The U.S. Air Force's Minuteman Propulsion Replacement Program will complete four additional simulated-altitude test-firings of rebuilt rocket motors in the next 16 months, and flight test two motors late next summer to requalify Thiokol and Pratt&Whitney as producers of Minuteman 3 stages. Once qualified, Cordant Technologies' Thiokol Propulsion Div. and Pratt&Whitney's Chemical Systems Div. will refurbish MM3 missile stages as joint venture teammates under a TRW-led ICBM Prime Integration Contract.
Michael W. Williams has become vice president-corporate development of Ducommun Inc. of Los Angeles. He was vice president-operations for H.R. Textron.
The Insitu Group, Bingen, Wash., has begun a 3-year program to develop a new generation of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles. The UAV family would be a follow-on to the company's Aerosonde weather drone, which in August completed the first transatlantic crossing by an unmanned aircraft. Insitu's new aircraft will be similar in size to the Aerosonde, which has a 3-meter (9.8-ft.) wingspan and 13-kg. (28.6-lb.) gross weight, but with nearly twice the range and endurance--to about 7,000 km. (4,340 mi.) and three days aloft.
Deep Space 1's xenon ion rocket is well into a 13-day continuous firing set to end Dec. 7, passing the 200-hr. benchmark required to declare the technology validation mission a success and leaving engineers pleased with the initial data.
The ever-widening bribery scandal of Japan's aerospace industry has spread to Fuji Heavy Industries, where Chairman Isamu Kawai and an auditor and former managing director of the company have been arrested for the bribery of a member of the Diet.
The U.K. has stepped up its call for a coordinated and effective military force capable of backing up a common European defense and security policy. Defense Minister George Robertson told the Assembly of the Western European Union (WEU) last week that Europe needed to better coordinate its defense activities, from R&D to military crisis response, but warned against getting bogged down in debates over institutional structures.
Raytheon has won the competition to build the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle for the U.S. National Missile Defense system. NMD prime contractor Boeing selected the Raytheon design rather than its own competing system, officials said. The Boeing vehicle will remain in the program at a low funding level in case development of the Raytheon system hits snags.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has selected two consortia to build advanced networking research testbeds as part of the Next Generation Internet SuperNet Program. The federal multiagency NGI initiative aims to speed up Internet connections and make high-speed links available to more users. The SuperNet is the testbed to help develop these technologies (http://ale.east.isi.edu/NGI-S/).
Alitalia and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines expect to significantly increase their combined share in the European and international market, boost revenues and reduce costs by implementing a far-reaching strategic alliance. The Dutch-Italian partnership, which has now been finalized, comes close to a virtual merger. Although the two carriers retain their identity and do not foresee acquisition of equity, they intend to gradually operate as an unified company.
Gordon (Mark) Basford has been named vice president-international sales and marketing, Paul R. Parrott JT15D business development manager and Gregg M. DeVore Southwest U.S. PT6 sales manager, all for the Airwork Corp., Millville, N.J. Basford was vice president-sales and marketing for Wood Group Turbopower Inc. Parrott has owned a maintenance consulting firm, and Devore was a PT6 sales manager for Standard Aero.
The first production EH 101 Merlin HC Mk3 helicopter has rolled off the production line at GKN Westland's Yeovil, England, facility, the first of 22 ordered by the British Royal Air Force.
The RNR/RNN75 established reliability metal film resistor is qualified to Mil-PRF-55182. The glass-to-metal enclosure provides a true hermetic seal of the resistive element in an inert gas atmosphere. The solid-core resistors, measuring 0.25 in. in diameter, have a glass-sealed case to allow for easy inspection. They feature a resistance range of 49.9 ohms to 1.21 Mohms and an ``E'' temperature coefficient of 25 ppm/C. Vishay Intertechnology Inc., 63 Lincoln Highway, Malvern, Pa. 19355-2120.
