The first C-17 airlifters with enhanced precision approach capability will be fielded by the U.S. Air Force next year after tests of a dual microwave landing system are completed. The tests, underway at Edwards AFB, Calif., are expected to conclude in coming weeks, and installations are slated to begin in February, Jim Schaffer, Boeing's director of C-17 operational requirements, said in a telephone interview from Boeing's Long Beach, Calif., facility where the C- 17 is built.
A Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) implementing a change in progress payments to make them to conform more closely to existing law could be in force next spring, according to Clinton Administration sources. The rule proposed on Nov. 26 is now subject to a 60-day period of public comment after which it would be revised if necessary and then put in its final form, they said.
A new, next-generation core for an AlliedSignal Engines turbofan in the 4,000-8,000 lbst.-range lit successfully on the first attempt and ran steadily at idle power in a recent initial test aimed at having a package of advanced technologies ready when the market demands it, a top Engines executive says. Although company officials emphasize that a new engine hasn't yet been launched, the development marks a major investment for the enginemaker.
U.S. FAA space launch regulators yesterday lifted their week-old suspension of Orbital Sciences Corp.'s license to launch eight small communications satellites on a Pegasus booster, after Orbital demonstrated it would vent any leftover fuel in the Pegasus fourth stage as originally promised.
Germany's civil aviation authority, the LBA, granted engine venture BMW Rolls-Royce Design Organization Approval (DOA) under the new joint European airworthiness standard, JAR-21, the first contintental European enginemaker to win DOA status and the only one to get it with full privileges and without restrictions.
The U.S. Air Force and Navy have tested a new generation ejection seat on a sled at Mach 1.05, the AF's Aeronautical Systems Center reported. The Nov. 10 test, conducted with an F-16 forebody at Holloman AFB, N.M., marked the first ejection test at 700 knots equivalent airspeed (KEAS) for a Multi-Axis Seat Ejection (MASE) sled and the first for a seat with fourth generation ejection technologies, the service said.
The Washington Consulting Group has filed a protest with FAA over the agency's award to Lockheed Martin of a $1 billion-plus contract for work on the U.S. air traffic control system. FAA picked Lockheed Martin last month for the National Airspace System Implementation Support Contract (NISC II). It calls for engineering, planning, automation, environmental analysis and other services to help FAA integrate and implement "state-of-the-art air traffic control systems, equipment, components and related capital projects" (DAILY, Nov. 21).
The U.S. Dept. of Defense has boosted funding for the Joint Precision Approach and Landing System program, allowing it to proceed to the next stage of development.
Sonaca SA predicts a booming 1998 on the basis of strong demand for Airbus Industrie aircraft, for which it makes fuselage parts and wing leading edges. After three shaky years, the Belgian company says it will finish 1997 with a small but solid profit. Sonaca Chief Executive Christian Jacqmin predicts his company will close '97 with total sales of 5.3 billion Belgian francs (US$148 million), compared with BEF 3.1 billion ($87 million) last year and BEF 2.5 billion ($70 million) in 1995.
The U.S. Navy and Space Technology Development Corp. of Arlington, Va., have signed an agreement to develop a remote sensing satellite that the service said will be the first commercial production spacecraft for the Dept. of Defense. Launch is planned in 2000. The Office of Naval Research will oversee fabrication of the Navy Earth Map Observer (NEMO). The satellite will be built on Space Systems/Loral's Globalstar bus.
The U.S. Army won't test the Mid-Infrared Chemical Laser (MIRACL) until January at the earliest to determine if damage that resulted from tests against an Air Force satellite in October have been adequately repaired, Army Space and Missile Defense Command reported.
A German-built robotic camera designed to help space station crews examine their spacecraft from the outside failed in its first test at Russia's Mir station yesterday, forcing Mir's crew to maneuver away from the meter-long free-flyer to avoid a collision.
TRW Inc. is dropping plans to develop its 12-satellite medium Earth orbit Odyssey satellite communications network as part of a patent-dispute settlement with ICO Global Communications over use of MEO satellite constellations, the two companies announced yesterday.
The U.S. Air Force has temporarily halted an effort to enhance seven KC- 135R tankers with sophisticated communications equipment for use by the unified commanders-in-chief, who now use an array of aircraft. An AF official said executives from the acquisition and operations community have put a hold on the program to review it.
Even with China's policy of combining military and civilian production, many of its defense industries "are in trouble," according to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report. The report noted that an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study says that about 40% of China's defense-industrial enterprises earn regular profits, another 40% make occasional profits, but are not necessarily profitable, and the remaining 20% have not developed civilian operations and are a drain on government revenues.
The U.S. aerospace industry reached a "crossover point" in 1997 with half of all sales to customers other than the government, Aerospace Industries Association President Don Fuqua said yesterday in Washington.
Despite the Dec. 6 crash of an An-124 cargo plane with two Su-27 fighters aboard that were to be delivered to Vietnam, Russia will meet its commitment to supply Hanoi with six of the jets before the end of the year, according to the director of Russia's Aviation Military and Industrial Complex. Alexei Fyodorov said in Moscow that under a contract signed on Jan. 31, 1997, Vietnam will receive four Su-27BK training fighters, two Su-27K combat jets, and related equipment by Dec. 31, 1997, according to a report by Itar-Tass.
The U.K., France and Germany have signed an agreement under which they could jointly develop, manufacture and launch military communications satellites. The U.K. Ministry of Defense said the memorandum of understanding for the TRIMILSATCOM program covers the Project Definition Phase.
Lockheed Martin is encountering serious difficulties meeting the congressionally imposed cost caps on the F-22 fighter program as it develops a detailed cost estimate for the program to reflect changes required by the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review. The QDR changed the F-22 production ramp and cut projected procurement from 438 aircraft to 339. A quick look by the U.S. Air Force estimated the new production program cost at $43.3 billion, about $5 billion less than it would have paid for 438 fighters (DAILY, July 9).
Record numbers of aircraft passed through the U.K. air traffic control system this year with no compromise in safety, the country's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) reported. ATC staff at the London Area and Terminal Control Center said they handled 1.5 million movements in 1997, and current forecasts show more growth is in store.
Northrop Grumman made several management changes at its Electronic Sensors and Systems Div. (ESSD). It said that: -- James Pitts has been named vice president, Engineering and Manufacturing, where he will be in charge of operations at the facilities in Linthicum, Md.; College Station, Tex., and Puerto Rico. -- Robert DuBeau will succeed Pitts as vice president of Avionics Systems. DuBeau was previously director and executive program manager of the Joint Strike Fighter program.
Pentagon acquisition chief Jacques Gansler has endorsed a new policy governing collection of past performance data, which will take affect Feb. 1, 1998. The policy Gansler signed last month groups contracts into three types - systems, which includes weapons programs; services, to include information technology, and operations support. Industry will be rated on a regular basis on a five-level scale ranging from "exceptional" performance to "unsatisfactory."
NASA has picked Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory to design and build the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) spacecraft, which will measure the earth's relatively unstudied mesosphere and lower thermosphere worldwide.
The U.S. Navy plans to award Raytheon a contract to develop a "high power discriminator" radar to improve performance of the Theater Wide missile defense system. "Studies have suggested that additional power and target discrimination may be needed to counter the far-term Theater Wide exoatmospheric threat," Naval Air Systems Command said in a Dec. 16 Commerce Business Daily notice. "This need may be met with the addition of a dedicated high power discriminator (HPD) capable of providing long range tracking and discrimination."
