UAE buying GA-ASI Predator XP System General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. announced Feb .22 that the United Arab Emirates is to buy the companies Predator® XP remotely piloted aircraft system. Predator XP is an updated version of the company’s flagship Predator RPA that has been licensed by the U.S. government for sale to a broader customer base, including countries in the Middle East and North Africa. A spokesperson for the company said the aircraft would be “produced at our Southern California facilities – Palmdale, Victorville and San Diego County.” The UAE Air Force & Air Defence has completed contract negotiations with International Golden Group, a leading supplier of integrated defense systems in the Middle East and GA-ASI’s partner, to procure Predator XP to meet the surveillance needs of the UAE Government.
Following the expected near-term completion of negotiations between IGG and GA-ASI, and between GAASI and the Abu Dhabi-based Tawazun Economic Council to establish a Joint Venture for long-term service and support of Predator XP in the UAE, the procurement will be complete. Offering improved Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance capabilities, Predator XP exhibits the same physical dimensions, altitude, speed, and long endurance (up to 35 hours) as the proven “RQ-1” Predator A aircraft. The aircraft also has been updated to include triple-redundant avionics, an Automatic Takeoff and Landing System, GA-ASI’s Lynx® Multi-mode Radar with Maritime Wide Area Surveillance, High-Definition Electro-optic video, an improved Claw® sensor control and image analysis software system, an Automatic Identification System, and a more efficient propulsion system.
GA-ASI phtotograph
Boeing Phantom Eye completes second flight Boeing’s liquid hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system completed its second flight Feb. 25, demonstrating capabilities that will allow it to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for up to four days without refueling. During the flight, at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, Calif., Phantom Eye climbed above an altitude of 8,000 feet and remained aloft for 66 minutes at a cruising speed of 62 knots before landing. The aircraft exceeded what it achieved last year during its first flight when it flew at an altitude of 4,080 feet and remained aloft for 28 minutes.
“Today’s combination of geopolitical and economic issues makes Phantom Eye’s capabilities, affordability and flexibility very attractive to our global customers,” said Darryl Davis, Boeing Phantom Works president. “No other system holds the promise of offering on-demand, persistent ISR and communications to any region in the world, rapidly responding to natural disasters and
national security issues.” Boeing is self-funding development of the environmentally responsible Phantom Eye, which generates only water as a byproduct of its propulsion system. “This flight, in a more demanding highaltitude flight envelope, successfully demonstrated Phantom Eye’s maneuverability, endurance and landing capabilities,” said Drew
Mallow, Phantom Eye program manager. Following the first flight, Boeing upgraded the aircraft’s software and hardware, including the landing gear. The upgrades paid off in the form of a picture-perfect landing. The Phantom Eye demonstrator is capable of carrying a 450-pound payload while operating for up to four days at altitudes of up to 65,000 feet.
Boeing photograph
Boeing’s liquid hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye unmanned airborne system completed its second flight Feb. 25, demonstrating capabilities that will allow it to perform intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions for up to four days without refueling.
March 1, 2013 • Volume 29, Issue 3
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Listen up ladies! Uncle Sam might want you too Tennnnnn-hut ladies! The next time Uncle Sam comes calling, he’s probably going to want you, too. The Obama administration recently decided to lift the ban on women in combat. Legal experts and military historians say that decision has opened the door for a change in the law that currently compels only men between age 18 and 25 to register for a military draft. Never before have women been drafted into military service. Neither the White House nor Congress are in a hurry to make them register for a future call-up. A draft would be enormously unpopular and adding women to the mix just isn’t a priority for a battle-weary country nearing the end of more than a decade of war. Yet, legally, there may be no other choice. AP Navy proposes drone base at Point Mugu About 700 personnel and their families would move to Point Mugu, Calif., under a military proposal to make Naval Base Ventura County the West Coast home for a drone aircraft. The Ventura County Star reports the Navy is seeking public comment on its proposal to base four remotely-controlled Triton Unmanned Aircraft Systems at Point Mugu for marine reconnaissance beginning in 2020. The base also would serve as a maintenance center, supporting up to four additional aircraft. Naval officials released a draft environmental assessment Feb. 22. The public can comment on it until March 11. The newspaper says the drone would conduct an average of five daily flights, increasing overall operations at Point Mugu by about five percent. The Triton is a 48-foot unarmed drone with a 131-foot wingspan. AP Valve stopped fuel flow in F-16 crash The Air Force says an F-16 flying from Japan to Alaska last July crashed at sea because a valve stopped fuel from reaching the engine. An accident investigation report released by Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii Feb. 19 says the jet’s main fuel shut-off valve was partially closed for more than three minutes and fully closed for three minutes. Investigators weren’t able to determine why the valve closed because vital pieces of evidence weren’t recovered from the ocean floor. The F-16 with the 35th Fighter Squadron at Misawa Air Base crashed July 22 about 250 miles off the coast of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost main island. The pilot ejected safely and was retrieved after about six hours by a combined JapaneseU.S. rescue mission. He wasn’t injured. AP Lockheed to pay $19.5 million to settle lawsuit Lockheed Martin will pay $19.5 million to settle a lawsuit claiming that the defense contractor misled investors. The company disclosed the settlement in a filing Feb. 19 with the U.S. District Court in New York. Lockheed denied violating any securities laws or misleading investors but said it settled because of the cost and uncertainty of going to trial. The city of Pontiac, Mich., employee retirement system sued Lockheed and top executives including CEO Robert Stevens in July 2011, claiming that the company misled investors beginning with upbeat statements about its financial results for the first quarter of 2009. The executives commented about rising sales in Lockheed’s information-systems business. The retirement system said the comments were false; that there were problems with
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some projects in the information-systems unit and that its growth was slowing as contracts were lost. The company issued disappointing results for the unit when it reported results for the second quarter of 2009 in July of that year. The stock fell 8.5 percent, to $75.13, the day that the second-quarter results were reported. The Pontiac retirement system won class-action status for its lawsuit, representing investors who bought Lockheed stock between April and July 2009. Lockheed asked the court to dismiss the case, but the request was rejected. In December, the two sides began negotiations mediated by a retired judge, and those talks led to the settlement. AP Fort Sill soldiers’ deployment called off Officials at Fort Sill, Okla., say the deployment of 50 soldiers who are preparing for an assignment in South America has been delayed. Base spokesman Keith Pannell says the Feb. 22 planned deployment of the soldiers with 3rd Battalion, 13rd Field Artillery will be rescheduled. No reason for the delay was given. Pannell says the soldiers will be providing security on a Navy hospital ship in addition to humanitarian aid and assisting both visitors and patients on the ship. The soldiers are to go first from the base at Lawton to Norfolk, Va., for training with the Navy before they leave for South America. AP North Korea warns U.S. commander in South Korea over drills North Korea has warned the top U.S. commander in South Korea to cancel upcoming drills aimed at deterring Pyongyang’s military provocations. Pyongyang’s official media say the warning was sent to Gen. James Thurman Feb. 23. The U.S. and South Korea earlier notified the North of their plans to begin the annual Key Resolve and Foal Eagle exercises next month. North Korea calls the joint drills a prominent example of U.S. hostility against it. Pyongyang says the hostility compelled the North to conduct its Feb. 12 nuclear test. U.S. officials are negotiating in the U.N. Security Council for tougher sanctions against North Korea for the nuclear test, the country’s third since 2006. Washington stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea in a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War. AP Iran’s Revolutionary Guard denies drone capture Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard is denying that it captured a foreign unmanned aircraft during a military exercise in southern Iran. A spokesman for the Guard, Yasin Hasanali, told The Associated Press that the drone was actually being used during the drill as a supposed enemy aircraft. Iranian media Feb. 23 quoted a spokesman for the Guard as saying that its electronic warfare unit had taken control of a foreign drone’s navigation system and forced it to land during the site of the military exercise. Iran has claimed to have captured several U.S. drones, including an advanced RQ-170 Sentinel CIA spy drone in December 2011 and at least three ScanEagle aircraft. The Guard’s military exercise, code-named Great Prophet-8, ends Feb. 25. AP Whistleblower suits say military parts defective A Slidell, La., machining company has supplied defective parts for military vehicles, lawsuits by former employees claim. The suits say Alliance Laser supplied welded
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parts to Textron Marine & Land Systems even though no employees were legally certified to weld the parts, The Times-Picayune reports. The unit of Textron Inc. makes armored personnel carriers for the U.S. Military. Robert Vargas and Floyd Alan Williams are seeking damages under whistleblower laws, arguing they were fired for providing tips to federal investigators and speaking out against fraudulent practices. The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Court in New Orleans Feb. 19 and 20. Alliance has not yet filed a formal response in court. A woman who answered the phone at Alliance’s office Feb. 22 said the company had no comment. AP Air Force decision on plane contract expected soon An Air Force decision on who will win a more than $350 million contract to build 20 aircraft for use in Afghanistan is expected sometime next week. The decision comes at a crucial time for Wichita-based Beechcraft, formerly Hawker Beechcraft. It emerged from bankruptcy protection this week. The high-stakes “light air support” contract could ultimately be worth nearly $1 billion, depending on future orders. Beechcraft spokeswoman Nicole Alexander told The Wichita Eagle that the company had expected a decision Feb. 22, but has been told there has been a slight delay. Beechcraft has proposed its AT-6 attack plane. Sierra Nevada Corp. has partnered with Brazilbased Embraer to offer its Super Tucano. The planes would give the Afghan National Army Air Corp. a fixed-wing strike capability. AP Pentagon checking story for bin Laden raid secrets The Pentagon says it is reviewing an Esquire magazine article on a Navy SEAL’s account of his role in the May 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden to determine whether the account disclosed any classified information. A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Steve Warren, disclosed the inquiry Feb. 19, saying officials are trying to determine whether the SEAL, whose identity is not revealed in the Esquire article, broke any secrecy rules. The article was published online Feb. 11. The account is not the first to portray details of the raid. Former SEAL Matt Bissonette, writing under the pseudonym Mark Owen, described the operation in his book, “No Easy Day,” published last September. The Pentagon objected to what it called his unwarranted disclosures but has not announced any legal action against him. AP Fighter jet makes emergency landing in Utah An Air Force fighter jet is grounded at a tiny Utah airport after making an emergency landing on one engine. Officials say the A-10 Thunderbolt was being flown from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., Feb. 20 when one of the two engines failed and couldn’t be restarted in midflight. The pilot landed at a rural air strip outside Price, Utah, about 120 miles short of his destination at Hill Air Force Base in Layton, Utah. Officials say maintenance crews from Hill are arriving to inspect the fighter jet. The Thunderbolt belongs to the 75th Fighter Squad at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Ga. It was being flown to Utah for maintenance. Lt. Meredith Kirchoff of Moody Air Force Base says Thunderbolts can fly on one engine, but the pilot landed for safety reasons. AP
