The propulsion system of Lockheed Martin's vertical landing variant of the Joint Strike Fighter is suffering from a new problem, this time an overheating bearing where power from the engine is transferred to the lift fan.
Lutz Wierschin has become customer service manager and Walter Kattwinkel key account manager of Lufthansa Technik at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
Congress is pushing the Pentagon to abandon an ongoing competition for the Joint Strike Fighter ejection seat in favor of keeping the selection open until 2005 when more modern seats should be available.
TWA was the subject of a buyout offer by Global Airlines Corp., a privately held holding company based in New York. The $5-per-share offer last week consisted of $2 in Global stock, $2 in convertible preferred bonds and $1 in cash. TWA stock was trading at less than $3 at the time. Earlier in the week, AirTran, formerly ValuJet, was revealed to be in talks about a possible merger with or acquisition of St. Louis-based TWA.
Herley Industries subsidiary Robinson Laboratories has been selected to supply microwave components to Raytheon and DaimlerChrysler for the multinational Rolling Airframe Missile program.
The European Commission has unveiled plans for legislation and voluntary commitments by airlines and airports to bolster passengers' rights. Legislation would include requiring airlines to reimburse passengers who had been delayed more than a few hours at an EU airport the price of their ticket, or provide an alternative flight at the earliest opportunity. Carriers would be forbidden from canceling entire tickets when a delay or cancellation prevents passengers from flying on one leg of the journey.
House Democrats critical of the Pentagon's national missile defense (NMD) system are calling for an FBI investigation of the program. They allege that the Pentagon has covered up test information, citing findings by scientists about earlier NMD tests. Defense Dept. officials have dismissed the claims. They note that the test being cited by the scientists and congressmen involved a kill vehicle that is no longer being used.
PartsBase.com of Boca Raton, Fla., has turned to USA Information Systems Inc. to provide it with online access to government procurement and technical documents for aerospace and defense contractors. Primarily known for its online parts buying-and-selling operations for airlines, the move represents an expansion of PartsBase's market. The company said the alliance with USA Information Systems will give it access to more than 20 million part numbers, 7 million national stock numbers, and 550,000 manufacturers and vendors that supply Defense Dept. agencies.
Northrop Grumman Corp. and BAE Systems of the U.K. were in a fierce competition for Lockheed Martin/Sanders, as of last Thursday. The rival companies each had submitted bids substantially greater than $1.5 billion, according to people familiar with the situation, and Lockheed Martin was under pressure to select a winner. A winning bid of $1.8-2 billion might be reasonable, given the potential value of Directed Infrared Countermeasures programs in which Sanders is involved, they said.
In Australia, public opinion polls are showing rising public concern about Australia's defense capability, after the East Timor emergency last year and recent troubles in the neighboring Fiji and Solomon Islands. The government is due to release a defense policy this week and Prime Minister John Howard is moving to associate himself with its release, as rumors of an early election--after the Olympics--increase. Australia is considering a number of buys including attack helicopters and light tactical transports, but cost has stalled the selections.
The U.S. Marine Corps has concluded the mishap investigation report for the Apr. 8 crash of an MV-22 in which 19 Marines died. The report, along with a still-continuing investigation, will determine if any changes need to be made to the aircraft or procedures. The flight manual is expected to reemphasize that pilots not exceed a descent rate of more than 800 fpm. at a forward speed less than 40 kt., conditions that were exceeded with the accident aircraft.
San Francisco International made it official last week. It will use the Future Flight Central control tower simulator at NASA's Ames Research Center to help it design a new air traffic control tower (AW&ST Jan. 10, p. 38). The airport, which is located about 25 mi. north of Ames, was one of the first in the country to express interest in the FFC facility, which provides a walk-in, full-fidelity tower (see photo) that permits designers and engineers to judge how surface traffic movements might be impeded or enhanced by various designs.
On the eve of a key national missile defense test, President Clinton faces multiplying verdicts that his limited NMD concept will not work. Based on divergent technical judgments, long-time missile defense experts outside of government--and from both sides of the NMD divide--concur that the Clinton scheme should be scrapped, and a new Administration should start over again in 2001.
Bruce McNeely has been appointed vice president/general manager of Jet Aviation, West Palm Beach, Fla. He was president/CEO of Jet Search International Inc.
Roger Hemminghaus has been appointed to the board of directors of the CTS Corp., Elkhart, Ind. He is chairman emeritus of the Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp. and chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Roger Rickey has become vice president/general manager of CTS' frequency products division.
The Royal Danish Air Force will acquire helmet-mounted cueing systems for its F-16 fleet from Vision Systems International, a joint venture between Elbit Systems Ltd. and Kaiser Aerospace and Electronics. The helmet-mounted displays will be delivered in association with Denmark's F-16 Mid-Life Upgrade (MLU) program. Vision Systems expects other F-16 MLU nations, including the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium and Portugal, also will sign up for the system.
The cost of the National Missile Defense program is likely to increase as the Defense Dept. addresses concerns raised by an independent review. But the outside assessment hasn't identified any fundamental flaws in the Pentagon's approach to shooting down intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Congress has cleared, and President Clinton is expected to sign, a bill that gives the same legal recognition to electronic signatures in business transactions as to signatures on paper. So where does the Defense Dept. stand on allowing electronic signoffs on various safety, manufacturing or purchasing agreements? They're working on it. ``We have a few pilot projects underway, but we have a lot of work to do in terms of the security aspects,'' a Defense Dept. official said. One early application is a test involving use of its travel site for temporary duty assignments.
Bobby O. Floyd (see photos) has been promoted to vice president/general manager from deputy general manager of Lockheed Martin Aircraft&Logistics Centers' Greenville (S.C.) facility. He succeeds Richard Y. Lyons, who has become vice president-operations for LMALC.
Finding evidence that there may be current sources of liquid water at or near the surface of Mars is a significant development, but getting a robotic spacecraft to land near such a point-target could prove to be difficult, NASA officials said. ``It's going to be the key challenge in the future,'' according to a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) official, who added that any precision landing system will have to be tested extensively to demonstrate its accuracy and consistency.
ARINC, Aerothai and the Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia have signed a three-way agreement for the expansion of air/ground data link coverage there with the installation of three additional ground stations.
The Pentagon has chosen 11 promising defense products or systems developed by non-U.S. companies to be evaluated under its Foreign Comparative Testing (FCT) program. The products range from a high-power klystron tube developed by the U.K.'s Thorn TMD, which could enhance the reliability of the E-3 AWACS radar, to a vehicle intended to deactivate land mines, developed in South Africa.
