Obituary: Long-serving NASA astronaut, research pilot and U.S. Air Force test pilot C. Gordon Fullerton died Aug. 21 at home in Lancaster, Calif. He was 76. Fullerton, who logged 382 hr. in space on two shuttle missions, was particularly well known for his work at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards AFB, where he was a research test pilot for 22 years.
Long-span wings generate less drag, but design rules limit their slenderness to avoid the potentially catastrophic aeroelastic instability known as flutter. Now, as part of the search for fuel efficiency and long endurance, flexible-wing control technology is being flight-tested to overcome those limits.
Autonomy and low-carbon propulsion are two areas likely to receive greater emphasis at NASA as it embarks upon its new strategy for aeronautics research. The new strategy aligns civil aeronautics research under six thrusts: safe, efficient growth in operations, low-boom supersonic and ultra-efficient subsonic commercial aircraft, low-carbon propulsion, real-time system-wide safety assurance, and assured autonomy.
LONDON — The U.K. National Police Air Service (NPAS) is launching a tender to standardize its fleet of Eurocopter EC135T2 helicopters based around the country. The NPAS operation, which is headed by West Yorkshire Police, has requested information from suppliers to provide mission equipment for several aircraft used by NPAS. The tender covers the installation and integration of the aircraft’s electro-optical camera system, communications and radio equipment, mission system workstations, searchlights and public address system.
The U.S. Army and Marine Corps need more analysis of their simulation-based training to better gauge its costs and benefits vs. live training, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). GAO recommends the services develop metrics and a methodology to compare live and simulation-based training costs. The Pentagon partially concurred, but noted that it “captures all relevant costs needed for decision making,” GAO says in its Aug. 22 report.
A South Korean government committee is due next month to decide the winner of the F-X Phase 3 fighter competition, in which the Boeing F-15SE is the only remaining candidate following an assessment by the Defense Acquisition Program Agency (DAPA).
Congressional auditors tell U.S. lawmakers that the Pentagon may have more work to do justifying its acquisition of the high-profile Next Generation Jammer (NGJ), given its overlap with other military efforts. “Redundancy in some of these areas may, in fact, be desirable,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says in its Aug. 20 report to the Democratic chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.
PALM BEACH and PANAMA CITY, Fla. — The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) mission-module-and-package components are much further along than the U.S. Navy has publicly acknowledged. But government analysts worry the integration work for those systems will be more difficult than anticipated and operational testing could reveal problems that could prove costly and time-consuming, especially over the life of the ship class.
PANAMA CITY, Fla. — While some defense and government analysts continue to doubt the survivability and firepower of the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) fleet, there’s one aviation asset that few question the need for: the MH-60 Seahawk. The LCS mission-module packages rely heavily on either the MH-60R (Romeo) or MH-60S (Sierra) models, depending on whether the ships are conducting surface warfare (SUW), mine countermeasures missions (MCM) or antisubmarine warfare (ASW) missions.
Northrop Grumman is looking at the potential of “really large” unmanned airships for commercial freight transportation, says Tom Vice, president of the company’s Aerospace Systems segment. Comparing the impact of such a system on air freight operations to the advent of Boeing’s 747 freighter in its day, Vice says that while there is “a lot of work to do” on the concept, the company has looked at promising technologies and that the company would continue the work—if it opts to do so—in partnership with a large airfreight hauler such as FedEx or UPS.
NEW DELHI — India’s Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) has signed a contract worth 30 billion rupees ($475 million) with the country’s defense ministry to supply Invar anti-tank guided missiles to the Indian army. “The deliveries are expected to be completed over the next five years,” a defense ministry spokesman says. In 2011, India approved the purchase of 25,000 Invar missiles to be carried on the army’s T-90 tanks.
U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan Greenert is underscoring the U.S. Navy’s priorities, even under the cloud of possible further rounds of sequestration, with the release of his “navigation plan” for service acquisitions and operations in the coming years. The Navy, he says, “focuses in particular on deterring and defeating aggression and assuring access by implementing the Air-Sea Battle (ASB) concept.” The service intends to maintain a carrier strike group and amphibious ready group in both the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions.
LOS ANGELES and HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Boeing hopes by year’s end to secure its first sale of a new family of small satellites unveiled by the company this year and dubbed Phantom Phoenix. Executives declined to say whether this first customer would be commercial or supporting national security missions for the U.S. government. But Craig Cooning, vice president of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, says talks could culminate in an announcement by the end of the year.
