Lufthansa Technik AG, United Airlines and Air Canada have formed a joint venture to supply airlines with used parts. Dubbed "AirLiance Materials," the venture will function as the exclusive buyer and seller of "pre-owned" or aftermarket parts for the founding airlines, which aim to expand participation to other carriers.
NASA has chosen research proposals from eight industry teams to create an aviation weather distribution and display system that will allow pilots to get up-to-the-minute weather information in flight.
Lockheed Martin has proposed a Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) to NASA that would use standard data-handling protocols to simplify spacecraft handling and buy commercial services when they are cheaper as a way to save on the $600 million a year the U.S. space agency spends on space operations today.
FIRST WAH-64 Westland Apache target designation sight/pilot night vision sensor (TADS/PNVS) was delivered to GKN Westland yesterday by Lockheed Martin. The system - developed by Lockheed Martin and built in conjunction with the U.K.'s Avimo Ltd., British Aerospace, and Pilkington Optronics - is the first of 71 the U.K. is slated to receive.
An article in The DAILY of May 6 concerning restrictions on the commercial use of data from U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellites did not sufficiently emphasize that weather and environmental data will not be restricted. The restrictions apply only to the non-government, non-environmental uses of the data collection systems on NOAA satellites, which gather data from ocean buoys and other ground-based sources and in the past have been used for such commercial applications as meter-reading.
The French government asked Aerospatiale chairman Yves Michot to draw up a plan for the "opening" of the capital of the state-owned company to private investors, including the possibility of floating Aerospatiale shares on the stock markets.
Russia may deorbit the Mir space station before the end of the year as a way to save money so it can meet its commitments to the International Space Station, the head of the cash-strapped Russian Space Agency told reporters in Moscow yesterday. Yuri Koptiev said during a press conference that his agency still wants to keep the 12-year-old station in orbit until the end of 1999 to accommodate planned French and Slovak missions. Russia has told NASA it wants to keep Mir occupied until the International Station can support a permanent crew.
After about a year and a half of exclusivity, Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 now has competition on Airbus' proposed A3XX family of very large aircraft, with the GE-Pratt&Whitney Engine Alliance this week signing a deal to power the aircraft with its GP7200 turbofan, Airbus reported yesterday. "Our customers expressed a preference for a choice of engines on the A3XX program," said Airbus Managing Director Noel Forgeard. "We are pleased to offer that choice and encourage a healthy competition to provide the best product to the market."
The Pentagon's Inspector General has found that the Defense Dept. doesn't sufficiently take into account the possibility of international cooperation as it launches programs, although steps have been taken to increase the international focus. "Defense agencies and the services still do not adequately consider allied participation early enough in the research, development, and production process of major Defense Acquisition Category I programs," the IG said in an April 27 report released recently at the Pentagon.
RAYTHEON SYSTEMS CO. said the U.S. Army exercised a $44 million option for 27 more AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel sensors and related support. The original contract was awarded in 1992, and operational deployment began last summer, according to Raytheon.
Pakistan's series of five underground nuclear tests yesterday "minimizes any chance for repeal" of the Pressler amendment in the short term, Sen. Tom Harkin (Iowa), a leading Democratic backer of repeal said. The amendment, aimed at discouraging development of nuclear weapons, has prevented Pakistan from taking delivery of 28 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters for which it paid $600 million in 1990.
Sales at Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace AG (DASA) grew 18% during the first three months of 1998 to DM 4.6 billion ($2.6 billion), primarily due to positive developments in the European and North American markets, the company reported. Orders soared 191% to DM 10.3 billion ($5.8 billion), spurred by increased demand in the civil sector, where orders grew five-fold to DM 3.9 billion ($2.2 billion).
Rada Electronic Industries Ltd. of Israel signed a teaming agreement with MLM Integrated Systems, a division in the electronic group of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., to market and co-produce an enhanced multi- dimensional Integrated Data Center (IDC) for fighter aircraft. Rada said yesterday that development and production work will be shared in a ratio of about 2-to-1. Rada will be responsible for marketing the system, which is a data recording, processing and transmitting systems for post debriefing and real time monitoring.
