out financing for the 10-satellite mobile phone system as project leaders prepare for the first satellite launch.
WHILE WORKING TO EXPAND ITS LINE OF DISPLAYS and integrated avionics systems, Rogerson Kratos is establishing a full electronic commerce capability on the Internet. It will give customers rapid access to technical support and will let them track parts undergoing maintenance in near-real time. Internet discussion groups are planned to let operators examine situations with other users and company experts. These will be similar to ``chat rooms,'' but will not be interactive on a real-time basis, due to the company's large number of products.
Honored for ``transforming the government-owned, money-losing aerospace company into a world leader in the design and manufacture of nacelle systems and major aerostructures. Shorts' sales have doubled and losses have become profits during the last three years.'' Aviation Week&Space Technology, Jan. 24, 1994
ROCKWELL COLLINS IS DEVELOPING ITS NEXT GENERATION of radios and sensors to meet the Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (CNS) needs of Free Flight. The CNS suite is an addition to the Pro Line 21 integrated avionics suite, which is undergoing certification flight tests on two business jets. Pro Line 21 CNS is intended to provide digital communications, en route GPS navigation and instrument approaches, and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) for aircraft tracking and traffic avoidance.
This pressure transducer features hermetically sealed 6-pin connectors for applications such as fuel and oil pressure, turbo-boost and altitude measurements. The transducer is designed for use by original equipment manufacturers. The design combines high stability of signal output, providing a pressure sensor that requires no recalibration. It also supplies trouble-free connections in a high vibration environment while facilitating multiple measurements. It operates from a 5 VDC regulated or 7-30 VDC unregulated power supply.
A congressional committee investigative report stemming from a dispute over ultrawideband radar and communication system patents has revealed potentially serious problems with U.S. technology transfer laws, policies and regulations.
Cease is a lightweight, low-power instrument capable of providing a spacecraft with real-time warnings of space radiation environmental hazards. It measures the local space radiation environment and provides real-time warnings of radiation damage, dielectric charging and single-event effects. It is designed for use on commercial communications, national security, environmental imaging and scientific exploration spacecraft. Amptek Inc., 6 De Angelo Drive, Bedford, Mass. 01730-2204.
