Globalstar LLP, having lost 12 satellites aboard a single Ukrainian Zenit-2 rocket on Sept. 10, has speeded up launch of three Soyuz rockets, carrying a total of 12 satellites, but delayed start-up of the low-Earth orbit commercial communication satellite service by three months, until the third quarter of 1999, the company's president said yesterday.
Aircraft Braking Systems Corp., Akron, Ohio, has been selected by to provide wheels and brakes for several aircraft. The company said that: -- Saab has chosen it to develop and manufacture the braking system for the Batch 3 version of the Gripen fighter. The 64 aircraft of this batch will bring the fleet total to 204 jets, all with ABSC braking systems.
THE NETWORK CONNECTION INC., Alpharetta, Ga., was selected by Dassault Electronique to provide its AirView integrated business and entertainment systems as part of the Falconjet Program Proposal, TNC reported yesterday. Typical AirView business jet systems run from $200,000 to $1 million per aircraft, depending upon features and capabilities offered.
Planar Advance Inc., Beaverton, Ore., and dpiX, Palo Alto, Calif., won a contract from Kaiser Electronics to provide production quantities of the Eagle-6 multipurpose color display for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, the companies reported yesterday. Kaiser placed an initial order for 38 display units. An option for 70 more units could raise the contract value to $2 million.
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY won a new five-year contract with an estimated value of $6.25 billion to continue management and operation of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory as a Federally Funded Research and Development Center through 2003. NASA said the contract supports a variety of activities, including the Mars Surveyor program, the Cassini mission to Saturn, NASA Origins missions, Earth-observing spacecraft, and the Deep Space Network of communications antennas.
John W. Douglass, new president of the Aerospace Industries Association, said the U.S. faces a "chaotic" period in the next couple of years, but that he is "positive about coming to AIA at this time."
The U.S. Marine Corps has refined its requirements for the future vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle, settling on a threshold of 135 knots top speed. Speeds of 110 knots and 150 knots were being considered. The operational requirements document will replace the 1992 VTOL UAV ORD. In addition to the required top speed, the Marines set a top speed of 200 knots as an objective performance goal. Speed is considered a critical issue for a future VTOL UAV competition because it could limit the number of systems that can compete.
Miami-based Wood Group Turbopower is now a designated Quick Engine Change (QEC) repair center for Lockheed Martin C-130/L-100 Hercules, P-3 Orion and L-188 Electra aircraft, Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems reports.
An analysis of 621 fatal accidents involving airliners around the world between 1980 and 1996 showed that 41% occurred due to lack of positional awareness, according to the head of safety analysis for the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority. Adrian Sayce, speaking Tuesday to the McGraw-Hill Aviation Week Group's Global Aviation Safety&Security Conference in Washington, said half the accidents occurred during approach and landing. He said design shortcomings and post-crash fire were causal factors in 10% of all the accidents.
The U.S. Secretary of State was directed by the fiscal 1999 defense authorization conference agreement to report to Congress by Jan. 1 on the steps needed for "timely and orderly processing" of satellite export licenses. The conference report, made public yesterday, made the move to deal with the biggest objection of the satellite industry to the conference's decision to shift licensing of commercial exports from the Commerce Dept. back to State: that it would delay the licensing process from weeks to as much as six months, industry sources said.
The space segment of the 28-satellite Orbcomm data communications network was completed yesterday with launch of the final eight satellites on a Pegasus XL rocket. Orbital Sciences Corp. said the rocket, launched by its L-1011 aircraft flying off the coast of Virginia, put the satellites into their targeted orbit of about 818 kilometers. It was the 14th successful mission for the Pegasus launch system, dating to 1996, and the 23rd overall mission for the airborne space launch vehicle, Orbital said.
KELLY SPACE&TECHNOLOGY, San Bernardino, Calif., won a $1 million NASA contract to perform a space transportation architecture study. The one-year contract, calls for Kelly to develop approaches to meet the agency's future human space flight requirements with significant reduction in cost.
House and Senate conferees reached agreement yesterday on a $250.7 billion fiscal 1999 defense appropriations bill that funded the seven V-22 tiltrotor aircraft requested instead of the House's eight Ospreys, congressional sources said. The House had funded eight V-22s at $772 million compared to the Senate's appropriation of the requested $687 million. The conference began and ended the with major differences.
The Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office on Oct. 1 will launch the Space Technology Experiment satellite to showcase 29 unclassified technologies that could assist satellite designers in building smaller, less expensive systems. The 1,540-pound STEX will be launched from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., aboard an Orbital Sciences Corp. Taurus launcher, reporters were told yesterday at NRO headquarters in Chantilly, Va., by John Schaub, the NRO's STEX program director. He also said STEX includes some classified work.
U.S. Navy Secretary-designate Richard Danzig told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that he wants to "work hard" with Defense Dept., Navy and members of Congress "to see if there are ways to accelerate" introduction of technologies for the projected CVX aircraft carrier. CVX, also known as CV(X)-78, is envisioned as the first all-new U.S. aircraft carrier design to go into production for the U.S. Navy in several decades.
SAFETY EXPERTS from the U.K.'s Civil Aviation Authority, in a bid to raise air safety standards across the Caribbean, have been holding a series of presentations on aircraft maintenance, flight operations and airport safety. About 200 people attended the events, which were held in Trinidad&Tobago, Antigua, Barbuda and the Bahamas. Representatives from governments, aviation authorities, maintenance organizations and airlines attended the roadshow.
BFGoodrich Aerospace said Lockheed Martin has selected it for work on two aircraft, the F-16 and the C-130J. For the F-16 Block 40-50 Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP), BFGoodrich Aerospace's Avionics Systems unit, Grand Rapids, Mich., will provide its electronic horizontal situation indicator (EHSI) Model HSI-3000. CCIP involves upgrading about 750 jets. For the C-130J, BFGoodrich Aerospace's Ice Protection Systems Div., Uniontown, Ohio, now supplies a pneumatic de-icing system as standard equipment.
The Spanish flag carrier Iberia announced plans to acquire up to 11 more A340-300 jetliners from Airbus Industrie. The aircraft will join a fleet of eight A340s which the carrier operates from Madrid to the U.S. and Latin American, and to South Africa. Iberia last June ordered up to 76 A320s series aircraft, one of the largest orders made by a European carrier. Iberia also has 22 A320s and eight A300s.
Boeing Co. has more than doubled the range of the AGM-130 standoff missile by using a smaller warhead and replacing the rocket engine with a turbojet. Performance of the extended-range AGM-130 was successfully demonstrated Monday at Eglin AFB, Fla., Frank Robbins, the AF's director for precision strike weapons, said in a telephone interview yesterday. The standard AGM-130 has a nominal range of about 40 miles, but this test reached over 100 miles, Robbins said. It apparently was the longest range air-launched weapons test at Eglin.
An up-coming operational demonstration of the Miniature Air Launched Decoy (MALD) will largely determine if the U.S. Air Force is ready to buy the system, or whether modifications should be made to the prototype, said Maj. James Avrit, the Air Combat Command's chief of command and control warfare. "I'm very interested to see how it does," Avrit said. "If it does pan out, then there is a lot of value in that." The decoy is designed to look like a fighter or bomber to enemy air defense radars.
BOEING CO. delivered the 42nd C-17 airlifter to the U.S. Air Force in a short ceremony Sept. 21 at the company's plant in Long Beach, Calif. The aircraft was flown to Charleston AFB, S.C., by Col. Ed Stickler, commander of the 315th Airlift Wing Reserve.
The U.S. Navy is looking to restore procurement of the unitary variant of the AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon after strong endorsement by warfighters and a cost-cutting drill that reduced the price of the weapon from $300,000 per copy to $175,000 or less. The Navy was on a course to complete development of the unitary JSOW, or AGM-154C, and then hold off on procurement. Without planned production, House appropriators decided to zero fiscal 2000 funds, which would have cut development short.
The Pentagon yesterday officially offered to Israel the Boeing F-15I and the Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 50/52 in the country's $2.5 billion competition for a new fighter aircraft, but left open many of the configuration details including engines and radars. Israel is expected to announce a winner in February. The U.S. would sell 60 of the Lockheed Martin jets or 30 of the Boeing fighters, the Pentagon said in separate announcements.
LITTON INDUSTRIES' Electro-Optical Systems Div. won a multi-year contract from the U.S. Navy to design, develop and produce up to 5,300 Mini-Night Vision Sights for the U.S. Special Operations Command. Potential value of the contract to Litton is $24 million.
