NEW TECHNOLOGIES
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26 Nov 07. Boeing and the U.S. Air Force have successfully demonstrated how an innovative application of a technology called active flow control enables — for the first time — munitions to be safely released from a weapons bay at high supersonic speeds. During a recent test at the High-Speed Test Track at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., researchers from Boeing Phantom Works and the Air Force Research Laboratory used a rocket sled and active flow control to successfully release a MK-82 Joint Direct Attack Munition Standard Test Vehicle at a speed of about Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) from a weapons bay with a size approximating that of the U.S. Air Force B-1 bomber. “Active flow control technology will enable safe separation of weapons from weapons bays of future high speed aircraft,” said Jim Grove, AFRL program manager for High Frequency Excitation Active Flow Control for Supersonic Weapon Release, or HIFEX. “This program also demonstrates that sled testing can provide a lower risk technology evaluation alternative to flight testing in this complex, high risk environment,” Grove said. The active flow control configuration used in the HIFEX rocket sled test is a tandem array of microjets upstream of the weapons bay. Wind tunnel testing indicated that, without active flow control, the JDAM test vehicle would have returned to the bay.
26 Nov 07. Northrop Grumman Corporation has completed the installation, integration and initial flight testing of the first developmental test units (DTU) of the new radar antenna developed for the B-2 stealth bomber’s radar modernization program (RMP). The availability of the new antenna — an active electronically scanned array designed and built by Raytheon (NYSE:RTN – News) — will allow the Northrop Grumman-led B-2 industry team to complete the comprehensive RMP flight test program interrupted last year by integration issues with the antenna. Northrop Grumman is the U.S. Air Force’s prime contractor for the B-2, the flagship of the nation’s long range strike arsenal.
28 Nov 07. Azure Dynamics Corporation announces a significant milestone as its Canadian facility in Burnaby, British Columbia has become certified to the ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management System standard. The certification of compliance to ISO 9001:2000 recognizes that the policies, practices and procedures of the Company ensure consistent quality in the products and services that are provided to the customer. The process of becoming certified to ISO 9001:2000 consists of a stringent evaluation process including the development of a quality management system, a formalized review of the related documentation, a pre-audit, an initial assessment and the clearance of all non-conformances, all of which are intended to identify corrective actions that eliminate non-conformance to the quality management standard. Azure Dynamics received its ISO 9001:2000 certificate of registration from BSI Management Systems on November 1, 2007. The Company’s Woburn Massachusetts facility has been certified to ISO 9001:2000 since October of 2003. ISO 9001 is accepted worldwide as the inclusive international standard that defines quality.
28 Nov 07. GE Fanuc Intelligent Platforms announced the AT2-5800 IP Packet Processor Advanced TCA Blade. Featuring two high performance Cavium OCTEON™ Plus 16-core CN5860 multi-core Secure Communications Processors (SCPs) operating at up to 750MHz, the AT2-5800 enables data and control plane services in the same form factor, providing efficient packet processing as well as significant performance and cost advantages. The AT2-5800 will scale to dual 900MHz OCTEON Plus CN5860 processors when available from Cavium. A Rear Transition Module (RTM) is also available. The AT2-5800 blade is designed to enable high-availability systems for telco-grade next-generation network applications including IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS)