BMW and Boeing to collaborate on carbon-fiber materials
Two heavyweights in the automotive and aerospace industries are joining minds on lighter materials. BMW and Boeing on Dec. 12 announced they would do joint research on carbon-fiber recycling and share knowledge about the material and its manufacture. As part of the collaboration agreement, the two companies will also share carbon-fiber manufacturing process simulations and ideas for manufacturing automation. BMW in 2013 plans to introduce two models from its new i brand (i3 battery-electric and i8 plug-in hybrid) featuring bodies made of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. Boeing's new 787 Dreamliner aircraft is made up of 50% carbon fiber. The collaboration is the first ever between the two companies.
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The bodies of BMW's i brand models will use carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. (Patrick Ponticel)
XCOR announces ATK as Lynx Mark I Wing detailed design/build contractor
XCOR Aerospace has issued the initial phase of a two-phase contract to ATK's Aerospace Structures Division for the detailed design and manufacture of the Lynx Mark I suborbital reusable launch vehicle (RLV) wings and control surfaces. The initial wing and control surface design has been developed by XCOR to rigorous design standards to enable the craft to perform tens of thousands of flights to and from suborbital altitudes exceeding 100 km. ATK will create a detailed design ready for manufacture, working with structural and flutter analysis experts from Quartus Engineering in San Diego, CA. The wings will be installed on the Lynx Mark I, which is the prototype of the Lynx family of suborbital RLVs from XCOR; the production models are called Lynx Mark II.
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Proposed detailed wing design for XCOR Lynx Mark I to be designed by ATK.
GS Yuasa Li-ion battery cells to power International Space Station
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR) awarded a contract to GS Yuasa Lithium Power Inc. (GYLP) to provide lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery cells to be used on the International Space Station (ISS). PWR will integrate GS Yuasa Li-ion cells into batteries that will replace the nickel-hydrogen (Ni-H2) batteries that currently power the ISS Electrical Power System (EPS) during its eclipse mode. This battery replacement effort is part of an initiative to extend the operation and utilization of the ISS. GS Yuasa will supply its LSE134 Li-ion cell that has completed qualification testing for the ISS program. The LSE134 (134-A·h nameplate capacity) cell is a member of GS Yuasa's Generation III family of Li-ion cells for space and is ideally suited to the electrical, size, and mass requirements of this mission. It approximately triples the available energy storage on both a per mass and a per volume basis relative to the existing Ni-H2 battery and is capable of powering critical ISS systems well beyond the required 10-year service life.
Boeing receives $1.9 billion contract for 11 P-8A Poseidon Aircraft
The U.S. Navy awarded Boeing a $1.9 billion contract for 11 P-8A Poseidon aircraft, which will take the total fleet to 24 and bolster the service's anti-submarine, anti-surface warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. This third low-rate initial production award follows two last year that totaled 13 aircraft. Boeing has delivered three of the production P-8As, which are based on the company's Next-Generation 737-800 commercial airplane, and the Navy plans to purchase 117 to replace its P-3 fleet. Boeing assembles the P-8A aircraft in the same facility where it builds all its 737 aircraft. The Poseidon team uses a first-in-industry in-line production process that draws on Boeing's Next-Generation 737 production system. Boeing's industry team includes CFM International, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Spirit AeroSystems, BAE Systems, and GE Aviation.
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The second production P-8A Poseidon aircraft is shown being delivered to the U.S. Navy in July.
Northrop Grumman, AgustaWestland team up for helicopter programs
Northrop Grumman Corp. and AgustaWestland signed a comprehensive teaming agreement to respond to anticipated requests for both the new U.S. Air Force Combat Rescue Helicopter and the U.S. Navy's program to develop a new "Marine One" presidential helicopter. A U.S.-built helicopter based on the AW101 platform will be offered by Northrop Grumman to meet these requirements. The agreement pairs Northrop Grumman's management and systems integration expertise with AgustaWestland's rotorcraft manufacturing and advanced helicopter design and development. The AW101 system offers both programs an optimum mix of capability to successfully bring the best possible new combat rescue helicopter to the USAF and the best possible new presidential Helicopter to the Navy-Marine Corps team.
