Week in review (5/29 to 6/4)

Regular readers certainly know that the Gulf Coast region has a lot of aerospace activity in a wide range of fields. Now there's a book that puts it all in focus.

Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor 2011-2012, which became available June 1, highlights the activities in the region between New Orleans and Northwest Florida. It was written by four veteran journalists, including me.

The book has an executive summary and a chapter about the variety of lifestyles available in the Gulf Coast region. There are chapters on foreign investments in the region, space activities, research and development, unmanned systems and robotics, military aviation and education and workforce issues.

The book or individual chapters can be downloaded at the Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor Web site. The downloads are free, thanks to the support of three underwriters: the Aerospace Alliance, Gulf Coast Regional Chamber Coalition and Mississippi Enterprise for Technology.

But if you're one of those folks who still prefer holding a book in your hand, you can order a printed version with a glossy cover from the print-on-demand service Lulu.com. The books are available at cost, and you can buy one or more. The shipping method is up to you.

So take a look, and I’d love to hear your comments.

Also coming in the next couple of weeks is the sixth edition of Mississippi Gulf Coast Aerospace. The book details aerospace activities in South Mississippi. That's the book that led the authors to venture into doing something about the broader region. The Mississippi book is sponsored by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development, and a free download of the new edition will be available at the group's aerospace Web site. A print edition will also be available.


Airports
The federal government is sending nearly $3.2 million to three southwest Alabama airports, including Mobile Regional Airport in Mobile, Ala. The money for safety and infrastructure improvements was announced during the week by Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. Mobile will get $1.8 million from the Federal Aviation Administration.

- Vector Aerospace held a groundbreaking ceremony in Andalusia, Ala., Wednesday for a new facility that will bring an estimated 125 jobs to Covington County. Gov. Robert Bentley and ADO Director Seth Hammett were among those attending the event. Vector, a Canadian-based helicopter repair company, currently employs 150 people. The expansion will allow the company to nearly double the number of employees and the amount of workspace at the South Alabama Regional Airport in Andalusia.

- Trent Lott International Airport in Moss Point, Miss., now equipped with a control tower and fire station, plans to go after a military contract that could increase its revenue by 25 percent. Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard planes already use the airport’s one runway for touch-and-gos, but they can’t stop or refuel because the airport doesn’t have a military fuel contract. Carol Snapp, airport director, said they have begun the process to acquire one.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Huntington Ingalls Industries, Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a contract modification in an amount not-to-exceed $25,300,000 to previously awarded contract for long lead time material for DDG 113. Forty percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula.

Marine science: The chemical sprayed in the Gulf to break up the BP oil spill may not have been effective and could be damaging the ecosystem, according to preliminary findings by University of West Florida researchers. BP dumped nearly 2 million gallons of the dispersant in the Gulf, which saw more than 172 million gallons of oil leak into the water in the wake of the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion.

Week in review (5/22 to 5/28)

So, you thought the Orion crew capsule from the canceled Constellation Program was dead? Well, not exactly. NASA said last week that a new spacecraft to take humans into deep space will be based on designs for the Orion crew exploration vehicle. And it will be built by Lockheed Martin, which also built Orion.

Orion, originally designed to take astronauts back to the moon, is a surviving component of the Constellation manned space exploration program canceled by President Barack Obama last year. The new spacecraft is called the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) and will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and be able to land in the Pacific. NASA has spent some $5 billion on Orion since it awarded Lockheed Martin the prime contract in September 2006. NASA still needs to finalize plans for a heavy lift vehicle.

What this may mean for the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans may be a bit early to tell. Lockheed Martin built the Orion ground test article at Michoud, and it's likely it would be involved in any variation of the crew vehicle.


Blue Angels
The commander of the Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team, Navy Cmdr. Dave Koss, voluntarily stepped down from the team after some of its jets flew at a lower altitude than allowed at a Virginia air show last weekend. The team is on indefinite stand-down. Koss is being replaced by Navy Capt. Greg McWherter, who commanded the team before Koss took over in November 2010.


F-35
Future JSF maintainers Air Force maintainers are getting hands-on experience with the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Seven airmen from the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., were at the Navy station for 75 days to gain first-hand experience maintaining the F-35B and F-35C variants, while those aircraft continue flight test and evaluation.

They are the second group from the Wing to visit the F-35 test facility at Pax River. The crew arrived April 19 and another group is expected to follow this summer. Lockheed Martin is scheduled to deliver the F-35A aircraft AF-8 to Eglin later this year.


Airports
Northwest Florida Regional Airport had the busiest month in its 54-year history in April. The airport at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., had 96,788 passengers, up 43 percent from April 2010. Last month's figure also outpaced the airport’s previous high set in July 2001 by more than 13 percent. Greg Donovan, the airport director, said Vision Airlines, which expanded its service to 15 new destinations in late March and early April, was the overwhelming reason.

- Regent Aerospace, which overhauls aircraft seats and interiors, is temporarily suspending operations at Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala., because it has yet to obtain a required Federal Aviation Administration approval. Mike Lilley, vice president of California-based Regent, said seats now being worked on will be taken back to the firm's Indianapolis facility, and that the 20 Mobile workers will also be relocated there temporarily. Regent hopes to get the approval from the FAA and reopen in Mobile within two weeks.


Contracts
Raytheon Missile Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded an $83 million contract modification for the Miniature Air Launched Decoy low rate initial production lot four. AAC/EBJM, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Textron Systems Corp., Wilmington, Mass., was awarded a $9.9 million contract modification for the Sensor Fuzed Weapon India Foreign Military Sales case integration phase one eight-month effort. AAC/EBJI, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Aerojet General Corp. of Rancho Cordova, Calif., was awarded a $31.8 million contract modification for the procurement of warhead cases and internal components to support the Precision Lethality MK82 Quick Reaction Capability program. The contracting activity is AAC/EBSK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The William P. Lawrence arrived in Mobile on Friday, where the crew will remain until the formal commissioning ceremony on June 4. After the commissioning, the ship, built in Pascagoula, Miss., by Ingalls Shipbuilding, will head for its home port in San Diego. … General Dynamics National Steel and Shipbuilding Co., San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $744 million modification to previously awarded contract for the procurement of the detail design and construction of two mobile landing platform ships. Some of the work will be done in Mobile, Ala., and Belle Chasse, La. … VT Halter Marine won a contract to build a 112-foot offshore articulated tug barge for New York-based Bouchard Transportation Co. Inc. The dollar figure was not disclosed. Construction is set to begin next month at the Moss Point and Escatawpa yards, both in Mississippi. … A new ship designed to carry a billion-dollar ballistic missile tracking radar failed its acceptance trials earlier this month and will need repairs before it can enter service. The Howard O. Lorenzen, built by VT Halter Marine at Moss Point, Miss., will be repaired at Kiewit Offshore Services in Corpus Christi, Texas. … As the Avondale shipyard moves toward closing in 2013, researchers from several universities are teaming to study the 73-year-old facility's economic and cultural contributions to the region.

Geospatial: NASA’s Applied Science and Technology Project Office at the John C. Stennis Space Center has provided satellite images to the Army Corps of Engineers and Louisiana showing large amounts of sediment throughout coastal Louisiana as a result of flooding on the Mississippi River. The U.S. Geological Survey and NASA are providing satellite imagery to help in flood response efforts.

Week in review (5/15 to 5/21)

Those Army Fire Scouts that were sitting idle at the Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Center in Moss Point, Miss., after the Army dropped the Fire Scout program are finally going to be used - by the Navy.

Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Aerospace Systems Unmanned Systems, San Diego, Calif., was awarded a $42 million modification to a previously awarded contract to convert eight Army Vertical Takeoff and Landing Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to Navy configuration.

Nearly all the work, 71 percent, will be done in Moss Point, with the rest being done in San Diego, Calif. The project will be finished in February 2013. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.

The Navy apparently really likes its Fire Scouts, and other unmanned systems as well.

According to National Defense magazine, Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of naval operations, earlier this month has expressed satisfaction with the initial tests and deployments of several unmanned prototypes. The goal is to field a squadron of drones to operate aboard aircraft carriers later this decade.

Roughead was "extraordinarily pleased" with the initial flights of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat system demonstrator. Importantly, the aircraft executed "dead-on" landings, crucial for operating on carrier flight decks, according to the article.

And the Fire Scout? The UAV, in trial deployments, is operating aboard a frigate in support of special operations forces and accumulating hours at a steady rate. The Navy also has deployed several Fire Scouts into Afghanistan to support ground troops.

This has just got to be gratifying for the workers in Moss Point who have been participating in the building of Fire Scouts right from the start. The company has said in the past that the team in Moss Point beat expectations of their learning curve.

All this is going on at the same time Northrop Grumman and Bell are working on the Fire-X, a larger version of the Fire Scout based on a Bell helicopter.


Lakotas
EADS North America delivered the first of six UH-72A Lakota Light Utility Helicopters to the South Dakota Army National Guard during a delivery ceremony at the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota's Black Hills.

The UH-72A Lakota is produced by American Eurocopter in its Columbus, Miss., manufacturing facility at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The South Dakota Army National Guard will ultimately receive six Lakota helicopters, four in the Medical Evacuation configuration and two in the Security and Support Battalion configuration.


