The Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle on Saturday lost hydraulic power during its third flight at Edwards AFB, Calif., but managed to land and come to a halt without damage. The failure occurred at the end of the 5 hour and 23 minute flight, just before touchdown, a spokesman for Global Hawk prime contractor Teledyne Ryan said yesterday. The cause is being investigated Loss of hydraulics meant the UAV couldn't brake after landing. It landed on the runway center line and coasted to a stop, but not until it had rolled off the runway.
Boeing officials said they have decided on the firm design configuration for the 747-400X - the company's competitor for the Airbus A3XX - and will offer it in both passenger and combi versions with first deliveries targeted, respectively, for October 2000 and June 2001. Options for a freighter are being explored for the 8,869 nautical mile-range aircraft.
BOEING won a $33 million contract to upgrade the mission computers and software of Saudi Arabia's five AWACS aircraft, as well as two ground support systems, the company announced yesterday. Under the Saudi Block 0 contract, awarded by the U.S. Air Force under a Foreign Military Sale agreement, crew training and logistics also will be provided, Boeing said.
AIR FORCE May 26, 1998 Boeing North American, Inc., Seal Beach, Calif., is being awarded an $11,129,096 firm-fixed-price-contract to provide for Aircraft Modification Kits to install the Towed Decoy System on the B-1B platform. Expected contract completion date is March 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-98-C-2000)
NORTHROP GRUMMAN'S Electronic Sensors and Systems Div., Baltimore, won a $4.3 million contract from Kaman Aerospace International Corp. to equip the Royal Australian Navy's 11 new SH-2G(A) helicopters with the AN/AA-54(V) Passive Missile Approach Warning System (PMAWS). Warnings from PMAWS will cue the AN/ALE-47 chaff and flare dispenser, and provide situational awareness to the crew, Northrop Grumman said.
NASA's ER-2 research aircraft will join an international effort this summer to study clouds and solar radiation over the Arctic and their relation to global climate change.
AAR, Wood Dale, Ill., won multi-year repair and overhaul contracts from the U.S. Air Force that, with options, total about $25 million, the company announced.
Russia's critical Service Module for the International Space Station has moved beyond the chronic funding woes that have stalled the whole project over the past few years, clearing the way for launch of the first Station element Nov. 20.
China launched a Lockheed Martin-built commercial telecommunications satellite May 29. The satellite, Zhongwei I, was launched by a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang complex in Sichuan Province at 6 p.m. Beijing time, according to the Xinhua news agency. The 2,984-kilogram geosynchronous satellite was made by Lockheed Martin for the China Orient Telecom Satellite Co. Xinhua said it will be controlled by Lockheed Martin and China Orient to provide commercial telecommunications services to China and other Asian countries.
First automatic takeoffs of the Outrider tactical unmanned aerial vehicle have been completed by Alliant Techsystems, leaving only automatic landing and flight from unimproved surfaces still to be demonstrated. Alliant said Friday that the UAV recently made four automatic takeoffs at the Hondo, Tex., flight test facility.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee will be marking up its fiscal 1999 Pentagon money bill today, putting it ahead of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, which will begin its markup tomorrow. The full Senate Appropriations Committee will take up the defense appropriations bill on Thursday, a spokesman for Sen. Ted Stevens (R- Alaska) said yesterday. Stevens heads both the full committee and the defense subcommittee.
Completion of the Labor government's Strategic Defense Review is reportedly being delayed by a last-minute battle between the Ministry of Defense and the Treasury over the size of the proposed economies in military spending.
Apart from completing planned fuel system mods unveiled earlier this year, a U.S. Air Force review panel has recommended a host of broader changes to the service's T-3A Enhanced Flight Screener program, including more flight testing and procedural changes, in the wake of a string of crashes and fatal accidents that has grounded the T-3A for nearly a year.
Bell Helicopter Textron has completed its portion of a U.S. Navy-led vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle demonstration, with its Eagle Eye logging more than 50 hours of flight time. Bombardier is about to reach that milestone with its CL-427 UAV, while SAIC just begun flying its Vigilante at the Army's Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz.
Aerospatiale Chairman Yves Michot said plans to convert Airbus Industrie into an independent corporation should have no bearing on government aid to the four national industries that comprise the consortium.
Although he is in a close battle for the Republican nomination for his old House seat, former Rep. Bob Dornan and Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), who ousted him in a disputed race in 1996, are locked into one of the most expensive House races. In 15 months of the 1997-1998 election cycle, through March 31, Sanchez raised $1,766,073 to Dornan's $1,765,417. That puts them behind only House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) in receipts in House races.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and Lockheed Martin are looking to resume flight testing of the DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle this month, a DARPA official says. The No. 2 vehicle has undergone extensive modifications since the April 1996 crash of the No. 1 DarkStar as it was taking off on its second flight. The number of modifications prompted one program official to say the upcoming flight will be just like a first flight.
