CHC Helicopter Corp., St. John's, Newfoundland, said its U.K. operating subsidiary, Brintel Helicopters Ltd., failed to renew a contract to supply helicopter services to Shell UK Exploration and Production. The existing contract, which is expected to produce revenues of about 22.5 million pounds in fiscal 1998, expires June 30. It accounts for about 48% of Brintel's total revenues.
THE HOUSE yesterday approved by a 212-208 vote a $2.9 billion defense- disaster fiscal 1998 supplemental appropriations bill with offsetting cuts and sent it to conference with the Senate, which last week completed action on a broad-based supplemental.
Boeing and the U.S. Navy are putting forward a variable porous wing fairing as the solution for the F/A-18E/F's wing drop and buffeting problem, and hope they will get approval to continue production of the fighter in the coming days. The fairing has allowed Navy testers to log several hours with no anomalies. The Navy first installed the fairing to handle the wing-drop problem - uncommanded bank angles because of asymmetric lift at the wing snag - but was forced to tinker with the design when it caused buffeting.
The mid-air collision of a German Luftwaffe Tu-154 transport and a U.S. Air Force C-141 airlifter near Namibia last year was caused by a discrepancy between the Tu-154's planned and actual flight path, USAF Col. William H.C. Schell, vice commander of the 375th airlift wing, Scott AFB, Ill., has concluded. Schell said in a report released yesterday that the flight path planned and flown by the German jet did not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization rules, leading to the Sept. 13, 1997, crash that killed a total of 33 people.
AlliedSignal Electronics&Avionics Systems won a contract worth more than $10 million to supply British Airways with enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), the company announced. BA is the first airline outside the U.S. to announce a fleet-wide retrofit with the new system. More than 200 BA jetliners will get EGPWS.
The House yesterday directed President Clinton to expeditiously procure and provide three UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to the Colombian National Police to help combat drugs. The fiscal 1998 foreign operations appropriations act funded $36 million for three of the Sikorsky helicopters, as well as maintenance and training. If the president determines that three isn't enough, the resolution said, he should tell Congress "the appropriate number" so additional amounts can be authorized.
U.S. NAVY S-3 crashed yesterday off the coast of California. All four crew members survived with minor injuries. The ASW plane belonged to VS-41 and was flying a routine training mission from its home station at NAS North Island, Calif., a Navy spokesman said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Increasing age of U.S. Marine Corps systems and the slow pace of recapitalization threatens several systems with block obsolescence, Lee Dixson, director of the Resources Div. at Headquarters USMC, said yesterday. Without modernization, "we'll have a serious block obsolescence problem on our hands," Dixson told the Navy League's annual "Sea, Air, Space" symposium in Washington. He added, however, that the fiscal 1999 budget request shows an upturn in modernization which helps defend against the block obsolescence problem.
Boeing won a $26.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center to install electronic support measures (ESM) on the French Air Force's four E-3 AWACS aircraft. Boeing said the award, under a Foreign Military Sales agreement, follows a $32 million contract it received in January 1997 for production of the ESM hardware.
Intelsat's Assembly of Parties has give final approval to creation of a new commercial spinoff company with six of the consortium's satellites, naming the new company New Skies Satellites S.V., the consortium announced yesterday. Meeting in Salvador, Brazil, the Parties' unanimous approval marked what Intelsat Director General and CEO Irv Goldstein called "the first step in the ultimate and full commercialization of Intelsat."
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded an $8,036,499 ceiling priced basic ordering agreement for 2,300 turbine nozzle segments used on the F-404 engines on the F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (F34601-97-G-0002)(Order GEG5).
The six-satellite commercial spinoff from the Intelsat consortium passed another hurdle Friday when the Intelsat Meeting of Signatories endorsed its creation. The Signatories unanimously endorsed creation of Intelsat New Company (INC), setting the stage for final approval by the 22nd Assembly of Parties this week. The Parties will meet in Salvador, Brazil, as did the Signatories.
