July 18, 2003

Krista Laursen
Director, HIAPER Project Office

Since I sent out the last HIAPER status report in May, a number of important events have taken place. Here is a snapshot of some of the critical milestones that have been met over the course of the past several weeks.

Critical Design Review (CDR)

From 24-26 June, a number of UCAR, NCAR, and NSF staff members participated in the HIAPER CDR in Greenville, SC. During the three days of discussions, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, and Garrett Aviation personnel presented detailed information on all of the modifications to be made to the GV and discussed the status of the production schedule for the aircraft. Owing to the regular technical discussions and weekly telecons that had been conducted between UCAR/NCAR and Gulfstream and Lockheed in the weeks and months leading up to the CDR, there were no major surprises encountered during this final, formal design review. Several action items pertaining to minor technical issues to be resolved arose during the CDR; however, in the weeks immediately following the meeting in Greenville, UCAR and NCAR staff and Gulfstream and Lockheed personnel have made significant progress in addressing and closing out these items.

On the second day of the CDR, UCAR, NCAR, and NSF participants got the chance to again visit Lockheed's modification facility and see the HIAPER aircraft. Lockheed HIAPER team members had, in advance of our arrival, prepared scale mock-ups of all of the modifications to be made to the airframe and had placed the various mock-up components (cardboard models, full size drawing printouts, etc.) at the appropriate modification locations on the GV. This exercise gave all of us a very good idea of how the airframe will look at the completion of the modification effort next year.

HIAPER Paint Scheme and Interior Materials and Colors

Prior to attending the CDR, HPO staff members had spent a significant amount of time working with ATD, Janet Killeen of the UCAR Imaging and Design Center (IDC), and Lindsay Spofford (Garrett Aviation's designer) to arrive at an external paint scheme for the GV. After several weeks of effort, and after getting concurrence from NCAR management and NSF, the HIAPER paint scheme was formally approved by the HPO during the CDR. To take a look at what HIAPER will look like when it arrives at UCAR/NCAR in October 2004, please check out the Specifications page of the HIAPER website.

In addition to approving the HIAPER paint job, HPO and ATD staff also reviewed and accepted the selection of materials and colors for the interior of the aircraft. The Project Office would like to thank Lindsay Spofford of Garrett Aviation for all of her time and assistance not only in developing the final selected paint scheme for the aircraft but also in helping HPO and ATD staff to wade through literally hundreds of color and material samples to arrive at the interior selections for the GV.

Jacking and Shoring and Start of GV Modifications

During the weekly teleconference with Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin yesterday, the HPO was informed that the GV will shortly be moved into its new hangar (Hangar 10) at Lockheed's facility and that jacking and shoring of the aircraft (basically, putting the GV "up on blocks") will now take place from 5-6 August. Two members of the ATD/Research Aviation Facility (RAF) aircraft maintenance team will travel to Greenville on 4 August to watch and document the jacking and shoring process. Keith Arnold, the Lockheed HIAPER program manager, also informed us yesterday that within a couple of weeks of completion of the jacking and shoring, Lockheed personnel will begin to pull up the floor boards in the aircraft and will begin the process of removing some of the aircraft systems and components for the start of modification work this fall.

At this point, I am happy to be able to report that all of this work on the GV is proceeding slightly ahead of schedule, so we are beginning the critical modification phase of the project on a very positive footing.

Infrastructure Development Efforts

In addition to all of the work that is being directed toward the modification of the GV itself, a number of NCAR staff members are -- as leaders and members of several of the HIAPER integrated project team (IPT) subgroups -- working on the design and development of various infrastructure components for the aircraft. These developments include the data acquisition system, new data display and access software, an intercommunication system (ICS) for the aircraft cabin, state parameter and three-dimensional wind measurement systems, and a satellite communications (SATCOM) system for the aircraft. In June and early July, preliminary design reviews (PDRs) were held for the data acquisition system and the data display and access software, respectively. The presentation given by Mike Spowart, Grant Gray, and Dick Friesen during the data acquisition system PDR can be viewed online at:

www.hiaper.ucar.edu/specs/aircraft_infrastructure_systems.html
#data_acquisition

Significant progress is being made in the development of the various infrastructure components that will be critical to usage of the GV for research, and I invite each of you to continue checking the HIAPER website for updates on the status of the various efforts as work on the infrastructure systems continues in the coming months.

In Conclusion

As you can imagine, we have entered a very critical phase of the HIAPER program, as work to modify the GV airframe will shortly get underway and as the efforts of NCAR staff to build and test numerous infrastructure components for the aircraft continue to pick up steam. In the coming months leading up to the arrival of the aircraft at UCAR/NCAR, the HPO anticipates that the pace and scale of developments will continue to evolve at an ever increasing rate. In light of this fact, we have been considering ways in which to ensure that we keep UCAR and NCAR staff members and representatives of the scientific community as up-to-date as possible regarding the status of the platform and the various systems being developed here at NCAR for use with the GV.

To regularly communicate with as many of you as possible, the HPO will shortly begin holding tri-annual "townhall" meetings here at NCAR on the HIAPER project. Once every four months, over roughly a one-hour period, members of the HPO will present a brief overview on the status of the HIAPER program to UCAR and NCAR staff members interested in attending these discussions. These meetings will also provide a forum for attendees to ask questions they may have about the project as it proceeds. Additionally, the HPO will ask the IPT subgroup co-chairs leading the various infrastructure development efforts to attend the meetings and present brief overviews of the work being done to prepare the various infrastructure systems for the aircraft. Please continue to monitor the HIAPER website for information regarding the scheduling of the first townhall meeting. The HPO will also post an announcement of the meetings to "This Week at UCAR" as the dates draw closer.

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