Delegates from developing countries at a conference in Rio de Janeiro were unsuccessful in getting the International Civil Aviation Organization to support the idea of a global fund to help nations install new communication, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management systems. The proposal was offered by African countries at last week's CNS/ATM Implementation Conference. Many other countries, including Bolivia and Pakistan, support the idea. A global $1 passenger ticket tax was seen as sufficient to create the fund.
AIRBUS since 1993 has converted 35 A310-200 aircraft into freighter versions and delivered them to final customers, the group announced at the Berlin Air Show. To date, 92 freighter conversions and 42 series-production freighters have been ordered from Airbus. The average period needed for Airbus to convert its larger aircraft is four months.
SpaceDev's Near Earth Asteroid Prospector (NEAP) is now eligible for NASA funding under the Mid-sized Explorer (MIDEX) program, SpaceDev said Tuesday. This is the second NASA program under which funding is available to scientists seeking to buy a ride on NEAP for their investigations (DAILY, Sept. 10, 1997). SpaceDev has been eligible for funding under the NASA Discovery program since early this year.
Commercial jet transport production between now and 2007 will be hurt by the competition between Airbus and Boeing, and the result will be a huge oversupply, according to a forecast by Teal Group of Fairfax, Va. "The inherent cyclicality of the market has been exacerbated by a vicious market share war between Boeing and Airbus," said Richard Aboulafia, lead analyst for the firm.
Hughes Global Services Inc. will send HGS-1 on a second lunar flyby to further improve the satellite's orbit around Earth. The communications satellite, launched into an incorrect orbit in December 1997 as Asiasat-3, was sent around the moon last week in an effort to put into a usable orbit.
The U.S. House of Representatives, reacting to published reports that the Clinton Administration may have permitted China to obtain sensitive U.S. technology from companies it favored, yesterday wrote into its $270.4 billion fiscal 1999 defense authorization bill a handful of amendments restricting satellite technology exports to Bejing.
The House National Security Committee has expressed concern about changes in performance requirements for the Low Band Signals Intelligence System, and cost and performance projections for its high band counterpart. Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit last year won a contract to develop and build the Low Band SIGINT Subsystem (LBSS). HNSC said that although it "is encouraged by progress in design" of the system, it "is concerned by schedule delays and cost increases that have forced reduction of system performance to remain within budget."
NASA completed a test of a new lightweight fuel tank, designed to help the Space Shuttle haul Space Station parts into orbit, a spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. The aluminum lithium tank, attached to the Shuttle Discovery, was filled with a half million gallons of liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Engineers checked for leaks and to make sure the new tank did not put unexpected stress on the struts that attach it to the solid rocket motors. The tank, which weighs 7,500 pounds less than previous tanks, is scheduled to make its first flight June 2.
JAY C. DAVIS will become the first director of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which will be activated Oct. 1, the Pentagon said yesterday. The DTRA will consolidate the activities of the On-Site Inspection Agency, Defense Special Weapons Agency and Defense Technology Security Administration. Davis will begin working on establishment of DTRA in June.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is adding $13.3 million to the U.S. Air Force's F-16 Theater Airborne Reconnaissance Pod (TARP) program to eliminate a sensor shortfall that could have forced recce missions to be flown in a higher risk environment. Cost increases on TARP forced the AF to adjust its procurement plans. Rather than buying 20 pods with forward-oblique cameras and a Medium Altitude Electro-Optic (MAEO) sensor, the AF was looking to drop the procurement of 15 MAEOs to cover overall cost increases in the program.
The unique capabilities of the U.S. Air Force's 16 RC-135V/W Rivet Joint electronic reconnaissance aircraft should ensure that the fleet remains stable even as efficiencies are sought in airborne recce, according to Brig. Gen. David Nagy. A Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Architecture has proposed several force mix alternatives for airborne recce in 2010, at least one of which reduces the number of Rivet Joints.
THE F/A-18E/F has completed 200 test flights, the U.S. Navy said. The 200th flight took place May 14 at the Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, Calif., where one of a pair of two-seat F/A-18Fs in the flight test program is undergoing weapon system integration testing.
The Senate Armed Services Committee's markup of the 1999 Pentagon budget adds funds to several electronic warfare programs, including the Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy. The U.S. Navy, which has been using the ITALD, wasn't going to buy any in FY '99. However, SASC said ITALD's predecessor, the Tactical Air Launched Decoy, can't handle the growing threat from integrated air defenses. This, it said, "requires that the Navy have a more capable decoy than is currently available."
An Airbus Industrie official, declaring that the consortium cannot afford to lose a "crucial segment" of the future global market for large aircraft, said yesterday that it is aiming to freeze the design of its A3XX family of 480-to-650 seat aircraft by the end of the year, and that it will offer the plane to customers in 1999.
The U.S continues to say it won't immediately export the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile to Chile even as Defense Secretary William Cohen plans a trip to South America later this month to the country, which has shown interest in acquiring the missile along with new fighter aircraft.
The U.S. Navy expects to use the Tactical Tomahawk cruise missile with several different conventional warheads rather than limiting itself to the WDU-36/B blast fragmentation warhead now in use, according to the service's director of surface warfare programs. "The real significance of the Tactical Tomahawk is that we're going to be able to change the payload on that weapon very easily and only at a small fraction of the cost that would have been required with the old design," Rear Adm. Daniel Murphy said in an interview.
TRACOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS, Rockville, Md., won a $58.6 million, five-year contract, including options, from the Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk Washington Detachment, Washington, D.C., to provide information technology support for the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Md. Work will be performed at the center and at Tracor facilities in the Washington area.
BTR PLC sold its two Australian aerospace companies, Hawker Pacific and Hawker de Havilland, for $102 million. Hawker Pacific, which overhauls airframes, sells aircraft and distributes spares, was bought by a division of Sweden's Celsius AB. Hawker de Havilland, which makes airframe structures and develops software, was acquired by the Tenix Group of Australia.
Lockheed Martin Aircraft&Logistics Centers, Greenville, S.C., will compete for the depot maintenance workload being conducted by the U.S. Air Force's Sacramento Air Logistics Center at McClellan AFB, Calif., the company said. Lockheed Martin is teamed with AAI Corp. of Hunt Valley, Md., and GEC-Marconi Avionics Inc. of Norcross, Ga. A team of Boeing and the Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah, is also competing.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), obviously annoyed by last week's fifth successive failure of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile to intercept a target, plans to offer an amendment today to bring on an alternative contractor to Lockheed Martin for the development and production of the weapon.
Crossair and Lufthansa CityLine, Lufthansa's regional subsidiary, will be launch customers for Fairchild Dornier's new 728JET family of regional aircraft. Their decision enabled Fairchild Dornier to launch its new family formally yesterday at the International Aerospace Exhibition '98 (ILA '98) here. The airlines, which said they will support the program in all design stages, are considering a total initial order of 120 aircraft and options, with first deliveries scheduled in mid-2001.
British Aerospace denied press reports that it would begin deliveries of 16 Hawk Mk. 209 fighters to Indonesia this month, despite rioting and turmoil there. The company said deliveries of the light single- seat multi-role combat aircraft would begin at the end of the year, as has been scheduled. Indonesia now has 44 Hawks. It recently received its first batch of eight Hawk 109 two-seat lead-in fighter trainers and 16 Hawk 209s from a 1992 order, which followed deliveries of 20 Hawk Mk. 53 advanced trainers from 1980.