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Freedom to Succeed by Rebecca Amber staff writer The Antelope Valley Board of Trade held its annual business outlook conference Feb. 22 with the theme “Freedom to Succeed,” an ideology which was not lost on keynote speaker and wounded warrior Jose Rene “J.R.” Martinez. His message that afternoon was simple, “adapt and overcome.” Martinez was born in 1983 in Shreveport, La. At nine years old Martinez had a dream that he would one day play in the NFL. It was during that time that he moved with his mother, Maria Zavala to Dalton, Ga., a home which he thought would bring him closer to his dreams. What Martinez later learned, is that sometimes life doesn’t go as planned and for Martinez that meant he would have to “rely on his strengths.” Following his high school graduation, he joined the U.S. Army in September 2002 and two months later was deployed to Iraq. He had not, however, given up on his dream to play in the NFL and planned on pursuing his dream after completing his three years of service. On April 5, 2003, everything changed when the Humvee Martinez was driving hit a hidden improvised explosive device while driving in Karbala, Iraq. “I knew that war was a possibility, however I never really grasped the idea that it would be my reality,” said Martinez. The other soldiers in the vehicle were thrown out, but Martinez was trapped inside and suffered smoke inhalation and burns that covered more than 40 percent of his body. The doctors chose to place Marti-
nez into a medically-induced coma for transport, and when he awoke several weeks later, he was at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The doctor treating him said that a nurse would have to feed him, bathe him and dress his wounds during his recovery process. “My 19 year old mentality took over,” said Martinez. He began to envision a young, beautiful nurse that would fall in love with him and they would marry and start a family. He began to think “this might not be so bad ... it’s going to be like the Notebook.” To his surprise a bearded six-foot man walked into the room and said, “Hey buddy, my name is Mike and I’m going to be your nurse.” Though the news came as disappointing at first, Martinez and his nurse became close friends. According to Martinez, the recovery process was worse than the injury itself and since his accident, he has undergone 34 different surgeries. “What happens in life is that sometimes, because of the choices that we make, we find ourselves forced out of that comfort zone,” said Martinez, “… so the question is, when you find yourself out of that comfort zone what are you going to do?” He added that while we can choose to panic or complain, “what you should do is realize that we’re here and now for a reason and open up your eyes and see the opportunities and make it work.” Following his recovery, Martinez was featured on the cover of People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” issue and was named one of its “25 Most Intriguing People of the year.” He played the role of an injured Iraq combat vet-
eran on the Emmy-Award-winning television drama “All My Children” for three years. And in 2011 he and his dance partner Karina Smirnoff won the Mirrorball trophy on “Dancing with the Stars” and was named the 2012 Tournament of Roses Grand Marshal. His recently published book “Full of Heart: My Story of Survival, Strength and Spirit” was available for purchase at the AVBOT Outlook Conference following his presentation. For more information about the AVBOT or future outlook conferences, visit www. avbot.org. Brig. Gen. Michael T. Brewer Brig. Gen. Michael Brewer, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, gave a brief update on the aerospace happenings at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. His update started with a video to show that the progress happening at Edwards is “a diversity.” He added that on “any given day, you can look up and see anything flying.” According to Brewer they just completed the high area of attack testing for the F-35 that will make up the framework for tactical aviation everyday. They are also testing the automatic ground collision avoidance system (Auto GCAS), an auto-recovery software which can also be used on the F-16. Brewer shared that his son wants to fly F-16s in the Air Force and this technology is comforting because it “might save [his son’s] life someday.” Brewer also shared that Edwards is also testing intermediate-range ballistic missiles air-to-air in a C-17. “We do some crazy things and some phenomenal people make that happen.” Edwards AFB is the second largest AFB in the United States and employs 13,000
Photographs by Rebecca Amber
Jose Rene “J.R.” Martinez, television star, author and Army hero was the keynote speaker at the 2013 Antelope Valley Board of Trade Business Outlook Conference Feb. 22.
people. The base has a total economic impact to the surrounding community of $1.48 billion annually. “We have a gem here in the airspace that we have and the land facilities that we have and that lakebed we have out there,” said Brewer, “It is a national asset in the truest sense of the word.” He added that it takes a lot of effort to care for that “gem.” One of the keys to caring for the base is ensuring compatible growth. “I’m not a fan of that encroachment word,” said Brewer, who believes that both the community and Air Force Base can grow without infringing on the other’s needs. Brewer ended with this thought, “At the end of the day there is a young airman, soldier marine, sitting out there and our job is going to be to take care of him and we’re going to do that and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Left: Brig. Gen. Michael Brewer, commander of the 412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB, gives an update on the aerospace happenings at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
March 1, 2013
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Conference celebrates ‘Freedom to Succeed’ by Raphael Jaffe staff writer The 41st annual Antelope Valley Board of Trade Business Outlook Conference was held Feb. 22 at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster, Calif. Speakers included political and business leaders and wounded warier motivational speaker J. R. Martinez. The 600 or so attendees also heard a measured economic outlook prediction of slow steady growth. Congressman Buck “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., briefly reviewed the history of the federal budget sequestration cuts, which are slated to start March 1. He said that it looks like sequestration will happen. This is a time of turmoil. NASA David McBride, director of the Dryden Flight Research Center, gave a citizens report of 2012 activities at Dryden. Dryden’s vision is to fly what other only imagine. Its mission is advancing technology and science through flight. Its programs include aeronautics research, science, space technology, space operations and exploration systems. The economic impact to the community is about $328 million. This breaks down to $253 million in annual expenditures and $76 million in indirect jobs created. There are about 1,150 personnel employed at the cen-
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ter, civil service plus support contractors. McBride said that the community support it receives has helped Dryden’s success.
ed /Hybrid Wing Body aircraft: and sonic boom research. UAV in National Air Space is developing the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast tracking system that FAA is requiring by 2020. The Dryden MQ-9 is being flown with such a system. It has tested both the “out “signal and “in” signal mode. AGCAS has conducted successful flight tests of a miniature system, using a remotely operated drone aircraft. The system was integrated into an autopilot and consistently commanded correct evasive maneuvers to avoid rocky mountainous terrain and ridgelines. In a joint DOD, NSA program a similar system is being tested on an F-16. The X-48 program has flown more than 100 times. The X-48C has been evaluating low speed stability and control of a low noise version of future Hydride Wing Body Aircraft. This is a joint program with Boeing. Sonic boom research aims to shrink the footprint of sonic booms, to allow the civil supersonic flight over land practical. Dryden is gathering data on boom propagation effects, along with other NASA centers, and industry and university partners.
Aeronautics Included in the aeronautics segment is: Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the National Air Space; the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System [AGCAS]; the X-48C Blend-
Earth and Space Science Dryden programs include Global Hawk flights to investigate hurricanes; flights to map Antarctica; and the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy [SOFIA]. There were also
Photograph by Rebecca Amber
David McBride, director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center addresses the Antelope Valley Board of Trade’s Business Outlook Conference.
ence lab flew over the Antarctic during a five week field campaign. Movement of the ice sheet was studied by flying routes that duplicated pest surveys. SOFIA is the largest flying observatory ever. By flying at about 40,000 feet above the blocking water vapor of the atmosphere, it observes the infrared spectrum of the heavens better than previously possible. The observatory has had major upgrades to its mission command and control system, and avionics. A glass cockpit has been installed by ASB Avionics of Mojave.
Photograph by Rebecca Amber
Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port, addresses the Antelope Valley Board of Trade’s Business Outlook Conference.
flights using the ER-2 high altitude aircraft and the C-20A. The Global Hawk carried cloud, aerosol, and other meteorological instruments over and around hurricanes Leslie and Nadine in the Atlantic. The Global Hawk flew from a mobile command center at NASA’s Wallops Island facility. The Aircraft flew more than 148 hours during six Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel missions. The DC-8 long range airborne sci-
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Flight Opportunities Program The NASA Flight Opportunities Program is managed by Dryden. It provides suborbital research flight opportunities for newly developed technologies, and sponsors the commercial firms providing such flights. Masten Space Systems of Mojave tested a new control system provided by the MIT Draper Lab. The control system is a prototype of one being developed for landings on planets, moms and near earth objects. Farewell to Endeavour Dryden has made many contributions to the Space Shuttle Program. There were 54 shuttle landings at Edwards AFB. Yet another landing was Sept. 20, when Endeavour landed
See AVBOT, Page 5
March 1, 2013
AVBOT, from 4 as cargo atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft. The combination took off the next morning and then arrived at LAX after a tour of California. Endeavour is on display at the Los Angeles California Science Center. On its final flight, the Endeavour atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft flew over Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay area and southern California. It’s estimated that more than 2 million people saw it.
