The European Commission formally approved the merger of Boeing Co. and McDonnell Douglas Corp. yesterday. "There was no discussion," a commission spokesman said. One of the 20 European Union commissioners, French Socialist Edith Cresson, publicly opposed the merger last week when it was acted on informally (DAILY, July 24), arguing that it was "an infringement of competition law" because Boeing was strengthening an already dominant position in the commercial jet aircraft market. "Her opinion was overruled," an EU source said yesterday.
LOCKHEED MARTIN opened a new factory near Philadelphia yesterday that will build communications payloads, power components and other equipment for its space business units. The 420,000-square-foot Communications and Power Center will employ 1,400 people in assembling payloads and power supplies primarily for Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space, its parent company. The new factory in Newtown, Pa., consolidates work done by the old Astro Space units in East Windsor, N.J., and Valley Force, Pa.
Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) charged yesterday that supporters of a bill to relax encryption export controls were obtaining support in the House by conveying the impression that the bill would tighten controls on encryption sales. Weldon, chairman of the House National Security Committee's research and development subcommittee, told an HNSC hearing on the bill that he spoke to five conservative House members listed as sponsors, who are also on the HNSC, and said they believed the bill would tighten export controls on sales of encryption equipment.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff want to accelerate getting the cream of each year's Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration - the so-called Golden Nuggets - fielded and operating. "If it's good enough to be a JWID Golden Nugget, it's good enough to field," says JWID '97 director Capt. Dennis Murphy, who told reporters visiting the main JWID sites in Norfolk, Va., this week that the participating companies provided "all their buying information" in advance to speed procurement of selected systems.
NASA yesterday pulled Astronaut Wendy Lawrence from her upcoming long- duration mission to Mir because she cannot wear the Russian "Orlan" spacesuit that would allow her to backstop her cosmonaut crewmates on spacewalks to repair the crippled space station.
Boeing Co. and Hughes Aircraft Co. will each develop and test additional exoatmospheric kill vehicles (EKVs) under plans of the U.S. Army Space and Strategic Defense Command Notices from SSDC in the July 30 issue of Commerce Business Daily said the companies have been working under contracts awarded in 1990 to design, develop, fabricate and test state-of-the-art EKVs that, among other things, could support interceptor development and a fielding decision if required.
Northrop Grumman Corp. sees potential sales of up to 750 Airborne Self Protection Jammer systems over the next ten years. "We see a strong market" in the U.S. and overseas for the ALQ-165, which Northrop Grumman builds under a joint venture with ITT, according to Salvatore N. Cuomo, managing director for electronic warfare systems at Northrop Grumman's Sensors and Systems Div. here.
BOEING's first 737-800 is scheduled to make its first flight today from Renton Field in Renton, Wash. The flight is expected to last up to three hours. It is the 2,906th 737.
House-Senate conferees on the fiscal 1998 defense authorization have decided to pair the Senate's $345 million increase to accelerate production of the CVN-77 carrier with the House's $331 million boost to continue production of the B-2 bomber, congressional sources said yesterday. The programs are being discussed together, but this doesn't necessarily mean the outcome will be that the Senate accepts the B-2 add-on and the House accepts the carrier add-on.
Has signed a $16.3 million contract with MATRA MARCONI SPACE for 14 flight and attitude control systems for the Ariane V, with the first to be used on the next flight after the September mission. DASA will build the systems at Bremen and Ottobrunn and test them in Lampoldshausen. One system is to be delivered to Matra Marconi every two months under the deal, DASA said.
Months of testing have shown that an upgraded terminal for Joint Tactical Information Distribution System (JTIDS) is unsuitable and must be improved before full-scale production begins, according to the head of the Dept. of Defense's Office of Operational Test and Evaluation.
France's Socialist government wants Aerospatiale to remain state- controlled but still hopes to persuade Dassault Aviation to merge with it, according to Defense Minister Alain Richard.
