Six Canadian Forces CF-18 fighters, operating out of Aviano Air Base, Italy, will help NATO enforce the no-fly zone and protect ground troops in Bosnia. The planes, and nearly 125 Canadian troops, will embark in mid- August on the mission, which will last three months, according to Boeing Co., which makes the CF-18. U.S. Navy and Marine Corps F/A-18s have been flying missions in support of NATO air operations over Bosnia since July 1993. Those forces were joined by Spanish Air Force EF-18s in 1995.
Proposals for propulsion technologies to significantly increase the performance and afford-ability of air vehicles are being sought by U.S. Naval Air Systems Command. "Specifically needed," the command said in an Aug. 19 Commerce Business Daily notice, "are Applied Research for advanced gas turbine propulsion component and materials technologies for Fighter/Attack Aircraft Engines, Patrol/Transport/Support/Surveillance Fixed and Rotary Wing Aircraft Engines, Missile and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) and Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV) Engines."
Satellite Systems Operation has delivered the first two Beta Gimbal Roll Ring Subassemblies (BGRRSs) for the International Space Station to Boeing's Rocketdyne Div. The BGRRSs, part of an eight-unit order, comprise a power and data transfer component for the Station's solar arrays. They use patented Honeywell roll-ring technology to transfer power and data across the rotating gimbal interface between the Station and its solar arrays as the arrays track the sun.
BOEING CO. said Earl Godby has been named director of its office in Prague. Godby, a former U.S. Air Force officer and a former member of the Thunderbirds flying demonstration team, will work with Czech Republic defense and government officials handling the country's planned procurement of new fighters. Boeing is offering the F/A-18 in the competition.
Has signed a $500,000 contract with Spain's Construcciones Aeronauticas, S.A. (CASA) for spacecraft structural panels to be used on the ICO mobile telephone satellites. Hughes said the contract, which will allow it to incorporate European technological advances in its spacecraft, could lead to "millions of dollars" worth of future spacecraft-manufacturing contracts for CASA.
Pratt&Whitney Canada has established Pratt&Whitney - Rus, a wholly-owned Russian company based in St. Petersburg, P&WC announced yesterday at the Moscow International Air Show. The new company, currently involved in the Russian certification of the PK6 and PK206 engines, will "design, develop and support a full range of turboprop, turboshaft and turbofan engines for the general civil aviation industry in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)," P&WC said.
Has been selected by the Franco-Russian Starsem venture to build intelligent payload dispensers for the Globalstar low Earth orbit communications Starsem will launch aboard Russian Soyuz rockets. Weighing a total of 5,060 pounds with four satellites aboard, the dispenser is intended to jettison the LEO spacecraft when they reach their final orbital positions. The contract calls for one qualification model and three flight models to be delivered in time for the first Soyuz launch of Globalstar satellites in October 1998.
Orbit International Corp., Hauppauge, N.Y., said it earned $485,000 from its continuing operations on sales of $4.4 million in its 1997 second quarter. The results were down from the 1996 second quarter, when Orbit earned $1.1 million on sales of $4.9 million. Including results from discontinued operations, the company suffered a $5.4 million loss in the period. But Dennis Sunshine, president and CEO, said in a statement that the earnings were in line with expectations, and that Orbit expects sales to climb in the second half of the year.
Has won a $54.3 million NASA contract to develop and deliver solar-imaging instruments for U.S. weather satellites that will help forecasters predict solar flares and geomagnetic storms. Plans call for the Solar X-Ray Imagers to be mounted on four planned Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites (GOES-N, -O, -P and -Q). Under the basic contract Lockheed Martin is to deliver an engineering model and two flight instruments. The contract, a Cost Plus Award Fee/Incentive Free deal, also contains two priced options for additional instruments.
The prototype of the An-140 transport aircraft has nearly finished ground trials and is ready for it first flight, according to press reports from the Moscow International Air Show. China's Xinhua press service reported that Antonov Aviation Design and Production Complex said the plane, assembled in June, has been undergoing a series of ground tests. The An-140 is planned to replace An- 24s and Yak-40s on domestic flights in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
GenCorp Aerojet said the Sense and Destroy Armor (SADARM) munition completed initial production tests three and four on Aug. 14 at Fort Greely, Alaska. The tests, which involved offensive and defensive countermeasures, marked the first time active duty soldiers from the 25th Infantry Division (Light) Artillery fired the weapon, and the first tests outside a desert environment. Fog, rain and high winds marked the weather during the five days of testing, Aerojet said.
Sargent Fletcher Inc., El Monte, Calif., won a contract from Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide 600 gallon fuel tanks for the F-22 fighter. SFI, announcing the contract yesterday, said it will design, develop and qualify the tanks and coordinate the program. Lockheed Martin will install the tanks, which will be used by the F-22 on ferry flights. Derlan also competed for the award.
NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery landed a day late but safely at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., yesterday, capping a busy scientific mission that met all of its objectives despite a number of hitches and one close call. With Discovery on the ground, the focus at KSC will shift to getting the Shuttle Atlantis ready for its next rendezvous and docking mission to the Mir orbital station. That flight has been pushed back until no earlier than Sept. 22 to give Astronaut Dave Wolf more time to train in Russian spacewalking procedures (DAILY, July 31).
Zeev Nachmoni has been appointed corporate vice president and general manager of electronics group. He succeeds Shmuel Alkon who has announced his retirement. The following appointments were approved by IAI's board of directors: Ovadia Harari has been appointed executive vice president. Menahem Shmul has been appointed corporate vice president and general manager of the military aircraft group.
Col. Steven W. Boutelle, who has been nominated and confirmed for promotion to brigadier general, was appointed as the Army program executive officer for Command, Control and Communications Systems.
U.S. antitrust officials this week gave General Electric the go-ahead to wrap up its acquisition of Greenwich Air Services, Inc., without any special stipulations or requirements to divest businesses or product lines. The Justice Dept. informed GE on Monday that it had cleared the acquisition, and GE says it plans to close on Sept. 2 on the GASI portion of its planned GASI/UNC acquisition (DAILY, March 11).
Here is a list of space launches scheduled worldwide for September through December, as compiled by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation in its quarterly report for the third quarter of 1997. Overall, 57 orbital launches by seven different nations were planned for the second half of 1997, with the U.S. attempting 25 launches and the Russian Republic 15. Of note is the upcoming launch of Brazil's first VLS launcher, with the SDC 3 data satellite.
Jan-Baldem Mennicken, director general of the German Space Agency, was presented the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal by NASA administrator Dan Goldin during a luncheon in his honor on July 31.
Loretta L. Dunn, vice president for trade and commerical policy, has also assumed the responsibilities of vice president for government affairs from William D. Merritt, who retired on July 31. Roxanne S. Austin has been named chief financial officer. She succeeds Charles H. Noski who is leaving the company to become executive vice president and chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp. of Hartford, Conn.
