January 21, 2005

Krista Laursen
Director, HIAPER Project Office

Now in the latter half of January, we are in the midst of a critical period in the HIAPER project as ground testing of the aircraft and systems continues and Gulfstream, Lockheed, Garrett Aviation, and Savannah Air Center (SAC) personnel prepare the aircraft for the start of flight testing in February.

If you have had the opportunity to visit the HIAPER web site within the past few weeks, you will have seen pictures of the GV with its wonderful new paint job. The painting effort was completed right on schedule by SAC personnel on 22 December, and HIAPER has since that time been back in the completion hangar for installation of the interior and the intercommunication system (ICS). Both of these latter efforts are proceeding on schedule, and it is currently intended that the interior installation will be finished by the end of this month. Within the next several days, the GV will be temporarily removed from the hangar in order for Garrett and SAC staff members to begin performing operational checks on the installed ICS hardware.

Lockheed personnel are currently engaged in ground testing of the aircraft mission power system (MPS). As is the case with testing of any complicated prototype system, a few issues and problems have been encountered over the course of this testing effort. As of this writing, Lockheed and Gulfstream personnel have needed to address problems with the annunciator (meter) panel in the mission power rack and are currently working to replace some connectors in the circuit breaker panel and to replace some power wiring in the aircraft cabin. Significant progress in the testing effort has, however, been made. Earlier this week, Lockheed and Gulfstream were able to power up the MPS from the cockpit and have also been able to apply power to the converters and to the TRU (transformer rectifier unit) in the MPS.

The current aircraft completion schedule calls for the required FAA certification flight to take place on or around 7 February. The HPO and Gulfstream have tentatively identified the time period of 8-18 February for the conduct of UCAR ground and flight testing and final documentation review prior to formal acceptance of the aircraft. A number of personnel from within the HPO and EOL will travel to Savannah during this time period to conduct the necessary tests and to review all of the final test and maintenance documentation for the GV. Immediately following acceptance of the aircraft by UCAR in Savannah, the GV will be ferried to the Jefferson County Airport here in Colorado.

As many of you will recall, the GV was originally scheduled for delivery to UCAR in December. The most recent slippage of delivery out to February will have an impact on the aircraft infrastructure completion schedule here at NCAR. After conducting in-depth reviews of the infrastructure integration and testing effort, the HPO and NCAR/EOL personnel have agreed that the completion of the infrastructure effort -- and, correspondingly, the conclusion of the HIAPER program -- must be pushed out until the end of July. In general terms, the new infrastructure schedule calls for all infrastructure systems to be installed and for ground testing to be completed by 24 June. Two weeks of pilot proficiency flights with the GV have been scheduled to take place from 27 June - 8 July, and dedicated infrastructure testing and acceptance flights will occur from 11-29 July. It is now planned that the HIAPER project will end on 29 July, with the closure of the HPO anticipated to take place some time in August.

The status of the aircraft changes now on more or less a daily basis, and I will continue to do my best to keep you all updated -- via these messages and the HIAPER web site -- on the progress being made toward program completion.

As always, should you have any questions about the above information or about the HIAPER project in general, please do not hesitate to contact me here in the HPO.