BATTELLE, Columbus, Ohio Maj. Gen. James T. Jackson (U.S. Army, ret.) has been named marketing manager for the Battelle Office of Homeland Security. DRS TECHNOLOGIES, Parsippany, N.J. Ervin T. Kiriu has joined the company as vice president, programs for the Electronic Systems Group, based in Gaithersburg, Md. KEYSTONE HELICOPTER, West Chester, Pa. Peter Wright Jr., president of the company, has been named vice chairman. NORTHROP GRUMMAN, Los Angeles
SOUND BARRIER: Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne broke the sound barrier Dec. 17, the company said. The flight showed that "supersonic flight is now the domain of a small company doing privately funded research, without government help," the company said. The company's White Knight turbojet launch aircraft carried the rocket-powered SpaceShipOne to 48,000 feet over California, and then its engine carried it to 68,000 feet, where it achieved near weightlessness. One of the aircraft's wings was damaged during the landing but the damage was minor, according to the company.
Boeing hopes to have an industry consortium on interoperable data standards for military systems up and running by next spring, according to Tip Slater, deputy director for Boeing's Strategic Architecture business unit.
Boeing executives were upbeat and optimistic Dec. 16 as they announced their board's approval to offer the 7E7 Dreamliner to airlines and build it in Everett, Wash. (DAILY, Dec. 17), but analysts said the way ahead for Boeing in the commercial sector is far from clear. There are good reasons to be optimistic, said Richard Aboulafia of the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. For one thing, he said, time is on the side of the 7E7, which would formally launch in mid-2004 and enter service in 2008.
NEW DELHI - Crashes of its upgraded MiG-21 aircraft have prompted the Indian air force to require 50 hours of flight testing before putting the MiG-21 bis version into service. About 125 Indian air force MiG-21s are being upgraded by the state-owned Hindsutan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bangalore.
CENTURY OF FLIGHT: Commemorations of the Wright Brothers' first flight are scheduled to lead to a re-creation of that flight at Kitty Hawk, N.C., Dec. 17 in a historically accurate aircraft - although one that has benefited from NASA wind-tunnel testing.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes can begin offering its 7E7 Dreamliner aircraft to airlines following a nod of approval from the company's board of directors, the company said Dec. 16. The company expects the sales proposals to result in firm commitments and production approval next year.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - Belgium and the Netherlands have urged the Czech government to hold further talks on their U.S.-backed offers to supply 14 F-16 aircraft to the Czech Republic. At a Dec. 16 press conference here, co-hosted by F-16 producer Lockheed Martin, the military attaches of the two countries said it would benefit the Czech Republic to allow nations ruled out earlier in a selection process to submit best and final offers (BAFOs).
A Dec. 15 attempt to launch an Atlas III carrying the U.S. Navy's final Ultra-High Frequency Follow-on (UFO) satellite was scrubbed when a mechanism attaching the rocket to the pad was colder acceptable. Technicians inspected the "bolt-cutter" mechanism Dec. 16, and probably will have to replace the unit, said International Launch Services (ILS) spokeswoman Fran Slimmer. A joint venture of Lockheed Martin and two Russian companies, ILS is managing the flight for the Navy.
Lockheed Martin Corp. announced Dec. 16 that its bid to produce the Navy's Multi-mission Maritime Aircraft (MMA) will propose using a variant of Pratt & Whitney's PW150A turboprop engine. The PW150A is part of the PW100 engine family, which is used on more than 1,900 aircraft. Lockheed Martin also said it would use Hamilton Sundstrand's eight-bladed NP2000 propeller, which already is in production for the Navy's E-2C Hawkeye aircraft and C-2 aircraft retrofit program.
The U.S. Navy has awarded General Dynamics Electric Boat (GDEB) a $30 million modification of its contract for the conversion of Trident SSBN (Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear) submarines to SSGN (Ship Submersible Guided Nuclear), the company announced last week.
A recently announced restructuring of the Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) is starting to take shape. The Defense Department's decision to combine Clusters 3 and 4 is not expected to change plans to begin deliveries in late fiscal 2008 or early FY '09, the U.S. Air Force said in a statement responding to questions from The DAILY. The combined effort, known as Airborne, Maritime and Fixed (AMF), "is to maintain delivery schedules of original Cluster 3 and 4 programs," the Air Force said.
NASA's X-37 program is preparing for the first drop tests of its atmospheric demonstrator vehicle starting next November, although funding constraints have prompted the agency to put the brakes on an orbital variant that was to have flown in late 2006. The unmanned X-37 vehicles are intended to demonstrate technologies for reusable spacecraft. The atmospheric version, called the Approach and Landing Test Vehicle (ALTV), is in assembly at prime contractor Boeing's facilities in Palmdale, Calif., according to Boeing X-37 Program Manager Paul Geery.
The first launch test of a new interceptor booster for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency's Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system has been delayed until early January because of an "extremely minor" electronic glitch, a Pentagon spokesman said Dec. 16. Separately, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced it has successfully conducted the latest in a series of intercept tests for the Arrow weapon system.
The High Altitude Airship (HAA), which the Missile Defense Agency is developing as a surveillance and communications relay vehicle, eventually could be turned into an armed platform, an MDA official said Dec. 15. James Mulroy, MDA's director for engagement systems, said the HAA could evolve much like unmanned aerial vehicles. UAVs initially were outfitted with sensor payloads but later were equipped with missiles as the technology for unmanned aircraft matured.
NEW DELHI - The Russian-made Sukhoi Su-30 MKI multirole aircraft that are the heart of the Indian air force's military strategy have developed engine problems, an air force official said. Engines for the 28 aircraft acquired so far have proven problematic and require overhauls much earlier than scheduled, the official said. The trouble has forced Indian defense planners to consider slowing the delivery of additional Su-30 MKIs due from Russia.
Three new satellites for the Russian government's Glonass space navigation system entered orbit after a Proton launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome on Dec. 11. Two older Uragan and one newer 3,600-pound Uragan-M satellite - with an extended orbital life of up to five years - were delivered in the 32nd triple launch since the Glonass program began in 1982. Designed to have 24 spacecraft in three orbital planes and to compete with the U.S. Global Positioning Satellite system, Glonass has as few as eight operational satellites.
Northrop Grumman tested its proposed battle management command and control (BMC2) subsystem for the U.S. Air Force's E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) during a series of simulated flights conducted last week, the company announced Dec. 15.
