THROWING IN THE TOWEL: Sen. Dale Bumpers (D-Ark.), who plans to retire from Congress at the end of this session, says he is "about ready to concede I have lost" his fight to kill the F-22. The long-time opponent of the Air Force fighter program was successful in getting a cost cap imposed on the program last year, but has failed repeatedly to kill it. Bumpers, at a Senate Appropriations National Security Subcommittee hearing last week, spent more time prodding USAF leaders on C-130 upgrades than grilling them on the F-22.
NASA's Lunar Prospector found "significant" quantities of water ice at the moon's poles during its first month in orbit around the earth's satellite, and also produced a first-order map of the moon's gravity that will allow future lunar orbiters to carry less fuel.
Rolls-Royce sales climbed 11% to a record 4.3 billion pounds ($7.1 billion) in 1997, with sales in the aerospace businesses growing by 19%, the company reported yesterday. Rolls said about 75% of its sales were from exports, as it earned 276 million pounds ($455.8 million) before taxes, up 17% from 1996 earnings before taxes of 235 million pounds ($388.1 million). Chairman Ralph Robins said Rolls-Royce achieved its highest ever share of the civil aero-engine market in 1997. He didn't elaborate.
A team of Boeing-CSA Czech Airlines reached an agreement with Aero Vodochody Wednesday for the joint venture to acquire a minority stake in the Czech plane maker, Boeing announced yesterday. The joint venture will provide training in Western business practices, assistance in upgrading manufacturing practices and equipment, and marketing support. Terms of the agreement, which were not disclosed, will be submitted by the Czech Minister of Industry and Trade to the government for approval by the end of the month.
The chiefs of U.S. European Command and Central Command warned lawmakers yesterday not to lose sight of smaller intelligence programs by focusing too much on big efforts like the satellite-based Future Imagery Architecture program.
NASA DRYDEN Flight Research Center has two ER-2s and a DC-8 in service as flying laboratories for such industry uses as sensor development, satellite calibration and data validation, as well as scientific research applications for government and academic scientists. The NASA field center's Airborne Science Program started flying in January, with the ER-2s capable of lifting as much as 2,600 pounds of payload to 70,000 feet and keeping it there for about five hours.
MACDONALD, DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES LTD., a subsidiary of Orbital Sciences Corp. located in Vancouver, B.C., has won a $160 million (U.S.) contract to develop, build and manage Canada's next-generation radar imaging satellite, Radarsat-2. The contract includes space and ground systems and a business plan for commercial operations of the spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR), which the company expects to deploy at roughly half the cost of the existing Radarsat-1 spacecraft.
SPACEDEV, which is working on a commercial program to exploit the resources of near-Earth asteroids, has opened an office near Washington to market the planned data take from its Near Earth Asteroid Program (NEAP) spacecraft to scientists in and out of government. The Steamboat Springs, Colo.-based startup plans to land a robotic probe on an asteroid as the first step toward possible commercial asteroid mining (DAILY, Sept. 10, 1997). The office will be located in Arlington, Va.
Sonex Research Inc., Annapolis, Md., received an order from the U.S. Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, Va., to convert 40 additional unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gasoline engines to military heavy fuel operation. The order, worth about $122,000, is an amendment to a prior contract. Work should be completed in June. Five prototype engines were delivered in January 1998.
GE AMERICOM has picked a team led by Germany's Dornier Satelliten Systeme to build its GE-5 spacecraft in the first pick of a European contractor by a U.S. satellite operator. Aerospatiale and Alenia will round out the team, which already has picked Arianespace to orbit the Spacebus 2000 platform late this year. Aerospatiale said the contract was signed in November 1997 for a launch late this year, a 12-month turnaround that will be a record for Europe. The satellite will serve the continental U.S. with 18 Ku-band transponders.
Lewis B. Campbell, president and chief operating officer of Textron Inc., will become chief executive officer on July 1, replacing James F. Hardymon, Textron announced yesterday. Hardymon will remain chairman of the board until his retirement at the end of 1999 at age 65. The Textron board of directors said, "We greatly appreciate Jim Hardymon's outstanding contribution to Textron and we enthusiastically support the selection of Lewis Campbell as CEO."