Thirty years after the U.S. Apollo program achieved the first manned landing on the Moon, it is Japan, not the U.S., that is about to lead a new phase of lunar surface exploration into the early 21st century. Japan is developing two major unmanned lunar missions that will both involve lunar orbiters and landers and substantial new technology development by the Japanese aerospace industry. High interest has already been generated among the technology-minded Japanese public and in aerospace companies that will build the hardware. The flights are:
Into the Tiger's Jaw: America's First Black Marine Aviator is the autobiography of Lt. Gen. Frank E. Petersen, written with J. Alfred Phelps. Petersen relates his story of growing up in the segregated city of Topeka, Kan., and overcoming prejudice inside and outside the military to become the first black Marine aviator and eventually the corps' first black general. He also recounts wartime experiences in Korea and Vietnam, progressing from the SNJ trainer in the early 1950s to the F-4U Corsair in Korea and later the F-4 Phantom in Vietnam.
Solex Robotics of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is fine-tuning a robot that can perform periodic, mandated surveys on the bottoms of above-ground aviation fuel tanks without taking them out of service. The technology is safer than current in-tank, manual inspection methods and could cut costs as much as 80%, according to Don Hartsell, president. The submersible robot, called Maverick, is remote controlled and travels on tank floors using traction wheels. On-board instrumentation includes a sonar-like ``pinger'' and multichannel, ultrasonic sensor array.
There was a new voice in Washington last week announcing a new threat--stealthy ballistic missiles --and a solution for meeting such threats (see p. 27). But more important than the specifics of that solution is what U.S. Navy Adm. Harold W. Gehman, Jr., with the support of other commanders-in-chief around the world, is pushing for overall.
German aerospace center DLR and French aerospace R&D organization Onera will combine their helicopter activities into a single program. The two agencies already collaborate extensively in the helicopter field, in close association with Franco-German helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter (AW&ST Sept. 7, p. 117). The unified program is expected to begin operation in 2000, eventually taking the form of a joint venture.
Boeing has added its AV-8B Harrier 2 to the aircraft being built under Western Data's CompassEnterprise enterprise resource planning software, and plans to add the F/A-18, F-15 and parts of the C-17 to that list in 1999. Boeing's T-45 trainer and JDAM missile are already being managed by CompassEnterprise, and the system is being used in Long Beach and at overhaul and component manufacturing sites in Avalon, Amberley and Brisbane, Australia (AW&ST Nov. 17, 1997, p. 25).
A story on a pilots' coalition's opposition to changes in ETOPS rules incorrectly reported the composition of the coalition (AW&ST Nov. 30, p. 50). The Air Line Pilots Assn. does not belong to the coalition. The group also does not include Tower Air flight crews, which are represented by ALPA.
The Internet could be the engine that revives Asia's troubled communications satellite market. The number of ``wired'' Asians is expected to double to 10 million by the end of the century. Couple that with only a fraction of the 1.2 billion people in China who are expected to log on in the next few years and Ku-band satellite capacity could again become a prized commodity throughout the Asia-Pacific region.
Daniel Parker has been appointed mid-Atlantic cargo manager for Air France, based at Washington Dulles International Airport. He was Midwestern U.S. sales manager. Parker succeeds Joseph Pesce, who has been named special projects manager, based in New York.
George deMercado has been named Miami-based director of worldwide sales for Air Jamaica. He was director of sales for the Southern and Western U.S., Latin America and the Far East.
Scott J. Seymour (see photos) has been named vice president-air combat systems, Jim C. Hoover vice president-aerostructures, Paul J. Coco vice president-program operations and Judy Northup vice president-materiel, all for the Northrop Grumman Corp. Integrated Systems and Aerostructures Sector in Dallas. Seymour was vice president/B-2 program manager. Hoover was vice president/deputy general manager and Northup vice president-materiel operations of the Commercial Aircraft Div. Coco was vice president/deputy general manager of Surveillance and Battle Management Systems.
The Thermalert GP is an infrared thermometer designed to compete with thermocouples and other probe devices. Using a noncontact instrument allows measurement of the temperature of the process material rather than the heating medium. The GP series has a range of -18-538C, compact or miniature sending heads, a 1/8 DIN digital monitor with comprehensive signal conditioning. The instrument has a 4-20 milliamp signal output and dual set-point alarm or control contacts. Raytek Corp., P.O. Box 1820, Santa Cruz, Calif. 95061-1820.