upwards of $600,000 to refurbish a large building as a civic gathering place for the city of Mojave. There are currently 46 tenants at Mojave ASP, engaged in manufacturing, and distribution, in addition to aerospace research and development. Scaled Composites, The Spaceship Co., and Virgin Galactic are building a fleet of Space-
ShipTwo aircraft to fly tourists to the edge of space. XCOR Aerospace is developing its Lynx aircraft to fly a passenger and pilot to the edge of space. Also, Scaled is designing and building the world’s largest airplane for Stratolaunch Corp. Accepting the award, Witt recalled that as 7-year old, one of his hopes was to someday
Stuart Witt honored The winner of this years’ Navigating Change Award is Stuart Witt, CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port. The award was presented by U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. McCarthy said there has been a measurable change in the spirit of the Antelope Valley. It has been brought about by people like Witt, who is a great leader, not just a good leader. Witt is a leader in energy development, in education as a trustee of the Kern Community College Board. His business philosophy is to add value for his tenants. Witt is a founding executive member of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and currently serves as board chairman. But it is his 11 years in transforming a sleepy local airport to the Mojave Air and Space Port that is most outstanding. Mojave ASP is the first inland spaceport. It had to develop plans and procedures for commercial spaceflight, along with the FAA. Mojave was host to the world as Scaled Composites designed, built and flew the first commercial aircraft to the edge of space, in 2004. Scaled won the $10 million Ansari XPrize. Mojave ASP became the world’s center for commercial space flight. Mojave ASP is currently investing over $1.3 million to bring electricity, fiber optic connectivity and water to the north side of the airport. Tenants will be hiring tens of employees for work there. Another major capital investment is
March 1, 2013
have a job where he could wear shinny shoes. He said that “his journey has had a lot to do with everybody in this room. This is the only country on earth where this is possible. Let us try to make sure that it stays possible. To everyone, he said, thank you very much.
NASA photograph by Jim Ross
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House votes to rename flight center for Armstrong The House has approved a bill to rename a NASA flight center in California for the late astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon. The measure, which passed on a 394-0 vote, would rename the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. Armstrong, who died in 2012, commanded the historic landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft on the moon in 1969. He made “one giant leap for mankind” with a small step onto the moon. He was also a test pilot who worked at the center for seven years. “I will never forget watching Neil Armstrong take those first steps on the Moon,” said Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif. “In that remarkable and powerful moment, Neil Arm-
strong confirmed to the entire world watching that anything is possible and that nothing, not even traveling to outer space and walking on the moon, was too tall of an order for the United States. Neil Armstrong braved the unchartered territory of space exploration and paved the way for revolutionary scientific discovery.” McKeon joined fellow representative Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in introducing the bill. The center falls in both Congressional districts. “Neil Armstrong turned that dream into reality by making that ‘one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind’ on another world almost 240,000 miles away,” McKeon continued. The bill would also rename the center’s test range for the late Hugh L. Dryden, former NASA deputy administrator. “Not many people know the relationship
between these two men. Hugh Dryden was the visionary behind NASA’s X-15 rocket plane and the Apollo program. Neil Armstrong was the one who flew the spacecraft that Dryden envisioned,” said Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. “Hugh Dryden recommended to President John F. Kennedy that the goal of putting a man on the Moon within 10 years was achievable and something the American people could rally behind,” said Smith. “Hugh Dryden was not able to see his dream become reality, as he died in 1965. And unfortunately, Neil Armstrong passed away last August. It is important for us to honor both men’s legacies by naming the Flight Research Center after Neil Armstrong and the surrounding Test Range after Hugh Dryden.
“With this bill, we re-affirm that America is filled with dreamers like Hugh Dryden, and doers like Neil Armstrong, who—working together—can ‘shoot for the Moon.’” McKeon praised the work the center does in research and innovation. “The Flight Research Center is a source of great pride for the Antelope Valley and is an epicenter for research and innovation,” he said. “I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of this bill renaming the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in honor of Neil A. Armstrong. Dedicating this stellar institution to Neil Armstrong is a small token of our public gratitude and will hopefully work to ensure that his legacy is honored for generations to come.” The measure goes to the Senate for consideration.
Northrop Grumman’s Global Hawk program selected for U.S. Air Force sustainment excellence award The U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft program was recently awarded the 2012 Dr. James G. Roche Sustainment Excellence Award for demonstrating the most improved performance in aircraft maintenance and logistics readiness. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor for the high-flying fleet of Global Hawks. “Even with a year marked with fiscal challenges and heightened operations tempo, the Global Hawk government-industry team was able to increase aircraft mission capability by 26 percent in fiscal year 2012.
This increase allowed the Global Hawk team to execute and fly more than 13,400 hours last year,” said George Guerra, vice president of the Global Hawk program for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector. “This prestigious award signifies that the entire team is constantly striving to improve in every area and doing everything we can to support U.S. and allied troops.” Echoing the program’s marked performance improvements is the recently released director, Operational Test and Evaluation annual report to the Secretary of Defense. The ex-
tensive report highlights the Global Hawk’s mission-capable rate, which rose from approximately 52 percent in fiscal year 2011 to nearly 78 percent in 2012, while exceeding the Air Force’s goal for 19 consecutive months. “Congratulations to Northrop Grumman for ensuring our warfighters are equipped with a system that is ready and available when they need it,” said Col. Carlin Heimann, Global Hawk system program director for the U.S. Air Force. “It is encouraging to be recognized at Air Force levels for the contributions this team makes to improving Global Hawk reliability
and sustainability. This will always be a joint government-contractor effort and together we earned this award, which is a reminder that we have our priorities right.” In 2004, the Air Force chief of staff approved the award, named for the 20th secretary of the Air Force, to promote maintenance excellence. Air Force officials determine the award recipients by calculating the improvements for a predetermined set of metrics and multiplying each metric by a corresponding weighted value. The award will be presented at a date and location to be determined.
Capable of flying for more than 30 hours at an altitude over 60,000 feet, Global Hawk provides decision-makers with near-real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, and provides warfighters with unmatched communications relay capabilities. It continues to fly missions around the world, accumulating more than 88,000 total flight hours, 80 percent of which were flown in combat in support of overseas contingency operations. A total of 37 Global Hawks have been delivered to the Air Force, with additional aircraft scheduled for delivery this year.
Arms vendors turn to cyber security as sales drop by Malin Rising Associated Press The world’s largest arms vendors are expanding in the cybersecurity sector as austerity measures weigh on sales of traditional weapons, a Swedish peace research institute said Feb. 18. Sales by the 100 largest arms producing companies, excluding Chinese companies, fell by 5 percent to $410 billion in 2011, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its annual review of the industry. The drop was mainly due to austerity measures and the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, SIPRI said, but pointed out that cy-
bersecurity has remained a privileged spending area for governments despite budget cuts. “Cybersecurity has become a top national security issue and there has been a lot of discussion about that over the last years,” SIPRI cybersecurity expert Vincent Boulanin said. “Countries are willing to gear up to face potential cyberthreats from other countries or private actors.” Cybersecurity first became a major issue following the attack against Estonia in 2007 that used thousands of infected computers to cripple dozens of government and corporate websites, Boulanin said. Since then, numerous attacks have occurred that have increased the demand
Airbus to drop lithium-ion batteries in A350
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for security products, including the recent Chinese hacker attacks against The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Boulanin said arms dealers are taking advantage of these developments to expand into new fields and are acquiring smaller companies to get hold of the necessary technical expertise. The ventures mainly involve services for data and network protection, testing and simulation, training and consulting and operational support. SIPRI also said U.S.-based Lockheed Martin remained the biggest arms vendor in 2011, with arms sales of $36.27 billion, while Boeing overtook Britain’s BAE Systems as the second largest weapons merchant.
Airbus abandoned its plans to use lithium-ion batteries for its new A350 airplanes due to the uncertainty surrounding the technology following the grounding of Boeing’s 787, the company said. The European aerospace group said Feb. 14 it would revert to conventional nickel-cadmium batteries for the A350. The plane is a wide-body long-range jet rival to the 787 and is expected to make its first flight around the middle of the year. Airbus says it does not expect the battery switch to delay the A350’s schedule. Lithium batteries are lighter and can store more energy than other types of batteries of an equivalent size, and manufacturers view them as an important way to save on fuel costs. But the batteries are also more likely to short circuit and start a fire than other batteries if they are damaged, if there is a manufacturing flaw or if they are exposed to excessive heat. Federal officials grounded the 787 last month because of prob-
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Here’s SIPRI’s list of the top 10 arms vendors in 2010 (2009 ranking in parenthesis): 1. Lockheed Martin, U.S, $36.27 billion (1). 2. Boeing, U.S., $31.83 billion (3). 3. BAE Systems, Britain, $29.15 billion (2). 4. General Dynamics, U.S., $23.76 billion (5). 5. Raytheon, U.S., $22.47 billion (6). 6. Northrop Grumman, U.S., $21.39 billion (4). 7. EADS, Trans-European, $16.39 billion (7). 8. Finmeccanica, Italy, $14.56 billion (8). 9. L-3 Communications, U.S., $12.52 billion (9). 10. United Technologies, U.S., $11.64 billion (10).
