GTRA gets safety grant from FAA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi announced Aug. 30 that the Golden Triangle Regional Airport in Columbus has received a $1,063,485 federal grant to increase passenger safety. The Federal Aviation Administration grant will allow the GRTA to rehabilitate the airport’s apron, an area of an airport where aircraft are parked, loaded, and boarded. (Source: WCBI 08/30/16)

L-3 Madison $19.5M pact

L-3 Communications Corp.'s Systems Field Support of Madison, Miss., was awarded a $19,579,865 modification to exercise the option on a previously Air Force contract for C-12 logistics support. Work will be performed at Accra, Ghana; Andrews Air Force Base, Md.; Ankara, Turkey; Bangkok, Thailand; Bogota, Columbia; Brasilia, Brazil; Budapest, Hungary; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cairo, Egypt; Edwards AFB, Calif.; Elmendorf AFB, Alaska; Gaborone, Botswana; Holloman AFB, N.M.; Islamabad, Pakistan; Manila, Philippines; Nairobi, Kenya; Rabat, Morocco; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; San Angelo, Texas; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Yokota AB, Japan, and is expected to be complete by Aug. 31, 2017. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center of Tinker AFB, Okla., is the contracting activity. (Source: DoD, 08/30/16)

Miss. Seabees in El Salvador

CONCHAGUA, El Salvador - A construction engagement team – one of several Adaptive Force Packages (AFPs) deployed - is midway through a construction project in El Salvador. AFP teams are deployed to Honduras, El Salvador, and Colombia as part of Southern Partnership Station 2016, under the auspices of the U.S. Southern Command. AFPs are specialized military teams from Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 2, Navy Medicine commands, and civilian personnel focusing on local needs such as security, medical readiness, and improving community infrastructure. A portion of the construction team is made up of Seabees from the Gulfport, Miss.-based Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 133. The AFPs are to be deployed through October 2016. (U.S. Southern Command 08/26/16)

Nat’l aerospace summit Sept 7-8

AIA and AIAA are partnering to host a 2016 national workforce summit Sept. 7-8 in Washington, D.C., to address ongoing concerns of the aerospace and defense industry regarding the adequacy of U.S. science and engineering education and workforce development. (Source: Aerospace Industries Association 08/2016)

MSU-led coop extends with EPA

STARKVILLE, Miss. - A Gulf of Mexico coastal-based research cooperative, led by Mississippi State University, is extending its memorandum of understanding by five years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Northern Gulf Institute provides the Gulf region with diverse, science-based services to help protect the ecosystem. NGI’s additional partners include the universities of Alabama-Huntsville, Southern Mississippi, Florida State and Louisiana State, and the Dauphin Island (Ala.) Sea Laboratory. (Source: MSU 08/25/16)

Ukraine ambassador to MSU

STARKVILLE, Miss. - Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, will be on the Mississippi State University campus Aug. 31 as the inaugural speaker for the MSU International Institute’s 2016-17 Global Engagement Lecture Series. His presentation will discuss current challenges to international security and how they are affecting political and economic stabilities. Prior to his address, Chaly and MSU Vice President for research and economic development David Shaw will spend the morning touring high-tech facilities at the Thad Cochran Research, Technology and Economic Development Park. (Source: MSU 08/24/16)

L-3 awarded $21M mod contract

L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC of Madison, Miss., was awarded a $21,895,190 for modification to a previously awarded Navy contract to exercise Option 1 for contractor-owned and operated business jet training services in support of contracted air services’ basic training, large national exercises, and small, single unit training exercises. Missions include maritime air patrol, low/slow terrorist aircraft, air interdiction training, and air intercept/anti-submarine training. These services support training requirements through air intercept control, anti-submarine tactical attack control, tracking exercises, electronic warfare missions, banner tows and target tows. Work will be performed at the Virginia Capes Training Ranges, Virginia Beach, Va. (50 percent); North Island Naval Base, Coronado, Calif. (40 percent); and Kauai, Hawaii (10 percent), and is expected to be completed in August 2017. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity. (Source: DOD, 08/24/16)

Lowndes lands new GT megasite

Lowndes County, Miss., has gone through a rigorous process to become home to a third Tennessee Valley Authority Certified Megasite led by McCallum-Sweeney, a national leader in site selection. The 1,144-acre Infinity Megasite is located west of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, and is part of the Golden Triangle Industrial Aerospace Park, which serves as home to the certified Lowndes County and Crossroads megasites. There are currently nine certified megasites in TVA’s of territory. “(T)his one is Mississippi’s best in class,” said Joe Max Higgins Jr., CEO of the Golden Triangle Development LINK. “(W)e need to act quickly with our partners to identify clients and land a deal.” Infinity is surrounded by roads, adjacent to U.S. highways 82 and 45, and 15 miles from the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and houses rail access on its southern edge. (Source: WTVA 08/19/16)