Contracts
System Studies and Simulation Inc., Huntsville, Ala., was awarded a $10.3 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide advanced aircraft flight training services at the U.S. Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Ala. Work will be performed in Fort Rucker, Ala., with an estimated completion date of May 22, 2012. The U.S. Army Mission and Installation Contracting Center, Fort Rucker, Ala., is the contracting activity. … The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $9.3 million firm-fixed-price contract modification to provide 389 MK-82 SAASM/AJ Joint Direct Attack Munitions under production Lot 15. AAC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The Navy's latest Aegis guided missile destroyer, the William P. Lawrence, left Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Miss., Thursday and headed out for several days in the Gulf of Mexico. It will later arrive in Mobile, Ala., for its June 4 commissioning before heading to its home port in San Diego.

Marine science: As record amounts of freshwater headed down the Mississippi River toward the Mississippi Sound, the oyster industry can expect to face extreme losses, an official with the Department of Marine Resources said Tuesday in Biloxi, Miss. … Alabama researchers fishing within 15 miles of Dauphin Island, Ala., caught more than 300 red snapper and found no sign of infection. That appears to contradict a team from Louisiana State University who earlier reported catching some fish in the same area that showed signs of disease. Concern over marine life increased in the wake of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Week in review (5/8 to 5/14)

During the past week, an Air Force Reserve wing in the region got a new commander, contracts for engines were awarded in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, the first JSF production model that will come to Eglin Air Force Base flew for the first time, and the Air Force picked a company to handle housing at two area bases.


New commander
The 403rd Wing at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., now has a new commander. It's Col. Jay D. Jensen. The command changed during a ceremony at the Event Center, during which the flag passed from Brig. Gen. James Muscatell Jr. to Jensen. From April 1999 to July 2008, Jensen served with the 403rd at Keesler, working with the 815th Airlift Squadron. Muscatell commanded the wing since January 2009. He’s heading for Scott Air Force Base, Illinois.


Bases
There's now a contractor that's been signed up to build privatized housing at Eglin Air Force Base and Hurlburt Field. The Air Force said Picerne Military Housing will build the homes and be the landlord to active-duty service members for the next 50 years. The Air Force contract also includes bases in California, Alaska, Kansas and North Carolina. The developer will build up to 929 homes at Eglin and 484 homes on Hurlburt.


Jobs
New Jersey-based DRS Technologies has laid off about 65 workers from its Fort Walton Beach, Fla., office. The layoffs were the second time this year that workers were let go. DRS cut 38 employees in February. Officials blame it on the ebb and flow of contracts. The office in Commerce and Technology Park specializes in communications, unmanned aircraft and boarder security products. It now has about 790 people.


F-35
Pratt and Whitney, which makes the primary engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, was awarded two contracts valued during the week for 38 engines.

The largest contract was $910 million for 36 low rate initial production F-135 engines. The contract is for 12 conventional take off and landing propulsion systems for the Air Force, 18 short take off and vertical land engine systems for the Marine Corps, one short take off and vertical land engines for the United Kingdom, and five carrier variant engines for the Navy.

The contract converts a previously awarded undefinitized contract to a fixed-incentive-fee contract. It combines purchases for the Navy ($638,956,839; 70.2 percent), Air Force ($222,506,542; 24.45 percent) and the United Kingdom ($48,691,764; 5.35 percent).

Pratt and Whitney also was awarded a $35.5 million contract to provide for additional procurement of one F-135 carrier variant engine for the Navy and one short take off and vertical landing spare engine for the Marines. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity for both contracts.

Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will be the Joint Strike Fighter training center. The first F-35A production aircraft that will be delivered to Eglin made its first flight on May 6, according to Aerospace and Defense News. Known as AF-8, the aircraft will be delivered to Eglin for pilot and maintainer training later this year.


Contract
Lockheed Martin Corp., Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $45.8 million contract modification for 75 baseline missiles for the Joint-Air-to-Surface-Missiles Program Office. Work will be done in Orlando. The AAC/EBJK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Huntington Ingalls Industries' Pascagoula shipyard won a $2.7 million grant for a project to improve shipyard welding. Ingalls was one of six shipyards sharing about $14.6 million in project grants from the National Shipbuilding Research Program to develop a process to eliminate over-welding to reduce distortion.

Materials: DuPont said it will expand its global titanium dioxide production by about 350,000 metric tons to meet increasing demand for the pigment. The expansion includes a new production line at the company's Altamira, Mexico, site, and improvements at other production facilities, including the DeLisle plant in South Mississippi.

Week in review (5/1 to 5/7)

For anyone who has an outdated idea of the Gulf Coast region, they might do well to keep an eye on efforts to increase interest in science, technology, engineering and math. It's happening in Pensacola, Fla., Mobile, Ala., and Bay St. Louis, Miss., through three developing science learning centers.

This cluster of science learning centers along the Interstate 10 corridor is being established at a time when the nation is struggling to get young people interested in STEM careers. And those careers are crucial to keep the United States a world leader in innovation.

In Pensacola, the National Flight Academy at Naval Air Station Pensacola was "christened" Friday as "Ambition." The flight academy isn't finished yet, but the building near the Naval Aviation Museum is moving towards completion.

The flight academy will offer aerospace-related, week-long sessions to students in seventh through 12th grades. The key is to make learning science, technology, engineering and math fun, in this case through designing an academy that looks and feels like an aircraft carrier, complete with ready rooms and more.

The first class will attend the academy in May 2012.

To the west in Mobile, the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf Coast plans to open in 2012. And the reason behind it is the same, making science, technology, engineering and math a fun experience. The Mobile attraction will focus on the Gulf of Mexico, the ninth largest body of water in the world, and the museum will be a replica of a container ship “docked” inside the building.

Topics that will be highlighted at the museum include marine archaeology, Gulf animal and plant life, coastal environments and more. Visitors will also learn a lot about maritime commerce and shipbuilding, including navigation.

Go even further west near the Mississippi and Louisiana state line and you'll find the Infinity Science Center, south of NASA’s John C. Stennis Space Center and west of the current Interstate 10 Welcome Center in Mississippi.

This 72,000 square-foot attraction that's still being built will allow visitors to explore the farthest reaches of outer space, the depths of the oceans and the varied layers of the Earth. In the Welcome Center they’ll encounter "Science Express," fast-paced activities aimed at drop-in visitors and designed to whet their appetites to explore the main galleries that focus on Earth, oceans and space.

The Infinity Web site says the mission is to create an attraction "that will inspire, amaze and engage those who visit." It's set up in a way that invites visitors to explore through deepening levels of involvement, and being so close to the interstate it's likely to attract a lot of people driving through the region.

What strikes me is that we have a lot of sci-tech activities in this region, but much of the publicity about the Gulf Coast in recent years has focused on disasters, from hurricanes to the oil spill. A lot is occurring that gets little attention from the outside world. My guess is that if these centers at some point get together for some type of joint promotion, it could have a huge impact on the image of this region.

If you're interested in reading more about these science centers, the Mississippi Gulf Coast Alliance for Economic Development's quarterly newsletter, Alliance Insight, has a story about the "Gulf Coast's Sci-Techland," beginning on page 6. (Story, newsletter)


In aerospace news of interest to the Gulf Coast during the week:

Unmanned systems
A Predator squadron may be coming to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., but the 140 personnel associated with the squadron won't be bringing a UAV with them.

The Air Force said during the week that Eglin is a candidate for an Air Force Reserve Command MQ-1 Remote Split-Operation squadron. The primary mission of an MQ-1 RSO squadron is to support the MQ-1 Predator aircraft operations that conduct close air support, air interdiction, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Remote split-operations consist of launching a drone via line-of-sight operations from one location, and controlling the aircraft remotely from a mission control element that is operated at another location beyond line-of-site.

Officials will begin conducting evaluations of Eglin, covering a range of operational and facility issues. Based on the results of these efforts, officials expect to announce the preferred alternative before the summer's end.


Space
NASA paid tribute to Roy S. Estess, the late director of John C. Stennis Space Center in Miss., by naming a building in his memory and establishing an annual public service leadership award in his name.

Estess, a Mississippi native and graduate of Mississippi State University, served as director of Stennis Space Center from 1989 to 2002. He earned a reputation as an agency pioneer, as well as a mentor and coach to many who later led or still lead throughout NASA.

"His legacy will not be forgotten," Stennis Director Patrick Scheuermann said during a May 2 ceremony at the south Mississippi facility.

- NASA has awarded five sole source contracts to Aerospace Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., for specialized engineering, evaluation and test services. These five contracts will support eight NASA centers, including John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., and have a total maximum value of $658.25 million.


Airport
Northwest Florida Regional Airport at Eglin Air Force Base/Valparaiso will spend more than a half-million dollars to market Vision Airlines in its five newest destinations. The $550,000 will pay for billboard, newspaper and television advertising for the new flights to and from Las Vegas, St. Louis, Fort Lauderdale, Memphis, Tenn., and Lafayette, La. The flights are scheduled to start the week of June 1.


Blue Angels
The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team performed over Florida's Pensacola Bay during the week in commemoration of the centennial of naval aviation. The performances were Tuesday and Wednesday. There were also vintage aircraft fly-bys and various other flight demonstrations during the two-day event.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The Army has transferred to the Navy all five of its Joint High Speel Vessels. Initially the program was envisioned to have five of the first 10 JHSVs assigned to the Army, with the Navy getting the rest. Both services agreed in December 2010 to assign them all to the Navy. The ships are built by Austal USA in Mobile, Ala.