Boeing yesterday said it will grapple with production issues on its next generation 737 aircraft through the rest of 1998, but has replaced some program managers and has begun moving some finishing work to facilities in Long Beach, Calif. Three 737s are being prepped for delivery in Long Beach, and Boeing executives expect to decide shortly on how much more work Long Beach will acquire, and whether that work will be permanently based in Southern California.
Boeing's entry in NASA's high-stakes Consolidated Space Operations Contract (CSOC) competition adapts advances in commercial computer technology so researchers can use their desktops as "virtual control centers" to operate spacecraft and spaceborne experiments. In keeping with the commercialization principles expounded by Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, the company has crafted its CSOC bid so it can offer the same CSOC services NASA would use to other customers, including the Defense Dept. and commercial spacecraft operators.
U.S. Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan yesterday delayed until next Wednesday his ruling on contested documents in the Dept. of Justice's suit to halt the Lockheed Martin-Northrop Grumman merger. Sullivan had planned to issue a ruling yesterday on whether Lockheed Martin attorneys would have access to Dept. of Defense documents detailing government opposition to the merger. But Sullivan opted to give government attorneys more time to address questions raised by Lockheed Martin during a hearing in Washington.
BOEING CO. has won a four-year, $15.9 million U.S. Army contract to design, manufacture and flight test a composite materials center fuselage section for the Apache helicopter. Boeing said the award moves it to the forefront of the industry in the use of new technology to design and manufacture major aircraft structures using advanced composites. It could also extend the service life of the Apache. "This is a major success for the Phantom Works and for the Apache program," said Andy Logan, vice president of advanced rotorcraft systems at the Phantom Works.
ROCKWELL COLLINS Government Systems, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, won a $2.4 million order from the U.S. Navy for flight display and weather radar systems for C-9 aircraft being upgraded by Lockheed Martin Aircraft Center in Greenville, S.C. The company said yesterday that the contract covers 10 shipsets of Collins FDS-255 Flight Display Systems and Collins WXR-700 Forward Looking Windshear radars.
The Senate Armed Services Committee, noting "large strides" in human factors cockpit design, has directed the U.S. Navy to explain why the total force mix of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets now includes more two-seat F/A-18F aircraft than originally planned. The committee, in its report on the fiscal 1999 defense authorization, asks why the Navy needs the two-seat F/A-18F to replace the two-seat F-14 fighter when it is contemplating the F/A-18F to replace the four-seat EA-6B electronic warfare aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force has set a cost goal of less than $5,000 for a range extension system that would be used on a 250-pound-class small bomb, the Air Force Research Laboratory said in a May 27 Commerce Business Daily notice. The average unit procurement cost is based on a buy of at least 20,000 of the systems, intended to give the free-fall bomb a range of 35 n.m. if released at .8 Mach from 40,000 feet. When flying cross-range, the bomb should still have a standoff capability of 20 n.m., the AF said. The weapon is to have a five-meter accuracy.
The Pentagon expects to sell $90 million worth of AGM-142 missiles to the Royal Australian Air Force for use on the country's F-111C strike aircraft. The deal would include 51 missiles, ten training missiles, integration work with the F-111 and support equipment, the Pentagon said Tuesday. Australia announced its intent to buy the AGM-142 in 1996. The missile competed against the shorter-range AGM-130.
The U.S. Air Force is getting ready to launch the Agent Defeat Warhead Demonstration program to destroy chemical and biological storage facilities while minimizing collateral damage. "The objective of this program will be to demonstrate an ability to generate widespread damage within the target, while neutralizing any resident [chem/bio] agent which might be inadvertently expelled from the target during or after an attack," the Air Force Research Laboratory said in a May 26 Commerce Business Daily notice.
Boeing said it hopes to remain a player in Indonesia's commercial aerospace market, but one analyst said it must hedge its bets. In response to a question from The DAILY, a Boeing spokesman read a statement that said the company's relationship with Indonesia's new president, B.J. Habibie, long-time minister of research and technology and former head of state-owned airplane maker IPTN, "is based on a commitment to adding value to both parties."