LM-Meridian delivers cargo deck

The first LM-100J commercial freighter continues to make significant progress, reaching major production milestones at Lockheed Martin’s facility at Marietta, Ga. here. The LM-100J is the commercial version of LM's proven C-130J Super Hercules aircraft. The aircraft will perform as a commercial, multi-purpose air freighter capable of rapid and efficient cargo transport. Production accomplishments include completion of its wings, delivery of the tail portion - manufactured in a joint venture in India, and the arrival of its cargo deck, manufactured at LM’s facility in Meridian, Miss. Final production phases will take place over the next several months, and its first flight is scheduled for the first half of 2017. (Source: Lockheed Martin 08/18/16)

SC joins MS o’seas cargo flights

South Carolina’s main airport has never hosted regularly scheduled flights to or from overseas, but that will change in November. Senator International, a German freight-moving company, announced plans to fly cargo between Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport and Munich, Germany, two times a week beginning Nov. 5. The service will put the airport in elite company. There are only six Southeast airports to offer scheduled all-cargo flights to and from overseas destinations. Among those are airports in Gulf Coast states at Jackson, Miss., and Huntsville, Ala. (Source: Greenville Online 08/12/16)

Hospital Wing gets AHI helo

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas - Hospital Wing, a Memphis, Tenn.-based non-profit air medical transport service, has taken delivery of its second Airbus Helicopters Inc.’s H130 helicopter, designed to augment the HW's fleet of seven Airbus Helicopters. Hospital Wing also operates three earlier model H130-series helicopters, and three AS350 B3 AStars. HW services a consortium of Memphis-area hospitals, and operates from five bases in the Mid-South serving 27 hospitals and residents within a 200 nautical mile circle, including West Tennessee, and parts of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Alabama, and Kentucky. Six of the eight helicopters are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. AHI also manufactures H125 and UH-72A helicopters at its production facility in Columbus, Miss. (Source: Airbus Helicopters 08/11/16)

Appeals panel favors AFS worker

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously found Aug. 8 that a Mississippi worker could sue his former employer, Aurora Flight Services, after being fired for keeping a gun in a locked vehicle on the company’s site. The court found that Mississippi’s 2006 law against the prohibition of the storage of legal firearms on employers’ property overrules the state’s 150-year at-will employment statutes. Robert Swindol worked for AFS at its plant in Columbus, but, when officials found he had a legal gun inside his locked vehicle in AFS’ parking lot, fired him for violating company policy. The Fifth Circuit panel ruled that a district court’s dismissal of his firing was wrong. (Source: Guns.com 08/11/16)

MSU joins all-electric ship research

The Center for Advanced Power Systems at Florida State University was awarded a five-year $35 million grant by the Office of Naval Research to bring researchers together to spur innovation and advance the Navy’s efforts to build an all-electric ship. CAPS will lead a multi-university team of scientists and engineers – including Mississippi State University - to work on various energy and machinery requirements of the ship. In April, CAPS became the first university test site accredited by the Navy to perform high-powered simulations for development of the next-generation of shipboard power technology. (Source: Florida State University 08/08/16)

CubeSat initiative open to MS

WASHINGTON - Accredited education institutions and non-profits may join the adventure of space while helping NASA achieve its exploration goals through a next round of its CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). Proposal applications must submitted by Nov. 22. NASA will make selections by Feb. 17, 2017. The CSLI provides CubeSat developers with a low-cost pathway to space to conduct research that advances NASA's strategic goals. The initiative provides students, teachers, and faculty with the chance to get hands-on flight hardware development experience designing, building and operating these small research satellites. For this round of the initiative, NASA is particularly interested in participation from 18 states, including Mississippi. CubeSats are in a class of research spacecraft called nano-satellites. (Source: Aerospace Manufacturing and Design 08/05/16)

F-35Cs to operate at Miss. OLF

Navy and Marine Corps F-35C Joint Strike Fighter pilots in training at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., are expected to start two weeks of practice carrier-landing training Aug. 6 at Naval Air Station Meridian, Miss.’ Joe Williams Outlying Field in Kemper County. The F-35C pilots will be conducting the practices during daylight hours. Residents surrounding the field should expect a significant increase in noise levels. “The sailors and civilians at NAS Meridian are proud to support (Strike Fighter [VFA] Squadron 101’s] mission to train and qualify F-35C aircrew to operate safely and effectively as part of a Carrier Strike Group at sea,” said NAS Meridian Commanding Officer Capt. Scott Bunnay. The F-35C is a long-range stealth strike fighter designed and built with larger wing surfaces and reinforced landing gear explicitly for aircraft carrier operations. (Source: Meridian Star 08/03/16)