Marine science: The Army Corps of Engineers plans to open the Bonnet Carre Spillway Monday, sending fresh water through Lake Pontchartrain then into the Gulf of Mexico because of the rising Mississippi River. One concern, in addition to the impact on marine life, is it could impact the oil spill research.

Week in review (4/24 to 4/30)

The first Lockheed Martin-built Space Based Infrared System geosynchronous spacecraft was encapsulated into its payload fairing April 20 in preparation for an early May liftoff aboard an Atlas V rocket.

SBIRS GEO-1 will enhance the nation's missile warning capabilities and improve other critical mission areas. The GEO-1 satellite includes sophisticated scanning and staring sensors that will deliver enhanced infrared sensitivity and a reduction in area revisit times over the current constellation.

SBIRS is an A2100 satellite-based spacecraft. Work on the A2100 core's propulsion system, which positions the spacecraft in orbit, is done at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

- Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne successfully completed the design certification review for the upgraded RS-68A engine configuration, demonstrating the hydrogen-fueled engine has met all requirements to power heavy-lift vehicles into space.

The first three flight engines, 30003, 30004 and 30005, have completed acceptance testing.

Engine 30003 has already been integrated onto a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle in Decatur, Ala. Integration activities for engine 30004 have been initiated, and the third engine, 30005, has successfully completed its processing at Stennis Space Center, Miss., and is awaiting shipment to Decatur, Ala., in May.

The three engines are scheduled to boost a future Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle into orbit carrying a government payload.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: BAE Systems will showcase its ship repair capabilities at the 2011 Offshore Technology Conference May 2-5 in Houston. BAE Systems has six full-service shipyards, including the 423-acre site in Mobile, Ala., and a satellite ship repair facility in Moss Point, Miss. … Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc., owner of Pascagoula’s 10,800-employee shipyard, said its board of directors approved Irwin F. Edenzon and Matthew J. Mulherin as corporate vice presidents and presidents of the company’s two major shipyards. Edenzon was named president of Ingalls Shipbuilding, and Mulherin became president of Newport News Shipbuilding in Virginia. ... Shipyard workers at Ingalls Shipbuilding unveiled a 350-pound mahogany tribute to 9/11 to be displayed near one of the three ships being built to commemorate the event.

Week in review (4/17 to 4/23)

We had plenty of Gulf Coast-related aerospace news during the past week – Goodrich is hiring more workers in Foley, Ala., and China is now the owner of Teledyne Motors in Mobile, Ala. In fact, Lockheed Martin on its own made a lot of headlines, announcing a new Gulf Coast Technology Hub in Jackson, Miss., and announcing plans to expand operations at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

But here's a news item not directly related to the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor that deserves your attention. It involves Boeing, unions, and the Chicago-based company's attempt to build 787s at a plant in South Carolina.

A lawyer for the National Labor Relations Board during the week accused Boeing of union busting by moving to produce its 787 at a nonunion plant in South Carolina. The claim is that Boeing is doing it to retaliate against Washington state aerospace workers for five strikes at Seattle-area plants between 1977 and 2008.

Boeing vows to fight the NLRB's attempt to force the company to make the aircraft in Everett, Wash., and not the half-million-square-foot North Charleston, S.C., plant. Boeing has until May 4 to file a response to the NLRB complaint. An administrative law judge will hear the case in Seattle on June 14. (Story)

For the most part companies won't say this, but one of the appealing characteristics of the Southeast is the weakness of unions and the willingness of workers to shun them in order to get a plant and the accompanying jobs. So the outcome of this Boeing/union fight will have implications for the entire region as aerospace companies look to expand in the South. You might want to keep an eye on this fight.


Business changes
Goodrich will hire about 20 people at its Foley, Ala., operation as it prepares to make more aircraft parts for Airbus and Boeing Co. The new employees would help make thrust reversers and exhaust systems that cover aircraft engines in a unit called a nacelle.

Goodrich, based in Charlotte, N.C., has 730 employees in Foley. Airbus and Boeing plan to ramp up production of the A320 and 737, respectively, in the coming year, meaning they will need more nacelles.

- Teledyne Technologies Inc. completed the divestiture of its piston engine businesses, Teledyne Continental Motors Inc. and Teledyne Mattituck Services Inc., in a stock sale to Technify Motor (USA) Inc. Technify is a subsidiary of China's AVIC International Holding Corp. The purchase price was $186 million, prior to customary working capital adjustments.

Headquartered in Mobile, Ala., Teledyne Continental Motors makes piston engines, as well as spare parts and components, used in small propeller-driven general aviation aircraft, and employs about 400 workers. Continental Motors also maintains service centers in Fairhope, Ala., and Mattituck, N.Y.

- Lockheed Martin said it plans to open a new Mission Support Center in the Greater Jackson, Miss. area in September 2011. It will create up to 350 jobs and provide diverse technology services for federal customers.

The center establishes Lockheed Martin's Gulf Coast Technology Hub and increases the corporation's presence in the state of Mississippi. The new facility will work with Lockheed Martin's East Coast and West Coast Technology Hubs in Rockville, Md. and Altadena, Calif. to offer enhanced technology capabilities such as cloud computing, business continuity and disaster recovery services.

Lockheed Martin has existing Mississippi operations in Biloxi, Stennis Space Center and Vicksburg, as well as operations in Northwest Florida. In fact, Lockheed Martin is preparing to expand its operations at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., to prepare for the arrival of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The company said it needs more workers - 91 full-time for a number of technical positions.

Eglin is home of the Joint Strike Fighter training center, which will be used by all branches of the military as well as foreign buyers of the aircraft. Lockheed Martin held a series of job fairs during the week in Fort Walton Beach.


Joint Strike Fighter
The first F-35 full mission simulator system has been delivered by Lockheed Martin to Eglin Air Force Base's 33rd Fighter Wing in Florida. Preparation and assembly is underway at the base's F-35 Integrated Training Center for training to begin this fall.

The Joint Strike Fighter simulator includes a high-fidelity 360-degree visual display system and a reconfigurable cockpit that simulates all three aircraft variants for U.S. and international partner services. The system is the highest fidelity trainer in the F-35 pilot-training-device suite, replicating all F-35 sensors and weapons deployment.

In all F-35 simulators, actual aircraft software is used to give pilots the most realistic experience and allow software upgrades in step with the F-35 development. Small group training events with pilot and maintenance instructors are currently being held at the ITC using maintenance, desktop and mission trainers.


Airports
Vision Airlines plans to offer direct flights to five new locations from Northwest Florida Regional Airport at Valparaiso Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Vision has announced plans to add flights the week of June 1 to and from Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., St. Louis, Memphis, Tenn., and Lafayette, La. In addition to the new destinations, Vision Airlines will expand its service to and from Atlanta from four trips a week to daily.

- The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a Certificate of Authorization to Mississippi State University for Stark Aerospace to fly the Heron Unmanned Aerial System from Golden Triangle Regional Airport. The COA allows limited unmanned flights in the national air space, in this case inside the traffic control area of Golden Triangle Regional Airport.

The Heron medium altitude long endurance UAS is produced by Stark Aerospace. The aircraft provides reconnaissance and can fly at 30,000 feet. It's in use in 27 countries. In South Mississippi, Trent Lott International Airport in Moss Point, Miss., and Stennis Space Center, Miss., also have COAs to fly unmanned aerial systems.


Unmanned systems
Speaking of unmanned aerial systems, Navy Fire Scouts have been shipped to the Central Command to support Army and coalition forces in Afghanistan, the Navy said. The unmanned helicopter system, under development by the Naval Air Systems Command to operate from ships, will be land-based in CENTCOM for about a year.

Fixed-wing drones have performed missions in the region and elsewhere ranging from surveillance to air strikes. But Fire Scout is a helicopter able to stay aloft more than eight hours, fly up to about 17,000 feet and travel about 115 knots.

The system deployed to Central Command includes three MQ-8B aircraft, two ground control station and other hardware. Personnel from Northrop Grumman will operate the system. Fire Scouts are made in part in Moss Point, Miss.

Northrop Grumman likely welcomes the opportunity to show the Army what the Fire Scout can do. That branch originally planned to buy some, but cut the program.


Space
NASA has selected 27 small business proposals that address critical research and technology needs for agency programs and projects for final contract negotiations. The proposals have a combined value of about $16.2 million.

The selected proposals were submitted by 27 high-tech firms in 18 states, partnering with 24 research institutions in 19 states. Negotiated individual awards, each with a value of up to $600,000, will be for
research projects for two years.

Three of the proposals involve technologies being developed for the Office of the Chief Technologist at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss.

- Crew members of space shuttle Discovery's final mission, STS-133, visited NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center during the week to thank employees for their part in a safe mission. Discovery completed its final flight on March 9. During the mission, the crew delivered and installed the Permanent Multipurpose Module and the Express Logistics Carrier 4 to the space station, and also delivered critical spare components. Discovery is the first craft of the three-shuttle fleet to be retired. During its 27 years in service, it flew 39 missions and logged more than 148 million miles in space.


Contracts
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $10 million task order under General Services Administration Federal Supply Schedule contract for T/AV-8B aircraft maintenance and logistics support for Marine Attack Training Squadron 203 at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C. … L-3 Communications Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded two related contracts. One was a $51.8 million labor-hour contract to provide for the mechanical support, quality control inspection and other services to aircraft production at Corpus Christi Army Depot, Texas, and the other was a $32.3 million labor-hour contract to provide for services including stock clerks, supply technicians, computer operators, clerks, site manager, production supervisor, to directly support aircraft production at the Corpus Christi Army Depot.


