CIRCOR International Inc. of Burlington, Mass., which builds valves and other equipment for aerospace companies and other markets, has bought Loud Engineering & Manufacturing Inc. for about $36 million in cash, the company said Jan. 17. Loud, based in Ontario, Calif., designs and builds landing gear systems and related components for military helicopters and airplanes. The company will be combined with CIRCOR's Aerospace Products business unit, located in nearby Corona, Calif.
The V-22 Osprey joint program office is grappling with a new glitch in the tiltrotor aircraft's engine pod a little more than a week before a key program review. Program officials said Jan. 18 that the problem involves a gearbox that uses engine power to turn the rotor blades. In six instances since April 30, 2004, including three in the past month, warning lights aboard the Bell-Boeing aircraft have signaled the presence of tiny bits of metal debris in the gearbox. The Osprey has landed safely in each incident.
ARMY Capco Inc., Grand Junction, Colo., was awarded on Jan. 12, 2005, a $27,198,356 firm-fixed-price contract for 22,637 BSU-86A/B Fin Assemblies. Work will be performed in Grand Junction, Colo., and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. There were an unknown number of bids solicited via the World Wide Web on July 16, 2004, and one bid was received. The U.S. Army Field Support Command, Rock Island, Ill., is the contracting activity (W52P1J-04-C-0079).
Microcosm Inc., which is developing its Scorpius family of low-cost launch vehicles, said Jan. 18 that it successfully completed a series of tests of an all-composite, liquid-oxygen (LOX) tank for use on such vehicles. "The availability of low-cost, composite tanks for cryogenic fluids is a major step in the development of a new generation of much lower-cost launch vehicles," company President James Wertz said in a statement. The tank is 42 inches in diameter and is intended to operate at 550 pounds per square inch, the company said.
Parker Hannifin Corp. reported second-quarter net income of $171.1 million on sales of $1.9 billion, up from net income of $55.8 million on sales of $1.6 billion reported for the same period last year. "We are very pleased with our second quarter results, particularly with our 22% sales growth, doubling net income from continuing operations, and strong cash flow," company Chairman and CEO Don Washkewicz said in a statement.
Production of the Army Airborne Command and Control System (A2C2S) is being carried out by the Army itself, rather than by industry as originally planned, according to the Army manager of the program. "We are moving production of the A2C2S" to a government-owned and operated facility at the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center at Redstone Arsenal, Ala., Col. Chris DeLuca said in an e-mail message.
Chicago-based Northstar Aerospace Inc. will repair, overhaul, and provide spare parts for AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters under two contracts worth $12 million awarded by the U.S. Army, the company said Jan. 17. The Apache contract is worth $8 million. Main transmissions will be overhauled and spare parts will be provided beginning this year, the company said. Most of the work will be done at Northstar's Chicago facility. The remaining work will be performed in Milton and Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and Phoenix.
The House Science Committee will host hearings on the Hubble Space Telescope and NASA's fiscal 2006 budget in February, a committee spokesman told The DAILY Jan. 18. Re-elected committee Chairman Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) said in December that he would highlight Hubble early this legislative year. Some scientists are pushing for a shuttle mission to service the telescope and extend its life, while NASA has favored a robotic mission (DAILY, Dec. 20, 2004).
The U.S. Coast Guard signed a $144 million contract with a joint venture of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. earlier this month for production and development of the second Maritime Security Cutter, Large (WMSL), the companies said Jan. 18.
NAVY Electric Boat Corp., Groton, Conn., is being awarded an $8,687,000 cost-plus-fixed-fee material order under previously awarded contract (N00024-04-C-2100) to procure long lead time material for Ships Service Turbine Generator (SSTG) sets for SSGN 727 and SSGN 729 in support of Ohio Class Ship Alterations. Work will take place in Groton, Conn., and is expected to be completed by May 2007. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C. is the contracting activity.
AIR DEFENSE: Spain-based Indra has recently been awarded a two-year, 7.1 million euro ($9.25 million) contract to provide Botswana with a full air defense command and control system, the company said. The contract was awarded though Botswana's military. Indra will develop an operational control center made up of nine air traffic tracking and control posts, the company said. The posts will process the country's air space data from air surveillance radars, radio communication links with airships, and civil air traffic management systems.
EADS North America has announced its new EADS CASA North America aircraft support center headquarters, which is being built adjacent to Alabama's Mobile Regional Airport. EADS CASA is making an initial investment of $1 million to build the new aircraft facility, which is to be completed in spring 2005. The 13,000 square-foot center initially will employ 30 people and will support the Coast Guard in transitioning the EADS CASA CN-235 maritime patrol aircraft into active service.
The U.S. Air Force's Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) program has successfully completed its first tests with live weapons, according to the Boeing Co., SDB's prime contractor. On Dec. 13 and Dec. 15, two SDBs launched from an F-15E at 15,000 feet achieved direct hits on two ground targets: a scoring board and a Russian rocket launcher. "This was a big milestone for our program," said Col. Jim McClendon, commander of the U.S. Air Force Miniature Munitions Group at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is developing heterogeneous urban reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition (HURT) technology that would allow warfighters to directly request information about enemy forces from low-flying unmanned aerial vehicles, the company said Jan. 17. The work is being done under an $11.6 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency contract.
HELP THE JPDO: The Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) that is developing the nation's next-generation air transportation system (DAILY, Jan. 11) soon will put in place a "mechanism" through which the aerospace industry can participate in the office's work, according to JPDO Deputy Director Robert Pearce. "The bottom line is, the government actually owns a very small part of the air transportation system," Pearce says. "The majority of it is owned by the private sector, so we have to have them in there as equal partners with us."
TANKER CHARGE: The "continued delay and now likely re-competition" of the U.S. Air Force's tanker program prompted Boeing to announce a $275 million pretax charge, the company said Jan. 14. Another charge, related to ending 717 production, will boost that to $615 million. Boeing's first-quarter and full-year 2004 results will be released Feb. 2.
TRIDENT WORK: Lockheed Martin Space Systems was awarded a $676 million modification for fiscal 2005 funding of the Trident II Missile Production and Deployed System Support contract, the Defense Department said Jan. 13. The work is expected to be completed by September 2008.
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe said he is not overly concerned by the estimated $450 million in congressional earmarks contained in the agency's fiscal year 2005 budget, which would redirect funding away from the Bush Administration's space priorities toward other projects. "I don't think that's going to crowd out a lot of things," O'Keefe said during a press conference at Kennedy Space Center in Florida Jan. 14.