lems with its lithium-ion batteries that caused one fire and forced another plane to make an emergency landing. “Airbus considers this to be the most appropriate way forward in the interest of program execution and A350 XWB reliability,” spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn said. Airbus noted the A350 uses batteries in a different setup than the 787, making it unlikely that it would face the same problems. Its A350 flight-test program would still go forward with lithium-ion batteries. But because the causes of the problems with the 787 batteries remain unclear, Airbus decided to make the switch “to optimize program certainty,” Greczyn said. Airbus is a unit of Netherlands-based EADS NV. The Wall Street Journal first reported on Airbus’ decision to drop the lithium-ion batteries, noting the incidents with the 787 have led to industry uncertainty about future safety standards for the technology. AP
March 1, 2013
Defense News
Hagel takes office as 24th Defense Secretary by Cheryl Pellerin American Forces Press Service Just before his private swearing-in ceremony as the 24th secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel and his wife, Lilibet, arrived at the Pentagon Feb. 27 and were greeted by Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, military assistant to the secretary of defense. Hagel said hello to waitin g members of the Pentagon press corps as he hurried up the steps of the Pentagon’s river entrance. From there, Pentagon Press Secretary George Little and other defense officials accompanied him into the building. Family members and his immediate office staff attended the ceremony, during which Hagel was sworn in by Director of Administration and Management Michael L. Rhodes. Hagel then hosted the daily senior staff update meeting attended by DOD civilian and military leaders. In a statement released after Hagel’s Senate confirmation Feb. 26, Little said the new secretary received congratulatory phone calls from his predecessor, Leon E. Panetta, con-
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gressional leaders, and Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki. In his conversation with Secretary Shinseki, Little added, Hagel “indicated his desire to meet as soon as possible to continue and deepen the strong partnership between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs on common priorities for serving our troops, veterans and military families.” After the staff meeting, Hagel will speak to service members and civilian Defense Department employees in the Pentagon Auditorium. The address will be covered live on the Pentagon Channel. It’s scheduled to start at 10:30 a.m. EST. This afternoon, Hagel will meet with the service secretaries and attend meetings at the White House. Yesterday, Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement that he’d travelled across the world with Hagel and has seen him in action in the U.S. Senate. “Wherever he is, his talent and dedication to our country are clear. He feels a deep commitment to our men and women in uniform, and as the head of the Pentagon, I know their
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Air Force secretary discusses sequestration impacts by SSgt. David Salanitri Orlando, Fla. Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley addressed more than 500 men and women on the final day of the Air Force Association’s 29th Air Warfare Symposium & Technology Exposition Feb. 22 in Orlando, Fla. During his address, Donley spoke about several issues that are on the Air Force’s radar, including budget and planning challenges, and of particular interest, the looming sequestration. “During over three decades now in Washington, I don’t believe I’ve ever witnessed a budget process that is as dysfunctional as is the one we’re experiencing today,” Donley said. Although the service has protected people and readiness to date, the impact of sequestration will ultimately force the Air Force to take actions that will impact readiness and its civilian workforce the secretary said. He also discussed the impact sequestration will have on airmen’s professional development, due to non-mission essential travel being frozen. The secretary said sequestration could “delay the promotions of Airmen who rely on that training as part of their preparation for higher rank. It could lead to a loss of certification for Airmen in technical specialties that require regular training such as firefighters or explosive ordnance disposal specialists.” Donley also voiced his concern for the morale of the service’s civilian force should a furlough take place. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta notified Congress on Feb. 20 that the Department of Defense civilian workforce could face potential furloughs in late April. This could impact up to
Veteran’s News
180,000 civilian Airmen for up to 22 working days, resulting in a loss of 31.5 million man hours of productivity. “We’re deeply concerned for our civilian airmen and the mission,” Donley said. “We’ll keep working to prevent these actions, which would decimate morale and break faith with their service to our Air Force.” Among other significant challenges that the service will face under sequestration is the impact to flying readiness. “Reduction of about 200,000 flying hours would impact our theater security packages,” Donley said. “Those combat units not expected to deploy, will only continue to fly until depletion of their flying hours funds, which could occur as early as mid-May.” The secretary also spoke about the impacts to the defense industry, many members of which were widely represented in the audience at the symposium. Impacts to the defense industrial base will grow in magnitude as reductions in resources ripple through the network of companies that support Air Force prime contractors and sub-contractors, according to Donley. “We’re concerned about the capacity of smaller or more specialized companies to successfully negotiate this challenging environment,” he said, emphasizing the importance of their contributions to the Air Force. “What many of you do in industry is important to us. It makes a direct contribution to our capabilities.” In addition to the impacts of sequestration, Donley discussed the Total Force Task Force, a group of active-duty, Reserve and Air National Guard members that he and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Welsh III assembled to dis-
Air Force photograph by Scott M. Ash
Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley delivers his keynote speech on the State of the Air Force during the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium & Technology Exhibition in Orlando, Fla., Feb. 22, 2013. In his remarks, Donley talked about the service’s need to balance the size of its force with readiness and modernization needs in the face of sequestration.
cuss the right mix of Total Force capabilities for the service. “The results of this task force will inform our strategic planning and programing for fiscal 2015 and beyond, and will also serve as a resource to the congressionally-directed national commission on the structure of the Air Force that will be examining total-force issues later this year,” he said.
Despite the current challenges facing the Department, Donley made one thing clear — America’s Airmen are ready for any challenge. “We came into this situation as the world’s finest Air Force, it is our intention to come out of this as the world’s finest Air Force, and we will,” Donley said. “If we back them, Airmen will back our Air Force, and they will help us get through these challenging times.”
POW recalls ‘hidden treasure’ in lessons learned by Amber Baillie Colorado Springs, Colo. A prisoner of war held in the “Hanoi Hilton” for five and a half years shared his compelling story of imprisonment and success with U.S. Air cadets Feb. 21-22 during the 2013 National Character and Leadership Symposium at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. Like Sen. John McCain and others, retired Col. Lee Ellis was held captive after his plane was shot down Nov. 7, 1967. Ellis spoke to the NCLS crowd just one month shy of the 40th anniversary of his March 14, 1973 release from the infamous prison on the leadership lessons he learned during his confinement. “The story is so powerful, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a cadet, four-star general, CEO or grandmother,” Ellis said. “Courage was the most outstanding quality during that experience, put together with character and authentic leadership.” The 14 lessons, featured in Ellis’ book “Leading with Honor: Leadership Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton,” include knowing yourself; being authentic; guarding your character; confronting your doubts and fears; and staying positive, Ellis said. “Until you know what your strengths, struggles, passions and purpose are, it’s hard to have the confidence to actually have courage, because you might be worried somebody will see the real you,” Ellis said.
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Ellis’s personal definition of courage is “leading into the pain of your fears to do what you know is right,” he said. “I’ve coached CEOs who didn’t want to give positive feedback because they said they felt uncomfortable, when really it was their fear of looking stupid, hokey or being too soft,” Ellis said, who coaches Fortune 500 senior executives. “I’ve also coached people on how to fire somebody because they didn’t have the courage to do it. It’s not just about courage under fire but courage in your dayto-day leadership.” As an Air Force officer, Ellis ran an ROTC program and served as vice commandant of Maxwell Air Force Base’s Squadron Officer School. “Most of my last 20 years has been dedicated to helping people and developing leaders,” he said. Ellis entered the Air Force in 1965 after receiving his commission from the University of Georgia’s ROTC program as a distinguished graduate. Ellis then attended flight school and F-4 Phantom combat crew training with Capt. Lance Sijan. “In Vietnam, we weren’t 18-year-old kids,” Ellis said. “I had been through ROTC, flight school, combat crew training and had already flown 53 combat missions. We were pretty seasoned warriors, and had a real commitment to follow the code of conduct and be a good soldier.” Faith in God, the U.S. and his fellow Airmen brought him hope amidst continual torture and seclusion in North
Vietnam, he said. “Even though we were isolated, we still had covert communication and camaraderie,” Ellis said. “We were in it together and it was us against them. “Pilots often like to think they’re in control, even when they’re not,” Ellis said. “We were mostly pilots and aircrew who believed that someday we were going to leave,” Ellis said. “I personally believed that when they didn’t kill me, and I made it through my ejection and capture, that God had a purpose in my life and I was going to somehow walk out of there someday.” Despite the hardship, there was a hidden treasure to be found among the trials of being a POW, as the experience gave many who survived the experience the strength of character to overcome difficulties and achieve success. “There are 16 admirals and generals that came out of the POW camps,” Ellis said. “Out of 400 to 500 people, there have been two U.S. senators, one of them a nominee for president, a number of congressmen, CEOs and two or three presidents of universities after the experience. I think we all, in a way, never want to do it again, but benefited from the hardships we had there. We learned lessons that have stood us well throughout the years.” Among his other awards, Ellis is the recipient of two Silver Star Medals, the Legion of Merit Medal, the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart Medal and the POW Medal.
Courtesy photograph
Retired Col. Lee Ellis, a prisoner of war who spent five and a half years in the “Hanoi Hilton” during the Vietnam War, spoke at the Air Force Academy’s National Character and Leadership Symposium Feb. 21-22, 2013.
