Litton, Woodland Hills, Calif., won a $138.6 million contract from the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command to design and make Engineering Control Systems Equipment and Integrated Bridge Systems (IBSs) for backfit on Ticonderoga class Aegis cruisers, Litton announced. The company said it will provide IBSs, machinery/damage control, internal wireless communications systems and integrated logistics support.
Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing Co. ordered five BMW Rolls-Royce-powered Boeing 717 (formerly McDonnell Douglas MD-95) aircraft, the first orders for the 100-seat airplane since ValuJet, now AirTran, ordered 50 and took options on 50 more in October 1995. The Munich-based company will lease the airplanes when deliveries begin in late 1999 and into 2000. The B717 uses two BR715 turbofans
AAR CORP., Wood Dale, Ill., filed a shelf registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $200 million, allowing for either offerings of debt or equity. The company had, through both debt and equity offerings in 1997, depleted its previous registrations to a remaining balance of $25 million.
British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Ltd. (BARAL), now independent from the Aero International (Regional) European aircraft consortium, is talking to operators about a new four-engine RJX aircraft powered by AlliedSignal Engines' proposed new AS907A engine, the companies involved report.
ESTERLINE TECHNOLOGIES, Bellevue, Wash., acquired privately held Memtron Technologies, which designs and makes membrane switches and panels for medical, industrial computer and other commercial markets. Esterline's Seattle-based Korry Electronics subsidiary, which makes lighted switches and panels for aerospace applications, will operate Michigan-based Memtron.
TELL ALL: The Senate Armed Services Committee is complaining that the NRO has violated reprogramming rules, and wants the agency to stop. Hall says he believes all rules were followed. But that doesn't matter, he notes, since SASC is concerned. As Hall sees it, NRO must notify the Senate Intelligence Committee for some reprogrammings, not SASC. For others, both committees must be notified. To avoid future problems, Hall says, all four committees - to include the House National Security and Intelligence committees - will be told about all reprogrammings.
American Airlines exercised rights under its long-term agreement with Boeing to buy 25 more CFM56-7- powered 737-800 aircraft, bringing its total firm 737 orders to 100. The aircraft are slated for delivery between January 2000 and January 2002
TIME'S UP: United Missile Defense Co. will go away quietly with no protest of the Pentagon's selection of Boeing as the lead system integrator for the national missile defense program, sources say. UMDC has until May 24 to protest, but sources say there has been no move to do so by the joint venture of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and TRW. Meanwhile, Boeing is preparing its NMD architecture proposal, which must be presented to the NMD Joint Program Office in August.
AVCORP IND., Vancouver, B.C., signed a $40 million credit agreement with the Royal Bank of Canada. The new credit facility increases the operating line of credit by $4 million to $13 million. As of April 30, Avcorp was using $4.8 million of the line. The equipment loans facility has been increased by $10 million to $16 million. The foreign exchange facility increased from $865,000 to $1 million.
The U.S. Air Force has put TRW in charge of integrating the High Band Signals Intelligence Subsystem (HBSS), which TRW is developing, and the Low Band Sigint Subsystem (LBSS) being developed by Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit, said Col. Rich Leclaire, director of the Pentagon's Joint Airborne Sigint program office.
Pratt&Whitney's fighter engine unit in West Palm Beach, Fla., expects to have both F119 turbofan variants for the competing Lockheed Martin and Boeing Joint Strike Fighter designs built and ready to run this week. P&W's JSF program chief, Bob Cea, adds that testing on two additional engines - focusing on areas such as engine prognostics technology - should start later this fall. Each engine probably will accumulate about 2,800 hours before flight tests start.
BMW Rolls-Royce's BR715 engine wrapped up a 150-hour endurance run on a test platform in Dahlewitz, Germany, the latest milestone in development of the engine powering Boeing's 717, known as the MD-95 before Boeing acquired McDonnell Douglas and the aircraft program. First flight is planned for late this year, with entry into service with AirTran Airlines scheduled for 1999.
Joint Aviation Authority certification of the Rolls-Royce-powered Tu- 204 is being held up by foot-dragging by Russian authorities, who haven't yet responded to JAA's requests for additional information, says JAA Secretary General Klaus Koplin. At Aviation Week's MRO Europe conference in Berlin last week, Koplin suggested that large Commonwealth of Independent States countries with long aviation traditions ought to investigate creating their own joint authority because integrating such countries into the existing JAA would be very difficult.
