Lockheed Martin has received a $259-million contract for 153 Patriot PAC-3 missile four-packs and other associated equipment. The company also scooped up a $50-million contract to provide program upgrades, production sustainment, integration and testing for the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (Jassm). The contract mentioned weapons data link and Safe and Arm (S&A) fuze (phase three).
The Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC) is to undergo a radical revamp, extending to the Farnborough air show. A strategic review unveiled last week was a response to "disenchantment" among SBAC members. The review calls for a shakeup of the managerial structure, along with far greater focus on identified, and defined, goals. The length of the show likely will be reduced, with the report underscoring the need to reach a deal with the organizers of the Royal International Air Tattoo, with which there is a schedule conflict.
A mix of multilayered inflatable "soft goods" composed of advanced aerospace materials and more traditional aerospace aluminum structures and avionics are being integrated in heavily guarded Bigelow Aerospace buildings and outdoor test facilities at the company's 50-acre site here. Bigelow has about 120,000 sq. ft. of floor space under roof and several outdoor test facilities.
Robert A. Coleman has been promoted to president/chief operating officer of the ManTech International Corp., Fairfax, Va., from president of its Information Systems and Technology Div. Succeeding Coleman will be Joseph Fox, who has been the division's senior vice president. Eugene C. Renzi has been appointed corporate senior vice president. He has been corporate executive vice president and president of ManTech's Defense Systems Group.
As part of its 2004-05 winter service, Japan Airlines will capitalize on the Feb. 17 opening of Chuba International Airport in Nagoya by inaugurating a daily Boeing 777-200ER flight to Paris, three-times-weekly 767 services to Guangzhou, China, and increased frequencies to Manila, Bangkok and Busan, South Korea. Chuba is being promoted as a cargo hub, and JAL agrees. It's starting three new freighter services a week via Anchorage to New York and Atlanta as well as New York and Los Angeles. It also will increase services from Tokyo to Honolulu.
The State of Illinois is hoping that groups competing to finance and build a third Chicago airport will join in a common enterprise. One group, supported by U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-Ill.), has taken a major step forward by securing a development contract for the Abraham Lincoln National Airport near University Park. LCOR Inc., of New York, and SNC-Lavalin, of Canada, have committed to financing a $200-million project to construct a five-gate terminal, a 10,000-ft. runway, taxiways and parking lot.
Regarding your articles "Irreconcilable Differences" and "Transatlantic Quarrel" (AW&ST Sept. 6, pp. 24 and 26), I agree with Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher's attempt to end Airbus' state aid.
America's national missile defenses also are on Lieberman's mind. "We are under what will be an increasing threat of missile attack," he says, and missile defense is a realistic program to invest in because of the money being put into developing ballistic missile capabilities around the world. On the other hand, people shouldn't expect too much from it. "I regret that the testing program has not gone to a further point," Lieberman says.
Boeing CEO Harry Stonecipher suggests that a heads-of-state agreement on information security might help break a technology transfer deadlock that threatens to scuttle collaboration in defense and other high-technology business with major partners, particularly in Europe. Stonecipher says high-level guarantees about how to handle sensitive data and to whom it can be entrusted could convince congressional critics to move forward on making the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITARs) more flexible.
NHIndustries saw its multinational helicopters program rack-up milestones in rapid succession last week. Two production NH90s took first flights. The NH90-TTH, destined for the Italian army, took-off from an Agusta facility at Vergiate (Italy) Airfield, for a 30-min. flight-time trial. The Finnish army-bound NH90-TTT (shown) began its test run at about the same time, but from a Eurocopter airfield in Marignane, France, and remained in flight for more than 1 hr. Deliveries will begin in 2005.
SCALING MEMORY DEVICES TO MAKE THEM EVEN SMALLER is just as necessary as shrinking logic devices, but researchers will detail at IEDM how much harder it is. In addition to the main memory types--dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM) and flash--some developments in magnetic RAM and ferroelectric RAM, and other concepts will be discussed. Debate on two widely used memories--flash and SRAM--will continue.
The U.K. Defense Ministry is being criticized by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee over what the latter views as unnecessary shortages of key equipment during the war with Iraq. While recognizing the ministry deployed 46,000 personnel for Operation Telic in half the time it took to deploy a similar-sized force for the Persian Gulf war, this also exposed stock shortfalls in certain critical areas. These included nuclear, biological, and chemical protection kits.
Engineering group Smiths' preliminary financial results shows sales rising 7% to 2.67 billion pounds ($4.8 billion), with pre-tax profit up 6% to 350 million pounds. Its aerospace business recorded a 7% sales growth, with an improvement in the commercial sector.
USAF Gen. (ret.) Alfred G. Hansen, who is president/CEO of EMS Technologies Inc. of Atlanta, has been named to the board of directors of the Georgia Technology Authority.
Spirit Airlines, Atlantic Southeast Airlines and Northwest Airlines (for code-share regional partner Pinnacle Airlines) are competing for two slot exemptions at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), reclaimed by the U.S. Transportation Dept. after AirTran Airways suspended using them on July 1. Spirit proposes a daily nonstop round trip between DCA and Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers or West Palm Beach, Fla., the points AirTran was authorized to serve using 150-seat MD-80 aircraft.
Development of an environmental control and life-support system that can provide air, water and carbon dioxide removal for a Nautilus inflatable module crew of 5-7 is underway at Bigelow Aerospace. Private development of a station life-support system is one of the biggest challenges ever faced by a private space company.
The U.S. Army has accelerated the Warfighter Information Network-Tactical by merging competitive thrusts led by General Dynamics and Lockheed Martin. A single supplier was to be selected in late 2005, but now a formal WIN-T architecture should be agreed upon by early next year. The effort will be led by General Dynamics, although Lockheed Martin will be responsible for about 50% of the work. Longer-term schedule impacts are still being assessed, although developers believe troops will see more capability earlier under this new scheme.
U.S. trade officials believe follow-up talks could pave the way for an agreement with the European Commission to further curtail or eliminate the governments' role in commercial transport funding. However, both parties still disagree on the definition of subsidies and remain unable to reconcile stands on "indirect" state aid.
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James P. Schear has been named vice president-restructuring for US Airways. He has been vice president-safety for the FAA's Air Traffic Organization and had been the airline's director of business planning for flight operations.
Antitrust laws aren't changing, but their application to aviation mergers might morph as market conditions deteriorate for the endangered network airlines, Roger Fones, transportation section chief in the Justice Dept.'s Antitrust Div., tells attendees at a George Washington University forum. As low-cost competitors expand their operations, the network carriers' market power wanes and they become less threatening to competition, Fones notes. Aircraft parked in the desert make it easier for start-ups to challenge the establishment.
The U.S. Army is about to formally kick off its dialogue with industry to buy more than 360 off-the-shelf helicopters for armed reconnaissance to replace OH-58D Kiowa Warriors and fill the requirement left vacant by this year's cancellation of the RAH-66 Comanche.
U.S. Air Force leaders are favorably disposed to the idea of developing an interim long-range strike system to span today's bombers and a more futuristic system, but know that fiscal realities could undercut this ambition. Earlier this year the service asked aerospace companies to propose ideas for a new strike aircraft. No specific action has been taken, however. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper thinks a mid-term system is needed, though no time line was imposed.
The Pentagon wants to buy short- takeoff-and-landing fixed-wing passenger and cargo services for operations in the Horn of Africa. Up to seven passengers would be transported, and 2-5 missions per month are foreseen.