Tidbits from other sci-tech fields
Marine science: Bill Hawkins plans to retire at the end of June as director of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss. Hawkins has served as director since March 2008 and was executive director for six years before that. … NASA is moving ahead with its work on the Nebula cloud-computing platform even after the departure of the technology's creator. John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., recently used the cloud-computing infrastructure to process data for an environmental project aimed at boosting the health of the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. … NOAA during the week reopened 1,041 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico to commercial and recreational fishing. It’s the twelfth and final reopening in federal waters that were closed after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in April 2010.

Week in review (4/10 to 4/16)

Several weapons programs of interest to the Gulf Coast region were among those that had noteworthy cost increases. According to the Defense Department, the cost of 95 major weapons programs rose $64 billion or 4 percent to a total of $1.72 trillion in 2010, compared with an assessment the previous year.

The cost increases were included in the Selected Acquisition Reports sent to Congress and posted on the Defense Department's website. For this reporting period, there are seven programs with critical or significant Nunn-McCurdy unit cost breaches.

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's cost overruns have been widely publicized, most recently in a report to Congress in January. That program is of interest to this region because Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the JSF training center.

Another program with a higher procurement cost is the Global Hawk unmanned reconnaissance aircraft. The average cost for the Northrop Grumman aircraft, built in part in Moss Point, Miss., rose more than 25 percent. It was blamed on the changing mix of aircraft to a larger percentage of the pricier model as well as a slow-down on planned purchases – from five to three a year for FY 2012-14 and five to one per year for FY 2015-16.

Other programs of interest to the Gulf Coast with cost increases include the DDG 51 program, due to an increase in purchases, the littoral combat ship, where previous costs were in large part developmental, and the LHA class ship, due primarily to an additional ship purchase.

Two satellite programs with ties to the Gulf Coast also had cost increases. Air Force's Advanced Extremely High Frequency program increased 8.6 percent due to revised procurement estimate to fully fund the fifth and sixth satellites and an extension of interim contract support due to the launch delay of the first satellite. In addition, the Space-Based Infrared System High program cost increased 16.3 percent to fully fund the first and sixth Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellites.

Both satellite systems use the A2100 propulsion core, made in part at the Lockheed Martin Space and Technology Center at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.


In other aerospace news items of interest to the Gulf Coast during the week:

Space
The new A-3 Test Stand being built at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., reached a milestone during the week with the placement of the test cell dome atop the stand. It's known as the "topping out." NASA broke ground in 2007 for the new stand, which is being built to provide simulated high-altitude testing for next-generation rocket engines that will carry humans into deep space. The stand will use a series of chemical steam generators to create a vacuum that allows operators to test full-scale engines at simulated altitudes up to 100,000 feet.

The A-3 stand, scheduled for activation in 2013, is the first large test structure to be built at Stennis since the facility was established in the early 1960s to test the Saturn V rocket stages that helped carry Apollo astronauts to the moon.

- Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., said NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden, Jr., offered additional assurances that his agency intends to complete construction of test stands at Stennis Space Center. Cochran, vice chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned Bolden during a Senate subcommittee hearing early in the week to review the FY2012 budget request for NASA.

Cochran sought Bolden's views on the future of NASA's test stands and its development of 130-ton heavy lift vehicle in light of the funding uncertainties for the remainder of FY2011, as well as FY2012.

"The 2012 budget that I have put forth will support the continued development of our testing capability at Stennis. We intend to complete the construction of the A-3 test stand. I think, as you are probably very well aware, Stennis has become rejuvenated and reinvigorated," said Bolden, citing recent rocket tests and the increased testing capabilities that will be offered with a completed A-3 test stand.


Unmanned systems
The Northrop Grumman-built MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned helicopter marked a new single-day flight record of 18 hours. Navy operators achieved the record using a single aircraft in a series of endurance flights in late February from the USS Halyburton.

Fire Scout is providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data to support anti-piracy missions while deployed on the ship for the Navy's 5th Fleet. Last April Fire Scout concluded a military utility assessment on board the USS McInerney, a frigate similar to the Halyburton. Fire Scout has flown twice as much in the first two months on the Halyburton than the entire McInerney deployment.

The system also completed initial flight tests on board the littoral combat ship USS Freedom in November. Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.


Aviation Days
The first of what officials hope to become an annual Aviation Days festival started Friday at the Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores, Ala., and ends Saturday. The event offered children and adults the chance to take the controls of an aircraft in flight, ride in a 1928 biplane, observe 35 different planes, including a "Hurricane Hunter" from Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.


Contract
Pall Corp., which makes filtration, separation and purification systems, was awarded an Army contract to supply its Centrisep engine advanced protection system for 59 Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters. Centrisep is designed to protect CH-47 helicopter engines from particle erosion by continuously separating dust and sand from inlet air. This order is valued at about $14 million. Shipments will begin in December 2011 and be completed by November 2012. Pall has an operation in Pensacola, Fla.


Tidbits from other fields
Marine science: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists during the week began examining sea grasses growing within the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve to identify any damage done by vessels deploying protective boom in response to last year's BP oil spill. … Edward Gough Jr., the deputy director of the Naval Meteorology and Oceanography Command at Stennis Space Center, Miss., is leaving to take a job with NATO in Italy. … Eric Schwaab, a NOAA Fisheries official told reporters in Pascagoula, Miss., during the week that "not one piece of tainted seafood has entered the market" related to the April 2010 BP oil spill. … The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs, Miss., hosted an Earth Day celebration Saturday.

Shipbuilding: BAE Systems will provide the external communications and primary gun systems for 10 littoral combat ships to be built by Austal USA of Mobile, Ala. BAE, which runs a shipyard in Mobile, will do the work in California, Maryland, Kentucky, Minnesota and Sweden. BAE Systems also has operations in Gautier, Miss., and Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

Week in review (4/3 to 4/9)

The loss of a flight training mission at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss., a promise of $3 million for a new flight academy in Pensacola, Fla., and the awarding of more than $210 million in weapons-related contracts by Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., were some of the Gulf Coast aerospace-related activities during the week.


C-21
The 458th Airlift Squadron at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., will become the Air Force's sole C-21 formal training unit within the next four months. The squadron will regain the C-21 training mission from the 45th Airlift Squadron at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

The 45th Airlift Squadron will dissolve as a unit under the Air Education and Training Command and will once again fall under Air Mobility Command's 375th Operations Group. The C-21 training mission had belonged to Scott Air Force Base up until the early 1990s.

The C-21, a twin-engine business jet, is used by the Air Force for transportation.


Flight academy
The National Flight Academy received a $3 million challenge grant from Hilton Hotels founder Conrad N. Hilton's foundation. It will be paid when the academy, now under construction at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., meets its current $15 million fundraising goal.

Right now, according to the Pensacola News Journal, the amount that has been raised is a little over $14 million. Academy officials hope the challenge will prompt others to donate to the project.

The academy, adjacent to the National Naval Aviation Museum, is set to open in 2012 and will be a naval aviation-themed educational camp for students in grades 7-12.


Joint Strike Fighter
Last month, Navy F-35 flight test aircraft CF-1 performed the first test hookup to a catapult at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Matt "Opie" Taylor was at the controls during the test on the TC-7 catapult.

The overall ship compatibility test phase, including catapult launches, is scheduled to begin this year. Shipboard testing of the F-35C aboard a CVN-68 class aircraft carrier is scheduled to take place in 2013.

Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the Joint Strike Fighter training center.


Contracts
Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $28.3 million contract modification for eight massive ordnance penetrator assets, 16 separation nuts, eight MOP loading adapters, and an aft closure redesign. ACC/EDBK/EDBJ, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Lockheed Martin Corp., of Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $162.7 million contract modification for a Lot 9 production contract for 95 baselines and 30 extended range missiles to support the Air Force. The contracting activity is AAC/EBJK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. … Kaman Precision Products of Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $19.8 million contract modification to provide the Air Force with an additional quantity of 6,000 of the Joint Programmable Fuze systems. The JPF is a fuze system used with precision weapons systems such as the Joint Direct Attack Munition, and equipped with variable delay systems that may be programmed manually or from the cockpit through its in-flight reprogrammability feature. The contracting activity is AAC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. … Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $172.6 million contract to provide a block of M982 Excalibur unitary 155mm precision engagement projectile. Some of the work will be done in Niceville, Fla.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The Mobile, Ala., facility of BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards will add up to 400 workers to finish building an oil tanker. The shipyard on the east bank of Mobile River has 600 workers and another 200 to 250 contractors. … Huntington Ingalls Industries CEO Mike Petters told Jackson County, Miss., leaders that the recent $1.5 billion ship contract is just the first of five the company is negotiating with the Navy over the next two years.

Week in review (3/27 to 4/2)

No doubt the World Trade Organization ruling during the week on Boeing subsidies was a hot aerospace news item worldwide. But there were other developments of high interest to the Gulf Coast aerospace region. Here's a quick rundown: EADS' Eurocopter is buying Canada's Vector Aerospace, Goodrich plans to buy Italy's Microtecnica, there was a shakeup at the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., a new version of the MC-130 Combat Shadow rolled out of a plant in Georgia, and Congress has taken some steps to integrate UAVs in the national air space.


