A lightweight satellite being built by a team of national laboratories and private industry will explore new techniques for detecting covert nuclear weapons tests, while demonstrating the feasibility of using advanced, low-cost composite structures in small spacecraft. Electromagnetic pulse (EMP)-detection experiments to be flown on the Fast On-orbit Recording of Transient Events (FORTE) spacecraft will rely on advanced radio-frequency receivers and optical sensors that have broader applications beyond their original nonproliferation objectives.
SALES OF ON-BOARD WATER STERILIZERS are booming to corporate jet operators and airlines flying to certain overseas destinations. The 10-lb., lunchbox-size units use an ultraviolet light to kill viruses and bacteria and can flow at up to a 1.5 gal./min. rate, according to James Dobie, president of International Water Guard Industries, Vancouver, Canada. The FAA-approved units, which cost about $14,000 installed, reduce the risk of water-related passenger and flight crew illness and any resulting delays and liabilities.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN and McDonnell Douglas have signed a memorandum of agreement for long-term production of major structures for the C-17 which, if fulfilled, could potentially provide Northrop Grumman with sales of about $2.4 billion through 2006. The agreement stems from a Northrop Grumman proposal offering McDonnell Douglas the opportunity to order another 80 shipsets of components at quantities of 8-12 per fiscal year at a negotiated price per aircraft using a firm fixed-price option process.
MISSION TO PLANET EARTH funding would be cut $75 million in Fiscal 1996 under a NASA budget agreement reached between House and Senate appropriators. The House had wanted to cut the program by $139 million. Funding for the Earth Observation System (EOS)--another target of the House--was preserved by taking $20 million from the National Science Foundation and $33 million from NASA's science, aeronautics and technology accounts. NASA received a total of $13.813 billion in Fiscal 1996 in the House-Senate agreement.
A RUSSIAN PROTON heavy booster successfully launched a Russian GALS television broadcast satellite into geosynchronous orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Nov. 17. The mission is only the second for the advanced GALS design (AW&ST Nov. 13, p. 26).
Shimon Eckhaus (see photos) has been appointed deputy vice president-marketing of the Bedek Aviation Group of Israel Aircraft Industries. He was general manager of the Mata Helicopters Div. Eckhaus will be succeeded by Ofer Shifris, who was director of marketing and business development for the Lahav Military Aircraft Div. And, Doron Rotem has been promoted to general manager from deputy general manager of the Tamam Div.
TRW HAS MOVED A STEP forward in its attempts to extend controversial U.S. patent protections for its proposed Odyssey mobile satellite system overseas (AW&ST Nov. 13, p. 68). Germany's patent office has registered three ``patent models,'' which do not provide full patent protection but give TRW the right for 10 years to pursue damages against any party it believes infringes on Odyssey's unique design. TRW continues to pursue Odyssey patents in Europe, Japan, Taiwan and South Korea.
Clementine team members at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington have won two different awards. Project Manager Paul Regeon and four other team members have received the 1995 Space Frontier Vision-to-Reality Award. The other members are: Col. Pedro Rustan, Jr., mission director; Col. Simon P. Worden, deputy for technology; Stuart Nozette, deputy mission director; and Eugene Shoemaker, principal scientist.
McDonnell Douglas will assist China Northern Airlines (CNA) in establishing and operating a new training center to instruct pilots who will fly the carrier's MD-82 and MD-90 transports. The 30,000-sq.-ft. facility in Dalian will have the capability to provide initial and recurrent training for up to eight flight crews per month. China Northern currently operates 26 MD-82s and will begin adding 11 MD-90s, an MD-80 series derivative, to its fleet beginning next year.
Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson (USAF, Ret.) has been named to the board of directors of Assured Space Access Inc., Arlington, Va. He is chairman of International Air Safety and BDM Air Safety Management, and president/chief executive officer of Air Safety Consultants. Larry R. Foor has been named corporate vice president. He was director of Huntsville (Ala.) operations for Orbital Sciences Corp. Launch System.
