Aerotech News and Review


Featured Headlines

LM-JLTV Business

Lockheed Martin JLTV completes successful manufacturing review

The Lockheed Martin Joint Light Tactical Vehicle team successfully completed the government's Manufacturing Readiness Assessment, an important milestone on the path to vehicle production at the company's Camden, Ark., manufacturing complex.

DARPA photograph Defense

DARPA pioneers tactical mobile devices for soldiers

DARPA photograph An International Security Assistance Force soldier on patrol in a remote forward location in Afghanistan uses a secure mobile handheld device. For the first time in any war, U.S. soldiers on foot patrol across Afghanistan can use secure mobile handheld devices and infantry-tailored apps to access digital maps, set up and share routes,…

raytheon-chemring Business

Raytheon, Chemring Group complete first live-fire test of CENTURION launcher

Raytheon, acting through its Missile Systems business, and Chemring Group, acting through Chemring Countermeasures, successfully fired a Javelin missile from the multirole CENTURION® launcher during testing at the Defence Training Estate on Salisbury Plain in England.

LM-helo Business

Lockheed Martin, U.S. Navy strengthen international alliance with helicopter acceptance

The Royal Australian Navy accepted the first two MH-60R helicopters from the U.S. Navy in a ceremony Dec. 10 at the Lockheed Martin facility in Owego, N.Y. “The advanced anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities of the MH-60 Romeo are a game-changer in shifting the advantage from the submarine to the helicopter, which is essential in…

orbital-cygnus Space

Orbital mates Cygnus to Antares rocket for upcoming ISS mission

Orbital Sciences Corporation’s (NYSE: ORB) operations team mated the Cygnus spacecraft to the Antares rocket that will launch it to the International Space Station Dec. 18.

Recent Reactions


All of this week's top headlines to your email every Friday.


 
 

DOD photograph by Glenn Fawcett
0
comments
Defense

Air Force Continues Support to France in Mali

Posted  January 30, 2013

DOD photograph by Glenn Fawcett Pentagon Press Secretary George Little briefs reporters at the Pentagon, Jan. 29, 2013. During the press event, Little provided an update on the U.S. role in supporting France’s military operations in Mali. The U.S. Air Force continues to back French air operations in Mali through refueling efforts, logistical movements, troop…

Full Story »

0
comments
Business

Northrop Grumman awarded H-1 helicopter mission computer contract by U.S. Navy

Posted  January 30, 2013

WOODLAND HILLS, Calif. – Northrop Grumman has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to provide Gen II mission computers for the H-1 Upgrade helicopter program. Under the $9.3 million firm-fixed-price order, Northrop Grumman will supply Gen II mission computers and trays for the H-1 Upgrade program’s Lot 10 production aircraft….

Full Story »

Air Force photograph
0
comments
Commentary

Opening combat positions for women essential to diversity, future AF

Posted  January 30, 2013

Air Force photograph First Lt. Roslyn Schulte, 25, died from wounds suffered from a roadside bomb in Afghanistan May 20, 2009. Seen here in her senior class photo, Schulte was a 2006 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was the first female Academy graduate killed in action while supporting…

Full Story »

0
comments
Space

NASA observes Day of Remembrance Feb. 1

Posted  January 30, 2013

NASA will pay will tribute to the crews of Apollo 1 and space shuttles Challenger and Columbia, as well as other NASA colleagues, during the agency’s Day of Remembrance Feb. 1, the 10th anniversary of the Columbia accident. NASA’s Day of Remembrance honors members of the NASA family who lost their lives while furthering the…

Full Story »

0
comments
Business

Boeing focuses on 787 fix; fourth quarter profit tops estimate

Posted  January 30, 2013

Boeing said Jan. 30 that its top priority this year is fixing the battery problems that grounded its 787. The company made the pledge while reporting a fourth-quarter profit that topped Wall Street estimates, as rising profits from commercial jets offset a smaller profit from defense work. The 50 787s in service were grounded two…

Full Story »

