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.
The Pentagon's top budget official said Dec. 17 that the Bush Administration's upcoming fiscal 2005 defense budget request will largely adhere to the results of a biennial review of programs that coincided with the Defense Department's FY '04 budget preparations. The FY '05 request is "going to reflect changes on the margin" and "it'll maintain the themes that we set" in the previous year's budget, Undersecretary of Defense and Comptroller Dov Zakheim told the Defense Writers Group.
The Indian government balked at signing a contract for the purchase of the Barak anti-missile system for the Indian navy after the system malfunctioned during tests. A senior Indian defense ministry official told The DAILY that technical problems turned up in the Barak system during trials in the second week of November. More tests have been ordered in the near future.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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).
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.
December 8, 2003 AIR FORCE The Boeing Co., Fort Walton Beach, Fla., is being awarded an $187,994,406 firm fixed price, cost-plus fixed-fee, time and materials contract modification. This contract will exercise of option for aircraft 2/3/4 of the modification of a C-130H2 into a side-firing AC-130U gunship. Total funds have been obligated. This work will be complete by September 2006. The Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-02-C-2037, P00006). NAVY
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.
NAME CHANGE: NASA plans to release the first images from its Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) on Dec. 18, the aerospace agency said. It also will announce a new name for the observatory, which was launched in August to study galaxies, stars and planet-forming discs that orbit around them.
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.
General Dynamics Land Systems won a $2 billion contract - the largest in its history - to develop the next generation of tanks, artillery and infantry carriers for the U.S. Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) program, the company announced Dec. 15.