Unmanned aerial systems
The House of Representatives late in the week passed a bill that would go a long way towards allowing unmanned and manned systems to share the national airspace. The House version of the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2011 includes language that would, among other things, create four test sites to study the ability of unmanned aircraft systems sharing airspace and runways with manned and commercial aircraft.

The bill would require a plan within nine months, and sets a deadline of Sept. 30, 2015 for integration. Michael Toscano, president and CEO of the Association for Unmanned Vehicles International, said unmanned systems "have the potential to revolutionize the aviation and aerospace industry globally," but civilian uses have been hampered by a lack of standards and rules. The bill would help address that.

The Gulf Coast region is heavily involved in unmanned systems. Areas around Trent Lott International Airport in Moss Point, Miss., and Stennis Space Center, Miss., have certificates of authorization to fly unmanned systems, and unmanned systems are also flown at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Two of the best-known UAVs, the Global Hawk and Fire Scout, are built in part in Moss Point.

The bill still has to be reconciled with the Senate version.

- On the topic of UAVs - or UAS if you prefer - the U.S. Coast Guard doesn't have any unmanned systems in its inventory, but the service is forging ahead with some training, according to the service's unmanned aerial system platform manager.

Navy Times reports that the skeleton of the service's program is taking shape at Aviation Training Center, Mobile, Ala. The Coast Guard has trained three pilots in Mobile to operate the MQ-9 Guardian, a variant of the Air Force's Reaper. The program is in its infancy and there's no training pipeline yet, pending funding. One of the systems the Coast Guard is eyeing is the Fire Scout unmanned helicopter. (Full story)


EADS and Boeing
The World Trade Organization reported during the week that Boeing received at least $5.3 billion in improper subsidies from the United States to develop jets, including the 787, giving it an unfair advantage against European rival Airbus.

The European Union claimed research and development grants from the federal government's NASA and Defense Department, including development of carbon composites, contributed to the technologies to build the 787. The ruling is the latest round in a six-year battle between Boeing and Airbus, part of EADS. In a case decided last June, the WTO found that Airbus had benefited from improper subsidies as well.

- In another EADS-related story during the week, Eurocopter, the helicopter unit of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space group, said early in the week that it's buying all the outstanding shares of Canada's Vector Aerospace Corp. The deal for the helicopter overhaul and repair company is valued at $638 million.

Vector Aerospace has an operation at the South Alabama Regional Airport in Andalusia, Ala., which opened in 2008. EADS has a helicopter production facility in Columbus, Miss., and two operations in Mobile, Ala.

- On the subject of purchases, Goodrich Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., plans to buy Italian aerospace control system maker Microtecnica for $462 million. The sale is scheduled to close before the end of June.

Microtecnica, which employs 700 people in Italy and the United Kingdom, makes flight control actuation systems for helicopters, regional and business aircraft and missiles, as well as thermal and environmental control systems. Goodrich employs more than 700 people in Foley, Ala.


Joint Strike Fighter
Col. David A. Hlatky was relieved as commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Maj. Gen. Mark Solo, 19th Air Force commander at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, lost confidence in Hlatky’s ability to command as a result of an investigation following allegations of personal misconduct. Col. Andrew J. Toth assumed command of the wing. He previously served as the executive officer to the commander of Air Combat Command at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

- Faulty maintenance procedures caused the in-flight failure of the engine generators on an F-35, the program office said. Those procedures have now been revised, and the entire fleet of F-35s has been cleared to resume flight operations. The problem was found in a test flight earlier this month in California in an F-35 with an alternate generator configuration. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the F-35 training center.


Aircraft
Lockheed Martin rolled out the first aircraft in a new fleet of MC-130J Combat Shadow IIs for the U.S. Air Force's Special Operations Command during a ceremony in Marietta, Ga. Lockheed Martin is under contract to build 15 MC 130Js to begin replacing the current fleet. The Air Force is authorized to buy up to 20 MC-130Js against an approved requirement for 37. The U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Fla.


Space
NASA cut the ribbon on a new cryogenics control center at Mississippi's John C. Stennis Space Center, marking near completion of a project to strengthen protection for liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen barges in the event of a natural disaster.

The new structure consolidates LH and LOX operations and provides a safe shelter for a disaster ride-out crew. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, NASA conducted a study to identify support systems at the site that should be "hardened" to withstand the impacts of future storms.

The study cited the need to provide a safe haven for LH and LOX cryogenic barges needed to perform rocket engine testing at the south Mississippi facility. The project ensures a safe haven for all six LOX and three LH barges at Stennis.


Contracts
Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded a $9 million contract for technical support of the use of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile special test vehicles, special test equipment, and test positions to include AMRAAM modeling and simulation. Work will be done at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. AAC/PKES Eglin is the contracting activity. … EADS North American Defense, Arlington, Va., was awarded a $21.5 million contract to provide for the procurement of four UH-72A light utility helicopters; four airborne radio communication 231 system production cut-in; and one engine inlet barrier filter production cut-in. Work will be done in Columbus, Miss. … Sikorsky Support Services Inc., Pensacola, Fla., was awarded an $84.1 million contract for logistics services and materials for organizational, intermediate, and depot level maintenance to support 273 T-34, 54 T-44, and 62 T-6 aircraft based at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, NAS Whiting Field, Fla., and NAS Pensacola. … L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $42.3 million modification to a previously awarded contract for logistics support of 124 TH-57B/TH-57C aircraft. Work will be performed at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Milton, Fla., and NAS Patuxent River, Md. … Alliant Techsystems Inc., Plymouth, Minn., was awarded a $35.8 million contract to provide the hard target sensing fuze for use with BLU-109, BLU-113, and BLU-122 warheads and their associated guidance systems. AAC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. of Pascagoula, Miss., a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, was awarded a $1.5 billion modification to previously awarded contract for the procurement of the detail design and construction of LPD 26, the future USS John P. Murtha, 10th ship in the LPD 17 amphibious transport dock ship class. Most of the work, 83 percent, will be done in Pascagoula, but 1 percent will also be done in New Orleans. … In Mobile, Ala., Austal USA broke ground during the week on a $116 million project to build three new facilities at its Mobile River complex. It will allow the shipbuilder to complete contracts to build joint high-speed vessels and littoral combat ships. Austal employs about 2,000 people in Mobile. … Before Huntington Ingalls became a separate entity, Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding of Pascagoula, Miss., was awarded a $28.7 million modification to a previously awarded contract for the procurement of additional long lead time material in support of the LHA replacement flight 0 amphibious assault ship. Most of the work will be done in Philadelphia, nearly 80 percent, but 20 percent will be done in Pascagoula. … Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Sensors, Moorestown, N.J., was awarded a $12 million option for a previously awarded contract for management and engineering services to maintain and modify as necessary the design of DDG 51 class combat system compartments and topside arrangements, in support of the Program Executive Officer Integrated Warfare Systems. Twenty-two percent of the work will be done in Pascagoula.

Week in review (3/20 to 3/26)

EADS may have lost the $35 billion Air Force tanker competition to Boeing, but it's continuing its bid to increase its footprint in the United States, the world's largest aerospace market.

The company said during the week that it's in talks to buy Vector Aerospace, a Canadian company that repairs and maintains civil and military helicopters. Vector Aerospace has an operation at the South Alabama Regional Airport in Andalusia, Ala., which opened in 2008.

EADS, which would have built an assembly plant in Mobile, Ala., had it won the Air Force tanker project, has a helicopter production facility in Columbus, Miss., and two operations in Mobile, including an engineering center at Brookley Aeroplex.


Joint Strike Fighter
Aviators of Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., completed four sorties recently in F-16 Fighting Falcons to ensure readiness and efficiency in the transition to the F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.

The F-16s from Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., were brought to the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin because of its flying characteristics are similar to the F-35. The Marine variant of JSF, the F-35B, contains a short take-off and vertical landing engine.

The STOVL variant will replace the Marine Corps inventory of F/A-18s and AV-8s. The F-35B will be the world's first operational supersonic STOVL aircraft. Eglin Air Force Base is home of the JSF training center.

- Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc., a major international F-35 supplier to Northrop Grumman, has delivered its first production air inlet duct for the jet. The all-composite duct, a major structural element of the F-35's center fuselage, will support Northrop Grumman's production of F-35 center fuselages for conventional takeoff and landing variants at its aerospace production facility in Palmdale, Calif.

TAI produced the air inlet duct at its composites manufacturing facility in Ankara, Turkey, as part of a five-year, $28.4 million contract awarded to the company in September 2009 by Northrop Grumman, a principal subcontractor of the Lockheed Martin-led F-35 industry team.

- The Defense Department during the week issued a stop work order on the F-136 engine being developed by General Electric and Rolls-Royce for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. The administration and DoD oppose the extra engine as a waste of taxpayer dollars.

The stop work order will remain in place pending final resolution of the program's future, for a period not to exceed 90 days, unless extended by agreement of the government and the contractor. The F-35's primary engine is the Pratt & Whitney F135. GE, however, plans to continue self-funded work on the engine.


Space
Assembly of the first J-2X is continuing at NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss. Managed by the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., the J-2X engine will power the upper-stage of a heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Fueled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the J-2X engine will generate 294,000 pounds of thrust to propel a spacecraft from low-Earth orbit to the moon, an asteroid, or other celestial destination.

