Conference Promotes Transition of Technology to the Fleet
Michigan Aerospace Corporation (MAC), an advanced engineering and products company, today announced MAC’s exhibition at the Navy Opportunity Forum, to be held May 7 to 9 in Arlington, Virginia. MAC’s exhibition, while including all of its products and capabilities, will focus on the Adaptable Launch and Recovery System (ALARS). ALARS is in its second year of US Navy Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding and was recently successfully tested on Lake Michigan. Anthony Hays, manager of the Mechanical Systems business unit and principal investigator on the ALARS project, will lead MAC’s representation at the Forum; Optomechanical Engineer Greg Ritter and Business Development Coordinator John Dodds are also attending. Mr. Hays will present a talk on the ALARS system, which was successfully tested at half-scale on Lake Michigan in November of 2006. The testing and demonstration was carried out in conjunction with MAC’s partners, the University of Michigan Marine Hydrodynamics Laboratories and ILC Dover LP, aboard the NOAA research ship R/V Laurentian. The demonstration showed the feasibility of recovering manned and unmanned surface vessels, such as rigid-hull inflatable boats (RHIBs), using MAC’s inflatable stern-ramp design. ALARS allows launch and retrieval at significant ship speeds and high sea states, while reducing crew requirements.