0
comments
Space

NASA to launch ocean wind monitor to space station

Posted  January 30, 2013

In a clever reuse of hardware originally built to test parts of NASA’s QuikScat satellite, the agency will launch the ISS-RapidScat instrument to the International Space Station in 2014 to measure ocean-surface wind speed and direction. The ISS-RapidScat instrument will help improve weather forecasts, including hurricane monitoring, and understanding of how ocean-atmosphere interactions influence Earth’s…

Full Story »

boeing-737
0
comments
Business

Boeing 737 program starts building at higher production rate

Posted  January 30, 2013

Boeing photograph Boeing Mechanics load initial parts of the spars for the first airplane at the new rate into a spar-assembly machine. Boeing has begun assembly of the first Next-Generation 737 to be built at the rate of 38 airplanes per month. Over the past two years, production of the 737 has risen more than…

Full Story »

0
comments
Business

U.S. investigators ask Boeing for battery history

Posted  January 30, 2013

U.S. investigators said Jan. 30 they asked Boeing to provide a full operating history of lithium-ion batteries used in its grounded 787 Dreamliners after Japan’s All Nippon Airways revealed it had repeatedly replaced the batteries even before overheating problems surfaced. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said the agency made the request after recently…

Full Story »

0
comments
Tech

NASA launches second international space apps challenge

Posted  January 30, 2013

NASA and government agencies worldwide will host the second International Space Apps Challenge April 20-21, with events across all seven continents and in space. Participants are encouraged to develop mobile applications, software, hardware, data visualization and platform solutions that could contribute to space exploration missions and help improve life on Earth. The two-day event will…

Full Story »

Air Force photograph by A1C Ashley Wood
0
comments
In the news...

Recovered debris thought to be wreckage of missing aircraft

Posted  January 29, 2013

Air Force photograph by A1C Ashley Wood An F-16 Fighting Falcon, similar to the one pictured here, from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, lost communication with the base during a training mission Jan. 28, 2013, over the Adriatic Sea. United States and Italian military officials, along with Italian civilian authorities, continue…

Full Story »

 
 

 

Weather

 

lancaster, ca
 

Pick up a copy!

 

Find out where to pick up a print copy of Aerotech News in the Antelope Valley and Southern California areas by checking our handy Distribution List.

 

Local military discounts

 

 

NASA Image of the Day

 

Cloud Towers

 
In a view from high altitude, height can be a difficult thing to gauge. The highest of clouds can appear to sit on a flat plane, as if they were at the same elevation as the ocean or land surface. In this image, however, texture, shape and shadows lend definition to mushrooming thunderheads over the Indonesian island of Flores. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this image on the afternoon of Dec. 2, 2013. The towering clouds are so well defined that it is easy to visualize the rapidly rising air that is fueling them. “This looks like a classic example of island convection that is enhanced by topography,” says NASA scientist Joseph Munchak. During the day, sunlight heats the land more quickly than it heats the ocean. The warm air over land rises, creating an area of low pressure that pulls in cool air from the ocean. The result is a sea breeze. On this Indonesia island, the sea breeze from the Flores Sea on the north blows inland and clashes with the sea breeze blowing inland from the Savu Sea in the south. When the two breezes meet in the center of Flores, they push the air up. The rising air cools and condenses into a line of clouds. Sea breeze convection is not the only force at work here. On Flores, cloud formation has help from the shape of the land. A line of tall volcanoes runs down the spine of the island, and their steep slopes also force air to rise. So, moist ocean air blows inland, hits the mountains and volcanoes and rises with the slope. Above the mountains, the rising air meets the rising sea breeze from the other side, and the upward motion is reinforced. The combination of the two forces pushes air high into the atmosphere, resulting in large towering clouds of the sort that usually produce thunderstorms. In fact, a weather station on Flores reported rain and thunderstorms on December 2. This type of convection is strongest in the early afternoon, says Munchak, just about the time when Aqua MODIS acquired the image. The clouds were just beginning to form when Terra MODIS passed over earlier in the day. > Read more Image Credit: NASA/Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC Caption: Holli Riebeek
Read More
 

Pentagon Channel