During the week, Stennis Space Center's A-2 test stand was certified ready to support J-2X development testing. Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif. is the prime contractor for the design and manufacture of the J-2X. Hot fire testing of the engine is targeted for later this summer at Stennis.

- Last weekend at NASA’s Stennis Space Center an Aerojet AJ26 flight engine was tested on the E-1 Test stand. The engine will power the first stage of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s Taurus II space launch vehicle. The test was done by a team of Orbital, Aerojet, and Stennis engineers.

The test of the AJ26 engine supports Orbital Sciences' effort to demonstrate its commercial cargo transportation system in preparation for future International Space Station cargo resupply missions. Once test data has been reviewed and verified, the engine will be sent to the Wallops Flight Facility launch site in Virginia for integration with the Taurus II rocket's first-stage core. Orbital is scheduled to carry out the first of eight cargo missions to the space station in early 2012.


Airports
Vision Airlines during the week announced new destinations from Fort Walton Beach, Fla. In December the airline launched direct flights from Northwest Florida Regional Airport to Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Miami. On Friday it expanded service to 10 additional destinations, with five more to start during the coming week. Service has begun to Atlanta, Knoxville, Tenn., Greenville, S.C., and Huntsville, Ala. Service to Savannah, Ga., Baton Rouge, La., and Louisville, Ky., started Saturday.


Contracts
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $7.3 million contract for logistics support for the C-12 aircraft for Pacific Air Force, Air Force Material Command, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Defense Security Corporation Agency. Work will be performed at L3 Communications Vertex Aerospace in Madison.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: Navy Secretary Ray Mabus was at Austal USA's shipyard in Mobile, Ala., Friday to announce the names to two littoral combat ships being built by that company. LCS 6 will be named Jackson and LCS 8 will be named Montgomery. … A 684-foot amphibious transport dock ship, Arlington, was slated to be christened Saturday at a ceremony at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's Pascagoula yard. … Swiftships Shipbuilders LLC, Morgan City, La., was awarded a $42.1 million modification to previously awarded contract for the detail design and construction of three 35-meter patrol boats. Eight percent of the work will be done in Ocean Springs, Miss.

Marine science: Federal officials are taking possession of samples from the 71 dolphins found dead on the Mississippi and Alabama coasts this year. The samples have been stored at the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies in Gulfport, Miss., since mid-January when the animals started dying in high numbers. The concern from the start has been whether it has anything to do with last year’s BP oil spill. … Much of the oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of 2010 never made it to the surface and instead become suspended in the water column, suggests research presented at a scientific conference in Mobile, Ala.

Week in review (3/13 to 3/19)

Although the unmanned Global Hawk has long been associated with flights over combat zones, it's proving itself on the non-warfare front as well. In one of the UAV's latest mission, a Global Hawk based in Guam has flown missions over Japan to collect images of the destruction caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The images provided by the RQ-4 Global Hawk will help authorities in search-and-recovery and the long-term clean-up. The Global Hawk can provide near real-time imagery.

Global Hawks in the past were also used to fly over huge fires in California and over hurricanes. The center fuselage for the planes are built in part in Moss Point, Miss., at the Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Center. That production center also does finishing work on another Northrop Grumman UAV, the unmanned helicopter Fire Scout.


F-35
Seven of 10 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter test planes were cleared during the past week to resume flights. All 10 aircraft were grounded when one plane experienced an in-flight failure of two electrical generators and an oil leak last week. The incident occurred during a flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

The incident came just as military officials were reporting significant progress on the program after a major restructuring that slowed development to allow more flight testing before the plane goes into production. The suspension was lifted on seven aircraft with older-model generators.

- In another F-35 related matter, the Navy said it would buy 680 F-35s, half suited for aircraft carrier landings and half short-takeoff and vertical-landing versions for the Marines. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will be home of the F-35 training center.


Airbus
Airbus Corporate Foundation during the week announced a $50,000 initial grant to the Gulf Coast Exploreum Science Center in Mobile, Ala., seeding a new advanced aerospace engineering program for students. Staff members at the Airbus Engineering Center in Mobile will work hands-on with students as mentors.


Blue Angels
The Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration team is performing in Mississippi at the Keesler Air Force Base air show this weekend. It's the first performance at Keesler since 1978. The Blue Angles returned home to Pensacola, Fla., early last week after spending the winter training in El Centro, Calif.


Contracts
L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $314,000 contract for logistics support for the C-12 aircraft for Pacific Air Force, Air Force Material Command, Defense Intelligence Agency, and Defense Security Corporation Agency. The location of performance is Madison. … L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace, Madison, Miss., was awarded a $20.3 million modification to a previously awarded contract to provide logistics services and materials for organizational, intermediate, and depot-level maintenance of 14 T39N and six T-39G aircraft at the Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. In addition, this modification provides for aircraft intermediate maintenance services in support of Chief of Naval Air Training aircraft and transient aircraft at NAS Pensacola and NAS Corpus Christi, Texas. Most of the work will be performed in Pensacola. … L-3 Communications Systems Field Support, Vertex Aerospace, Madison Miss., was awarded a $25.6 million contract for aircraft maintenance and logistical life cycle support for 65 Navy C-12 aircraft at 21 global locations. … The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., and Raytheon Co., Missile Systems, Tucson, Ariz., were awarded a $20 million contract for integrated precision ordinance delivery system Phases II-IV; research and development. AFRL/RWK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … JDA LLC, Concord, Calif., was awarded an $8 million contract for a data replay system. AAC/PKO, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity. … Kaman Precision Products Inc., Orlando, Fla., was awarded a $23.8 million contract modification which will provide the Air Force with 6,000 of the Joint Programmable Fuze systems to meet munitions requirements. AAC/EBDK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.

Week in review (3/6 to 3/12)

The story didn't have direct ties to the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor, not yet at least, but it was interesting in light of Mobile, Ala.'s recent loss of the Air Force aerial refueling tanker project. I'm talking about the $33 million DARPA KQ-X project, designed to show the ability of one unmanned aircraft to refuel another.

In late January, a Scaled Composites-built Proteus aircraft owned by Northrop Grumman and a Northrop Grumman-built Global Hawk owned by NASA flew within 40 feet of one another at 45,000 feet. No fuel was exchanged, but that wasn’t the point.

The flight was designed to check wake turbulence between the two aircraft, engine performance and flight control responsiveness in the stratosphere. The program could eventually lead to unmanned aircraft refueling other unmanned aircraft, allowing them to stay aloft as much as a week. Two Global Hawks are expected to try out autonomous aerial refueling in the spring of 2012.

The test was jointly conducted by Northrop Grumman, the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency and NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, a follow-on to a 2006 DARPA Autonomous Aerial Refueling Demonstration that used an F-18 fighter as a surrogate unmanned aircraft to autonomously refuel through a probe and drogue from a 707 tanker.

While the program is designed for UAV to UAV refueling, it's not much of a stretch to think this testing could also determine if an unmanned aircraft can refuel a manned vehicle.

"Demonstrating close formation flight of two high altitude aircraft, whether manned or unmanned, is a notable accomplishment," said Geoffrey Sommer, KQ-X program manager at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. "When you add autonomous flight of both aircraft into the mix, as we will do later in the KQ-X program, you gain a capability that has mission applications far beyond just aerial refueling."

You can bet that Boeing, which won the contract to build manned tankers to replace the aging fleet of KC-135s, will be keeping tabs on the progress of KQ-X. If these tests prove to be successful, it's not unreasonable to think unmanned aerial tankers may go into production even before all the Boeing KC-46As are built. Even if UAV tankers are used only to refuel other UAVs, it's obvious with the increasing use of UAVs that this is a growth field.

That could bode well for the Gulf Coast region. Global Hawk fuselages are already being built in Moss Point, Miss., at the Northrop Grumman Unmanned Systems Center, and it has room to grow. Could it one day do work on Global Hawk unmanned tankers? Just a thought.

- Speaking of Moss Point, the first Global Hawk fuselage that will be used for a Navy BAMS aircraft has been finished and will be shipped to Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif., facility for finishing work. The fuselage was finished a week ahead of schedule. The Navy plans to have more than 60 Broad Area Maritime Surveillance aircraft providing watch for the fleet.


Space
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver was in South Mississippi during the week to reinforce the importance of NASA's Stennis Space Center, Miss., and to meet with employees. She said Stennis Space Center is a unique facility that should be fully utilized. She held up Stennis, where up to 30 percent of the costs are borne by other government agencies and companies, as an example of how capabilities can be shared.

- Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne completed a series of Hardware Acceptance Reviews on the first RS-68A production rocket engine, validating the hydrogen-fueled engine is ready to power a heavy-lift vehicle into space. Engine 30003, the first of three RS-68A production engines to undergo a review, has been shipped to Decatur, Ala., for integration onto a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle. RS-68A production engines 30004 and 30005 will undergo hardware reviews in March and April 2011 after completion of hot-fire testing at Stennis Space Center, Miss.

- The failure to devise a spaceflight plan for NASA after the shuttle fleet is retired raises the specter of more workforce cuts in the U.S. launch industry, according to the head of Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Jim Maser estimates there are "four to eight months" to choose a way forward. After that, he expects layoffs at PWR as he begins to roll up unfunded rocket engine programs like the J-2X cryogenic upper-stage engine. The first full-up J-2X is set to begin testing at Stennis Space Center, Miss., next month.


