KAMAN AEROSPACE CORP. said one of its K-Max helicopters, being operated by Helog of Switzerland, was involved in an accident that claimed the life of the pilot Sept. 4 about 12 miles south of Kempten, Germany. The aircraft, which was delivered to Helog in May 1995, was engaged in a logging operation at the time of the accident. A team of Kaman officials was dispatched to the site to aid Swiss and German authorities in the ongoing investigation.
In the wake of the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Henry H. Shelton says, "I think we'll see an increase in terrorist activity." He warns that the threats will become more sophisticated because even players who aren't backed by governments will have access to state-of-the-art equipment. Shelton says the U.S. won't be able to rely on technology alone to combat such threats, but will look at the best ways to employ technology.
Congressional sources say the fiscal 1999 defense authorization conference still hasn't closed out the three potential conference-buster issues - gender integration in the military, tritium production and export controls on missile and satellite components and technology. The F/A-18E/F issue is still said to be unsettled, although not considered veto bait. The defense appropriations conference may get underway this week.
James R. Wilson, chairman and CEO of Cordant Technologies stresses the technological scope of his company, renamed in May from Thiokol Corp., famous for solid rocket propulsion. "The name change ... is a reflection of the fact the company has evolved from a single product into a much diversified entity," he told Aviation Week's Farnborough Show News. Seven years ago Thiokol acquired the Huck International fasteners and Howmet Corp. metal forging companies.
ARTHUR STEPHENSON has been picked as the director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, replacing Carolyn Griner who has served as acting director since Wayne Little resigned last October. Stephenson is president of Oceaneering Advanced Technologies of Houston. Before joining Oceaneering International, the parent company, in 1992, Stephenson spent 28 years at the same TRW facility in Redondo Beach, Calif., where NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin worked before he was named administrator in 1992.
Top U.S. and Japanese foreign policy and defense officials, slated to meet next weekend in New York for regularly scheduled talks on a range of issues, may address cooperation on missile defense. One Pentagon official says that while the agenda hasn't been released, this subject is seen as highly likely to come up. Tokyo and Washington have already had a series of discussions on the issue, but North Korea's Aug. 31 launch of a missile over Japan may add new urgency.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Control Systems, Johnson City, Tex., said that as of August, its engine-control fleet had accumulated 200 million hours of operating time. The controls are used on engines that power more than 5,000 aircraft, including the Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767, 777 and MD-11; and Airbus 310, 320, 330 and 340.
MESSIER-BUGATTI, citing increasing demand in the U.S. market, said it will build a plant in Covington, Ky., to manufacture carbon disks for Airbus and Boeing aircraft brakes. The new, wholly-owned unit will be called A-Carb. The $30 million project is expected to be completed within 18 months and employ over 50 people.
Lopez says he has rigged command and control functions to see the air picture over both Greece and Turkey, with the aim of reducing tension between the dueling NATO members. Since establishment of the capability, air incidents have dropped by more than 75%.
Matra BAe Dynamics may be in line to rationalize some of its product lines in coming months to eliminate overlaps in certain areas. The company, formed on Nov. 1, 1996, is Europe's largest guided-weapons business, owned equally by British Aerospace plc in the U.K. and France's Lagardere Groupe SCA. It brings together the complementary range of products of Matra Defense and BAe Dynamics, and with about 6,000 employees, had first-year sales estimated at about $1.55 billion and a funded backlog of around $4 billion.
The rate of commercial space launches licensed by the U.S. government is increasing, according to the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Between March 1989 and August 1995 the office - then under the Transportation Dept. - licensed 50 launches. Last week's Delta II launch with five Iridium replenishment satellites aboard (DAILY, Sept. 9) was the 100th U.S.-licensed launch "and the pace continues to accelerate," according to OCST.
House Appropriations Committee approves fiscal 1999 foreign military financing request without any funding for Turkey and Greece, which follows a similar action by the Senate Appropriations Committee. This means that for the first time in more than 20 years, no FMF funds are provided for either country.
