At about 24 times fiscal 2002 earnings, Bombardier Inc. shares don't come cheap compared with those of other leading diversified industrial companies. Nevertheless, market professionals seem to think Bombardier stock is worth every penny. ``We're looking for earnings per share to grow 33% in each of the next two fiscal years,'' Goldman, Sachs analyst Amir Karim said. ``That's more than double the average of the companies in its peer group--General Electric Co. (14.8%), Honeywell International (11.7%), Textron Inc. (11.8%), Tyco International Ltd.
The U.S. Air Force started seeing the promised benefits of its Distributed Mission Training system last summer, when eight pilots in high-fidelity F-15C simulators were able to practice wartime scenarios together even though they were on two air bases 700 mi. apart.
Preussag, Europe's leading travel firm, based in Hanover, Germany, is facing a possible probe into charges that it paid off managers of a steel unit to secure their support for a selloff to outside investors. The sale was organized under a policy aimed at spinning off industrial operations and focusing on the tourism business. The Lower Saxony state prosecutor's office recently opened an inquiry to determine whether a formal investigation is warranted.
A consortium comprising Bechtel Enterprises, Frankfurt Airport and Cosapi of Peru have won a bid to expand and operate the international airport in Lima. Under a 30-year concession, the team will build a passenger terminal and runway to complement existing facilities, which date back to 1964. Traffic at Lima is expected to more than double, to 10 million passengers, by 2010. Frankfurt is also involved in airport projects in Manila, Athens and Antalya, Turkey.
The U.S. Navy is getting ready to reinitiate flight testing for its Theater Wide ballistic missile defense program, hoping to regain time lost after a test failure stalled the program this summer. The next shot of the Standard Missile SM-3 Theater Wide interceptor is slated to take place before the end of December, according to Navy officials. The test, FTR-1A, was added to the flight test program after the first test in the Aegis Light-weight Exoatmospheric Projectile Intercept series failed in July.
Randy Mamiaro has been promoted to principal director from senior project engineer in The Aerospace Corp.'s support office in Rosslyn, Va., for the assistant Defense secretary for command, control, communications and intelligence, and the Defense Information Systems Agency.
Finally, Washington is getting the credit for international intrigue that it deserves, with the launch of the ``Spies of Washington Tour'' that is hosted by two retired Air Force intelligence officers: the son of U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and a Russian aeronautical engineer.
The European Space Agency has moved to reinforce a Mars lander mission planned for 2004, and is considering participation in an additional mission to the planet in 2005. Last week, ESA agreed to a series of measures that would strengthen the management and reduce the risks of its Beagle 2 lander project, and put the effort on sounder financial footing. Beagle 2 is scheduled to be launched with ESA's Mars Express orbiter in June 2003 and is due to reach the Red Planet in early 2004. Under the revised plan, the agency will:
The FAA's National Simulation Program is keeping pace with evolving simulation technology through streamlining and expediting the qualification process, while seeking more accurate predictive data to improve simulator performance.
The Pentagon needs to pay greater attention to maintaining its supercomputer capability and take steps to support ongoing and future developments, the Defense Science Board (DSB) says. Besides the National Security Agency's needs for cryptanalysis, the Defense Dept. could benefit from these high-power machines for radar cross-section modeling, weapon design and analysis, calculations of weapons effects and computational fluid dynamics, the panel of senior advisers notes. But the generally small market for these machines has weakened the U.S. industrial base in this area.
This view of the Kennedy Space Center Vehicle Assembly Building was taken by Space Imaging's Ikonos satellite which has been in orbit for more than a year. The National Security Council recently approved the company's request for a 0.5-meter resolution system. A formal notification hasn't been made on the year-old request. The current system provides 4-meter resolution multispectral and 1-meter resolution panchromatic imagery.
Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., has received the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum Trophy on behalf of the Chandra X-ray Observatory team. The award recognized the team for their efforts in building, placing in orbit and operating the most sophisticated X-ray astronomical observatory ever built.
European Union nations have pledged troops and equipment to field a rapid reaction force by 2003, but serious deficiencies still abound in a number of key areas.
After surmounting the effects of wing production problems, Airbus Industrie now hopes to fly its first A340-600 in May. Initial delivery of the 380-seat transport--the consortium's largest--is planned for June 2002. The program timetable was disrupted by automated production difficulties at BAE Systems involving supplier management and 3D-software providers (AW&ST Apr. 10, p. 55). BAE Systems, which has a 20% share in Airbus, develops and produces European transport wings.
Richard F. Gildea (see photo) has been promoted to vice president-corporate business development for Navy programsfrom director of Naval Aviation programs for the Raytheon Co. in Washington. He succeeds William C. Francis, who is retiring.
Mickey Moman has been promoted to vice president-training from senior director and Robert Hornburg to vice president/chief information officer from director of information services for the Mesa Air Group.
OTI, the commercial software development arm of Orincon Technologies Inc., will join Abbott Consulting to pursue data mining for the military. They said their future work will follow along the lines of a recent collaboration to evaluate data from U.S. Marine Corps aircraft, such as engine temperatures, maintenance histories and flight profiles. . . . Centric Software Inc., of San Jose, Calif., will add EADS Matra Datavision's system integration, training and engineering services to its Internet-based software applications.
Thorsten Hisam has been named vice president-business development, Mohammed R. Berenji director of international activities, Don T. Sine vice president-maritime analysis and Chuck Raderstorf director of military aviation products, all for Eagle Research Laboratories, Sterling, Va. Hisam was on the faculty of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Berenji was director of safety and a Boeing 747-400 captain for Saudi Arabian Airlines. Sine was director of the U.S. Navy's Aegis training program and chairman of the History Dept. at the U.S.
The Lockheed Martin X-35A has flown at supersonic speed and the Boeing X-32A is about halfway through carrier approach field tests as both contractors move closer to the challenging short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) phase of the Joint Strike Fighter demonstration program.
Peter Samsonov has become program manager for America West Airlines for Bearing Inspection Inc., Los Alamitos, Calif. He was customer support manager for passenger systems at Rockwell Collins.
Capt. Rob Giguere has been named executive vice president-operations of Air Canada and Robin Wohnsigl president of Air Canada Technical Services. Wohnsigl was senior vice president-technical operations for the airline.
The aborted automatic docking of a 7.5-ton Progress resupply vehicle to the International Space Station, and emergency actions required by the ISS crew to get the critical resupply vehicle docked to the outpost on Nov. 18, will intensify Russian efforts to consolidate production of the rendezvous system in Russia instead of splitting the hardware with Ukraine. It will also spark additional reviews of backup procedures, although the ISS crew received high praise for salvaging the situation.
Raytheon Co. plans to sell its electro-optical systems business to BFGoodrich Co. The divestiture is part of Raytheon's efforts to focus on its core defense electronics business and reduce debt. BFGoodrich officials said the acquisition complements its strategy to become a leading supplier of satellite control systems. The electro-optical unit had revenues of $152 million in 1999. It also produces laser warning and visual surveillance systems.