Aerotech News and Review
March 1, 2013
Boehner says U.S. veterans’ claims system is broken by Lisa Cornwell Associated Press
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner said the system for handling veterans’ disability claims is broken and he wants the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs to explain what is being done to fix it. Boehner, a Republican from Ohio, said in a letter to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki this week that the benefit delivery system for veterans has not shown any noticeable improvement in the four years Shinseki has headed the department and the backlog of compensation claims “remains alarmingly high.” The VA was preparing a formal response to Boehner’s letter, a VA spokesman said Feb. 22. The VA has said it completed a “record-breaking” 1 million claims per year the past three years. But the speaker wrote in his letter that the backload remains high, especially in Ohio, despite the announcement at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Regional Office last summer of a new organizational model to help reduce the backlog by 2015. The Cleveland office, which handles claims from around the state, is now processing claims in an average of 334 days compared with the
national average of 272 days and the VA’s own goal of 125 days, Boehner said. Since the transformation began at the Cleveland office, the average time to process a claim has increased by 20 percent, or about 56 days, and the current national average has increased by 17.7 percent since January 2012, Boehner said. The speaker said in a statement that he has been “disappointed and disheartened by the results” of the new system and that system failures reported by Ohio veterans are “shameful.” His office is handling more than 100 unresolved claims from Ohio veterans, including one from Air Force veteran Tiffany Hilliard, of Troy. Hilliard said Friday that she has been waiting more than a year to add her now 17-month-old daughter as a dependent. She said she was told when checking last month on the status of her October 2011 request that inquiries about claim statuses were no longer being handled because of the backlog. Hilliard said she has lost benefits by not having her daughter listed as a dependent but hopes that “speaking out might help other veterans who may need more help.” Army veteran Randy Bitner, of Ea-
ton, said he submitted a disability claim around March 2011 and received a form letter last month saying he was now in the system. Bitner said he has received no information about the timing for resolving his claim. Data from a report on work load indicators reported by Veterans Benefits Administration field offices for Jan. 24, 2009, showed the number of pending compensation claims nationwide at roughly 390,000, with 10,500 of those pending at the Cleveland office, Boehner wrote. He said the report for Feb. 11, 2013, showed the total pending compensation claims had grown
to 821,000, with more than 71 percent older than 125 days. The VA said in 2010 that it invested $138 million in a digital paperless claims system that would be deployed in 2012. The VA has acknowledged that too many veterans have to wait too long to get benefits but says the paperless system will eliminate the backlog and the technology is expected to reach all 56 regional VA offices by the end of this year. But Boehner wants answers now. He asked Shinseki to reply to his questions within 30 days. Boehner’s questions include whether
Changes to TRICARE Prime Service Areas Prime Service Areas are geographic areas where TRICARE Prime is offered. These PSAs were created to ensure the medical readiness of the active duty force by augmenting the capability of military hospitals and clinics. Effective Oct. 1, 2013, TRICARE Prime will no longer be available to beneficiaries living in certain areas of the United States that are not in close proximity and have never augmented care around military hospitals or clinics. This change will not impact any beneficiaries enrolled to the 412th Medical Group, but could impact those that move to an area where the PSA is being eliminated. This change will not affect Active Duty or Guard/Reserve personnel activated for greater than 30 days as they are covered under TRICARE Prime Remote
if they are stationed at a location outside of a PSA. Active Duty Family Members residing in a PSA that is being eliminated will remain in Prime until they move outside the eliminated PSA or lose TRICARE eligibility. Those moving into an eliminated PSA prior to Oct. 1, 2013, can transfer their Prime enrollment and maintain their same coverage as long as they remain eligible. No ‘new’ enrollments to the eliminated PSAs are allowed after March 31, 2013. Other Prime enrollees (retirees, retiree family members, survivors, TRICARE Young Adult, etc.) residing in an eliminated PSA will no longer be eligible for Prime and will be notified by TRICARE of the options available to them. For any questions concerning PSA changes, contact Managed Care at (661) 277-6969 or visit www.tricare.mil.
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the VA’s benefits office has started to convert old paper files to digital ones and what end date is projected for conversion. Boehner also wants to know what the VA, which he says potentially made more than 400,000 errors in rating claims over the past three years, has done to reduce the time veterans are waiting to have claims reviewed and re-adjudicated. He asked whether Shinseki believes the VA is on track to achieve its goals of processing claims in under 125 days and eliminating the claims backlog by 2015. “America’s veterans,” Boehner wrote, “are counting on you.”
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Space & Technology News Mars rock sample powder ready for analysis instruments by Raphael Jaffe staff writer The Mars Science Lab on the Curiosity rover is ready to process the first-ever powder from inside a Mars rock. Jet Propulsion Lab scientists announced they have “about a tablespoon of powdered rock,” drilled out of the inside of a Mars rock. “Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the rock,” said JPL’s Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for Curiosity. “Many of us have been working toward this day for years.” And it looks grey, not the usual red-orange color seen of the Mars landscape. The red is probably just a dust coating that has been carried by the Martian wind all over the Red planet. The color is from oxidized iron. So this grey sample is potentially material from 3 to 4 billion years in the past, which has been shielded from the Martian atmosphere. The scoop now holding the precious sample is part of Curiosity’s Collection and Handling for InSitu Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device. During the next steps of processing, the powder will be enclosed inside CHIMRA and shaken once
or twice over a sieve that screens out particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 microns) across. The shaking will be for 20 minutes, rather than the 60 minutes originally planned. The shorter time will extend the useful time of the sieve. One of two sieves in ground tests have shown some unzipping of the edge weld that holds it, so this precaution is being taken. Small portions of the sieved sample later will be delivered through inlet ports on top of the rover deck into the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. The sample comes from a fine-grained, veiny sedimentary rock called “John Klein.” It seems to be mudstone or siltstone, which formed in water. The rock was selected for the first sample drilling because it may hold evidence of wet environmental conditions long ago. The rover’s laboratory analysis of the powder may provide information about those conditions. The Mars program progress in collecting samples can be tracked from Spirit, to Phoenix, to Curiosity. Spirit ground the surface. Phoenix had a rasp that brought up dirt and frozen water samples. Curiosity has a drill that made a hole in rock that is 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep.
Orbital hot fire test of Antares successfully completed NASA commercial partner Orbital Sciences of Dulles, Va., successfully conducted an engine test of its Antares rocket Feb. 22 at the nation’s newest launch pad. The company fired dual AJ26 rocket engines for the full duration 29 seconds while the rocket was bolted down on the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad-0A at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island, Va. Known as a “hot fire” test, it demonstrated the readiness of
the rocket’s first stage and launch pad fueling systems to support upcoming test flights. “This pad test is an important reminder of how strong and diverse the commercial space industry is in our nation,” said Phil McAlister, director of Commercial Spaceflight Development at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the International Space
Station. Now, another is taking the next critical steps to launch from America’s newest gateway to lowEarth Orbit. Today marks significant progress for Orbital, MARS and the NASA team.” Orbital is building and testing its new rocket and Cygnus cargo spacecraft under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. A demonstration flight of Antares and Cygnus to the space station is planned for later this year. Af-
ter the successful completion of the COTS demonstration mission to the station, Orbital will begin conducting eight planned cargo resupply flights to the orbiting laboratory through NASA’s $1.9 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with the company. Wallops, which has launched more than 16,000 rockets in its 67-year history, provided launch range support for the hot-fire test, including communications, data collection, range
safety and area clearance. NASA initiatives like COTS are helping to develop a robust U.S. commercial space transportation industry with the goal of achieving safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station and low-Earth orbit. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program also is working with commercial space partners to develop capabilities to launch U.S. astronauts from American soil in the next few years.
DARPA Experimental Aircraft Program to develop next generation of vertical flight One of the greatest challenges of the past half century for aerodynamics engineers has been how to increase the top speeds of aircraft that take off and land vertically without compromising the aircraft’s lift to power in hover or its efficiency during long-range flight. The versatility of helicopters and other vertical take-off and landing aircraft make them ideal for a host of military operations. Currently, only helicopters can maneuver in tight areas, land in unprepared areas, move in all directions, and hover in midair while holding a position. This versatility often makes rotary-wing and other VTOL aircraft the right aerial platform for transporting troops, surveillance operations, special operations and search-and-rescue missions. Compared to fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters are slowerleaving them more vulnerable to damage from enemy weapons. Special operations that rely on lightning-quick strikes and medical units that transport patients to care facilities need enhanced speed to shorten mission times, increase mission range, reduce the number of refueling events and, most important, reduce exposure to the adversary. By their very design, rotary-wing aircraft that take off and land vertically have a disadvantage achieving speeds comparable to fixed-wing aircraft. Since its invention, engineers have attempted to overcome this design barrier but have encountered lower fuel efficiency and less lift capacity, controllability, simplicity, and reliability of design.
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While engineers have improved the speed of fixed-wing aircraft-achieving two and three times the speeds of jets designed since the 1960s-attempts to increase efficient VTOL aircraft speed have stalled. “For the past 50 years, we have seen jets go higher and faster while VTOL aircraft speeds have flat-lined and designs have become increasingly complex,” said Ashish Bagai, DARPA program manager. “To overcome this problem, DARPA has launched the VTOL X-Plane program to challenge industry and innovative engineers to concurrently push the envelope in four areas: speed, hover efficiency, cruise efficiency and useful load capacity.” “We have not made this easy,” he continued. “Strapping rockets onto the back of a helicopter is not the type of approach we’re looking for. The engineering community is familiar with the numerous attempts in the past that have not worked. This time, rather than tweaking past designs, we are looking for true cross-pollinations of designs and technologies from the fixed-wing and rotary-wing worlds. The elegant confluence of these engineering design paradigms is where this program should find some interesting results.” A Proposers’ Day will be held March 14. The Broad Agency Announcement for the solicitation can be found at: https://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/DARPA/ CMO/DARPA-BAA-13-19/listing.html.
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March 1, 2013
Hometown Heroes Air Force Amn. Piero A. Del Valle graduated from basic military training at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Del Valle is the son of Oscar Del Valle of Palmdale. He is a 2012 graduate of Highland High School, Palmdale. Army Spec. Jacob T. Anderson has returned to the U.S. after being deployed overseas at a forward operating base to serve in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to antiterrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Active duty and reserve component members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces have been deployed to support the war against global terrorism outside the borders of the United States. U.S. troops serve in South, Southwest and Central Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, islands in the Pacific, and Europe. Anderson is a rifleman assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. He has served in the military for five years. He is the son of Eric Anderson of Ramona Road, Palmdale, and Roxanna Ritter of Canyon Country. The specialist is a 2007 graduate of Canyon High School, Canyon Country. Air Force Amn. Marc R. Green graduated from basic military train-
Army Spec. Roberto B. Henriquez has returned to the U.S. after being deployed overseas at a forward operating base to serve in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Operation Enduring Freedom is the official name given to antiterrorism military operations involving U.S. troops and allied coalition partners. Active duty and reserve component members from all branches of the U.S. armed forces have been deployed to support the war against global terrorism outside the borders of the United States. U.S. troops serve in South, Southwest and Central Asia, the Arabian peninsula, the Horn of Africa, islands in the Pacific, and Europe. Henriquez is a grenadier assigned to the 4th Airborne Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. He has served in the military for two years. He is the son of Rafael and Cristina Henriquez of Palmdale, Calif. The specialist is a 2010 graduate of Palmdale High School.
ing at Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Green is the son of Keith Green and stepson of Julianna Nelson, both of Miami, Okla. He is a 2006 graduate of Calvary Chapel Christian School, Lancaster, Calif.
