WONDER WHY Ball Corp. decided to keep its Aerospace and Communications Group, after trying to sell it last year? Maybe winning a classified contract worth approximately $250 million had something to do with it. Previously, the group was viewed as a likely casualty of defense and aerospace budget-cutting. Primarily a packaging company, Ball was quick to put its struggling aerospace group on the block. But it reversed course when corporate officers realized that secret contracts could be won.
USAF SPACE&MISSILES Systems Center plans to issue a draft request for proposals for an ``evolved expendable launch vehicle'' (EELV) on Mar. 1. The EELV program is envisioned as a nine-year effort to develop medium to heavy launchers based on upgrades of existing vehicles. The plan calls for a 15-month risk reduction phase, in which four contractors would work, then a down-select to two for 13 months of engineering and manufacturing development before a critical design review.
HONEYWELL AND AMETEK PLAN TO WORK TOGETHER to integrate Honeywell's Primus 2000 XP avionics for the Bombardier Global Express. The effort will use Ametek's Sentinel data acquisition unit to gather and transmit information on aircraft systems to Honeywell's integrated avionics computers. Among the systems monitored by the digital acquisition unit will be the electronic engine controller, air data computer, electrical and hydraulic systems. The data will be displayed on a 6-tube engine instrument and crew alerting system in the cockpit.
Production go-ahead for the NH-90 ASW-transport helicopter will slip to late 1997, a delay tied to the program's slow start. The first prototype, now in final assembly, is scheduled to fly in December.
CHRYSLER TECHNOLOGIES AIRBORNE SYSTEMS is under contract to modify the U.S. Navy's E-6A TACAMO aircraft to give it the capability of the U.S. Strategic Command's EC-135 Airborne Command Post (ABNCP) aircraft. The TACAMO aircraft is a Boeing 707, modified to receive and transmit messages from the National Command Authority to submerged submarines and other strategic forces. The upgrade will include adding a MILSTAR satcom terminal, GPS, a new mission computer system, secure telephone and fax equipment. Other equipment will be transferred from the EC-135.
MUCH TO THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION'S chagrin, Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R.-Iowa) plans to introduce legislation this week that would separate the FAA from the Transportation Dept. and endow it with newfound powers of procurement and personnel management. Lightfoot, who is a member of the transportation subcommittee of the House Appropriations panel, opposes a government-owned ATC business. His proposal would create an 11-member management advisory board to interface with senior FAA management on policy and regulatory issues.
A FORMER EXECUTIVE vice president of Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp., Orangeburg, N.Y., pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment related to alleged improper repairs to engine parts (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 35). James M. Gabriel entered the plea at his arraignment in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, White Plains. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Apr. 14.
NASA has produced a new space flight manifest that reworks its shuttle plans for seven missions per year, instead of eight. But the schedule also includes a very active period coming soon for payloads on expendable launch vehicles (ELVs).
U.S. Air Force officials say they are working on several fronts to make government facilities more accessible and affordable for use by commercial space endeavors. The service has reduced charges for the support of commercial launches and is overhauling the safety restrictions imposed on those operations. Air Force officials also are developing new policies and guidelines for turning surplus launch-related facilities over to business for conversion to commercial enterprises.
Dan Bart has been promoted to vice president-standards and technology for the Electronic Industries Assn. and the Telecommunications Industry Assn., Arlington, Va. He was vice president-technical and regulatory affairs for the TIA.
OZIRES SILVA HAS resigned from his position as president of Embraer following the privatization of the Brazilian company late last year. Silva was the founding executive of the aircraft manufacturer and served twice as chief executive officer for a total of 20 years. Juarez de Siqueira Britto Wanderley, former senior vice president for production, has been named president of Embraer.
Pat Windham (see photo) has been appointed senior vice president-business development of Barfield, Inc., of Miami. He was general manager for simulation support at Delta Air Lines.
Boeing and Northwest Airlines will accelerate 757 deliveries so the airline gets 15 of the transports--and Boeing gets needed work--this year and next. The agreement will help the Seattle manufacturer maintain its production rate of the 757 at four per month. Several cash-short carriers, including USAir and Continental Airlines, recently canceled or deferred major Boeing orders. By year-end, the company's transport output will be about half the nearly 450 aircraft delivered in 1992 (AW&ST Feb. 20, p. 34).
LOCKHEED MISSILES&SPACE CO. (LMSC) will reduce its workforce of 14,630 by 800 by the end of June. Despite earlier consolidations, Lockheed's analysis of the marketplace has led it to believe it must do more streamlining, Vance Coffman, the company's acting president, said. Do not look for the picture to brighten in the second half of the year. Coffman said, ``Further reductions of a similar magnitude could be necessary.'' In 1986, LMSC's employment was at its peak of 30,230.
LOOK FOR ``POWER-BY-THE-HOUR'' engine maintenance programs to cross over to other airline repair disciplines. The fixed-fee-per-flight-hour equipment contracts save airlines money and help cut costly repair staff positions. Rockwell Collins Commercial Avionics just signed a five-year agreement with Trans World Airlines to support all Collins avionics on more than 50 Boeing 727s and 767s and McDonnell Douglas MD-80 transports. First-year savings will be about $100,000, according to TWA.
William G. Wagner (see photo) has been named managing director of the Performance Review Institute, Warrendale, Pa. He was manager of the Society of Automotive Engineers' Technical Standards Div.
A follow-on to the U.S. Air Force's just-canceled stealthy, air-launched, long-range Tri-Service Standoff Attack Missile--informally referred to as son-of-TSSAM--is expected to take shape within six months.
A major change in French defense policy is spawning development of several precision weapons to give the country a better power projection capability around North Africa, the Adriatic and Middle East. Some of the new French precision weapon developments also could involve codevelopment projects with Germany and the United Kingdom. The initiatives are largely tied to French navy and air force introduction of the Dassault Rafale fighter and the debut of the Eurofighter 2000 aircraft early in the next century.
BOEING HAS PITCHED a lease-to-buy offer to the U.S. Air Force for 747-400 transports that would allow the service to keep its C-17 procurement plan on track while placing additional Non-Development Airlift Aircraft (NDAA) on the ramp more quickly than buying them outright. The proposal came as part of Boeing's response to an Air Force request for information on leasing aircraft for its VIP fleet.
U.S. officials believe they can greatly improve accuracies for the Pentagon's new generation of satellite-guided weapons through the use of portable, easily deployed, wide-area differential Global Positioning System stations.
Noel W. Hinners (see photo) has been named vice president-flight systems for Martin Marietta Astronautics in Denver. Previously chief scientist for business development and advanced programs, he succeeds G. Thomas Marsh, who has been named president of Martin Marietta Manned Space Systems.
The automated baggage handling system at Denver International Airport is processing as many as 23,000 suitcases, skis and golf bags over 17-18-hr. evaluation periods, achieving 96-98% availability rates during final pre-opening ``stress tests.'' The system initially will serve only United Airlines' outbound flights when the airport opens this week.
AN IMPROVED, MINIMUM-SMOKE, INSENSITIVE propellant may replace current high-hazard RDX and HMX solid fuels in military Hellfire, TOW and Sidewinder and other missiles. The new propellant, based on an energetic fuel discovered in 1987 and designated CL-20, now is being perfected by scientists at the U.S. Navy's China Lake, Calif., Air Weapons Station and a contractor team led by Thiokol Corp. Initial fleet deployment of the new propellant could occur within three years.
Growing heavy-lift, electronic news-gathering and emergency medical service sectors could jump-start Japanese civil helicopter demand after several years of decline.
