NASA's Stardust spacecraft is ready to begin a 7-year journey during which it will rendezvous with Comet Wild-2, collect particles from the debris cloud surrounding the nucleus and return the samples to Earth in 2006. Launch opportunities for Stardust at Cape Canaveral are scheduled to start on Feb. 6 on a Boeing Delta II 7426 and continue for the following 20 days, with a launch window each day of only 60 sec.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen's decision to close ranks with Congress on national missile defense (NMD) was vintage Clinton politics: steal key Republican campaign issues out from under their noses.
The Navy is delaying the purchase of some of its CH-60 and SH-60 helicopters in Fiscal 2000, even as the service's total funding request increases to $83.3 billion. The service cut SH-60R remanufacturing plans to seven helicopters from 15 and CH-60 buys down to 13 from 20. The Navy is concerned about development risks in the programs and wants to minimize how many helicopters it buys before all issues are resolved. The service is also asking Congress to approve an assured 5-year procurement of 222 F/A-18E/Fs, which would cost about $700 million.
Michael C. Perry, new products business manager for the Howmet Corp., Greenwich, Conn., has been elected president of the Dallas-based Investment Casting Institute.
With the dust still settling from cancellation of the high-altitude DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle, Pentagon planners are already considering a big new stealthy reconnaissance UAV. DarkStar, built by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, had just completed five successful flights in a row when the Air Force announced the cancellation. Now Pentagon officials will quietly reassess their operational needs and start what is expected to become a new classified stealth recon program.
David Wookey, Northwest Airlines' vice president for Asia, has also assumed responsibility for the carrier's Hong Kong operations, following the departure of General Manager Webster O'Brien.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense has launched a 4-year study effort for its planned new aircraft carriers, a program closely intertwined with the selection of a new carrier-borne aircraft. Six firms were invited to bid on the project last week: Boeing, British Aerospace Defense Systems, Lockheed Martin, Marconi Electronic Systems, Raytheon and Thomson-CSF. Although separate invitations were issued to BAe and GEC's Marconi Electronic Systems, a single bid is expected if the two companies complete their recently announced merger (AW&ST Jan. 25, p. 30).
Max R. Stanley, who made the first flight of Northrop's XB-35 flying wing bomber in 1946, died Jan. 23 in Brentwood, Calif. He was 89. Stanley was involved with the N-9M flying wing prototypes, piston-engined B-35 bomber and YB-49 jet-powered version. Three decades later, they led to the U.S. Air Force/Northrop B-2 stealth bomber. Stanley was Northrop's chief test pilot and a founding member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He retired in 1972.
Roger Solari (see photo) has been appointed vice president-international and commerce of Hurel-Dubois. He headed the facilities and launch department of Arianespace at Kourou, French Guiana.
Boeing is refining its ``factory of the future'' construction plan for its Joint Strike Fighter candidate as it assembles major components of the X-32A and X-32B concept demonstrators at St. Louis and at Palmdale, Calif. The recently announced changes to Boeing's JSF planform should not significantly affect the X-32 demonstration, according to Frank Statkus, Boeing's vice president for JSF. A combination of flight test and wind tunnel data will be used to simulate the flying performance of the revised design.
The Eurofighter consortium is preparing for its first head-to-head export duel with Lockheed Martin as the two manufacturers receive formal requests for proposals from Norway this week. The Eurofighter Typhoon and the Block 50N F-16 are on Norway's shortlist to replace its fleet of F-5s. The country has a requirement for 20 fighters, plus options for 10 more, to be delivered in 2003-06. The contenders are to submit their offers by the end of May with a decision due by December for the program valued at $1.4 billion.
Flight tests of an automatic ground collision-avoidance system here have demonstrated that the use of advanced computing technology can significantly reduce the number of accidents attributed to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). The U.S. Air Force has lost 4-5 aircraft per year to CFIT since the early 1990s, and the Swedish air force has a CFIT rate about twice that. Civil aircraft accident rates attributed to ground impacts have stubbornly refused to drop, despite concerted efforts on an international scale (AW&ST Nov. 9, 1998, p. 102).
Norma Clayton has been appointed vice president-lean manufacturing of Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems in St. Louis. She was division director of fabrication.
Boeing appears to be facing a financial crisis of a curious kind in its Joint Strike Fighter program. It has the money to fix the program, and it desperately wants to do that, but the U.S. government might not let Boeing spend its own money.
Under a $3.2-million contract, Honeywell Space and Aviation Control will provide up to 55 shipsets of Primus 700 color weather radars to the U.S. Army for installation on MH-60 and MH-47 helicopters.
Douglas J. Mathews (see photos) has become vice president-design and Steve Whalen vice president-business development of the Peregrine Semiconductor Corp. of San Diego. Mathews was vice president-endpoint and mobile systems of Itron Inc., and Whalen was vice president-sales and marketing for Torrey Communications.
Turkish authorities are expected to sign a contract this month with Lockheed Martin for 32 additional F-16s for $750 million. The Block 50 aircraft will be produced under license by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), which is 49% owned by Lockheed Martin.
Considerable experience gained over a 14-year period of research and development has finally come together as a highly effective automatic ground collision-avoidance system (Auto-GCAS) under the long-running AFTI F-16 program.
As of this month, Hong Kong-based AsiaSat (Asia Satellite Telecommunications Co. Ltd.) will begin leasing an additional undisclosed amount of C-band transponder capacity on its AsiaSat 2 Lockheed Martin 7000 satellite to the USIA's International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB). AsiaSat 2 will provide the USIA with as many as 24 digital channels for broadcast radio to Asia, in addition to 36 MHz. of C-band capacity currently being leased to the IBB's Voice of America and WorldNet Television and Film Service. AsiaSat 2, at 100.5 deg. E. Long., has 20 36-MHz. and four 72-MHz.
Philip K. Brown has been named deputy director of operations and maintenance of the Kansas City (Mo.) Aviation Dept. He was deputy director of aviation for the Austin (Tex.) Aviation Dept.
Competition for an air traffic controller's job in Japan is intense. The Ministry of Transportation selected 11 controller candidates last month out of 1,208 candidates. Seven of them were women--a record number for Japan.
L. David Caplan, chairman/CEO of Pratt&Whitney Canada, has been elected chairman of the Washington-based General Aviation Manufacturers Assn. Charles M. Suma, president/CEO of the New Piper Aircraft Inc., has been elected vice chairman.
Intelsat has tapped Space Systems/Loral to build Intelsat 905, the fifth in a series of high-power spacecraft the company is building for the international organization. The satellite, slated for delivery in late 2001, is to be used to provide additional capacity for voice, data, video and Internet services.
