Boeing Co. predicted yesterday that the world's air cargo fleet will nearly double in the next 20 years, adding more than 1,000 jet freighter airplanes. About 70% of the growth will come through conversions of passenger aircraft, it said.
Earth-orbiting satellites are in for stormy "weather" in the next few years as the sun reaches the peak of its 11-year activity cycle, but the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) plans to help with regular "space weather" advisories transmitted along with atmospheric weather forecasts.
Comsat Corp., Bethesda, Md., reported earnings of $6.6 million in the third quarter, rebounding from a $20.8 million loss in the 1997 third quarter. The loss included results from the now divested manufacturing operations. Third quarter sales grew 9% to $158.4 million. Comsat World Systems posted $25.7 million in operating income on $69.7 million in revenues, up from $22.3 million on revenues of $66 million a year ago. Comsat said the increases were predominantly due to growth in private digital network services and Internet traffic.
Bad weather over the past few days has hampered the ability of U.S. reconnaissance aircraft to monitor Yugoslav compliance with an agreement to stop fighting in the Serbian province of Kosovo, a senior military official said yesterday. The U-2 and the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle are being used over Kosovo, the official told reporters. The U-2 provides good coverage without having to fly many missions, and the Predator is providing good spot coverage when needed, he said.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. said its turbo I-GNAT unmanned tactical surveillance aircraft has surpassed an industry flight record. The I-GNAT flew to 30,500 feet on Oct. 19, the same week it remained airborne for 38 hours and landed with about 10 hours of fuel reserves, the San Diego company said.
Lockheed Martin has begun ground testing an electric flight control actuation system it is developing under the government-funded Joint Strike Fighter/Integrated Subsystems Technology program that may be used on the future multi-role fighter. The system will be flight tested on the Advanced Fighter Technology Integration (AFTI) F-16 aircraft. Modifications to the plane have been completed, Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems said yesterday.
EG&G Inc. has begun a cash offer for the outstanding shares of common stock of Lumen Technologies Inc., which produces lamps for medical fiberoptic illumination, cinema projection and stage lighting. EGG, which makes products for the aerospace, semiconductor, photographic, medical and other industries, said the offer for the Rye, N.Y., company is $7.75 per share. The tender offer is being made pursuant to a previously announced merger between EG&G, based in Wellesley, Mass., and Lumen, EG&G said.
Cordant Technologies Inc. earned $38.5 million on sales of $595 million in its 1998 third quarter, up from earnings of $28.6 million on sales of $237.7 million in the same period a year ago, the company reported.
The Pentagon's Defense Resources Board (DRB) is slated to decide the fate of the Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) program at a Nov. 10 meeting. Initially, Pentagon officials planned to review MEADS as a separate program issue, but decided to consider it within a meeting that will review a number of Ballistic Missile Defense Organization budget issues, a BMDO official said yesterday. The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and PAC-3 programs also will be addressed at the meeting.
Jim Hoover has been appointed sector vice president-Aerostructures of Northrop Grumman's new Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector, the company reported yesterday. The Aerostructures business area, based in Dallas, is responsible for Boeing programs, nacelle components, the Gulfstream V wing program and the C-17 jet transport aircraft. Other major facilities are in Hawthorne, Calif.; Stuart, Fla.; and Milledgeville and Perry, Ga. Hoover joined Northrop Grumman in 1975 at the former Aircraft Division in Hawthorne.
Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter team completed a pilot-in-the-loop simulation exercise testing the integration of certain components of the avionics system for the fighter, the company reported yesterday. The simulations, performed at the Pico Rivera, Calif., Force Level Laboratory of Northrop Grumman over a two-week period ending in late September, evaluated a high-resolution multi-purpose infrared sensor system and integration of the information with data from other on-board sensors as well as off-board sources, Lockheed Martin said.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen intends to reiterate the Clinton Administration's desire to cooperate with Japan on theater missile defense (TMD) research and development during a trip to Asia next week, a senior defense official told reporters yesterday. In scheduled meetings with Japanese government officials, Cohen plans to say he hopes the U.S. will be able to move ahead smartly in the near future with a plan to work jointly on TMD, said the official, who requested anonymity. However, he said, no formal agreement on TMD will be signed.
The Air Force Electronic Warfare Evaluation Simulator (AFEWES), a secure facility at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth, Tex., marks its 40th anniversary this month. Lockheed Martin said AFEWES, which has been used primarily to improve survivability of U.S. and allied aircraft in hostile air defenses, was activated in 1958 to develop countermeasures for the B-58 bomber, then being designed by General Dynamics Convair, predecessor of Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems.
CHARLES LEADER has been named president and chief operating officer of Nichols Research Corp., Huntsville, Ala. He will assume his duties in Washington, D.C., beginning on Nov. 2. From 1994 to 1998, Leader, 47, worked for Hughes Aircraft Co. In 1995, he was named president of Hughes Information Technology Systems, and in 1997 he was named president of Hughes Information Systems.
SECOND DARKSTAR unmanned aerial vehicle completed its fourth flight yesterday at Edwards AFB, Calif., Lockheed Martin reported. The high altitude endurance UAV took off at 6:23 a.m. PST and flew for one hour and nine minutes, achieving its planned altitude of 5,000 feet and completing all planned basic maneuvers, the company said. The flight was fully automated from takeoff to landing, using Differential GPS. George Zielsdorff, Lockheed Martin's DarkStar program manager, said the next flight is slated for late November.
Boeing signed an agreement with Mason Technologies Inc. to locate a final assembly facility for the RS-68 rocket engine at the Mississippi Army Ammunition Plant at NASA's John C. Stennis Space Center (SSC). An earlier arrangement between Boeing and NASA under the Commercial Space Act calls for the company to test the RS-68 at the B-1 test stand at SSC. Boeing said it is investing $8 million in the upgrade of that stand to make it a dual test position with leading-edge capabilities.
A RUSSIAN RESUPPLY capsule docked with the Mir orbital station yesterday, bringing supplies for the two-man crew and an experimental mirror designed to reflect sunlight onto cities at high latitudes. The docking was uneventful, but launch of the Progress M-40 capsule was delayed because the Russian Space Agency lacked the funds to pay for its Soyuz launch vehicle (DAILY, Oct. 27).
The second Boeing 717-200 flew for the first time yesterday, taking off from the Long Beach, Calif., Municipal Airport and landing after a one hour and 20 minute flight at the Boeing facility at Yuma, Ariz. Boeing said pilots Randy Wyatt and Lee Johnson were at the controls. They were assisted by Patrick Nightingale, the test conductor. Also on board was Duncan Steele of BMW Rolls-Royce, maker of the aircraft's engines.
October 19, 1998 Lockheed Martin Corp., Sunnyvale Calif., is being awarded a $10,786,495 face value increase to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to acquire Satellite Control System 21 software in support of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS). Expected contract completion date is November 2006. Space and Missile Systems Center, Los Angeles, Calif., is the contracting activity (F04701-95-C-001-P00035).
Honeywell and TRW are pitching a new transponder system that would allow military aircraft to operate in civil airspace, and also provide identification friend-or-foe capability. The system, XS-950S/I, has Level 4 Mode S transponder capability, needed to communicate with commercial traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS), according to Honeywell Defense Avionics Systems.
October 22, 1998 Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport News, Va, is exercising a $6,027,610 cost-plus-fixed-fee, level of effort contract option for advance planning for the defueling, inactivation, and preparation for tow of the USS Narwhal (SSN 671). Work will be performed in Newport News, Va., and is expected to be completed in December 1998. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