Bases/airports
Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans has been approved to schedule charter flights to and from Cuba. In addition to New Orleans, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said the charter flights can now be scheduled as well from airports in  Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas/Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Tampa, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. Previously flights were only allowed from Los Angeles, Miami and New York.

- A Navy plan to extend four runways at outlying fields in Baldwin County, Ala., is moving forward. Naval Air Station Whiting Field, in Milton, Fla., said the project's environmental assessment is finished. The 1,000-foot runway extensions would cross land now occupied by 23 homes and 203 acres of other people's property in Foley and Summerdale. After a review by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, the Navy will begin talking to residents about land acquisition. The Navy is replacing T-34C training aircraft with the T-6A, which requires longer runways.

- Northrop Grumman and the Air National Guard's 190th Air Refueling Wing finished the first round of flight testing with the company's Guardian anti-missile system on a Boeing KC-135. The laser-based Guardian System, contained almost entirely in a single pod on the underside of the fuselage, is designed to detect launched missiles and then disrupt their guidance signals using a non-visible laser. The Air Force is scheduled to continue an Operational Utility Evaluation through the second quarter, with additional flights and system tests at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.


F-35
The Marine Corps' top general said he wants and early end to the two-year probation imposed on the Marine version of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Gen. James Amos told the Senate Armed Services Committee during the week that the Marines need the short-takeoff version to carry out the Marine mission. The Marine variant was put on probation because of technical issues. But Amos said he's encouraged by its progress. Meanwhile, the Navy version of the F-35 broke the sound barrier during the week. The carrier variant is the last of the three variants to break the sound barrier. The F-35 training center will be at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

Week in review (2/27 to 3/5)

Hard as it is to believe, it appears the competition to build aerial tankers for the Air Force is finally over. The Air Force and Boeing signed the contract, and Europe's EADS at the end of the week decided not to protest the decision.

The Boeing win was good news for aerospace workers in Washington and Kansas, as well as the other locations that will be involved in getting these planes to our warfighters. But it was a disappointment for the Gulf Coast, which had hoped to get a $600 million, wide-body aircraft assembly plant in Mobile, Ala.

The good news is that our warfighters will finally be getting something they've needed for a long time. The Boeing KC-46A should have no problem handling the required missions. But I'm not nearly as convinced they're getting the best aircraft.

During the previous contest, the Air Force appeared willing to pay more for an aircraft that could do more. But this time it was a price shootout. That's why Northrop Grumman, which had partnered with EADS in the previous competition, decided to drop out.

The whole issue seemed to boil down to a question of fit. In an age where the government is trying to spend less, it opted to purchase the plane that could perform the mission and do so at a lower cost. Additional capabilities were not considered since the difference in price was more than 1 percent. The difference was, in fact, a huge 10 percent.

While the Gulf Coast is smarting over what "could" have been, it shouldn't lose sight of the fact that it has consistently been in the running for aircraft assembly plants. As far back as 1993, Mobile was chosen to build turboprop aircraft for an Indonesian company. That deal fell apart, but a decade later Boeing had at least two sites on the Gulf Coast on its list of finalists for a Dreamliner assembly plant. Boeing opted to place it in Washington State, but the fact remains, this region was, and remains, a contender.

And I'll add one more thing to ponder. Aerospace companies working closely with the military are rapidly developing the capabilities of unmanned aircraft. Already unmanned systems are being tested as aerial tankers. I can't help but wonder how many KC-46s will be built before robots become a better option.


F-35
The first production model of the Lockheed Martin F-35 made its inaugural flight late last month in Texas in preparation for delivery to the Air Force this spring. The jet will head to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., to support developmental testing shortly after the Air Force takes delivery.

During the flight, the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A variant underwent basic flight maneuvering and engine tests. The jet will continue flight tests in Fort Worth for about a month before it is accepted by the Air Force. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home to the F-35 training center.


Space
The E-2 Test Stand team at John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., is preparing to test a vital component designed for another rocket engine test stand under construction at the NASA facility. Testing on the three-module chemical steam generator (CSG) is designed to confirm it will perform as needed. The tests also will provide critical data about operating the unit.

The new A-3 Test Stand will use nine three-module CSG units to generate superheated steam needed to create a vacuum. The vacuum will allow operators to test next-generation rocket engines at simulated high altitudes up to 100,000 feet. Testing at such simulated altitudes is critical for next-generation engines necessary to carry humans into deep space.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: A $26.4 million contract is awarded to Arete Associates of Arizona for the engineering, manufacturing, production and delivery of three Coastal Battlefield Reconnaissance and Analysis systems for littoral combat ships.

Marine science: New born and stillborn baby dolphins continue to wash ashore in Alabama and Mississippi. Scientists with the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama say cold water may have killed them. … The Northern Gulf Institute's annual conference will be held May 17-19 in Mobile, Ala. NGI is a NOAA cooperative institute that includes Mississippi State University, Florida State University, the University of Southern Mississippi, Louisiana State University and Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Mobile, Ala.

Week in review (2/20 to 2/26)

The announcement during the week that the Air Force chose Boeing, rather than EADS, to build aerial tankers took everybody by surprise, according to press accounts. I suppose that's because everyone was listening to the experts, who for weeks were calling EADS the favorite.

When I first read those predictions, I couldn't help but think back to 2008, when all the experts were calling Boeing the favorite. Predictably, when the Air Force chose EADS three years ago, everyone was shocked.

One thing I learned in more than 30 years as a reporter and editor is to be very wary of the predictions of industry experts and insiders. That was particularly true of the tanker contest, where so many factors were at play.

So now the big question is, will EADS protest the decision? The company will be debriefed Monday, and will then make a decision on whether to appeal to the Government Accountability Office. It will have 10 days to do so after that briefing. You can already find the experts, undaunted by their track record, making predictions. I could make arguments for why EADS should appeal, as well as arguments for why it shouldn't.

On the one hand, it's a huge contract, $35 billion, and establishing a foothold for the production of wide-body jets in the United States would go a long way towards EADS reaching its goal of being a bigger player in the lucrative U.S. defense market. It's already building helicopters in Columbus, Miss.

But on the other hand, Boeing supporters would point fingers at EADS if it does anything that further delays delivering tankers to the warfighters. The warfighters have waited long enough, it's true. Of course, you won't find any Boeing supporters pointing out that the 2008 protest caused a delay.

The decision was based on price, something that drove Northrop Grumman out of the contest. Boeing's bid was more than 1 percent below EADS' price, so non-mandatory capabilities were not taken into consideration. These non-mandatory capabilities were taken into account the last go-around and tilted the contest in EADS' favor.

There was a fundamental shift between 2008 and 2010 in what the Air Force was looking for. In 2008, it appeared to be capability. This time, it was cost. For EADS, the key question will be, is there anything they can do to shift the focus back to capability?

One of the maneuvers that clearly had a huge impact on the final outcome was changing the cost calculation to 40 years from the previous 25 years. Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington State took credit for that. It would be hard not to give a nod to the politics that was behind all of this.


Brookley improvements
Also during the week, Alabama's Mobile Airport Authority said it was considering borrowing $8 million to improve streets, drainage, signs and landscaping at the Brookley Aeroplex, the location where EADS planned to build a $600 million plant to assemble tankers.

Of course, EADS won't be building the plant, but it's still possible the authority will pursue the improvements. Bill Sisson, executive director of the authority, had said that even if EADS didn't win the contract, the work needs to be done to relieve traffic congestion and meet increased demand for industrial space.


Mentor program
A ceremony was held at the end of the week in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., marking the mentor-protégé agreement between Lockheed Martin and Fort Walton Machining. Under the Defense Department program, mentor companies help prepare small businesses with capabilities and know-how to perform as prime or subcontractors to the federal government. Fort Walton Machining is a supplier for Lockheed Martin's F-35, F-16, F-22 and C-130J programs.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: The latest destroyer built by Northrop Grumman in Pascagoula, Miss., has been delivered to the Navy. The William P. Lawrence will leave Pascagoula May 19. … Austal USA in Mobile, Ala., decided to spend more on its latest expansion and will get a bigger tax break than the one previously approved by the city industrial development board.

Marine science: The number of infant dolphins washing ashore in Mississippi and Alabama keeps going up. It's unclear at this stage whether it has anything to do with last year's BP oil spill.

Week in review (2/13 to 2/19)

An announcement will be made soon, perhaps as early as next week, on which company the Air Force has selected to build 179 aerial tankers. If Boeing wins, workers and politicians in Washington and Kansas will celebrate. If EADS wins, workers and politicians in Mobile, Ala., and the immediate Gulf Coast will put on party hats.

But be forewarned. The losing side will probably protest. About the only scenario where a protest won't occur is if the Air Force splits the contract. Don't count out that possibility.

During the past week, the Pentagon's inspector general's office finished a review of an Air Force mix-up that sent details of Boeing's bid to EADS and vice versa, and found no reason to further investigate. The IG said the Air Force handled the mistake in compliance with federal law. Also during the week, EADS North America Chairman Ralph Crosby said the company had lowered its bid price the tanker. Boeing, for its part, had earlier said its pricing was "aggressive."