Lockheed Martin building spacecraft For InSight Mars lander
Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. in Denver has been selected to build and operate the InSight spacecraft. The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) mission, led by principal investigator Bruce Banerdt of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and managed by JPL. Targeted for launch in 2016, the InSight lander would reach the Red Planet later that year and land at Elysium Planitia, a large flat area near the planet's equator. The InSight lander will install a seismograph and heat flow probe into the Martian surface. By using sophisticated geophysical instruments, InSight will delve deep beneath the surface of Mars, detecting the fingerprints of the processes of terrestrial planet formation, as well as measuring the planet's seismology, heat flow probe, and precision tracking.
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An artist rendition of the proposed InSight lander is shown. InSight is based on the proven Phoenix Mars spacecraft and lander design with avionics from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory missions.
Ukraine cooperates with Russia on $4 billion AN-70 project
Ukrainian company Antonov together with Russian United Aircraft Corp. will participate in manufacturing Antonov An-70 transport airplanes. Russian defense ministry already placed an order for 60 such machines, $67 million apiece. Developed since 1978, An-70 can carry heavier cargo than existing transport planes and land on ill-equipped runways. An-70 can carry 300 troopers, or 200 injured persons, or 47 ton of freight. Comparably, the closest alternative to the An-70—Airbus A400M Atlas—can carry 37 ton of cargo. The An-70 planes will be produced at JSC Gorbunov Kazan Aviation Production Association in Kazan, Russia. The plane can fly at a speed of 780 km/h at distances of up to 7800 km. An-70 is capable of landing on 600- to 800-m runways with earth surfaces. Onboard navigation equipment allows the plane to land and take off at airports lacking special earth-based equipment.
Raytheon awarded $636 million for Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle
Raytheon Co. was awarded a $636 million development and sustainment contract to provide the Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) to The Boeing Co., which is the prime contractor for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) program. EKV represents the centerpiece for the Missile Defense Agency's GMD as the intercept component of the Ground Based Interceptor, which is designed to engage high-speed ballistic missile warheads in space. Under conditions of the contract, which extends through November 2018, Raytheon will provide EKV development, fielding, testing, system engineering, integration, configuration management, equipment manufacturing and refurbishment, and operation and sustainment. The EKV is designed to destroy incoming ballistic missile threats by colliding with them, a concept often described as "hit to kill." EKV has an advanced multi-color sensor that is used to detect and discriminate incoming warheads from other objects. it also has its own propulsion, communications link, discrimination algorithms, guidance and control system, and computers to support target selection and intercept.
Sikorsky signs contract to build H-60 helicopters for U.S. Army, Navy
The U.S. Army and Navy signed an $8.5 billion contract with Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. to buy a baseline quantity of 653 Black Hawk and Seahawk helicopters through December 2017. The five-year contract will yield significant savings compared with purchasing the same quantity across five separate annual agreements. The five-year agreement also allows the Army and Navy to order as many as 263 more aircraft within the same contractual terms. If exercised, the optional purchases could push the contract value as high as $11.7 billion. Actual production quantities will be determined year-by-year over the life of the program based on funding allocations set by Congress and Pentagon acquisition priorities. Black Hawk and Seahawk aircraft deliveries under the new contract will begin this month. Sikorsky produces the two H-60M Black Hawk and two MH-60 Seahawk aircraft models on four separate production lines at its final assembly facility in Stratford, CT, and West Palm Beach, FL.
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The base contract includes UH-60M utility and HH-60M MEDEVAC helicopters for the U.S. Army, and MH-60R (shown) and MH-60S helicopters for the U.S. Navy.
Boeing to build more Wideband Global SATCOM Satellites for USAF
Boeing received authorization from the U.S. Air Force to produce and launch the eighth and ninth Wideband Global SATCOM (WGS) satellites. WGS-8 and -9 will join four other satellites that are part of the Block II series. Block II adds a switchable radio frequency bypass that enables the transmission of airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance imagery at data rates approximately three times greater than the rates available on Block I satellites. WGS-9 is being funded through a cooperative agreement that the USAF has forged with Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and New Zealand. WGS satellites are built on the Boeing 702HP platform, which features highly efficient xenon-ion propulsion, deployable thermal radiators, and advanced triple-junction gallium-arsenide solar arrays that enable high-capacity, flexible payloads.
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WGS-4, WGS-5, and WGS-6, the first WGS satellites in the Block II series, are shown from right to left undergoing final integration, test, and launch activities in November 2011.
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