Weapons School-trained flight crews are squeezing new combat capabilities out of upgraded B-52s through innovative conventional tactics and procedures that would never have been tolerated by the old nuclear-oriented Strategic Air Command.
The U.S. Air Force completed testing of a missile warning system and flare dispenser on an E-8A Joint-STARS test aircraft last month and plans to provide this type of equipment on production aircraft. The tests included 37 sorties by the first test aircraft, T-1. Five flare dispensers were mounted on the aft fuselage--two on each side and one under the tail facing aft. MJU-7 flares and larger MJU-10 flares were dispensed. The AAR-44 installation included a sensor on top of the fuselage and one on the bottom. The sensor housing rotates 360 deg.
The U.S. Air Force has successfully launched the first Titan 4 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., since one of the boosters failed shortly after liftoff from the base more than two years ago. The latest launch occurred at 1:18 p.m. PST Dec. 5 from Space Launch Complex-4-East at Vandenberg. The classified payload was believed to be an advanced KH-11 digital imaging satellite or a Lacrosse imaging radar spacecraft.
LOOK FOR THE AIR FORCE TO MAKE A PITCH for an F-117 that is more lethal and even harder for radars to see. A study due to be released Dec. 18 examines more than 100 technologies for possible improvements to the stealth aircraft. They include better electronic countermeasures and communications, small bombs, advanced standoff weapons and adverse weather weapons, such as very accurate JDAM free-fall and JSOW glide bombs that would allow strikes through heavy clouds.
Melvin R. Jackson, a physical metallurgist at the General Electric Research and Development Center, Schenectady, N.Y., has won the center's highest honor, the Coolidge Fellowship Award. He was honored for contributions in metallurgy and metallurgical processes to GE's aircraft engines and land-based gas turbines.
David Mineck has been named vice president/corporate group executive of Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics, Foster City, Calif. He was executive vice president of the Rockwell International Collins Air Transport Div., Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
All surface-to-air-missile systems in the Bosnian theater and their radars must be shut down within 72 hr. of the signing of the Balkan peace accord here Dec. 14 or risk being attacked by NATO air and ground forces.
LOCKHEED OFFICIALS ARE IN what they hope will be final negotiations with the Royal Australian Air Force on the acquisition of at least 12 of the manufacturer's new C-130J transport. Representatives of Lockheed Aeronautical Systems Co. arrived in Canberra Nov. 27 for the latest round of talks. The Australian air force is seeking a replacement for its 12 C-130Es. There is the potential for the service to acquire additional aircraft for tanker and airborne early warning missions and for the eventual replacement of its 12 C-130Hs.
France has moved a step closer to full integration with the military command structure of NATO, which finally has a new secretary-general to lead the alliance's ambitious peace-keeping operation in Bosnia.
THE MORNING OF FEB. 1 has been set for the first launch of the J-1 booster developed by Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) and the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS). The Nissan J-1 is a 40,000-lb. small-lift (900-2,200-lb. payloads) successor to NASDA's M-3S2 vehicle. It is intended to place research payloads into low Earth orbits. The 109-ft. vehicle has three solid stages adapted from current technology to save costs. A solid rocket booster motor from NASDA's H-2 medium-lift launcher serves as the first stage.
Yvonne B. Freeman has been appointed provost/vice president-academic affairs of Clark Atlanta University. She was NASA associate administrator for equal opportunity programs. George E. Reese, NASA deputy general counsel, will succeed Freeman.
Richard Russell has been promoted to vice president-research and development for core technologies of the Microware Systems Corp., Des Moines, Iowa, from director of development environments.
Robert G. Hiller has been named vice president-engineering of the Gaithersburg, Md.-based Electronic Equipment Div. and Thomas R. Kritzer vice president/manager of the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Telecom Sector of the Watkins-Johnson Co. Hiller was director of engineering, and Kritzer was manager of the Electrical Engineering and Subsystems Engineering Depts.
HUMAN FACTORS TRAINING IS SPREADING rapidly to aviation maintenance organizations. Transport Canada is conducting a series of two-day human factors workshops for aircraft technicians. The case-based course traces an accident ``chain'' and identifies related psychological factors and common causes of ``judgmental interference,'' according to Gordon Dupont, special programs coordinator, system safety. The workshop also demonstrates the development of safety practices that prevent or catch errors.
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT INDUSTRIES is converting a Chilean air force Boeing 707 into an aerial refueling tanker, the first such aircraft in that nation's inventory. The conversion involves fitting the aircraft with a podded drogue system. IAI is providing the kits and equipment, while ENAER will conduct final installation in Chile. The contract, worth approximately $30 million, includes an option (scheduled to be negotiated in 1996) for converting an additional two C-130s into tankers.
Some of the U.S. Air Force's newest aircraft--four Rockwell-modified AC-130U Spectre gunships--will make their operational debut in Bosnia late this month.
Wolfgang F.W. Ghode has been appointed chief executive of Shannon (Ireland) Aerospace. He succeeds Herbert Groeger, who has completed his five-year term and returned to Lufthansa German Airlines. Ghode also is on loan from Lufthansa, where he was senior adviser for corporate development to the chairman of the board of Lufthansa Technik. Also, Mike Corne has been named head of sales. He was an area sales manager.
AN IMAGE ENHANCEMENT TECHNOLOGY developed for medical imaging by DigiVision, a small San Diego, Calif., company, has application to real-time airborne infrared systems. V-Lace processing increases the apparent resolution of color or monochrome video, and is particularly useful for bringing out images that would be obscured by shadows or glare. One prototype system was flown over Bosnia in the General Atomics' Predator UAV, where it worked as advertised, according to the Navy's Joint Projects Office, before Predator returned to the U.S. in October.
General Electric and Allison Advanced Development Co. have been awarded a one-year, $7-million contract to begin work on a powerplant that could compete with the Pratt&Whitney F119 engine.
NASA has decided the fourth in a series of Discovery missions will be a $199.6-million spacecraft program intended to fly past a comet and return dust samples to Earth in a reentry capsule. The spacecraft, known as Stardust, is scheduled to be launched on a MedLite booster in 1999 for its close encounter with the comet Wild-2 in 2004. The cometary and interstellar particles carried by the sample return capsule would land by parachute at the Utah Test and Training Range in 2006.
A. Anton Frederickson has been appointed general manager of the Titan Corp.'s Research and Technology Div., San Diego, Calif. He succeeds Ken Kreyenhagen, who is retiring. Frederickson was chief of special projects for the U.S. Defense Nuclear Agency. Jerome Beauchane has been named general manager of the Command and Information Systems Div.
John L. Martin has been named airports manager by the San Francisco Airports Commission. He was deputy director for business and finance. Martin succeeds Louis A. Turpen, who now heads Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto.
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THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S long-awaited space policy has been delayed another six weeks and isn't expected until sometime in January. White House officials most recently had hoped to complete the update of the Bush Administration's space policies by the end of November. But the review was pushed to the back burner by the federal budget battle. A separate effort to draw up a policy on the Global Positioning System is also expected in January or ``maybe a bit later,'' an Administration official says.