The biggest problem in creating a competitive marketplace for international satellite services is convincing other countries that reform is necessary, Peter Cowhey, chief of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's International Bureau, told senators yesterday. "We cannot tell other countries what to do," Cowhey said at a Senate Commerce communications subcommittee hearing. "The more we push the more they push back. There is a measure of distrust between developing countries and our own."
The much-maligned commander of Russia's Mir space station says last month's crippling collision could have been much worse had he not used his controls to deflect a runaway supply capsule away from the critical core module. Even so, the crew prepared to abandon ship and U.S. Astronaut Michael Foale made his way to the Soyuz escape capsule after the collision thinking he and his two cosmonaut crewmates would use it to bail out as Mir lost pressure.
Logicon Inc. said its shareholders approved the company's merger with Northrop Grumman Corp. The merger is expected to close today or Friday, with the first day of joint operations coming Monday, Los Angeles-based Logicon said. Northrop Grumman originally planned to create a Logicon information technology division, but Logicon will operate as a separate element from Northrop Grumman's IT units until the close of the Northrop Grumman- Lockheed Martin merger, a Northrop Grumman spokesman told The DAILY.
Boeing signed a contract worth about $300 million with Aero Vodochody Ltd. of the Czech Republic to make advanced avionics and weapon delivery systems for 72 L-159 lead-in fighters for the Czech Air Force (DAILY, June 17). Boeing, announcing the agreement yesterday, said it designed and developed the suite under a previous contract with Aero Vodochody. The prototype aircraft was unveiled June 12, and delivery of the first production plane is expected in 1999.
Is still on track for a September qualification flight, although Jean-Marie Luton, the new head of the Arianespace consortium, says it's possible that date might slip if preflight testing doesn't go well (DAILY, July 23). While Arianespace doesn't expect to get firm commercial customers for Ariane V until the huge new booster is demonstrated with a successful flight, the European Space Agency has booked two scientific missions that require the lifting power of the Ariane V.
United Technologies Corp., Hartford, Conn., drew on strong performance by its Flight Systems and Pratt&Whitney units for improvements in its 1997 second quarter. UTC said it earned $304 million on 7% higher sales of $6.5 billion in the quarter, compared to profits of $259 million in the same period a year ago. Flight Systems' operating profit grew 11% to $68 million, as sales climbed 9% to $702 million, due to double digit sales growth and improved margins at Hamilton Standard and continued strong performance at Sikorsky.
'SPIRIT OF PENNSYLVANIA' will be the name of the newest Northrop Grumman B- 2 stealth bomber, the U.S. Air Force's Air Combat Command said yesterday. The aircraft will be named in an Aug. 5 ceremony at NAS Willow Grove, Pa.
U.S. and international coalition forces - including non-NATO members - were able to share tactical and operational data and conduct real-time collaborative planning online for the first time during this year's Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration, service officials report.
The U.S. Navy plans to award Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems a sole source contract later this summer for engineering and design analysis of an Uninhabited Naval Strike Aircraft (UNSA). Designs are to be "configured as highly survivable, tactical platforms" tailored for stressing strike warfare tasks, Naval Air Systems Command said in a July 29 Commerce Business Daily announcement. The UNSA will feature vertical/short takeoff and landing capability.
Vancouver, received a contract from Boeing Co. for 767/777 floor grid details and assemblies and 747/767/777 front and rear spar stiffeners. The three-year contract could be worth as much as C$27.8 million. Avcorp also signed a C$3.5 million contract with Boeing Canada Technology Ltd., Winnipeg, to assemble up to 400 shipsets of wheel well fairings for the 737-700 and 737-800.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. demonstrated a new aircraft design concept called Blended-Wing-Body (BWB) at El Mirage Dry Lake, Calif. The company said yesterday that it flew a remotely piloted sub-scale aircraft with a 17-foot wingspan, designed and built at Stanford University. The forward body blends into the wing in a single structure.
