February 25, 2004

Krista Laursen
Director, HIAPER Project Office

Update on GV Modification Status

I just spoke with Bob Beasley (ATD/RAF aircraft mechanic and sheet metal specialist) who is presently on site at Lockheed Martin, and he has given me some very good news regarding the status of work to modify the GV.

Bob reported that the up-looking view port in the forward top fuselage of the aircraft was successfully cut yesterday afternoon in Greenville. The procedure performed yesterday was the rough cutting, in which a hole is cut in the precise modification location but not at the final diameter of the modification. Approximately 3/4 inch of metal is left in place and that will be cut out at a later date during the optical ring fitting and mounting process. Bob indicated that it was quite an interesting -- allbeit brief -- procedure. A double row of rivets had been put in place on either side of the rough cut hole markings. Then, Lockheed personnel used a high power saw to cut from hole to hole to remove the view port section. We (NCAR and UCAR) will actually get a souvenir from this whole process, as Lockheed has offered to give us the aluminum disk from the upper view port.

Geoff Haines-Stiles' film crew from Passport to Knowledge was on hand yesterday for the cutting and, according to Bob, was very happy with the footage they obtained of the process. Apparently, they filmed the cutting work both looking down on the aircraft and from the interior of the cabin directly underneath the cutting area.

According to Bob, a number of other modification tasks have either been completed or are now under way. These are as follows:

• Cutting of three aperture plates (known within the RAF as "lasagne pans") into the upper fuselage;
• The Gulfstream wing modification team is now on site and has started work to modify the wings and add the hard points. As of this writing, the wing leading edges have been removed and the Gulfstream team is currently working on modifying the front spars in the wings to accommodate the hard points.
• Lockheed personnel are working on installing the additional, NCAR-requested bulkhead feed-through panels in the nose section bulkhead (known as bulkhead 63).

Needless to say, all of us here in the HPO were happy to receive the above news, and it appears that the pace of work to modify the GV is now picking up considerably. Also, I want to thank Bob for the time and effort he is putting into monitoring and documenting the work currently in progress in Greenville and to update the HPO on the status of various efforts.

Bob will be sending me pictures of the current state of the aircraft as soon as he returns to the office this Monday, 1 March. The HPO will post some of these to the HIAPER web site as soon as possible next week.

As always, should you have any questions about the HIAPER program, please do not hesitate to contact me here in the HPO.