GE Engine Services signed a memorandum of understanding with AAR Corp. in which GE's Dallas, Texas, operation will get its Pratt&Whitney JT8D turbofan parts exclusively from AAR. Under the five-year deal, AAR will provide a customized inventory management program, integrating supply and repair of engine parts to support the Dallas unit's JT8D engine maintenance programs, including work on the -200 series, the newest version of the engine. AAR is already doing similar work for GE Aircraft Engine Services Ltd. in Wales and GE Celma in Brazil.
NICHOLS RESEARCH CORP., Huntsville, Ala., won a five-year, $15 million contract from the U.S. Navy's Naval Surface Warfare Center - Carderock Div., Bethesda, Md., for engineering services for ship and submarine evaluation in the area of hydrodynamics and hydroacoustics.
The Pentagon this summer will offer a proposal to Russia and other countries to form an early warning agreement that would go into effect around the time Year 2000 (Y2K) computer problems are expected to surface, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told senators yesterday. "We need an international focal point for sharing early warning during this period," Hamre told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The U.S. Air Force awarded Phoenix, Ariz.-based AlliedSignal Engines its long-awaited contract for the third phase of the Joint Turbine Advanced Gas Generator (JTAGG) program, which is aimed at developing leading-edge small- and medium-turbine engine technologies under the government/military Integrated High-Performance Turbine Engine Technology initiative (IHPTET). Military officials and the company actually finished negotiating the $18.4 million JTAGG III contract in December.
Rep. Porter Goss (R-Fla.) said a report on the U.S. intelligence community's failure to predict India's nuclear tests puts congressional overseers of the community "on the spot."
Rolls-Royce broke ground recently on a major new 10,000-square-meter facility at Derby to make high-technology turbine blades. The 41 million- pound (US$65 million) facility, which will employ 250 people, is expected to begin production next year. "Turbine blades are among the most complex components in a leading-edge technology product, and require the very latest in manufacturing capability," notes Colin Green, operations director for Rolls-Royce. "That's what this development offers."
Hamilton Standard's Worldwide Customer Support (WWCS) business is this month opening a spare parts distribution center in Frankfurt, Germany, with an intial inventory of 2,000 parts that will be managed by Lufthansa Technik unit Lufthansa Technik Logistik, Ham Standard reports. "The Frankfurt facility, and our recently opened Singapore distribution facility, make it possible to get parts to our customers anywhere in the world within one or two days," says WWCS VP Bas Demarteau.
Russian delays and cost overruns on the U.S. side have added another $1.7 billion to the overall cost of building and operating the International Space Station, according to a General Accounting Office report released by the Senate Commerce Committee.
Aerospatiale and Alcatel Espace of France, in association with Russia's NPO-PM, signed a contract with the Russian Federation's State Committee for Telecommunications, represented by the national operator, RSCC, to deliver three Express K satellites, Alcatel and Aerospatiale announced yesterday.
The Discoverer II space-based synthetic aperture radar/ground moving target indicator (SAR/GMTI) surveillance demonstration that the U.S. Defense Dept. is developing will draw heavily on satellite mass production techniques pioneered by Motorola and Lockheed Martin in the Iridium "Big LEO" commercial communications constellation, top officials said yesterday.
Boeing and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency have concluded an agreement for a $24 million development and demonstration program of the unmanned Canard Rotor Wing stopped-rotor advanced development program. Over the next 37 months, Boeing said it plans to build and flight test two of the vehicles. They are designed to take off like a helicopter and then fly like a fixed wing aircraft, once sufficient forward speed has been attained and once the rotor has been locked in place.
Controls specialist Woodward Governor Co. hopes to buy Textron's Fuel Systems subsidiary by the end of this month for $160 million in cash in an effort to broaden its fuel-handling reach from components into entire systems. "Woodward's commitment to being a systems integrator in the aircraft market makes them an excellent fit for Fuel Systems," says Textron President Lewis B. Campbell.
The U.S. Navy on Tuesday completed the first combined development test/operational test of the Standoff Land Attack Missile-Expanded Response (SLAM-ER) at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif. The missile was fired from an F/A-18 at about 20,000 feet and flew about 22 n.m. before hitting its target, a command bunker structure, the Navy said.
