Farnborough 2008 Show News - July 17, 2008 - (Page 22)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 Military Getting the First Anti-Missile Units The U.S. government says that there are still thousands of shoulderfired missiles on the black market, and as BAE Systems modifies one of its military countermeasures systems to protect commercial airlines, one of the first beneficiaries is turning out to be the military. Adapting for civilian use a system that includes a common missile warning system and a turret to direct a laser beam into the sensor eye of an incoming heat-seeking missile poses a big commercialization challenge. Paul Handwerker, business development vp for electronic warfare, says military countermeasures systems have a mean time between failure (MTBF) in the hundreds of aim is to find out what the real world reliability will be. Handwerker says that the company’s goal is to get the Jeteye system for use on civil aircraft to 3,000 hours MTBF and the “stretch goal” is 10,000 hours. Any system on an airline that has less than 10,000 hours MTBF is usually considered a problem by airline executives. The good news for the U.S. military is that the Jeteye reliability enhancements are already flowing back into the Army’s AN/ALQ-212 Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasures (ATIRCM) system. ATRICM with laser jamming capability is headed for service in Iraq and Afghanistan on U.S. Army helicopters. —David Hughes Paul Handwerker of BAE systems says it’s a matter of durability. hours. Airlines, however, want those figures to be in thousands of hours, which is why BAE’s Jeteye system started service on the first of three American Airlines 767s in revenue passenger service on July 11. The Predator UAV Gathers Data on Wildfires A special NASA sensor deployed on the agency’s Predator B UAV is flying over California to gather data on the hundreds of wildfires Ikhana drone burning within the state. The UAV—known as Ikhana—is operating from NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger praised the NASA system, which he said “gives us immediate information that we can use to manage fires, operates from Edwards AFB. identify threats and deploy firefighting assets.” NASA and the U.S. Forest Service are partners in this effort to obtain images of the wildfires in response to requests from state agencies. The Ikhana aircraft is carrying an Autonomous Modular Scanner developed by NASA at its Ames Research Center. The sensor can detect temperature differences from less than half a degree to about 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit. According to NASA, it operates like a digital camera with specialized filters to detect light energy at visible, infrared and thermal wavelengths. Nearly 4,000 square miles—from Santa Barbara north to the Oregon border— were imaged by the Ikhana aircraft on July 8 alone. The flights provide tactical information about the terrain and fires to firefighting commanders in the field, reaching them via other coordination centers in as little as 10 minutes. The FAA is providing NASA with “unprecedented flexibility” to operate in U.S. airspace, NASA said. NASA was working with the forest service on a demonstration mission to be flown later this summer, but accelerated the schedule in response to the recent wildfires. The system has already been proven during earlier imaging demonstrations and even tested operationally during the Southern California fires of October 2007. —Adrian Schofield 22 Aero Vodochody Is Back, and It’s Looking for Work Aero Vodochody—the largest aviation technology company in the Czech Republic—is positioning itself as a Tier 1 aerostructures supplier through a careful expansion of its manufacturing capacity. Sold off by Boeing in 2004, the company is wrapping up negotiations for the acquisition of state-owned Romanian aviation plant Avioane Craiova, and is looking to the western airframe-makers for additional manufacturing work. Aero already builds parts for the Sikorsky S-76C++ helicopter and is building wing center sections for the Alenia C-27J Spartan transport. It also makes Embraer 170/190 doors and other sub-assemblies and gun bay doors for the Boeing F/A-18. “As we enter the final phase of restructuring, we’re looking to grow outside the Czech Republic, with additional capacity and more service offerings, including engineering and [research and development],” says Igor Hulak, Aero’s president. According to Hulak, joining with the Aero’s Igor Hulak. Romanian manufacturer is a good fit, as its experience mirrors Aero’s in many respects. “Traditionally, we were both military suppliers, but we lost our markets when the government customers went away. “Our big priority for Avioane Craiova will be to modernize the production machinery and facilities. With them, we can continue the renaissance of Czech industry and become a real player in the international aerostructures business.” —Paul Richfield July 17, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

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