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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 1601.PDF
SCIENCEXSCOPE i® A new navigational aid will help pilots flying the night attack version of the U.S. Navy's and Marine Corps' F/A-18 Hornet aircraft see through smoke, haze, darkness and adverse weather. The main element of the Hornet's night attack system is a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor, called a Thermal Imaging Navigation set (TINS). The TINS, made by Hughes Aircraft Company and designated AN/AAR-50, generates a daytime, TV-like image of the dark world ahead of the aircraft and presents this image on an improved "raster" head-up display (HUD). The improved HUD and TINS systems will allow passive low-level navigational and - along with a targeting FLIR - help pilots locate, identify and attack ground targets at night. With the laser-guided Maverick missile. U.S. Marine Corps pilots can acquire targets more quickly with less risk than with currently available weapons. The weapon improves the Marine Corps' ability to conduct close air support by striking targets near friendly troops with pinpoint accuracy. It can be fired from safe stand-off distances to minimize a pilot's exposure to enemy fire. Laser Maverick locks on to the reflection of a coded laser beam aimed at a target by ground troops or an aircraft crew. If the missile's seeker loses the illuminated spot, as when a designator is turned off, the warhead is automatically disarmed. The missile then guides itself beyond the target and front-line area. Laser Maverick, in production at Hughes, is carried by AV-8B, F/A-18 Hornet Strike Fighter, A-6E, and A-4M aircraft. A self-leveling thermode greatly reduces adjustments in a new reflow soldering system. The Hughes- built system, designated the Model HTT-SLT, is especially designed for soldering edge connectors and flex circuitry to printed circuit boards. The self-leveling feature makes it easier to align the work piece and heater bar in the same plane for even heating, while thermocouple control provides highly uniform temperature distribution with rapid heating and cooling for higher throughput. The system also incorporates the Hughes HTT-650 power supply that provides an accurate and repeatable timed pulse for consistently high quality reflow solder connections. A communications system for increasing the effectiveness of guided weapons has demonstrated a launch success rate better than 99 percent and a mean time between failure rate that exceeds specifications by 300 percent. The system, a Hughes AN/AXQ-14 Data Link, permits flexible remote control of the GBU-15 guided weapon by an operator in the launch aircraft or another aircraft. The Data Link also allows final target acquisition to be deferred until the weapon is closer to the target area, enabling the launch aircraft to establish even greater standoff range. More than 3,000 AN/AXQ-14s have been delivered to the U.S. Ajr Force and international customers for use in high performance aircraft. In a major breakthrough in integrated circuit technology. Hughes has developed a technique for producing distinct lines approximately one two-millionth of an inch on semiconductor chips. These ultrasmall features, which are 100 times smaller than most commerical integrated circuits, will play a vital role in an emerging integrated circuit technology based on quantum physics. Rather than using electron beams, they were created with a focused ion beam, since features in resist material can be defined much more accurately using ions. Scientists predict these semiconductor chips will operate 10 times faster than conventional circuits. For more information write to: P.O. Box 45068, Los Angeles, CA 90045-0068 USA HUGHES © 1991 Hughes Aircraft company Subsidiary of GM Hughes Electronics
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