The last of 33 NanoRacks’ cubesats commercially delivered to the International Space Station aboard Orbital Sciences‘ Orb-1 Cygnus mission in January were successfully deployed from the orbital lab’s Japanese Kibo module early Feb. 28.
A hurry-up launch in 2021 for a human flyby of Mars proposed by pioneer space tourist Dennis Tito would make a good “bridge” between the International Space Station and more sustainable missions closer to Earth, according to experts testifying before a skeptical House Science Committee Feb. 27.
Aerospace and defense companies feature prominently as partners in two public-private advanced manufacturing institutes launched by the Obama administration. Led by EWI and headquartered in Detriot, the American Lightweight Materials Manufacturing Innovation Institute (ALMMII) is a 60-member consortium that includes Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Electric and United Technologies Research Center.
Lockheed Martin is working on a series of upgrades to the Desert Hawk small, hand-launched unmanned aircraft system principally used by the British army in Afghanistan. A digital data link to improve signal quality and increase information security will be demonstrated soon, says Steve Fortson, the company’s small UAS business development manager.
DRYDEN RENAMED: NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., will be formally renamed the Armstrong Flight Research Center, in honor of the late Apollo 11 astronaut, on March 1. The late Hugh L. Dryden, the center’s namesake since 1976, will continue to be memorialized in the renaming of the center’s 12,000-sq.-mi. Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Dryden Aeronautical Test Range, NASA says. The redesignation of the center, which is located on Edwards AFB in Southern California, was directed in legislation drafted by Rep.
Romania’s ARCA has begun flight testing the Air Strato electric-powered, high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aircraft. The vehicle is aimed at surveillance and scientific missions. The aircraft made a short first flight on Feb. 13, reaching an altitude of 25 meters (80 ft.) and speed of 72 km/hr. (39 kt.). The takeoff was from rough ground and the right main gear suspension system was damaged on touchdown, ARCA says.
Flight-simulator manufacturer CAE is to receive a C$250 million ($225 million) repayable investment from the Canadian government to support its Project Innovate program to develop new modeling and simulation technologies. Investment in the company’s research and development program, which will continue into 2020, is being made under the federal government’s Strategic Aerospace and Defense Initiative (SADI).
The U.K.’s Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd. (HAV) has begun reassembling a large airship acquired from the U.S. Army, following cancellation of the Northrop Grumman-led Long-Endurance Multi-intelligence Vehicle (LEMV) program. Cardington-based HAV plans to use the 302-ft.-long HAV304 hybrid airship, which flew only once in August 2012 at Lakehurst, N.J., as a prototype and demonstrator for its planned Airlander 50 commercial heavy-lift airship. The first U.K. flight is expected by year’s end.
Roboticists developing satellite-servicing technology at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have completed a ground-based teleoperations demonstration that transferred corrosive nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) through a standard satellite-fueling valve at Kennedy Space Center (KSC), using a robot controlled from Goddard.
NEW DELHI — Saddled with obsolete training aircraft, the Indian air force (IAF) has decided to snub the long-delayed, indigenous HJT-36 Sitara intermediate jet trainer (IJT) and purchase new trainers from abroad. The IAF has issued a request for information for a lightweight, single-engine, twin-seat trainer with a secondary light attack capability, an official at India’s ministry of defense says. “We have asked the vendors to provide cost details for the direct purchase of IJTs for batch sizes of 10, 20, 30 and 50 aircraft,” he says.
There is apparently a price to be paid for the width and volume provided by the even-numbered Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) variants built by Austal USA and General Dynamics—a very tight squeeze through the Panama Canal. (LCS-4 photo: Austal USA)
Data mining the first two years of results from NASA’s Kepler planet-finding probe, using a statistical technique based on the discovery that multi-planet systems are more common than once thought, has confirmed 715 new exoplanets orbiting distant stars, scientists announced Feb. 26. Two papers to be published by the Astrophysical Journal outline the Kepler findings, the statistical technique derived from them and the results when the data were analyzed with it.
Award of a contract to develop a new cockpit for U.S. Army Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters could be imminent, with a Milestone B decision on launching the L Digital development program expected Feb. 28. Elbit Systems of America, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Rockwell Collins are known bidders for the program, under which up to 763 UH-60Ls would be upgraded with a glass cockpit as similar as possible to that of the Army’s later UH-60M.
ROMEOS ARRIVE: The U.S. Navy officially delivered two MH-60Rs to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) recently. The helicopters are the cornerstone of the U.S. Navy’s anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare operations, and the RAN will acquire a fleet of 24 Romeos. “We pack a punch now using the Hellfire missile that we’ve never had before,” says Cmdr. David Frost, who leads RAN’s squadron of Romeos. “It’s been a capability gap that we’re now going to be able to fill with this aircraft.
Sofia, the Joint NASA and German Aerospace Center (DLR) Boeing 747SP flying observatory, is on the verge of reaching full operational capability after completing the final commissioning flight for the last of four major science instruments.
Major U.S. Navy ship and radar programs for ballistic missile defense (BMD) have recently made significant headway. Raytheon Integrated Defense Systems awarded General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems a contract to support the engineering and manufacturing development of the U.S. Navy’s next-generation integrated Air and Missile Defense Radar (AMDR). The contract has a potential value of $250.1 million over 10 years if all options are exercised.
Aviation Week Laureate Awards March 6, 2014 National Building Museum Washington, D.C. Join Us! Aviation Week’s 57th annual Laureate Awards will recognize individuals/teams for their extraordinary accomplishments. Their achievements embody the spirit of exploration, innovation, vision or any combination of these attributes that inspire others to strive for significant, broad-reaching progress in aviation and aerospace.
The next likely deputy U.S. defense secretary, Bob Work, agreed with senators Feb. 25 that the U.S. Air Force Combat Rescue Helicopter (CRH) represents a necessary capability.
As the U.S. Coast Guard finishes up rebuilding its surface fleet and taking care of major fixed-wing aircraft needs, the service will next need to worry about finding replacements for its aging helicopters, says Adm. Robert Papp, its commandant. The Coast Guard should be monitoring the efforts of the U.S. Air Force to secure another search-and-rescue (SAR) helicopter to see if a basic model of that aircraft can be acquired to meet Coast Guard needs, Papp said Feb. 26 after his annual state-of-the-Coast Guard address.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is about to begin a new series of flight trials involving the Thales Watchkeeper unmanned aerial system. Trials are moving from Aberporth in West Wales to the ministry’s test airfield at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, where the aircraft will be able to directly support army training over the Salisbury Plain Training Area.
F-35 activities planned to take place after the program’s development phase ends in 2016 could slip by up to six months, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, program executive officer for the stealthy fighter. Work leading up to completion of development of the multinational, $398 billion program is largely on track, he told an audience hosted by Credit Suisse/McAleese & Associates Feb. 25. “I’m measuring the days I’m off in those milestones by days and weeks,” he said.