Telesat Canada has ordered a 15-kilowatt HS 702 telecommunications satellite from Hughes Space and Communications International, pushing Hughes' satellite orders in the first quarter of 1998 above $1 billion, the company said Friday. Named Anik F1, the new Canadian platform will carry 84 transponders to geostationary orbit at 107.3 degrees West longitude, where it will provide general telecommunications services to North and South America. The satellite is to be delivered in the first quarter of 2000.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., executed a $335 million contract with a group of Middle East investors to buy 12 Gulfstream IV-SP business jets, the company announced yesterday. The planes will be used to expand the Gulfstream Shares fractional ownership concept to the Middle East. Sales of Gulfstream Shares will begin immediately, with the first aircraft under the program scheduled to enter service in early 1999. Deliveries will continue through 2003.
While the four partners of Airbus Industrie broadly agree on the kind of future Airbus they want to form, there are specific problems on the way it will be put together, a British Aerospace official said yesterday. "The basic problems are about the structures of the companies," Michael Bell, project director for British Aerospace PLC European Consolidation, said at the ComDef conference in Washington. The big problem with the Airbus restructure is the fact that the French companies are state-owned, Bell said.
Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $418,741,241 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0054 to exercise as option for the manufacture and delivery of five MV-22 low- rate-initial-production aircraft. Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pa. (50%), and Ft. Worth, Texas (50%), and is expected to be completed in November 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $36,868,773 cost-plus-award- fee/incentive-fee contract for the engineering and manufacturing development including design, development, test and integration of the Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) into the F/A-18 aircraft weapons system. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif. (57%), and St. Louis, Miss. (43%), and is expected to be completed by September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Contrary to claims by the General Accounting Office that the first low-rate initial production contract in the F-22 program will be awarded prematurely, the heart of the new fighter's flight envelope will have been proven by December when the contract is to be let, Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, director for AF Global Power programs, said yesterday. He said in an interview that the F-22 will have logged 200 flight test hours by LRIP which, and that data will have been gathered on such critical points on aerodynamic performance, supercruise and refueling.
Iridium LLC is only 10 satellites short of its planned 66-satellite constellation of low Earth orbit communications platforms following the launch early yesterday of five more satellites aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Liftoff came at 1:02 a.m. EST after the flight was delayed from Friday by upper-level winds over the launch area. The five satellites aboard joined 51 already launched, including two launch just last week aboard a Chinese Long March vehicle (DAILY, March 26).
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., is being awarded a $32,772,610 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for one C-37A aircraft and associated training and data. The work is expected to be completed December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-96/C-0037, P00007).
The FAA has decided to exercise options for phases two and three of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) despite opposition from U.S. airlines and recommendations of the NAS Modernization Task Force and Mitre Corp. John Britigan, program manager for Raytheon Co., the WAAS contractor, convinced the agency that the follow-on phases would add little to contract costs.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $55,101,606 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract, to exercise the option for 10 (FY98) UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters, and one UH-60L MEDEVAC Mission Kit. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by June 30, 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 17, 1995. The contracting activity is the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala. (DAAJ09-97-C-0005).
Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) is conducting a feasibility study on a class of microsatellites that would conduct Earth orbit and deep space missions in the coming century. Basic requirements of the new class of spacecraft, dubbed Hyper-sat, would be very high autonomy; very high performance; smaller size and weight than today's spacecraft, and the durability required for missions into deep space.
Northrop Grumman, Bethpage, N.Y., is being awarded a $144,200,131 cost- plus-incentive-fee/award-fee contract for the engineering and manufacturing development of the EA-6B Improved Capabilities III (ICAP III) Warfighter Upgrade System. Work will be performed in College Park, Md. (29%), Bethpage, N.Y. (28%), St. Augustine, Fla. (18%), Hollywood, Md. (13.5%), and Nashua, N.H. (11.5%), and is expected to be completed by January 2004. Contract funds in the amount of $19,500,000 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
THE PENTAGON announced planned sales of missiles and artillery systems to Egypt, Kuwait and Korea. All the deals must be approved by Congress. Egypt, for $304 million, would get 1,058 Stinger RMP Type III missiles, 50 complete Avenger systems and related gear. Kuwait, under a $496 million sale, would get two fully equipped Paladin artillery battalions. A $40 million sale to Korea would include 112 Multiple Launch Rocket System Extended Range (MLRS-ER) rocket pods and related equipment.