PLANAR ADVANCE INC. and dpiX, a Xerox New Enterprise company, won a production contract from L-3 Display Systems to deliver a high-resolution flat-panel display subassembly for the U.S. Army's AH-64 Apache helicopter. The Eagle-5M display will be incorporated into the AH-64 Target Acquisition Designation System and Pilot Night Vision System (TADS/PNVS) in a system supplied by Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles. Planar Advances is a division of Planar Systems Inc., Beaverton, Ore.
BMW Rolls-Royce expects to generate an operating profit after 2000, in the first half of the next decade, says Chairman Klaus Nittinger. Launched in 1990, BMW Rolls is projecting an operating loss this year of DM400 million to DM500 million (US$240 million to US$300 million) on revenues of DM800 million (US$480 million). The pace of losses is slowing, with the red ink last year coming to DM662 million (US$397 million).
Despite FAA's issuance of an emergency airworthiness directive on CFM International CFM56-3 turbofans last week, all the potentially affected engines already have been inspected or repaired, CFM partner General Electric Aircraft Engines reports. The AD, published in last Tuesday's Federal Register, was aimed at -3 Series engines with suspect gearbox components, and required removal of one engine on twin-engine aircraft and replacement with a serviceable engine or replacement of the components.
Computer Sciences Corp. won a contract from Lockheed Martin Government Electronic Systems, Moorestown, N.J., to provide computer program support to the U.S. Navy's Aegis Combat System, CSC announced. The award, an extension of the work Computer Sciences Corp. has been doing for Aegis, has a value of $600 million over nine years if all options are exercised.
THAAD CUTS: House Appropriations national security subcommittee chairman Rep. C.W. Young (R-Fla.) hints of deep cuts in the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system that could go beyond eliminating engineering and manufacturing development money, which the Senate did. "I strongly support a THAAD type program," Young says.
RAYTHEON SYSTEMS CO., Lexington, Mass., won a $7.9 million contract for the Infrared Search&Track (IRST)/Eyesafe Laser Range Finder (ELRF) Risk Mitigation Sensor for the Airborne Test and Evaluation program from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. Raytheon will perform 18 months of sensor development followed by integration of the sensor with the E-2C aircraft and related flight test and support. The mitigation sensor also will be adaptable for use on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to support the Israeli Boost Phase Intercept (IBIS) program.
Piqua, Ohio-based Hartzell Propeller, Inc., boosted the overhaul interval for four-bladed Hartzell/Raisbeck Quiet propellers from 3,000 hours/five years to 4,000 hours/six years. The new interval applies to all propellers produced since 1991 and to units produced earlier that have been overhauled to Hartzell specifications. The propellers are installed on more than 1,000 King Airs and Super King Airs, as well as de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otters.
Singapore Airlines ordered five Airbus A340-500s and placed options on five more. It plans to use the ultra long-range aircraft, powered by Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engines, on the first nonstop routes between Singapore and such points as Los Angeles and San Francisco
Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Calif.), selected by House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) to head the select committee to investigate the national security consequences of two U.S. companies briefing China on a failed satellite launch, aims to run a tightly focused investigation. The five-term congressman said in an interview that for the committee to be successful, it must be tightly focused on national security and not get diverted into campaign financing or other areas.
The U.K. government effectively rejected protests from families of pilots blamed for the 1994 crash of a Royal Air Force Chinook HC-2 helicopter in Northern Ireland. The Common Defense Committee, after studying the RAF Board of Inquiry findings, said that the Chinook Mk. II fleet was operating "reasonably and safely and reliably," and the aircraft involved in the crash did not suffer from design flaws. The committee also said it could find no "compelling evidence" to support claims attributing the crash to technical failures.
The U.S. National Reconnaissance Office said yesterday it has awarded TRW a $27.5 million contract to develop and build the new Launch and Network Control Equipment (LANCE) system to be deployed at Falcon AFB, Colo. The launch support and on-orbit telemetry processing system will replace a 20-year-old mainframe command and control system, NRO said. LANCE is expected to become operational in February 2000.
A Matra BAe Dynamics Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) yesterday shot down a QF-4 target in a test at Eglin AFB, Fla. The missile, which carried no warhead, nevertheless destroyed the target. The firing, from an F-16 fighter, proved the latest ASRAAM software, Matra BAe Dynamics said. The test was one of a series being conducted at Eglin AFB. The missile is slated to be used on U.K. Royal Air Force Harriers, Tornados and Eurofighters, as well as Australian F/A-18s.
