Boeing has announced team members to pursue the $20-billion U.S. Coast Guard Integrated Deepwater System program. The partners include EADS, Eurocopter and Litton Avondale Industries, which previously had led the team. The leadership switch was made to Boeing because the Coast Guard wanted the system integrator to serve as team leader. The Boeing announcement was made as three teams prepare to submit proposals based on their Phase 1 concepts. One team will be selected to move into system development, which is scheduled to begin next April.
Allied air defenses should get a boost from two events--NATO's award of a contract leading to development of a new, rapid-deployment, battlefield-agile antiaircraft and antimissile system, and the intercept by a Patriot PAC-3 missile of an aircraft protected by electronic jamming. There also are signs that Raytheon may be trying to reposition itself as an unofficial competitor to meet NATO's medium extended air defense system (Meads) requirements with a streamlined, more mobile Patriot Light missile system.
Aerospan, the business-to-business Internet exchange backed by the giant Sita infotech and communications network, is jointly developing an MRO component with MTU Aero Engines GmbH., the large DaimlerChrysler maintenance repair and overhaul subsidiary, that is due out in the fourth quarter. The goal is to provide many of the same online activities, such as a repair capability catalog, asset tracking and request for quotes, that Aerospan.com already offers and apply them to component parts repair.
Joe Straus is scheduled to become executive vice president of The Aerospace Corp., El Segundo, Calif., on Oct. 1. He has been senior vice president of the Systems Group and will succeed Michael Daugherty, who will retire. Succeeding Straus will be John Parsons, who has been senior vice president of the Engineering and Technology Group. Wanda Austin, who has been general manager of the Milsatcom Div., will succeed Parsons and taking her place will be Manuel De Ponte, who has been corporate chief engineer. Mark A.
LOCKHEED MARTIN WILL UPGRADE the U.S. Air Force's AN/FPS-117 long-range surveillance radar systems, located at 33 sites across the perimeter of Alaska and Canada, and in Iceland, Puerto Rico and Hawaii. The Atmospheric Early Warning System is used to identify military and civilian aircraft approaching the U.S. and provides air traffic surveillance out to 250 naut. mi.
MERCURY COMPUTER'S RACE SYSTEMS has been selected to improve the FAA's ability to detect severe weather and for electronic warfare work by the U.K.'s Defence Evaluation Research Agency (DERA). Northrop Grumman chose Race systems for the weather systems processor, which will be added to its ASR-9 airport surveillance radars to better assess conditions at 34 U.S. locations that do not have Terminal Doppler Weather Radar. DERA, which has been using Race systems, will upgrade to the new Race++ multicomputer systems to step up its airborne electronic warfare research.
The growing shortage of airframe and powerplant mechanics at the U.S. regional airline level, and the equally escalating frustrations of irritated passengers, was underscored July 8 when a US Airways Express de Havilland Dash 8 was delayed for more than 1 hr. at Wicomico County Airport in Salisbury, Md., due to a malfunctioning fire control panel. According to a US Airways Express representative, only one mechanic was available to repair the panel because the airline has an inadequate number of A&Ps.
A PROTOTYPE SOFTWARE FILTER THAT WILL PROVIDE a GPS receiver with 30-40-dB. improvement in jamming resistance is being developed by Northrop Grumman's Navigation Systems Div., formerly Litton Aero Products. The Anti-Jam Autonomous Integrity Monitored Extrapolation improvements will be realized by fully coupling the inertial and GPS receiver at the carrier phase level. The fully coupled filter will allow the bandwidth of the GPS tracking loops to be reduced, allowing less jamming signal into the GPS receiver, according to the company.
The exhausted pilot, on a long-haul night flight across the Atlantic, desperately fought to stay awake and control his aircraft. He conversed with images appearing before him, knowing his fate if he succumbed to the fatigue that threatened to overwhelm him. The pilot? Charles Lindbergh, on his New York-Paris flight.
Lockheed Martin started making inflight engagements of the lift fan on its X-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (Stovl) demonstrator last week, and flew the aircraft supersonically on the first of these flights.