Bell Helicopter Textron won a $15.7 million contract from the U.S. Army to retrofit 28 OH-58D Kiowa Warrior helicopters for the first phase of a System/Safety Enhancement Program (S/SEP). Bell said the program includes installation of an improved master control processor unit with an inherent digital map and video cross link capability, a full-authority digital electronic control (FADEC) C30R/3 engine, improved data modem and SINCGARS radio, embedded GPS in an inertial navigation system and energy attenuating seats.
Boeing delivered its 24th AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopter, completing the first production lot of a $1.9 billion contract with the U.S. Army. The first 24 are part of a 232-aircraft order through a five-year agreement, Boeing said. The Army plans to remanufacture its entire fleet of 750 Apaches through the first decade of the next century. Seven of the first 24 production aircraft will begin operation in early April as the first U.S. Army Apache Longbow unit, the 1-227th, 1st Calvary Division, Ft. Hood, Texas.
The General Accounting Office has denied a protest of an Environmental Protection Agency RFP for a small business set-aside to evaluate jet aircraft emissions. The GAO said the protester, the Air Transport Association, couldn't protest since it isn't a small business. It said a protester must be an actual or prospective bidder or offeror with direct economic interest in the awarding of the contract.
The revenue growth rate of the U.S. aerospace and defense industry is the second lowest among seven technology-based industry segments, according to a study by a management consulting firm. The "1997 Product Development Benchmarking Study" by Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd&McGrath of Costa Mesa, Calif., evaluated 288 companies representing $40 billion in R&D spending. Twenty-five of the companies were in the aerospace and defense segment.
Executive branch agencies yesterday endorsed a bill designed to promote commercial space activities, with only a few reservations about the proposed legislation's provisions.
U.S. AIR FORCE on Wednesday test-dropped a BLU-109 Joint Direct Attack Munition with redesigned strakes that were required after it was found that the weapon was unstable at high angles of attack (DAILY, March 4).
Boeing Co. has begun producing the CH-47SD "Super D" Chinook helicopter, with the first to be delivered next year to an unnamed international customer. Boeing said it will build six CH-47SDs at its Philadelphia plant for deliveries starting Oct. 31, 1999. The transport helicopter will feature a full integrated glass cockpit with automated flight controls and a full authority digital engine control system, Boeing said yesterday. The helicopter is powered by the AlliedSignal T55-L-714A engine, an kit upgrade to the -712.
LORAL SPACE&COMMUNICATIONS has won FCC approval to acquire Orion Network Systems, which has one satellite in orbit and two under construction, further expanding Loral's growing satellite constellation. Orion shareholders are scheduled to meet March 20 to approve the 28-million-share deal, which will close soon thereafter if they approve. Under the arrangement Loral will acquire Orion for 28 million shares of Loral common stock (DAILY, Oct. 16, 1997).
Senior U.S. Army officials told lawmakers yesterday that their fiscal year 1999 budget is stretched, but with additional funds they could accelerate some programs including the RAH-66 Comanche. The Comanche program is slowed by the fact that there is only one prototype, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Research, Development and Acquisition Kenneth J. Oscar said at a joint hearing of the House National Security Committee procurement and military research and development subcommittees.
Astronaut Eileen Collins will command the Space Shuttle Columbia on STS-93 in December, a five-day mission to deploy the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), First Lady Hilary Rodham Clinton announced in a White House ceremony yesterday.
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS will design and build composite optical benches and yokes for two Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) that will be manufactured for NASA by Hughes Space and Communications Co. Alliant's Space and Strategic Systems, which built composite benches for new instruments installed last year in the Hubble Space Telescope, will handle the work for the GOES weather platforms. The satellites will be launched in 2001 and 2003, according to Alliant.
Cosmonauts aboard the cluttered Mir orbital station found a critical tool yesterday that had eluded them earlier and used it to loosen an overtightened bolt on the station's airlock hatch that stymied an attempt to exit the station for a spacewalk on Tuesday.
Litton Industries and the U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM), Ft. Monmouth, N.J., entered into an Overarching Partnering Agreement for enhanced communications designed to create a team-based contracting environment and improving the Army's business practices, Litton announced Tuesday.