Boeing is offering a version of its 767, and EADS a version of its Airbus A330. If Boeing wins, the planes will be made in Washington and Kansas. If EADS wins, the planes will be assembled in a still-to-be-built plant at Mobile's Brookley Aeroplex. Boeing isn't keen on seeing its archrival build an aircraft manufacturing facility in the United States. EADS already has a helicopter manufacturing site in Mississippi, and Boeing doesn't want to see further inroads.

But that's the nature of the global aerospace field. Companies from one section of the world team up with companies from another to compete for military and civilian projects. They're all establishing footholds in markets where they hope to sell their products.

The Gulf Coast region is just one of the areas of the world where a lot of international players are looking, and EADS isn't the first and won't be the last. Selex Galileo in South Mississippi is part of Italy's Finmeccanica, and ST Aerospace Mobile is part of Singapore's ST Engineering. A Chinese conglomerate, AVIC, has purchased Teledyne Continental in Mobile. We also have the United Kingdom's Rolls-Royce testing jet engines in South Mississippi and BAE Systems in Northwest Florida.

While the tanker project would be a big win for the Gulf Coast region, the region is already a major player in aerospace, both for companies with U.S. roots and companies with foreign roots. And that's likely to continue, with or without an EADS tanker plant.


Unmanned systems
The Navy is requesting funds in fiscal year 2012 to buy the first 12 Fire-X unmanned helicopters. Called MQ-8C, Fire-X is based on the Bell 407, a larger version of the Fire Scout, MQ-8B, which uses the Schweizer S-333 airframe.

That the Navy would be interested in not surprising. The Fire Scout has already demonstrated its capabilities, so a larger version made sense. In December, Northrop Grumman and Bell flew the company-funded Fire-X demonstrator to show that a new airframe could be integrated into the unmanned architecture developed for the Fire Scout. The MQ-8C is to be an engineering change proposal to the existing system, using the existing avionics, payloads, command-and-control links and ground control station.

But that doesn't mean the Fire Scout will be squeezed out. The Navy Department's fiscal 2012 budget calls for 12 Fire Scout unmanned helicopters, nine more than originally planned. By 2016 the Navy plans to purchase 57, up from the 31 included in earlier budgets. The Navy requested a baseline of $161.4 billion for fiscal 2012, up $800 million from last year's proposal. Fire Scouts are built in part in Moss Point, Miss.


F-35
The House during the week approved an amendment that would eliminate funding for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a move that would contribute an additional $450 million to the estimated $61 billion in federal spending cuts that House Republicans have proposed for the rest of the current fiscal year. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates criticized the alternative engine as unnecessary and wasteful. The second F-35 engine was to be built by General Electric and Rolls Royce. The primary engine is built by Pratt & Whitney. Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the F-35 training center.


Space
The president's proposed $18.7 billion budget for NASA in fiscal year 2012 reflects a commitment to long-term job growth, said Mississippi's Stennis Space Center Director Patrick Scheuermann. "As in the past, the unique test facilities and technical expertise at the John C. Stennis Space Center will continue to play a key role in the development and certification of new rocket propulsion systems," said Scheuermann. He added that the center's Applied Science and Technology Project Office will support essential scientific research while managing the Gulf of Mexico Initiative for NASA's Applied Sciences Program.


Bases
The lineup of performers and aircraft is growing for the Angels Over the Bay Air Show at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. The March 19-20 show will celebrate the 70th anniversary of Keesler. Headlining the show is the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. The Army Golden Knights parachute team, which opened the Thunder on the Bay air show at Keesler in 2009, will be back again.


Workers
Defense contractor DRS Technologies has laid off 38 people from its Fort Walton Beach, Fla., location in the wake of a staff reassessment. Like with other defense companies, the size of the workforce ebbs and flows based on contracts. The Fort Walton Beach operation specializes in communications, unmanned aircraft and border security products. DRS, based in New Jersey, still has 850 workers in Fort Walton Beach.


Contracts
BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc., Rockville, Md., was awarded a $7.7 million modification to a previously awarded cost-plus-fixed-fee contract to exercise an option for the procurement of maintenance, logistics, and life cycle services in support of communication-electronic equipment/systems and subsystems for various Navy, Army, Air Force, Special Operations Forces and other federal agencies. Two percent of the work will be done in Fort Walton Beach, Fla.


Tidbits from other fields
Shipbuilding: VT Halter Marine won a $144 million contract to build a second carrier vessel for a Hawaii company. .. The upper part of a mast on the Northrop Grumman-built destroyer USS Gravely broke off last weekend during routine operations.

Advanced materials: BASF SE will cut 250 of the 700 employees and contractors at its McIntosh, Ala., chemical plant over the next two years.

Week in review (2/6 to 2/12)

As expected, both companies competing to build aerial tankers for the U.S. Air Force submitted at the end of the week their best and final proposals to the Air Force. Boeing is offering a variation of its 767 and EADS North America offering a modified A330.

The project to replace the tankers is an Air Force priority. Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, who heads the Pentagon's Transportation Command, said early in the week that a new tanker would help cut the fuel bill sharply.

Boeing would build its version in Washington and Kansas, and EADS would assemble its aircraft at a planned plant at the Brookley Aeroplex in Mobile, Ala. The project to build the 179 planes is valued at $35 billion to $50 billion. But the subtext of all this is that an EADS win would be a significant addition to the Gulf Coast's already considerable aerospace activities.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon's watchdog agency said it will respond "as soon as possible" to a request by seven senators to investigate whether a data mix-up could mar the tanker competition. The Air Force insists the mix-up last November involved no pricing data that could comprise the process.

- Brazil’s Embraer is moving forward on its long-standing wish to establish a production plant in the United States. The company is opening a final assembly plant for business jets in Melborne, Fla., and later this year it will open a customer design center. But that's not all that's in the works for the Brazilian company.

Last month, Embraer said it was teaming with U.S. contractor Sierra Nevada to build Super Tucanos in Jacksonville, Fla., should the Air Force select the Brazilian light attack training over the Hawker Beechcraft/Lockheed Martin AT-6. That contract is expected to be awarded in June. Embraer, like European aircraft makers, wants to play a bigger role in the world's largest aircraft market. (Story)


Space
A 52-second test of an Aerojet AJ26 rocket engine Monday went without a hitch at Mississippi’s Stennis Space Center. Executives from NASA, Aerojet and Orbital Sciences Corp. were on hand for the flight acceptance test of the AJ26, which will be the Stage 1 engine for Orbital's Taurus II space launch vehicle. NASA formed a $1.9 billion contract with Orbital to launch eight cargo missions to the International Space Station through 2015. The Aerojet AJ26, originally made in Russia 50 years ago, was tested at the E-1 test stand at Stennis, which had to be adapted to fire the engine in the vertical position.

- Lockheed Martin shipped out the first Orion crew module Thursday from NASA's Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans. It's bound for Lockheed's Denver, Colo., facilities, where it will be integrated with a heat shield and thermal protection backshell, then tested to confirm Orion's ability to safely fly astronauts through deep space missions. It will later undergo simulated water landings at Langley's Hydro Impact Basin in Hampton, Va. This Orion ground test vehicle has already validated advanced production processes, equipment and tools required to manufacture the Orion crew module space flight hardware.


Unmanned systems
The Navy's Fire Scout unmanned helicopter, built in part in Moss Point, Miss., will be busy this year. It will be looking for pirates in the Middle East and gathering intelligence for troops in Afghanistan, according to a report in Aviation Week.

Three aircraft and two ground control stations will participate in the Afghanistan deployment. Builder Northrop Grumman will operate and maintain the system under the guidance of Navy officers. Two Fire Scouts are also aboard the U.S. frigate Halyburton, which sailed to Southwest Asia in early January.

A Fire Scout was recently credited with a humanitarian save when it spotted a wayward boat and hovered until help arrived. The Navy will determine Fire Scout's suitability after operational evaluation in October. A full-rate production decisions would follow. The Navy plans to buy 168 Fire Scouts.


Airports/bases
More missions at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will add to highway congestion around the base in Northwest Florida. That's according to the National Research Council's Transportation Research Board. The report looked at Eglin and five other large bases that are expanding as a result of the base realignment plan. Eglin was chosen as the new home of the Army 7th Special Forces Group and the Joint Strike Fighter training center. The 7th SF will bring more than 6,000 people and the JSF center about 4,900. The report urges Congress to consider a special appropriation of federal stimulus money to pay for near-term improvements.

- Officials with Mississippi's Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport are asking Congress to increase a passenger fee and are seeking support from Gulfport, Biloxi and Harrison County. The airport authority wants to increase the Passenger Facility Charge from $4.50 to $7 per passenger in order to pay its debt. The fee hasn't been raised since 2000.


Contracts
BAE Systems Technology Solutions & Services Inc. of Rockville, Md. was awarded a $15.7 million contract modification to procure 9-QF-4 full scale aerial targets. AAC/EBYK at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. is the contracting activity. … Boeing Co. of St Louis, Mo., was awarded a contract modification not-to-exceed $15.1 million for additional Massive Ordnance Penetrator Integration to include flight test support, three additional test assets, an alternative/modified fuse design and sixteen fuses. AAC/EBDK/EBDJ – MOP Tiger Team at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. is the contracting activity. … Boeing Co. was awarded a $23.1 million contract modification which will procure various test assets and hardware for aircraft integration efforts for the F-16 Block 40/50, F-22, F-35, and the Small Diameter Bomb Increment I programs. AAC/EBMK, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. is the contracting activity.