Boeing is making a major departure from its geographic origins in moving its corporate headquarters from Seattle to Chicago. Just as striking was the organizational change in making its non-core companies co-equal to the aircraft business. Boeing has made clear its corporate intent to move from being a single industry operating company to becoming the strategic manager of a more diversified portfolio. The announced changes are necessary, but not sufficient, to support Boeing's intended transformation.
Israel and Turkey are working on a joint project to develop a missile defense system to protect the strategic allies against the threat of ballistic missiles. During a visit to Ankara last week, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer said the two countries ``should act together and engage in common projects that might include Arrow missiles to protect ourselves from missile threats.'' He noted that both governments had made a joint appeal to Washington to approve the sale of the Arrow anti-tactical ballistic missile interceptor to Turkey.
Indian officials said July 6 that a TATA-Singapore Airlines partnership will be the sole bidder for a 40% stake in state-owned Air India, dismissing another contestant for tainted business dealings.
Having decided to buy new MH-60Rs rather than refurbishing in-service aircraft, U.S. Navy officials are now trying to speed the purchase of those helicopters to avoid shortages in the fleet. The Fiscal 2002 budget amendment reflects the Navy's decision to proceed with the new-build. The service was going to remanufacture SH-60Bs and SH-60Fs, but found too many of the components to be reused were unacceptable. That made new production a more attractive option, budget officials said.
Teams led by Boeing and EADS are vying for a pending NATO requirement to reengine the alliance's 17 E-3A AWACS, plus three trainer/cargo aircraft. Boeing has teamed with CFM International in proposing the CFM56-2, already employed on French, U.K. and Saudi Arabian E-3s. EADS Military Aircraft has teamed with Northrop Grumman, Pratt&Whitney and Seven Q Seven Inc. to propose a commercially certified P&W JT8D-219 turbofan which would consume 10% less fuel than current P&W TF33 and JT3D-7 engines.
Boeing analysts have concluded that their X-32B demonstrator for the Joint Strike Fighter competition experienced a compressor stall just as it touched down on its last flight, July 5, which produced a loud pop and a momentary flash of orange flame under the aircraft.
In an effort to revive the flagging fortunes of the Swissair Group, Chairman/CEO Mario Corti is poised for further radical changes in corporate strategy in addition to the ongoing disposal of loss-making subsidiaries.
Toulmont plc, whose chairman is former Cathay Pacific Airways boss Peter Sutch, is acquiring National Jet Italia for 30.7 million pounds ($43.3 million). The small, Italian regional carrier, which was established in 1999, is a franchise operator for British Airways. The Rome-based airline, with a fleet of four BAe 146-300s and two Boeing 737-400s, operates to three domestic destinations, as well as to Athens and Nice. Proposed new routes include Tel Aviv, Istanbul and Cairo.
Bell Helicopter Textron began operating a new Composites Center Of Excellence to build parts for the military V-22 and Bell/Agusta BA609 civil tiltrotors, as well as to conduct research and development into advanced fabrication and production processes.
Two rival consortia have submitted bids to provide aerial refueling services to the British Royal Air Force under a planned 27-year contract worth up to 13 billion pounds ($18.2 billion). Vying for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) contract are: -- AirTanker Ltd., which comprises Cobham (flight refueling operations and aircraft conversions), EADS (platforms and integration), Thales (mission avionics subsystems and synthetic training systems), Halliburton Brown&Root (support services) and Rolls-Royce (engines).
The partial privatization of the bulk of the U.K.'s Defense Research and Evaluation Agency (DERA) took a major step forward last week with the creation of the private limited company QinetiQ. QinetiQ, which encompasses roughly three-quarters of the former DERA, is a public-private partnership in which the government will initially hold all the shares. A stock market flotation is planned for early next year. QinetiQ's new legal status will provide it with the freedom to expand its commercial activities.
A European Space Agency/NASA task force has identified a new scenario for the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and its big moon Titan that is expected to resolve a telemetry problem on the Huygens probe and allow it and the Cassini orbiter to return close to 100%, if not all, of expected scientific data.
