TURKEY has officially launched its program with France for 30 Cougar helicopters. Under a $430 million deal between Eurocopter and the Turkish government signed last year, the first two Cougars are being produced in France, and the remaining 28 will be produced by Turkish Aerospace Industries. Delivery of the first TAI-built helicopter is slated for October 1999. Twenty of the helicopters will be used for search and rescue, and the other ten will be used by the Land Forces.
Coltec Industries, Charlotte, N.C., received an order for advanced electronic engine controls for an upgrade of Boeing CH-47 Chinook helicopters operated by the U.S. Army, the National Guard and the Royal Singapore Air Force. Coltec is working under contract to AlliedSignal Engines, which is responsible for the overall engine upgrade. The order is initially valued at $14 million and could increase to $100 million over the next 10 years, as the Army plans to upgrade its entire fleet of more than 400 Chinooks.
Rolls-Royce will supply upgrade kits to convert 108 engines on British Airways 747-400s to the new standard of RB211-524. The work, worth more than $200 million, involves engines for 25 of the aircraft and eight spare engines, Rolls said Friday. Richard Smallwood, Rolls-Royce senior VP-airlines, said in a statement that "British Airways has already chosen to fit six new Boeing 747-400s on order with the new G/H-T standard of engine. In total, the airline has committed to 132 G/H-T engines, making it the largest operator of this engine in the world."
ECC International Corp., Orlando, Fla., reported a loss of $1.8 million on sales of $10.4 million in its 1999 first quarter. In the same period a year ago, ECC reported a loss of $1.1 million on sales of $12.2 million. During the 1999 first quarter, ECC recorded charges of $1.2 million related to employee termination benefits associated with the relocation of corporate headquarters and the winding down of the operations of the U.K. subsidiary. ECC said it expects to take additional charges of $1.3 million during the remainder of FY99.
Boeing has opened an office in Athens to support its efforts to develop long-term business relationships with Greece. "This new office reinforces our company's commitment to Greece as a valued current and prospective customer, and to advancing a long and prosperous relationship with Greek industry," said Mike Sears, president of Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile Systems, said. "We look forward to expanding our presence here and to becoming an integral part of the Greek business community."
Russia will wind up taking in about $240 million in hard cash from NASA for the "Zarya" control module- formerly the FGB - that is scheduled to become the first International Space Station element launched to orbit this Friday. That amount includes the initial $190 million pricetag and another $50 million in upgrades added when NASA began to worry that the critical Russian Service Module wouldn't be delivered on time.
The Swiss army plans to conduct a shootoff of smart munitions for its 155mm howitzers. The competition will be between the U.S. Army's Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) munition and the German Smart-155 guided projectile, industry official say.
Nichols Research Corp., Huntsville, Ala., signed a letter of intent with DSM Copolymer Inc. to acquire an additional 35% ownership of Nichols Entec Systems LLC (NEC), increasing its total ownership to 95%. Nichols Research provides information technology services for the U.S. Dept. of Defense and intelligence agencies. NEC, with facilities in Baton Rouge, La., and Jackson, Miss., provides business-running software services to a range of companies.
NASA picked five new space science missions, including a Mercury orbiter and a scheme to plunge a projectile into a comet, for further study as possible Discovery-class missions. Investigators will receive $375,000 each to carry out four-month feasibility studies for the potential Discovery missions, which are capped at $190 million in fiscal 1999 dollars for development and at $299 million for total mission costs. NASA said it plans to select one or two of the proposals by next June as the seventh and possibly eighth Discovery missions.
Orbit/FR Inc., Horsham, Pa., said a determination by the State Dept. that two of its products - the AL-2000 antenna measurement system and the AL-8098 radome measurement system - are licensable commodities within the Department's jurisdiction led to a loss of $1.8 million in Orbit's 1998 third quarter. Orbit said that "delays and uncertainties" over obtaining export licenses following the determination "have severely impacted the company's ability to meet expectations on foreign sales."
France has signed on to a program with Germany for accelerated development of a directed infrared countermeasures system for large aircraft. Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace is leading development of the system, called FLASH - Flying LAser Self-defense system against seeker-Head missiles - according to Rainer K. Ackerman, marketing director of the project at DASA.