Air Force Amn. Brittney M. Chavez graduated from basic military training at Lackland AFB. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Chavez is the daughter of Vina Chavez of Lancaster. She is a 2011 graduate of Lancaster High School.
Air Force Amn. Stephanie D. Balajadia graduated from basic military training at Lackland AFB. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Balajadia is the daughter of Kelly and Tyrone Balajadia of Palmdale.
Air Force Reserve Amn. Daniel J. Sanchez graduated from basic military training at Lackland AFB. The airman completed an intensive, eight-week program that included training in military discipline and studies, Air Force core values, physical fitness, and basic warfare principles and skills. Airmen who complete basic training earn four credits toward an associate in applied science degree through the Community College of the Air Force. Sanchez is the son of John and Mary Sanchez of Lancaster.
Voice Your choice What a great country we live in. We have the freedom of choice! We can choose what cars to drive, where to live and even what foods to eat. At Palmdale Regional Medical Center, we accept all major insurances. And you, the policyholder, have the right and the power to make Palmdale Regional your hospital of choice for medical emergencies, outpatient procedures, surgeries and/or treatments‌ if you choose. So, call or write to your insurance provider and your physician to give them your choice. Because you have the right to choose Your hospital.
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USS John C. Stennis
Air Force photograph by TSgt. Christina Styer
Defenders sight-in
Navy photograph by Seaman Marco Villasana
U.S. Air Force SrA. Mark D. Valdez, 380th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron armorer, deployed from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and SrA. William S. Field, 380 ESFS combat arms instructor, deployed from Holloman AFB, Wyo., sight-in their M4 Carbines at a mobile firing range Jan. 30, 2013. Security forces members use the mobile range to sight-in their assigned weapons while deployed to an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia.
Boatswain’s Mate Seaman Apprentice Allyson Jones, from Palmdale, Calif., removes rust from a rail aboard the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74). John C. Stennis is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility conducting maritime security operations, theater security cooperation efforts and support missions for Operation Enduring Freedom.
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• Arthroscopic surgery for shoulders, elbows, hips, knees & ankles. • Shoulder instability • ACL reconstruction • Arthroscopic rotator cuff tear repair • Shoulder, hip and knee total joint replacement • Fracture management
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People & Places School letter-writing project yields Congressional visit
Students of Joe Walker Middle School had the honor of a personal visit from Congressman Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., of the 25th United States Congressional District. The congressman visited 8th grade history students last week at the school to answer their questions about current issues. This visit came as the result of their teacher’s request that students write a letter to one of their representatives at a federal, state or local level. Many students chose to fulfill their history class assignment by writing letters to Congressman McKeon. During the course of their history class this year, students discussed current issues and the candidates running for various seats in office. “One of the things the students said to me was that they didn’t believe they had a voice,” said Willie Scott, history teacher at Joe Walker Middle School. “The congressman coming today, I believe, gave these students the true realization that they do have a voice.” McKeon answered student questions about many issues from gun control to sequestration and welfare to the national debt. His overall message to students, however, was that they are the future of this country and
they must get their education to ensure America’s future. “If there is one thing you remember from my visit here today, it’s that America needs you,” McKeon told the group of history students. “You’re going to be the future leaders of this country.” Several students were specifically selected to take the microphone, stand next to McKeon and directly ask him their question, which he answered for the benefit of the entire assembly. McKeon said he was impressed by the quality and depth of the questions coming from such young citizens. “It’s inspiring when you think that they’re eighth-graders and they’ve got enough understanding of what’s going on in the country to be able to ask those kinds of questions,” said McKeon. “Very, very good. It makes you feel better about our future.” “I thought the congressman answered them very, very well,” said Bowen Colby, an 8th grade student who asked McKeon what he was doing to stop sequestration. “At Westside, it is important to us that we build community-minded citizens to ensure the future of the Antelope Valley is in good hands,” said Westside Union School District
Courtesy photograph
Superintendent Regina Rossall. “It was an honor to have Congressman Buck McKeon help our students realize how vital they are to the future of their country.” Serving nearly 9,000 students spread across 346 square miles, Westside Union School District prides it-
self on being “the district of choice” with more choice-based programs than any other district in the Antelope Valley. With the opening of the Gregg Anderson Academy, there are now 12 schools in the district providing world-class education to students from kindergarten to 8th grade.
Continuing a tradition of high academic achievement, Westside Union School District was the only district in the Antelope Valley to see all of its schools exceed the coveted 800 score on the Academic Performance Index administered by the California Department of Education.
XCOR announces business development team A trio of new senior appointments in the Business Development Team has been announced by XCOR Aerospace, signaling the continued progress and confidence in the Lynx® suborbital spacecraft program. Greg Claxton joins XCOR where he will lead the Retail Sales Channel, Khaki Rodway has been promoted to lead the Payloads Sales Channel, and Lisa Rigano has been hired to lead Product and Customer Experience Development. Explorers Wanted.® is the XCOR call to action for everyone whose dream and ambition is to fly to space. Claxton joins XCOR Aerospace as Director of Retail Sales to ensure this call to action reaches as many explorers as possible across the globe. Formerly of Incredible Adventures, Claxton spent 17 years helping to establish the high end aviation and space focused adventure travel industry, which included flying MIGs in Russia, other high performance aircraft all over the world, numerous zero gravity experiences for a global audience, and managing an extended enterprise of suppliers, affiliated agents and clientele. Claxton will be responsible for overseeing XCOR’s” Explor-
ers Wanted.” campaign and facilitating the success of the personal spaceflight sales efforts led by general sales agent Space Expedition Corporation. Your Mission. Our Ship.® represents XCOR’s philosophy for customizable, unique and ground breaking opportunities for scientific and educational payload flights that will be performed on Lynx. Rodway has been living this mantra for years at XCOR and as a result of her success has been appointed director of Payload Sales and Operations. Rodway joined XCOR in 2005 as a government program manager and technical writer, and has since taken on ever increasing responsibilities for working with scientists, engineers and educators who wish to fly projects on the Lynx. Most recently Rodway has been instrumental in the development of XCOR’s “Your Mission. Our Ship.” program for customized research and education payload flights in the fields of planetary science, earth observation, microgravity, atmospheric science, medical/biotech, and many other applications. Rodway will also oversee XCOR’s contract with NASA’s Flight Opportu-
nities Program and XCOR’s commercial-focused Payload Sales Channel, which includes global payload integration specialists such as Southwest Research Institute, Spaceflight Services, Planetary Sciences Institute, Space Expedition Corporation of the Netherlands, and Cosmica Spacelines of Toulouse, France.
Lisa Rigano comes to XCOR as the Director of Product Development and Customer Experience. Formerly a senior manager at car sharing innovator Zipcar, she distinguished herself as a leader on the team responsible for developing the product and customer experience that powered Zipcar’s notable growth and eventual IPO in 2011. Prior to this, Rigano held product marketing roles at global branding agency Digitas, where she focused on Fortune® 500 clients in the transportation and telematics industries. Lisa is currently leading XCOR’s human-centered approach to designing, developing and scaling commercial offerings in personal spaceflight and research payloads. In this role, she will be working closely with Rodway, Claxton, Space Expedition Corporation, and an expanding channel of payload integration partners.
Mojave Air & Space Port improvements on schedule by Raphael Jaffe staff writer Major capital improvement projects are proceeding on schedule at Mojave Air & Space Port, the staff reported to the directors at the Feb. 19 meeting. A marketing budget for the airport was also discussed. The projects are: providing utilities to the north side of the airport; repaving and widening of runway 4-22 under an FAA grant; and renovation of building 137, to serve as a community center. It was also reported that the airport’s study of wind tower lighting is being completed and the findings turned over to Kern County for further action. Marketing budget CEO Stu Witt brought a proposed expenditure of $25,000 for board approval. He could have spent
March 1, 2013
these funds under his board-granted authority, but preferred to have board input. It would pay Masten Space Systems to provide video footage of the Mojave ASP taken from a rocket launch over the airport. That footage would be a valuable marketing and advertising asset. As the footage would be taken in conjunction with another Masten mission, $25,000 is a really low cost, Witt pointed out. The board discussed how promotional and marketing costs are handled now, on an individual basis. Dr. Allen Peterson, director, proposed line item for the annual budget, so that board approval is not required to participate in each program. Board Vice President Dick Rutan favored such n arrangement. Witt is also in favor of doing marketing that way. The board unanimously approved the expenditure. The staff will include a marketing item in the forthcoming 2013-2014 budget
Capital expenditures The north side utilities project is scheduled to be completed in mid-April. The project is budgeted at $1.3 million. It includes electrical service, fiber optic cables and water service. Tenants anticipate adding more than 50 full time employees to work on projects enabled by these services. Ground lease fees to the airport will increase because of the availability of these services. To date, capital expenditures have been about $938,500. The FAA AIP grant reconstruction of runway 4-22 has been going well, helped by good weather. It includes removal of all existing pavement, overexcavation, lime-treatment, and recompaction of the runway subgrade, and then installation of crushed rock base material and new asphalt pavement. A new edge lighting system will be installed. This will restore the runway to 4,746 feet long by 350 feet wide.
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Project completion in April is anticipated. Building 137 formerly housed a swimming pool and facility was used for pilot survival training. It is being rehabilitated to serve as a meeting place for the airport, and as a civic activities site for Mojave. The budget is $600,000. To date, $174,860 has been spent.
Wind tower lighting As the community felt that the airport was responsible for the red lights atop the many local wind towers, CEO Witt has performed an investigation of the topic. The requirements are set by the FAA Office of Tower Lighting, which has yet to update its standards for multiple towers near an airport, thus the current one per tower. At a recent meeting, Kern County agreed to be lead, in discussions of this topic with the FAA. The airport investigation was performed by JG Clancy consultants. A final report has been issued.