Since the beginning of 1995, the price of Northrop Grumman Corp. stock has increased 43%, versus 31% for the Standard&Poor's 500 index. But some Wall Street analysts are advising investors that they should not expect such strong performance to continue, at least not for the next 6-12 months. At 601/2, last Tuesday's closing price, the company's stock price ``fully reflects the future prospects of the enterprise,'' Goldman Sachs analyst Howard Rubel said. Added Morgan Stanley analyst Pierre Chao: ``It won't outperform the market in the near-term.''
Calling a study of primary radar ``fundamentally flawed,'' key officials of the FAA's air traffic control organization are urging senior executives to reconsider a decision to decommission the systems. In an internal FAA memorandum obtained by AVIATION WEEK&SPACE TECHNOLOGY, the Office of Air Traffic System Management and the Office of Air Traffic Rules and Procedures expressed concern about safety and operational issues stemming from the elimination of en route primary radar systems.
LAUNCH OF NASA'S GGS POLAR satellite has been moved from Dec. 9 to Jan. 14 because of delays associated with a Delta 2 anomaly in August that left a satellite payload far short of its intended orbit. The McDonnell Douglas launcher successfully returned to flight Nov. 4, but the downtime from the investigation of the mishap and subsequent modifications to the Delta has required a readjustment of the 1995 manifest. NASA's X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) is still scheduled for launch on Delta 2 on Dec.
A consortium of Japanese steel and shipbuilders has put its idea for floating runways to sea, opening a demonstration in Yokosuka harbor south of Tokyo. Four prefabricated ``Megafloat'' units were formed into a 200 X 40-meter (650 X 30 ft.) floating body. The structures are 2-meters (7-ft.) deep. THEY WERE MADE at different shipyards. Three of the four were pre-formed before being floated into the harbor. Tugs pulled the fourth unit into position and it was welded into place in the harbor.
The McDonnell Douglas F-4G Wild Weasel, the last U.S. aircraft dedicated solely to destroying enemy air defenses, will receive no more reprieves and is destined for desert storage or salvage within a year.
NATO CONTINUES TO EVALUATE both the Grumman E-8 Joint-STARS and the European Horizon ground surveillance systems. Horizon, developed by Thomson-CSF and Dassault Electronique and integrated with Eurocopter's Cougar helicopter, recently was demonstrated to NATO officials at Eurocopter's Marignane, France, facilities. NATO is evaluating whether to procure one of the systems later in the decade. The Boeing 707 transport-based Joint-STARS system is preferred by most NATO commanders.
THE PENTAGON IS JOINING NASA in expressing disgust over the inability of U.S. industry to make a small launcher fly right. ``We really need to get a rhythm going and be able to rely on a small launch vehicle to get inexpensive payloads into orbit,'' said Bob Davis, the Pentagon's new space guru (see p. 24). Davis, the deputy undersecretary of defense for space, says the defense and intelligence communities need reliable small launch vehicles to conduct low cost tests and experiments.
The likely appointment of U.S. Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston to the expanding role of vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to join the issue of whether the Air Force should become a primary offensive force, rather than a supporting arm of the Army and Navy.
Canadian Airlines International plans to close its maintenance base at Calgary and consolidate all of its narrow-body aircraft support at Vancouver in a large hangar that now services just wide-body aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force is moving quickly to cement further its claim to the most successful and expensive unmanned aerial vehicles envisioned for the Pentagon's inventory. The $3-10-million-per copy, long-endurance aircraft are expected to emerge from a number of demonstration projects.
Denel's Atlas Aviation has begun aggressively marketing an upgraded version of its Oryx multirole helicopter, which made its international debut here, with an eye to potential customers in Southwest and Southeast Asia.
Pilatus has unveiled a new surveillance version of its PC-12 turboprop aircraft, called the Eagle, which just completed its testing and certification program. The Swiss company developed the aircraft in association with Westinghouse. Pilatus is responsible for the airframe and integration, while Westinghouse supplies the sensor system. Pilatus employed one of the PC-12 prototypes for the Eagle proof-of-concept system displayed at the air show here. A production prototype is under construction and is scheduled to be completed in February.
A failed Chinese military reconnaissance spacecraft that weighs 4,500 lb. will fall out of orbit by early 1996, creating the potential for an international incident that could embarrass China, especially if the heavy vehicle strikes a populated area. The U.S. Space Command and European governments are tracking with heightened interest the Chinese FSW-1 type vehicle that malfunctioned.