WOLFGANG DEMISCH, a defense and aerospace analyst, will leave BT Alex Brownto join Wasserstein Perella of New York as a managing director, as thecompany looks to "include a new focus on aerospace, defense andtechnology," Wasserstein reported yesterday. Demisch has 20 years ofexperience in the sector. Joseph San Pietro will join Wasserstein in itsequity research group as the senior research analyst and vice president,where he will cover individual aerospace companies. San Pietro will leaveMorgan Stanley Dean Witter.
Rolls-Royce plc and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC)said they will form a joint venture company to offer services to theaerospace, energy and defense sectors. The 50-50 joint venture, which willbecome operational during the fourth quarter of the year, will beheadquartered in northern Virginia, with operations in San Diego and LosAltos, Calif., and Derby, Gateshead and Bristol, U.K. The company willemploy about 150 existing SAIC staff and about 200 from Rolls. Each partnerwill have three directors on the board.
British defense companies and the Ministry of Defense have developeda new promise of customer satisfaction for those who buy British, the MODreported. "This is a determined attempt by the most responsible leaders ofBritish industry to work together with government to make sure thestandards of the best are, in future, the standards of the average," LordGilbert, the Minister of Defense Procurement, said in a statement from theFarnborough Air Show. Six major British companies - British Aerospace, GEC, GKN, Rolls-
Twelve satellites for the Globalstar low-Earth orbitcommunications system were lost early yesterday when a Ukrainian Zenit-2rocket launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan lost controlfour and a half minutes after liftoff and plunged into southern Siberia.
LUCAS AEROSPACE won contracts worth about 320 million pounds ($520 million)to supply "a major portion" of the primary and secondary flight controlsand thrust reverser actuation on the Airbus A340-500/600. Lucas said itwill supply trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator and rudder servocontrol actuator on the primary flight controls and the slat system on thesecondary flight controls, as well as the nacelle thrust reverseractuators. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2001.
DORNIER said yesterday it is the first German manufacturer of commercialaircraft to receive permission to build and certify aircraft and aircraftcomponents under Joint Aviation Requirement 21. Dornier is a subsidiary ofFairchild Aerospace, which announced appointment of Barry Eccleston assenior VP-business development. Eccleston was president of InternationalAero Engines for Rolls-Royce.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has picked Lockheed Martin Missilesand Space and TRW's Space and Electronics Group to negotiate contracts todevelop the planned Space Interferometry Mission (SIM), an ambitious stepon the way to the first direct look at planets around other stars with aspacecraft in an Earth-trailing solar orbit.
Rep. Howard P. (Buck) McKeon (R-Calif.) has introduced an amendmentthat would make available for another fiscal year $39 million in fiscal1998 funds for the SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. The funding, if approved, would make it possible for the U.S. AirForce's two SR-71s, now on standby status, to be flying in about two weeks,congressional sources said. McKeon's congressional district includes Palmdale, site of thetesting ground for the SR-71. His measure would make the $39 millionavailable for fiscal 1999, which expires Sept. 30, 1999.
ALLIEDSIGNAL said three Latin American airlines selected its enhancedground proximity warning system, auxiliary power unit and flight data andcockpit voice recorders in a deal valued at more than $100 million. Theairlines are Lan Chile, the TACA group of El Salvador and TAM of Brazil.They chose the equipment for A320 family aircraft.
A pending reorganization in the space technology office at NASAheadquarters that appears to dilute the responsibility of Gary E. Paytonover the agency's advanced launch vehicle program has raised the hackles ofRep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), long a champion of single-stage-to-orbittechnology and chairman of the NASA authorization subcommittee. "The chairman is extremely unhappy," said a source close toRohrabacher, adding that the lawmaker plans to address the issue in aletter to Administrator Daniel S. Goldin.