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Yeager brings ‘Right Stuff’ to symposium by Don Branum Air Force Academy The first person ever to travel faster than the speed of sound didn’t know anything about airplanes when he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in September 1941. But retired Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager did have a knack for fixing machines and a willingness to do whatever his duty required of him and to take advantage of any opportunity that presented itself, which is how he ended up behind the controls of the X-1 experimental aircraft when it made its first supersonic flight just six years later. Yeager spoke about his flying career during a National Character and Leadership Symposium presentation Feb. 22 in the Arnold Hall Theater at the Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo. “I’ve never seen so many people in my life,” he said to applause and laughter. From mechanic to ace Yeager didn’t see an airplane on the ground until he was 15, but it didn’t take him long to figure them out. “As luck would have it, I was a natural mechanic. My dad was a natural gas driller, and I worked with him on the drilling machine, so I understood machinery,” he said. “So the Air Corps used me as a mechanic.” It also didn’t take him long to figure out he wanted to do more than fix airplanes: He wanted to fly them, too. “When I used to work on the airplanes, my fingernails were greasy, and these pilots would walk by with nice, clean hands and gloves,” he said. “That seemed like a good deal to me.” Yeager entered enlisted pilot training and graduated as a flight officer, equivalent to an Army warrant officer. He was assigned to fly P-51 Mustangs with the 363rd Fighter Squadron in England. “On my first mission, I shot down a (Messerschmitt) 109. It was a good experience,” he said. He was shot down on a later mission but evaded capture with
See YEAGER, Page 15
Air Force photograph by Don Branum
Retired Brig. Gen. Chuck Yeager, right, talks to Cadet 1st Class Henry Egan after a National Character and Leadership Symposium presentation at the Air Force Academy Feb. 22, 2013. Yeager was the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound, having made the historic flight Oct. 14, 1947. Egan is assigned to Cadet Squadron 23.
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YEAGER, from 14 help from the French resistance, who smuggled him over the Pyrenees Mountains and into Spain. From there, he traveled south to Britishcontrolled Gibraltar. The Army Air Corps returned Yeager to flight, but because he was an evader, regulations prohibited him from re-entering combat. Only Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander, could grant him an exception. In the meantime, he returned to the 363rd to train junior pilots. And while he was officially prohibited from engaging in combat, his guns were hot the day he and his students received an order to provide cover for a crashed B-17 Flying Fortress. “The operations officer called me on the radio and said, ‘How much fuel you got?’” Yeager recalled. “I said, ‘Five or six hours,’ because in a Mustang you can fly forever. He said, ‘You got hot guns?’ Yes, I got hot guns. ‘Well, go over to this frequency and get with the British air rescue boat; there’s a B-17 down in the North Sea off Helgoland.’” Yaeger spotted a German Junkers Ju-88 heavy fighter approaching the rescue crew. Yeager turned ahead and fell in behind the larger aircraft. “The tail gunner was shooting at me. I killed him, and then I blew up the airplane,” Yeager said. “I came back and talked to the ops officer ... I said, ‘Major, I shot down an airplane.’” The operations officer wasn’t happy to hear this, Yeager said. “He said, ‘Go ahead and fill out an encounter report, and put Eddie Simpson ... as the pilot,” Yeager said. About a week later, he heard back from Eisenhower that he was clear to return to combat.
Beating the barrier Yeager had his choice of assignments in the U.S. after World War II because he had been shot down. “The nearest base to my home in West Virginia was Wright Field (Ohio), so I chose Wright Field,” he said. “They had an opening for a maintenance officer in the Flight Test Center, so I got assigned there.” The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics - what would later become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration - conducted all the research flights out of Wright Field. NACA engineers were researching whether the sound barrier could be broken, and NACA test pilot Chalmers Goodlin had flown roughly 20 flights at speeds up to Mach 0.8. Goodlin wanted $150,000 – equivalent to about $1.6 million today – to take the X-1 over Mach 1. Maj. Gen. Albert Boyd, chief of Air Materiel Command’s Flight Test Division, wasn’t having it. “He said, ‘This is ridiculous. ... We’ve got guys who are a hell of a lot better than these NACA weenies,’” Yeager said. “They (the Air Force) took the plane away from NACA and decided to run the tests at Wright Field, and I was selected to fly the airplane.” Yeager and the Air Force crew started testing the X-1 at Mach 0.8 and gradually increased the aircraft’s speed through future flights. Along the way, they had to alter the X-1 to account for a loss of elevator control at Mach 0.88. “What happens is that the shockwave, which forms on the thickest part of the horizontal stabilizer ... will move back from the thickest point. When it gets back to the elevator, then the elevator loses its effectiveness,” he said. The engineers tied the vertical stabilizer into a
movable horizontal stabilizer, eliminating the control loss. Another challenge presented itself before the first supersonic flight when Yeager broke two ribs while horseback riding with his wife at the time, Glennis, in whose honor Yeager had christened the X-1 “Glorious Glennis.” “Some idiot had closed the gate. I didn’t see it,” he said. “Me and that horse went right through that gate.” But rather than report to the flight surgeon, whom Yeager knew would pull him off the flight, he went to a veterinarian in the local area. “He said, ‘Yup, you got two broken ribs,’” Yeager said. “He gave me something for it and said, ‘Don’t do anything strenuous.’” Two days later, as he prepared to enter the X-1 for the fated flight, he asked for help from another pilot, Jack Ridley, to close the plane’s door. The two improvised: Ridley gave Yeager a broom handle so that he could seal the door with his left arm instead of his right. The right stuff Yeager – aided by his current wife, Victoria, whom Yeager married after Glennis died in 1990 – fielded a handful of audience questions, including one that evoked a surprised reaction from those in the theater: What was his opinion on remotely piloted aircraft? “I hate bleeding as much as you do,” he said. “If I can fight a war without bleeding, I damn well will. That’s progress. You started out with propeller airplanes and went to jets ... that’s just progress. As long as I can fight a war without bleeding, well, I’ll take that.” In response to another question, Yeager named Gen. Jimmy Doolittle as his role model. “I flew with him a little bit, and I hunted with
him a lot,” he said. “When General Doolittle came to Europe ... (fighter escorts) would fly alongside the bombers, and they’d look at you and be happy, and in the meantime, someone’s shooting your tail off. Well, General Doolittle came over there and said, ‘You guys ... get your planes out there in front of the bombers and shoot the Germans down. That’s your job.’ He changed the whole system.” Yeager said his favorite aircraft is “the one that kills the best,” though his favorite modernday aircraft is the F-15 Eagle. “Of course, you’ve got to take what they give you,” he added. Yeager would go on to become commandant of the Aerospace Research Pilot School, where he would train 26 U.S. astronauts despite being ineligible to become an astronaut himself. He also commanded the 405th Fighter Wing at Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines and the 4th Fighter Wing at Shaw AFB, S.C. He served as vice commander of 17th Air Force at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and directed the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center at Norton AFB, Calif., before retiring in March 1975. But he stayed involved with the Air Force test pilot program even after retiring. “Edwards (AFB, Calif.) signed me up as a consultant test pilot for a dollar a year,” he said. “The only question was, would I have to buy the fuel? I’m still flying when the weather’s good.” The venerable pilot said he’s grateful to the Air Force for the opportunities it’s given him. “I started out as an 18-year-old kid,” he said. “What I am, I owe it to the Air Force, because they put me where I could perform, and I’ve enjoyed it immensely.”
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Gliding in a Polar Vortex by Rebecca Amber staff writer Record-setting sailplane pilot and Chief Pilot for the Perlan 2 project, Jim Payne revisited Mojave’s Plane Crazy Saturday Feb. 16 to talk about sailplanes, lift sources and the Perlan Project. The theme for the event was Soaring to the Edge of Space which is exactly what the members of the Perlan Project intend to do. Payne began his presentation with an overview of gliders and types of soaring, including ridge and thermal soaring. He also discussed the Sierra Wave Project, an Air Force funded meteorology study of the mountain lee-wave phenomena which took place over 50 years ago. This post-World War II study combined the sport of gliding with the science of meteorology and acted as a platform for future projects like the Perlan Project. The Perlan project is a three-phase venture with the goal of soaring in a glider to 100,000 feet and setting a new world record for altitude in a glider. “Our intent is not to break the whole record at once,” said Payne, “It’ll be done in stages.” The first phase of the project, Perlan 1, was completed in 2006 when glider pilots Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson reached 50,671 feet in a modified DG505M glider. “Einar, he’s a scientist at heart,” said Payne. He added that the real value to the flight was not setting the record, but the scientific discovery that accompanied that record - they had reached the stratosphere without the assistance of a motorized vehicle. The second phase of the project is in progress now and known as Perlan 2. The goal for this stage is to reach 90,000 feet without the aid of an engine. According to Payne, the ability to accomplish this feat was proved in the record set by Enevoldson and Fossett. The key to whole mission is a weather phenomenon known as the polar vortex and its associated polar night jet. This vortex is a large-scale cyclonic circulation pattern generally occurring in the polar regions of each hemisphere. The polar vortex is a dynamic pattern which changes in shape and strength. The night jet can also change in shape ranging from round or oblong shapes to a repeating “s” pattern. When this high-speed wind phenomenon crosses a high mountain ridge at right angles, such as in South America, the conditions for high-altitude wave appear. Completing the Perlan 2 phase of the project will require that the flight is done when the vortex and night jet are present and which will take place in El Calafate, Argentina, during August of next year. The team will use a specialized high altitude, pressurized sailplane with two breathing environments, one with dehumidified normal air in the cabin and a re-breather which provides humidified, pure
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Jim Payne, Chief Pilot for the Perlan 2 project, gave a presentation on sailplanes, lift sources and the Perlan Project at Plane Crazy Saturday. Photographs by Rebecca Amber
Plane Crazy Saturday is a family event at the Mojave Air and Space Port sponsored by the Mojave Transportation Museum.
oxygen to the pilot. Some of the challenges associated with the Perlan 2 project include the low outside pressure, cold temperatures and potential turbulence. In addition to using the Perlan 2 to set a record, the glider will be used for educational and scientific research purposes. According to Payne, the aircraft will serve as an “excellent tool” in studying the impact of stratospheric mixing, predicting breaking waves and ozone depletion. The team has already established partnerships with the Louisiana School of Math, Science and the Arts, Wake Forest University, the University of Nevada and the Seattle Museum of Flight. Once the second phase is complete, the Perlan 3 phase of the project will begin with the goal of reaching 100,000 feet. For more information regarding the Perlan Project visit, www.