Lockheed Martin has completed its design study for U.S. Navy uninhabited combat air vehicles, and company officials say they have identified some of the special technical requirements to be considered in the development of UCAVs that could be launched from a variety of ships.
Where Asia's Engines Are A tally of all aircraft engines in revenue service with Asia/Pacific airlines shows 3,381 in operation to date, with General Electric Aircraft Engines just edging out Pratt&Whitney for the lion's share of the installed base. The table below includes everything from large high-bypass turbofans to P&W Canada PT6 turboprops. Air New Air All Cathay China Engine Zealand Niugini Nippon Ansett Asiana Pacific Airlines
Pratt&Whitney Eagle Services' Columbus, Ga., Engine Center just added a new 9,000-square-foot engine test cell that can perform acceptance tests on P&W JT8D turbofans serviced at Columbus, as well as on International Aero Engines V2500s and CFM International CFM56s. When Columbus opened two years ago, overhauled engines were sent to test stands in Atlanta, and P&W executives expect the on-site test cell to take a big bite out of turn times.
Citing a "chronic shortage of Allison 250 engine parts," aftermarket engine parts manufacturer Extex Ltd., Mesa, Ariz., is now guaranteeing that if any of its parts are out of stock at its distributor, Aviall, Extex will offer a 5% discount on the price of the part. Extex President and CEO Larry Shiembob says in a prepared statement, "parts availability problems were a leading impetus for Extex getting into this market...this discount is an obvious incentive for us to keep the shelves stocked."
Competitors for the U.K.'s Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) have resubmitted their bids to the U.K. Ministry of Defense. The British Royal Air Force wants BVRAAM for its Eurofighter aircraft, but Germany, Italy and Spain, the other Eurofighter partners, will also need such a missile. In addition, Russia is apparently proceeding with work on its own new medium range air-to-air missile.
The U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade some of the tethered aerostats it maintains along the southern border of the country for counter-narcotics and drug surveillance. The AF maintains 11 sites as part of the Tethered Aerostat Radar System that supports the Customs Service, Coast Guard and North American Air Defense Command (NORAD). Now the AF plans to transition to a 420,000- cubic foot aerostat with a fixed mooring system, according to a June 4 Commerce Business Daily notice.
President Clinton yesterday proposed renewing normal trade relations with China, urging Congress to support a policy "clearly in the nation's interest." The president said that Most Favored Nation (MFN) status does not convey any special privilege but is simply ordinary, natural tariff treatment offered to virtually every nation on earth. "Not to renew would be to sever our economic and, to a large measure, our strategic relationship with China," Clinton said at the White House.
Elbit Systems' Hermes 1500, a new medium altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle, made its first flight yesterday, the Haifa, Israel, company announced. The twin engine UAV, which has a takeoff weight of 1,500 kilograms, was jointly developed by Silver Arrow LP, a 50%-owned subsidiary of Elbit, and the Israeli Ministry of Defense as an Advanced Technology Concept Demonstrator for large payload mission performance.
Editor's note: Following are excerpts of comments by Adm. David Jeremiah, a former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference at CIA headquarters Tuesday his panel's findings regarding the Intelligence Community's failure to give advance warning of India's nuclear tests on May 11 and 13.
RAYTHEON MISSILE SYSTEMS yesterday was awarded a total $255.6 million Navy contract to begin development of the Tactical Tomahawk. Congress only recently approved the Navy's plan to reprogram fiscal 1998 funds to begin Tactical Tomahawk production.
NASA has opened an "Office of Human Space Flight Program" in Moscow as it prepares for the dawn of the International Space Station era. Astronaut Michael A. Baker, a U.S. Navy captain and assistant director of Johnson Space Center, will head the office, which will manage the transition between the Shuttle/Mir phase of the International Station program and the assembly and operation of the Station itself.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) isn't ready to make an issue of the possibility that Loral and Hughes may have passed sensitive data to Beijing, even though the Clinton Administration has not turned over any documents on the matter to the Senate Republican China Task Force or the chairmen of committees with jurisdiction to investigate it.
