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By ALLISON CONNOLLY , The Virginian-Pilot
© September 13, 2004

HAMPTON — Officials at Analytical Services & Materials Inc. of Hampton should find out Friday what the first test of their contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration will be.

NASA plans to issue a task order that asks companies to solve a particular problem in developing structures and materials for space vehicles. AS&M will have two weeks to draw up a proposal to solve the problem.

The Hampton company and its 16 subcontractors will compete with the other prime contractors – Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman – to win this first piece of the contract. NASA will issue several more requests for proposals under the fiveyear, $39 million agreement.

While AS&M’s team doesn’t know exactly what it will be doing yet, it knows it will be asked to solve structural problems relating to new materials, such as how to improve durability, elasticity or heat resistance, or how to control noise. Its findings will be shared across NASA’s 10 field centers and NASA headquarters.

The contract is being awarded on an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity basis so that NASA can give the companies more work without them bidding all over again. And what the teams come up with could spawn ideas for the commercial world, such as making airliners quieter.

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The contract value will not exceed $39 million. However, once it ends, the companies could get future contracts based on the work they do, said Mary Jane Yeager, head of the contracting branch of the research and development department of NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton.

In all, about 30 companies are working on the contract, and all are competing for work. This will bring out the best ideas while keeping costs down, said Ajay Kumar, director of aerodynamics, aerothermodynamics and acoustics competency at Langley.

"We’re looking for companies with broad capabilities," Kumar said.

For this contract, AS&M assembled a team of subcontractors including large firms General Dynamics, Orbital Sciences Corp. and Science Applications International Corp., as well as Georgia Tech Research Institute and Southern Research Institute, which is affiliated with the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

It also picked Eagle Aeronautics Inc. of Hampton, which used to share a building with AS&M. Two other local companies are subcontractors on the Boeing team: Tao of Systems Integration in Williamsburg and Vigyan Inc. of Hampton.

The nature of the work is not new to AS&M. Most of its business is consulting services in the areas of structures and materials, aeronautical engineering, computational fluid dynamics and atmospheric sciences. Its clients include large defense firms such as Raytheon and General Electric and the very companies it is competing with on this most recent NASA contract.

Eagle Aeronautics also has experience in this area. In another deal, the company was tapped by Northrop Grumman to develop technology that would make future supersonic aircraft quieter, eliminating the sonic boom.

The Eagle-AS&M team, which is made up largely of former NASA Langley employees, is excited about the possibilities of working on tomorrow’s spacecraft and on their home turf.

"We made a pact amongst ourselves when we became Eagle Aeronautics that we definitely would not take a task if it was mundane and routine just to make a buck," said Domenic Maglieri, director of projects at Eagle and former chief of the noise control branch at Langley.

"The challenge is to do things new and different," said Percy "Bud" Bobbitt, Eagle’s chief engineer and former chief of applied aerodynamics at Langley.

This is not the first prime contract for AS&M. It has won other prime contracts out of its office at Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif., where almost half of its 200 employees work. The company has received three public service medals from NASA.

Run by Jalaiah Unnam, president, and his wife Vijaya Lakshmi Unnam, chief executive officer, the company may be smaller than the other prime contractors, but it can compete, said Vijaya Lakshmi Unnam.

"Winning itself tells you we’re competent and can do the job," she said.

Jalaiah Unnam says the company’s size can be an edge on the bigger companies.

"We have smaller teams," he said. "We work closely with NASA."

Reach Allison Connolly at 446-2318 or allison.connolly@pilotonline.com.

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