PARTNERS NAMED: Boeing completed its 7E7 Dreamliner supplier team by selecting its Wichita division to produce the jet's pylons and Goodrich Corp. to produce the nacelles, including the thrust reverser, the company said April 15. Pylons attach the engines to the airplane and nacelles are the engines' outer coverings.
A U.S. Air Force team of experts charged with assessing whether aging aircraft should be retired plans to turn its attention to the Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. The Air Force Fleet Viability Board (AFFVB) is expected to begin its KC-135 assessment on or about May 10, the Air Force told The DAILY April 15 in a written response to questions. A projected completion date has not been determined.
Companies developing concepts for hypersonic weapon systems have received solicitations for the next stage of work, according to a spokeswoman for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Defense and aerospace companies and other contractors would be required to include stock option values in their earnings, according to a new Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rule scheduled to go into effect Dec. 15. However, they still wouldn't be allowed to bill those expenses to government contracts. The new rule would affect small to mid-sized companies more than larger companies, according to industry officials and analysts.
Sensytech, Inc. has entered into an agreement to acquire all of the outstanding stock of Imaging Sensors and Systems, Inc. (ISS), the company announced April 14. The purchase price is in the form of cash and stock, with earn-out payments if performance objectives are met. The closing is expected to occur later this week, Sensytech said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Wideband Gapfiller System is a constellation of U.S. military communications satellites intended to bridge the gap between current defense communications satellites and the Transformational Communications Architecture planned for later in the decade. The communications capabilities of WGS will be significantly greater than those of current systems, and the system will be compatible with existing control systems and terminals.
PRAGUE, Czech Republic - The Czech government is working on a new law that would allow it to bypass Czech companies in international arms deals. The law, which was passed by the Czech chamber of deputies last week but has yet to be discussed by the senate, would simplify concluding a deal with Sweden on the lease of 14 Gripen JAS-39 aircraft, according to defense minister Miroslav Kostelka.
The recent discovery of an extrasolar planet using a new technique will help inform upcoming NASA planet-finding efforts such as the Terrestrial Planet Finder and the Space Interferometry Mission, according to Philippe Crane, Origins theme scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
BALTIMORE, Md. - The U.S. Air Force has begun exploring the possibility of developing a weapon that would perform much like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) but that could be carried inside two stealthy jets under development, according to a service official.
ELBIT SYSTEMS LTD. and GILAT SATELLITE NETWORKS LTD., both of Israel, have signed a teaming agreement to cooperate on satellite communications for defense and homeland security markets. The agreement integrates Gilat's commercial satellite-based Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) technology with Elbit Systems' defense technologies, the companies said. The joint effort already has resulted in the introduction of a new product, GlobaLight, a man-packable VSAT terminal for broadband data, voice and video, the companies said.
TESSADA AND ASSOCIATES of Springfield, Va., will provide logistics management services to NASA under a $38 million, Small Business Administration Section 8 contract, NASA said. The work will be done at Ames and Moffett Field, Calif., sites, NASA said.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP.'s AstroMesh deployable reflector system has successfully deployed aboard the MBSAT, the company said. Space Systems/Loral built MBSAT for the Mobile Broadcasting Corp. of Japan and SK Telecom of Korea. The 40-foot-diameter AstroMesh reflector focuses S-band radio frequency energy into a pattern on the ground, the company said. "Our AstroMesh reflector product is an enabling technology for new space-based services," Susan Fuhs, general manager of Astro Aerospace, said in a statement.
BOEING INTEGRATED DEFENSE SYSTEMS, St. Louis Keith Reiley has been selected as the lead systems engineer for Boeing NASA Systems, located in Washington, D.C. NASA, Washington Garry M. Lyles has been named deputy director of Project Constellation, and is responsible for the development of transportation and support systems needed for the agency's moon-Mars exploration mission. Charles J. Precourt has been named program director of the Crew Exploration Vehicle. ORBITAL SCIENCES CORP., Dulles, Va.
The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter's gun system may be equipped to use a third type of ammunition so it can destroy more targets, program representatives said April 14. The Defense Department is considering adding the PGU-25/U High Explosive Incendiary (HEI) to the JSF gun design to give it an air-to-air capability, program spokeswoman Kathy Crawford told The DAILY. A decision is "probably about a year away," she said.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) hopes to see action this year on tax legislation to promote commercial investment in space, an aide said April 14. H.R. 914, the Zero Gravity Zero Tax Act bill, has been referred to the House Ways and Means Committee but no date has been set for action on the bill. Richard Dykema, Rohrabacher's chief of staff, said cost estimates on the bill from the Congressional Budget Office, which he described as "huge," have been exaggerated.
Northrop Grumman broke ground April 13 on a new facility in Mississippi that will produce the company's RQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for the U.S. Army and Navy starting next year. The 39,000 square foot facility is located at Trent Lott International Airport in Jackson County. Northrop Grumman will begin hiring the plant's initial workforce of 35 people toward the end of this year, according to company spokeswoman Cynthia Curiel.
In a bid to keep hypersonics alive at NASA, the team working on the agency's X-43A "Hyper-X" program is developing a plan for a modest follow-on effort that would begin in 2006. The future of hypersonics at NASA has been in doubt following the announcement of President Bush's new vision for space exploration, given its apparent focus on expendable rockets. A follow-on to the X-43A, the larger X-43C, already has been canceled by the agency's new Office of Exploration Systems to free funding for other uses (DAILY, March 19).
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - Northrop Grumman is ahead of schedule in the Space Tracking and Surveillance System (STSS) program and expects to integrate components of the first of two flight demonstration satellites by the end of the year, according to Patrick P. Caruana, vice president for missile defense of the company's Space Technology unit.
SUB WORK: General Dynamics Electric Boat will continue submarine maintenance and repair work at the Naval Submarine Support Facility, Groton, Conn., under a $7.7 million contract modification awarded by the U.S. Navy, the company said. The initial contract, awarded in 2001, will be worth more than $153 million over five years if all options are funded, the company said.
Timken Aerospace has been named the approved bearing repair service provider for Rolls-Royce Corp.'s AE 3007 jet engine, the company said April 13. Rolls-Royce will handle bearing repair sales, but Timken will perform repair services at its Lebanon, N.H., facility, an FAA-approved repair station. Timken Aerospace is the first outside supplier of repair services for Rolls-Royce in North America, the company said. The company already repairs Rolls-Royce RB211 engines at its facility in Wolverhampton, United Kingdom, Timken said.
THE BOEING CO. of Houston will continue payload integration work for the International Space Station under a NASA contract extension worth $70 million. NASA plans to exercise the fiscal year 2005 option, the aerospace agency said, bringing the total value of the International Space Station Payload Integration Contract (IPIC) to $203.7 million. Work covered under the extension will continue through September 2005.
Boeing Co. followed the intent of congressional law in its strategy to provide new tanker aircraft to the U.S. Air Force, officials told The DAILY in a continuing defense of the deal. "The intent of Congress was that the Air Force and Boeing work together using widely accepted commercial practices to find a way to deliver 100 tanker aircraft to the warfighter far sooner than traditional non-commercial DOD practices allow," Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, said of the lease-buy arrangement for KC-767A tankers.
SPACE IMAGING has completed a comprehensive asset management system for the Marion County, Fla., engineering department. The work, valued at $2.8 million, is to help the county manage a rapidly developing infrastructure to support a rising population, the company said. One-meter resolution data from the company's IKONOS satellite allowed Marion County officials to locate, map, inventory and determine the value of the county's road and storm sewer assets, the company said.
