John F. Breitfeller has been appointed vice president-business management for the Corporation's Electronics and Systems Integration Division in Melbourne, Fla. Chris Cool has been appointed to the new position of vice president- lean implementation and division integration in Dallas, Tex. John B. Thompson has been appointed vice president-business management for the Electronic Systems unit of the Electronics and Systems Integration Division in Rolling Meadows, Ill.
Ali Ezami has been promoted to director and general manager of the company's Electro Systems Division in Durham, N.C. Cayce Blanchard has been named director of Strategic Planning and Corporate Relations in City of Industry, Calif. Gary Burdick has joined the company's Applied Solar Division as vice president of Solar Cell Operations also in City of Industry, Calif.
PRECISION STANDARD INC., Denver, signed a lease with the Southern California International Airport, Victorville, Calif., for more than 200,000 square feet of hangar, manufacturing and warehouse space. The facility will open early this year as primarily a DC-10/MD11 maintenance and modification center. The facility will have customs clearance and be designated a foreign trade zone.
Walt Downing, vice president of the Institute's Aerospace Electronics and Training Systems Division, has been been named vice president of Planning and Program Development. He replaces Jay Lewallen who retired January 3.
Robert E. Wulf, vice president, Engineering&Technology for Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles, Calif., has been elected chairman of AIA's Technical Operations Council for 1998. William F. Ballhaus, corporate vice president, Science&Engineering at Lockheed Martin Corporation in Bethesda, Md., was elected vice chairman of the Technical Operations Council. William J. Lewandowski has been named vice president, supplier management at AIA in Washington, D.C.
REAMET, the French subsidiary of RMI Titanium, Niles, Ohio, signed an agreement with Aerospatiale to supply titanium flat rolled products for its Airbus programs beginning in 1999 and extending through 2001.
Henry Hartsfield, a former astronaut, has been named managing director for the company's NASA training operation in Houston, Tex. The Company - formerly known as Hughes Training, Inc. - has been responsible for development, delivery, maintenance and operation of the Space Station Training Facility at Johnson Space Center.
The U.S. Defense Dept. is expected in coming days to announce deployment to the Persian Gulf of an E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft, a Pentagon official said. The plane would be one of several special mission aircraft being deployed to the area. The DOD is already sending EC-130Es, MC-130s and HC- 130s to the Persian Gulf as part of a deployment that includes 6 F-117s, 1 B-1B and 6 B-52s. The latter are joining other B-52s on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean
George Donohue, FAA associate administrator for research and acquisitions, withdrew his nomination to be deputy administrator and told Dept. of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater he plans to leave the agency "by early summer."
CHC HELICOPTER CORP., St. John's, Newfoundland, became the major shareholder in helicopter operator Airlift AS, Frde, Norway, increasing its holdings in the company from 10% to 45%. Airlift, the second largest operator in Norway, has a fleet of 20 helicopters used for air ambulance, search and rescue and utility functions.
A top Boeing executive said his company intends to boost its subcontracting presence in Europe and will swing additional business to the continent via orders for "many more" engines manufactured by European companies.
Michael Heffron has been named director of program operations for Sanders' Mission and Space Electronics Division in Nashua, N.H. James C. Korcuba has been named director of business development for Sanders' Mission and Space Electronics Division in Nashua, N.H. Paul Martin has been appointed executive vice president at Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif. He succeeds Denny Thompson who retired.
Spacehab Inc., Vienna, Va., earned $6.3 million on revenues of $17.8 million in its 1998 second quarter, down from earnings of $11.1 million on revenues of $23 million in the same period a year ago. Spacehab's revenues from the 1998 period were divided among $13.6 million for its fifth mission under the Russian space station Mir contract, $2.4 million from the Astrotech subsidiary and $1.7 million from the Research and Logistics Module Services (REALMS) contract.
SPACEDEV, Steamboat Springs, Colo., completed a $3 million acquisition of privately held Integrated Space Systems (ISS), San Diego, making ISS a wholly-owned subsidiary, SpaceDev announced yesterday. "We are excited about this strategic acquisition as it represents a vital step forward for the NEAP [Near Earth Asteroid Prospector] mission and the future of SpaceDev," James Benson, chairman, said in a prepared statement. ISS recorded 1997 sales of $1.8 million.
Richard Covey, former astronaut, has been appointed deputy program director for the Boeing team's NASA Consolidated Space Operations Contract Phase 2 program bid. Mary A. Simmerman has been appointed general manager of Supplier and Materials Management for U.S. Air Force Airlift and Tanker Programs in Long Beach, Calif.
U.S. Air Force researchers hope to use an early flight of the new Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) to test a solar-powered upper stage that could "almost" make it possible to launch a Titan IV-class payload to geostationary orbit with an Atlas II.
BOEING CO. has completed the first sled test of the 900-pound warhead for its Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM). The test took place in late January at Eglin AFB, Fla., using an inert warhead. The warhead is about 60 inches long and 12 inches in diameter. Boeing said it passed through a block of reinforced concrete, but didn't say how thick the block was.
Steven V. W. Beckwith has been appointed director of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, effective Sept. 1, 1998. John R. London has been appointed NASA X-34 program manager at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. He replaces Jack Levine who retired Jan. 3.
Orbital Sciences Corp. yesterday launched the U.S. Navy's GEOSAT Follow-On (GFO) and two of its Orbcomm subsidiary's "Little LEO" satellites yesterday in the second flight of its ground-launched Taurus booster. Liftoff of the solid-fueled booster from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., came at 8:20 a.m. EST, and the Navy satellite was released about 14 minutes later. The two Orbcomm platforms followed after another two minutes and three minutes, respectively, Orbital said.
Lockheed Martin's proposal to modify the U.S. Air Force's C-5 airlifter fleet through a multi-billion dollar program has been generally endorsed by an independent assessment, although the analysis showed that some of the company's assumptions were too optimistic, according to an Air Force official.