The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps are likely to face few hurdles as they try to get Joint Requirements Oversight Council approval of their Vertical Take-Off and Landing unmanned aerial vehicle requirements. A pre-JROC meeting last week made no changes to the requirements document. Final approval is expected next month.
Any cooperation on theater missile defense (TMD) between the U.S. and Japan is months away and will be small in scale, Pentagon and industry sources told The DAILY. The Japanese do not have enough money to engage in any large scale projects, senior officials of the Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization informed members of industry last week. Also, any cooperation likely will be limited to early warning projects, sources said.
NASA may buy International Space Station hardware from Russia outright to funnel more cash to the impoverished program, but U.S. managers don't believe there is an "immediate" need for more U.S. funds to support completion of the critical Russian Service Module.
First flight of Russia's Tu-334 100-seat airliner is slated for late this month, according to a report form Moscow by Itar-Tass. The news agency quoted Vasiliy Aleksandrov of Tupolev as saying that preliminary cost of the aircraft is $14 million to $15 million. It said that 14 Russian companies have submitted preliminary orders for the plane, and that China and Iran have expressed interest. The Tu-334, with a range of about 2,000 kilometers, is intended to replace the aging Tu-134.
Stubborn obstacles on the road to development of a supersonic transport - including engine noise and emissions, and airframe strength and weight - have prompted Boeing, General Electric and Pratt&Whitney to slow SST research. But Alan Wilhite, deputy director of NASA's High Speed Research program, says the agency, which has spent more than $1 billion on SST research, plans to spend another $400 million on a year-long program to study technologies to cut noise and weight.
Assembly of Russian MiG-110 passenger-cargo aircraft in Austria is the subject of a letter of intent signed by Russia's VPK MAPO and Austria's ANL Handelsgesellschaft. The twin-engine plane, development of which began in the early '90s, is designed to carry 24-48 passengers or 5.5 metric tons of cargo. Russia will make components for the Austrian variant, called MiG-110A, and ship them for final assembly.
The date for delivery to the British Royal Air Force of the first production C-130J has slipped several months to the third quarter of 1999. The RAF continues to iron out procedures for operating the aircraft with a two-person crew. A second C-130J, meanwhile, is set for delivery to the RAF's Boscombe Down flight test facility by the end of this month.
In the run-up to possible renewed attacks by U.S. and U.K. against Iraq, Britain's Defense Ministry warned that without such action, Iraqi nuclear, chemical and biological weapons capabilities would increase. A report issued by the MOD on Nov. 12 - the day that Iraq confirmed rejection of further U.N. inspections of its weapon plants - claimed that:
The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and National Reconnaissance Office plan an endurance experiment with the Hall-effect propulsion system on the STEX (Space Technologies Experiment) satellite in the March/April timeframe after completion of a tether experiment. The system has already been tested in 10-minute burns, but next year's run will be much longer, an NRO spokesman says.
Congressional sources say Reps. James T. Walsh (R-N.Y.) and Ron Packard (R-Calif.) are the leading candidates to chair the House Appropriations subcommittee handling the NASA budget. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) is giving up the chairmanship of the VA-HUD independent offices appropriations subcommittee, which oversees NASA, to head the national security subcommittee. That post is being vacated by Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), who is line to become chairman of the Appropriations Committee at this week's House Republican Conference.
While Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.) is almost sure to move into the Speaker's seat in Wednesday's House GOP leadership elections, the race for Majority Leader appears to a bit tougher to call since Jennifer Dunn (Wash.) threw her hat in the ring against Steve Largent (Okla.) and incumbent Dick Armey (Tex.). Some believe the race is destined to be a run-off between the two top contenders, because it will be nearly impossible for one to get all 112 votes needed to sweep the race. Meanwhile, House National Security Committee member J.C.
BOEING AND HUGHES plan to launch Russia's first U.S.-built satellite Thursday at 6:22 p.m. EST on a Delta II. Bonum-1, a Hughes HS-376, was built for the private Media Most group to provide direct-to-home video over Western Russia.
