August 18, 2002

Krista Laursen
Director, HIAPER Project Office

As we move into the latter half of August, work is ongoing in the HIAPER Project Office (HPO) and in various divisions within UCAR and NCAR to finalize a number of engineering and modification decisions for the HIAPER aircraft. I'll return to this topic in more detail below, but I thought it somewhat appropriate to open this August status report with the observation that as summer is winding down, a number of activities are beginning to wind up in the HPO as we move ahead with the HIAPER project.

Last month, the "green" HIAPER GV was transferred from Gulfstream's facility in Savannah, Georgia to Lockheed Martin's modification facility in Greenville, South Carolina. As I've mentioned previously, the NSF/NCAR GV will now reside in Greenville for the duration of the modification and final testing period, until it is delivered to UCAR in October 2004.

Now, here's a brief look at ongoing and upcoming activities in the HPO.

Current Activities

As has been outlined in previous status reports, the primary focus in the Project Office is presently on finalizing modification decisions for the GV. The next major milestone in this phase of the HIAPER project is the Systems Design Review (SDR), which will take place from 24-26 September 2002 in Greenville. During this important meeting, UCAR, NCAR, Gulfstream, Lockheed Martin, Aeromet (an additional subcontractor to Gulfstream for the HIAPER contract), and other representatives will participate in in-depth discussions of the decisions that have been made and those that remain to be made in order to define the fully modified aircraft.

The primary document to be discussed during the SDR will be the HIAPER Statement of Work (SOW). This important document will outline in complete detail all of the modifications to be made to the NSF/NCAR GV and will also clearly define who (Gulfstream, Lockheed, or "the Customer" [UCAR]) will be responsible for performing which tasks. HPO and other NCAR staff recently completed the first UCAR draft version of the SOW, and this past Friday (16 August), this draft document was sent to Gulfstream, the HAC members, and a number of UCAR, NCAR, and NSF staff members for review. In the weeks remaining before the SDR in late September, various drafts of the SOW will be sent back and forth between UCAR and NCAR and Gulfstream, and this iterative process will allow us to collectively arrive at the final, accepted version of the SOW. The final version of the SOW will be made part of the official contract between UCAR and Gulfstream, and the SOW will also serve as the vehicle against which the modified GV will be tested for final acceptance by UCAR and NCAR staff.

It is worth noting that the members of the HAC are playing a vital role during this portion of the engineering phase. On 4 September 2002, HPO and HAC members will participate in a teleconference in which the HAC representatives will provide Project Office staff members with important feedback regarding the present working version of the SOW. Comments made by the HAC will be incorporated into the next UCAR version of the SOW. As has been emphasized throughout the HIAPER project, the involvement and input of the scientific community is felt to be absolutely essential to ensuring that the HIAPER platform is brought on-line as a research aircraft that will be of maximum benefit to the greatest possible portion of the environmental sciences community. Consequently, the Project Office is extremely pleased that all of the HAC members are showing such enthusiasm for the project and are willing to commit the time required to thoroughly review and comment on the SOW. It is this type of active involvement from the HAC that is helping all of us at NCAR and UCAR to assure that the larger scientific community has an active hand in crafting this new research platform.

Following the SDR in September, Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin staff will begin work in earnest on the various engineering drawings and plans required for the modification of the GV. The next major engineering milestones to follow will be the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) in February 2003 and the Critical Design Review (CDR) which will follow roughly two months after that.

Update on the NSF-Led Community Instrumentation Workshop

As of this writing, the program for the 4-6 November 2002 workshop has almost been finalized. Additionally, I am happy to report that several speakers have accepted invitations to participate in the workshop and to give presentations on the opening day. These speakers include: Robert J. Serafin, Guy Brasseur, Thomas Ackerman, David Fahey, Susan Ustin, and Alan Thorpe.

Registration materials and the logistics announcement for the workshop will shortly be posted to the HIAPER Web site. Once these materials are ready, an announcement will be sent to all of you receiving this message directing you to where these materials can be located on the Web. I hope that many of you will formally register for the workshop and will be joining us for this exciting and important two-and-a-half day event in early November.

In Conclusion

I'll wrap up this month's status report by giving you all a quick overview of other activities in the Project Office. First, a brief news article on the HIAPER project and the upcoming community workshop has been accepted for publication in Eos, the AGU weekly publication, and will shortly appear in print. This piece was authored by Dick Friesen, Dave Carlson, Jim Huning, and me. Additionally, Project Office and ATD staff are working on abstracts and papers for presentations to be given at the Fall AGU and February 2003 AMS meetings. Along with presentations to be given at these two upcoming conferences, the HIAPER project will be represented in the NCAR booth at both events. All of these activities -- publications, and conference and booth presentations -- are being undertaken in an effort to "get the word out" about the HIAPER project and to provide even more information to the scientific community about this new environmental platform and to obtain further input from the community regarding the modification and instrumentation of the aircraft. All of us in the Project Office -- and indeed, all of us within NCAR and UCAR -- are committed to making HIAPER a true community platform, and so we will continue to focus our efforts on such outreach aspects of the project as we progress toward delivery of the aircraft.

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