Congressional insistence that the U.S. Air Force reexamine its bomber modernization plans and consider buying a low-cost aircraft sooner than scheduled has sparked some creative thinking in industry. The service is completing its work on the bomber plan, first released last year. It called for upgrades to B-52Hs, B-1Bs and B-2As, but not a new aircraft until 2037. Dissatisfied with that plan, Congress told the Air Force to look at more aggressive upgrades and buying a low-cost B-2 around 2015.
Last week turned out not to be the best time to go to the Hill and lobby for a new export administration act (see p. 25). A Senate hearing had barely been gaveled to a close when the State Dept. charged that Lockheed Martin violated export controls (see p. 22). It may not do that much to hurt the Bethesda, Md., company, but it could certainly derail the congressional initiative to craft a post-Cold War framework for trade in militarily sensitive technologies. The effort is now virtually dead, says one industry official.
After more than two years of development and beta (live) testing with 120 airlines, Airbus Industrie has launched its materiel support Internet site, spares.airbus.com. The site is part of its Airbus On-Line Services initiative, which reported a 400% increase in qualified transactions last year. The site includes information on part number interchageability, single-purchase order status, shipping details, shipment tracking, an ``excess inventory list'' and spares support guide.
During his nearly 15 years at the helm of Israel Aircraft Industries, Moshe Keret has pulled the state-owned company out of the red and into profitability, setting the stage for its eventual privatization.
Hardware concerns have forced the U.S. Navy to delay the first controlled test vehicle flight of the lower-tier Area Wide missile defense program. So far, the test of the Standard Missile SM-2 Block 4A interceptor has slipped about a month. Ground testing raised concerns about the integrity of a missile component. One official said it has now been resolved.
A new era of prosperity in space may be taking a pause as the industry sorts itself following the Iridium debacle, reassesses some practices, and deals with overcapacity and the flight of money and talent. The long term continues to look bright, but short-term problems need to be fixed. These were some of the conclusions from the Space Foundation's 16th National Space Symposium, held here Apr. 3-6. There were nearly 1,000 attendees.
As part of the Golan Heights agreement, designed to promote peace with Syria, Israel has asked for $17-20 billion in additional U.S.-provided aid, a portion of which is to build up a sophisticated reconnaissance capability.
Unresolved accounting issues continue to dog Orbital Sciences Corp. (OSC) and cloud the company's outlook, so much so thatMerrill Lynch analyst Thomas Watts last week downgraded the stock to ``accumulate'' from ``buy.'' That's not the only set of problems with which management has been grappling. Product and service delays, such as the slow rate of installation of Orbcomm subscriber units, also have been taking their toll.
Eight primary cost-reduction initiatives for the Super Hornet wing will eliminate parts and complexity from the design, reduce tooling requirements and increase opportunities to use automated manufacturing systems. The changes also should reduce assembly tasks, improve assembly flow and significantly reduce lead times. The eight primary changes for the wing are:
Secrets continue to trickle out of the U.S. Air Force's black world about the fertile period of the late 1970s when the U.S. was researching and building its first stealth aircraft capabilities.
Lockheed Martin's alleged violation of export control laws comes at a critical time for the aerospace giant. Even if the charges don't hurt the company financially, they may cause corporate leaders to reexamine their commitment to the commercial satellite business. Lockheed Martin on Apr. 4 was charged with having passed sensitive information to China that could be used to improve the country's satellite rocket motor technology.
Some of the U.S.' most sophisticated airborne electronic warfare and intelligence-gathering systems are built into a number of its oldest aircraft such as the RC-135V/W Rivet Joint, EP-3E Aries II and EA-6B Prowler. Now aerospace companies--including Raytheon, General Dynamics and Boeing--are actively positioning themselves to capture contracts for the aircraft that will at first supplement and later replace these aging platforms.
Boeing has cut the cycle time required to produce a Super Hornet to 36 months, down from 41 months, and plans to squeeze additional time out of the process. Targets today call for only 18 months to elapse from the time an aircraft purchase order is cut to the time that an F/A-18E/F is delivered. The 18-month target, however, is a long-term goal, ``one we'll take in chunks,'' Pat Finneran, F/A-18 vice president and general manager, said. ``During calendar 2000 we'll try to get down to 24 months.''
David M. Bethune (see photo) has been promoted to vice president of customer administration from corporate director of strategic programs for the Nordam Group, Tulsa, Okla.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding new ultraviolet sensor-material technology that shows promise of minimizing MWS false alarms and reducing sensor complexity and cost. Current passive missile warning systems, such as the AAR-57 and AAR-54, must try to discriminate between UV emitted by the rocket of an approaching missile and other non-threat UV sources, such as the Sun. This now requires extensive optical filtering within MWS sensors and elaborate computation.
Malcolm Petro, former group program director at Marconi Avionics, has been named program director of Archer Communications Systems Ltd. Gary March has become financial director.
GASL Inc. has signed a contract with the U.S Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center for scramjet testing. GASL will conduct testing in the center's hypervelocity Range G in the $230,000 work order.
Inflight training experts should recognize risks tied to habits and conditioned reflexes acquired by airline pilots, according to French air safety officials.
Flow time reduction efforts at Boeing's Everett factory have cut from 138 days to 83 days the time it takes to assemble a 777 transport. The aim is to further reduce the process, described as the period from starting assembly of the wings to airplane delivery, to 70 days by the end of 2001. Reduction efforts to date have saved $400 million a year, Boeing said. Many of the changes are being made in conjunction with external and internal suppliers, as late parts are a major source of program inefficiency.
The ``common missile warning system,'' which the Pentagon hoped would be deployed on many different types of U.S. aircraft to protect against surface-fired heat-seeking missiles, has fallen far short of these expectations.
Fred E. Saalfeld, executive director/ technical director of the U.S. Office of Naval Research, has won the Defense Dept. Distinguished Civilian Service Award. He was honored for contributions to national defense and security during his 37-year Navy career.
Robert W. Klein (see photo) has been appointed vice president-advanced systems and technology for airborne early warning and electronic warfare systems for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems and Aerostructures, Bethpage, N.Y. He succeeds Richard Delasi, who has retired. Klein was director of engineering for AEW and EW Systems.
Navy testers have given Boeing's Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (Slam-er) a passing grade and declared the weapon operationally effective and suitable. The verdict marks a turnaround for the missile that the Navy initially deemed operationally effective but not operationally suitable in part because of reliability problems. Pentagon testers found the weapon not even operationally effective, noting that only five of 11 missile launches were on-target. In the latest round of testing the Navy said it scored four hits in four flight tests.
US Airways claims the tentative contract recently reached with flight attendants will allow it to ``compete in the marketplace,'' but a skeptical Wall Street is reserving judgment on the merits of the new labor pact. ``The problem was work rules, not how much money flight attendants made,'' Goldman, Sachs analyst Glen Engel said. ``If management was unable to significantly change those rules, it will be an opportunity forgone.''