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perlanproject.org. Payne first soared in the Air Force Academy in 1971 and since that time has set numerous national and world records for distance and speed in a glider. Among those records, Payne was listed in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records for fastest flight at 154 mph. He was also awarded the OLC World Champion for speed in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2011. His longest flight was measured at 1,354 miles and in 2001 he was awarded the Lilienthal Medal and inducted into the Soaring Hall of Fame. In March PCS will feature a salute to rocket photography with a presentation by XCOR Aerospace photographer Mike Massee. Plane Crazy Saturday is a free monthly event sponsored by the Mojave Transportation Museum. For more information about the museum or future PCS events visit www.mojavemuseum.org.
March 1, 2013
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ROSAMOND Upstairs Apartment Rosamond Blvd. & Diamond. 2-Bedroom 1-Bath Dishwasher & Refrigerator. Water & Trash Paid!. Not Section 8 Approved. $650/Mo+$400 Security. Move-In Ready Now! Call Kathy 661-816-1253
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BEAUTIFUL! 2008 ROSAMOND 5-Bedroom, 3-Bath+Loft 2,800-sqft. 2-Car Garage, Low Maintenance Yard $1,700/Month Includes Paid Water/Sewer/Trash, Pets Ok, Granite Counters/ Island, Covered Patio Near Edwards & Westpark. Contact Greg 661-886-3812 UPGRADED KITCHEN & BATH ************************* Rosamond Blvd.& Fwy 14 2890 Acacia St. 2-Bedroom, 1-Bath Long 1-Car Garage Big Yard, Alley Access Washer/Dryer, Stove/Fridge $730/Month+Deposit Call 760-567-3600 Broker
NORTH EDWARDS, Close to Base. Spacious 1-Bedroom, 1-Bath Includes, Water & Trash Stove Fenced Yard. $375/Month Available Now! 213-200-9184
Roommate Wanted ROOMMATE WANTED CALIFORNIA CITY $300/Month, 1/2 of Utilities Edwards AFB Employees Only!! Must Have Solid Employment 661-810-6933
Employment Opportunities CALIFORNIA CITY-15 Minutes from Edwards. 2-Story Home w/ Natural Gas. 3-Bedroom, 2.5Bath, 2-Car Garage w/Opener. Kitchen Appliances, Golf-Course Community, Near Central Park, Fenced Yard, F/P, $875/Month Pets w/Approval 760-301-2855
HAVE JOB OPENINGS? LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD MEN OR WOMEN? Place An Ad Today! Aerotech News 877-247-9288
Call Us Toll Free! Aerotech News 877-247-9288
Announcements ******************************* DON’T FORGET!! ******************************* THE DEADLINE FOR ALL CLASSIFIED ADS IS TUESDAY AT NOON FOR THE SAME WEEK’S EDITION.
Services DISH Network Starting at $19.99/Month (for 12 mos.) SAVE! Ask About SAME DAY Installation! CALL Now! 1-888-771-9357
Please Recycle!
Gentle Massage “Chinese Therapy”
Al’s VAcuum & sewing center
1647 West Avenue J, #107 • Lancaster, Ca
Services Experience Beautiful Eyelash Extensions!! ************************* Look & Feel Younger! No Mascara Needed for Darker Eyelashes! Natural Fuller Look Weightless, Smudge Proof Customized Lengths MILITARY SPECIAL 25% Off Natalie 661-208-0337 www.EyelashTech.com
Pets Need a Good Home for Your Pet? Lost or Found A Pet? Selling a Pet?
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Free use oF Moving Truck
New State of the Art Facilities • Surveillance Cameras Electronic Access Gate • Resident Manager • Competitive Rates
Real Estate 2061 W Ave. J-8 • Lancaster, CA 93536 All real estate advertised in this publication is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968, which makes it illegal to advertise any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race color, religion, or national origin, or an intention to make such preference limitation or discrimination. Real estate advertisements that are in violation of the law shall not be accepted for publication. All dwellings advertised in this publication are available on an equal opportunity basis.
661-390-3582
661-951-1551
www.wsmstorage.com
Office Hours Mon – Fri • 8:30 AM - 6PM Sat. • 9 AM - 5 PM • Sun. • 9 AM - 4 PM Gate Access Hours 7 Days a week • 6 AM - 9 PM
German Pointers $350 3 Freckled Females 2 Solid Liver Males
Born 1/14 Father AKC. Dew Clawed removed. Tails Docked. Mother from AKC Line. Parents are Active Hunters. Willing to Meet you for an Add’l Charge
Omar 805-814-6090 Mandy 805-258-8999
54 years in business 24 years w/same owner
Service & repair
Vacuums & Sewing Machines Wide Selection of Vacuum Bags & Filters
Open Mon. – Fri. 9-6 Sat. 9-4
Suites • Rooms Rec. Room Fitness Room Pool & Spa Continental Breakfast Business Center
Military & DoD Discounts
Authorized Dealer: Oreck • Sanitaire/Electrolux Made in the U.S.A. Sebo – #1 Rated Made in Germany
From the moment you arrive, your stay will be a comfortable one. Our spacious rooms have queen size beds, microwaves, refrigerators, coffee pots, radio alarm clocks, VCRs & DVD players, cable TVs with HBO, Speed Vision & Wi-Fi.
904 West Lancaster Blvd.
www.innoflancaster.com
661-948-1521
18
44131 Sierra Highway • Lancaster, CA 93534 (661) 945-8771 • For Reservations Call (800) 406-0466
Aerotech News and Review
March 1, 2013
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Blockbuster @Home (1 disc at a time): Only available with new qualifying DISH service activated during promotional period. For the first 3 months of your subscription, you will receive Blockbuster @Home free (regularly $10/mo). After 3 months, then-current regular price applies. Requires online DISH account for discs by mail; broadband Internet to stream content; HD DVR to stream to TV. Exchange online rentals for free in-store movie rentals at participating Blockbuster stores (excludes Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands). Streaming to TV and some channels not available with select packages. Promotional offers require activation of new qualifying DISH service with 24-month agreement and credit qualification. Cancellation fee of $20/month remaining applies if service is terminated before end of agreement. 3-month premium movie offer value is $135. After each applicable promotional period, then-current price applies unless you downgrade. Free Standard Professional Installation only. All equipment is leased and must be returned to DISH upon cancellation or unreturned equipment fees apply. Upfront and additional monthly fees may apply. PrimeTime Anytime feature not available in all markets. Recording hours vary; 2000 hours based on SD programming. Equipment comparison based on equipment available from major TV providers as of 1/17/13. Some Hopper with Sling features require compatible mobile device. All prices, packages, programming, features, functionality and offers subject to change without notice. Offers available for new and qualified former customers, and subject to terms of applicable Promotional and Residential Customer agreements. State reimbursement charges may apply. Additional restrictions may apply. Offers end 5/21/13. HBO®, Cinemax® and related channels and service marks are the property of Home Box Office, Inc. SHOWTIME is a registered trademark of Showtime Networks Inc., a CBS Company.STARZ and related channels and service marks are property of Starz Entertainment, LLC. All new customers are subject to a one-time, non-refundable processing fee.
March 1, 2013
Aerotech News and Review
19
Be a part of the LONGEST Running Festival in the
A N T E L O P E VA L L E Y
64 Parade & Festival th Annual Almond Blossom
March 8th, 9th & 10th
George Lane Park, Quartz Hill
2 off
$
00
Family Pack Carnival Rides
when you present this ad
March 8th -
The Carnival – 4pm to 9pm
March 9th -
Pet Parade – 9:30am Community Parade with Grand Marshall Francis Lane – 10am
March 9th & 10th-
Almond Blossom Festival 10am to 5pm
Lots of Food & Local Entertainment
VENDOR SPACE AVAILABLE! Only $95 for both days!!
PARADE ENTRY AVAILABLE! Pet and Community Parade
scforddealers.com
For more information or to join
“The Best Little Chamber in the Antelope Valley”
Call 661.722.4811 or visit www.qhchamber.com
Plane Crazy Saturday! March 16, 2013 10am - 2pm
DIRECT AIR FLIGHTS BETWEEN ANTELOPE VALLEY AND LAX
Mojave Air and Space Port Fly-in, Aircraft Display
Direct Air Flights to and from General Fox Airport and LAX via Hawthorne Airport – minutes by Limo to LAX.
Departure from (LAX) Hawthorne: Two to Three Flights – 7:00 AM/Noon Departure from General Fox Airport: Two to Three Flights – 1:00 PM/7:00 PM Initial Flights on Fridays and Mondays.... Flights to be expanded and adjusted based upon passenger desires and community needs. --Direct Air Will Accommodate Special Flight Requirements-Visit our website or call us directly
Visiting by car?
Enter Through Voyager Restaurant
Restaurant Open
March Guest Speaker
Mike Massee of XCOR Aerospace discusses Rocket Photography
Direct Air, Inc
John Wayne Airport 2980 Airway Ave Costa Mesa, Ca 92626 Sam White - sam.w@directair-flights.com or tickets@directair-flights.com
(714) 556-4444
www.DirectAir-Flights.com 20
11am in EKAD Board Room Sponsored by The Mojave Transportation Museum MojaveMuseum.org
Aerotech News and Review
March 1, 2013