LUCAS AEROSPACE, Utica, N.Y., won a contract from Sikorsky Aircraft to supply flexible drive couplings for Sikorsky's new S-92 Helibus helicopter. The shipset includes two high-speed input drive couplings, five tail rotor drive couplings and one flexible tail rotor drive shaft per aircraft. The value of the contract was not disclosed.
COLTEC AEROSPACE, Charlotte, N.C., received a $3 million contract from Alaska Airlines to overhaul 737-400 landing gear systems over the next four years.
Possible cost overruns and technical problems in the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) program should be investigated by the Dept. of Transportation's inspector general, according to Rep. Frank Wolf, (R-Va.), chairman of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Wolf said he has learned of "disturbing technical problems and unbudgeted cost growth" in the FAA program.
The House Appropriations Committee's panel on VA, HUD and independent agencies has approved a $70.1 billion fiscal year 1998 appropriations bill that includes $13.6 billion for NASA. The full committee must sign off on the package, but there was little dissent on its contents during subcommittee markup. The White House request for NASA in FY '98 was slightly lower at $13.5 billion. The appropriators recommend boosting the budget by $148 million.
Russian engineers began planning yesterday for a mid-July spacewalk to restore power lost on the Mir orbital station in its collision Wednesday with an out-of-control supply capsule, but a module stuffed with U.S. science hardware probably will remain out of commission for months at best.
LITTON'S AERO PRODUCTS DIV., Woodland Hills, Calif., received a $35 million contract from Northwest Airlines to retrofit gimbaled C-IV inertial navigation systems installed on 33 Boeing 747s and 21 DC-10-40s. Litton will replace existing INS systems with its strapdown Ring Laser Gyro LTN-92 INS.
TRACOR WILL COMBINE its Vitro Corp. and Tracor Applied Sciences business into a new unit called Tracor Applied Sciences. The combination will help "improve efficiency, enhance competitiveness and better position the company for the 21st century," James B. Skaggs, chairman and president, said in a prepared statement. Barry G. Campbell will be chairman and CEO of the new unit, and K. Bruce Hamilton will serve as president and COO.
Litton Industries Inc., Woodland Hills, Calif., earned $42 million on 9% higher sales of $1.1 billion in its 1997 third quarter. Michael R. Brown, president and chief executive officer, said the company continues to benefit from the integration of acquisitions completed during fiscal 1996 and 1997. Growth in the telecommunications market pushed sales in the electronic component and materials business from $120 million a year ago to $128.4 million, while sales in advanced electronics grew from $547.5 million to $699 million in 1997.
Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, Gaithersburg, Md., won a $6 million contract to develop and integrate three Tactical Input Segment (TIS) systems, a shipboard Navy system to process tactical imagery from airborne reconnaissance platforms.
Karel Van Miert, head of the European Commission, yesterday refused to comment officially on published reports that Boeing may alter its exclusive contracts with three U.S. airlines, but let it be known unofficially that such long-term contracts are not the commission's only objection to Boeing's planned merger with McDonnell Douglas.
BMW Rolls-Royce signed an agreement with the Chinese Gas Turbine Establishment and the German Aerospace Research Institute to explore the aerodynamics of the high pressure turbines in advanced jet engines.
NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) probe will fly within 750 miles of the large carbon-rich asteroid 253 Mathilde this morning, using its multispectral imager to snap more than 500 images of the mysterious body as it zips by at 22,000 miles per hour. The 25-minute encounter will be the closest yet between a spacecraft and an asteroid, and was possible only because NEAR's gravity-assisted trajectory to its primary objective will take it through the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.
NORRIS COMMUNICATIONS INC., San Diego, said elements of its Flashback digital recorder have been selected for integration into a tactical signal homing system being evaluated by the U.S. Marines. Visicom is the prime contractor on the Handheld Integrated Directional Receiver and Homing (HIDRAH) system.
Iran could have a nuclear weapons capability by about the year 2000, Gen. Binford Peay, commander-in-chief of Central Command, said yesterday. If Teheran can get the necessary fissile material, it's likely to have such a capability "right at the turn of the century or so," Peay told reporters in Washington. With that material, "because of the work they're doing ... you will see them bring that to some form of weaponization," he said.
The Swedish Defense Materiel Administration (FMV) ordered 64 more Gripen fighters. The 50 single-seat and 14 two-seat Gripens are scheduled to be delivered between 2003 and 2007. The order and brings the total number ordered for the Swedish Air Force to 204. The planes will form four more squadrons and extend production for at least 10 more years, Saab said yesterday.
NEW-MODEL INTELSAT satellite was on its way to a geostationary orbital slot over the Pacific Ocean yesterday after a successful launch from Kourou, French Guiana, aboard an Ariane rocket with four solid propellant strap-on boosters. Liftoff of the Ariane 44P came at 7:41 p.m. EDT Wednesday, and the spacecraft separated as planned 21 minutes later.
Iraq recently began training some of its MiG-23 fighter pilots in night operations, said Gen. Binford Peay, who oversees U.S. forces in the Middle East. The flights, which have so far been limited to one unit, were the first Peay said he has observed since taking over chief of U.S. Central Command three years ago. The sorties have involved only a few of the planes in Iran's 300-aircraft air force.
Mergers in the aerospace and defense industry will create "orphaned" divisions looking for a home, and Robert D. Paulson sees an opportunity. The "orphans" are businesses whose core products don't fit in with plans of an overall company. Paulson, a consultant for Los Angeles-based McKinsey&Co. for 26 years, has now formed Aerostar Capital LLC with Chase Capital Partners of New York to identify such units and combine them into larger companies. Primary targets have annual sales of $100 million-$300 million.
EFTC CORP., Greeley, Colo., entered a manufacturing agreement with Honeywell's Air Transport System, Phoenix, to supply circuit card assemblies for the Boeing 777. The agreement is estimated to be worth about $10 million in sales on an annual basis. Production ramp-up is expected to begin in the fourth quarter.
APPLIED SIGNAL TECHNOLOGY INC., Sunnyvale, Calif., won an $8.3 million subcontract from Lockheed Martin Sanders to participate in the Joint SIGINT Avionics Family (JSAF) Lowband Subsystem (LBSS) program. Applied Signal will help support integration of the demonstration units aboard four different airframes used by the U.S. Air Force, Army and Navy.
TITAN CORP., San Diego, won a contract to provide command, control, communications and intelligence (C3I) lifecycle support to the U.S. Navy. The contract contains a base year and four options.
The U.K. Dept. of Trade and Industry has invited seven companies to submit full proposals for a "more electric aircraft," John Battle, science, energy and industry minister, said yesterday. The program is designed to replace traditional mechanical operating systems with electrical systems, which could lead to a 3% reduction of life cycle costs for aircraft, Battle said in a prepared statement. "The civil aeronautics industry identified this technology as high priority," he said.
France's new Socialist prime minister, Lionel Jospin, "is keeping all options open" regarding the future of state-owned aerospace and airline businesses, according to Groupement des Industries Francaises Aerospatiales, the association of French aerospace manufacturers.
The Senate Appropriations Committee's fiscal year 1998 foreign operations bill provides $12 million for completion of an airspace control system in Central Europe. The funds, part of a $20 million package of grants and loans to support the expansion of NATO, are for the Regional Airspace Initiative. The RAI was begun in 1994 and is aimed at development of a civil/military air traffic control system that is shared by several countries and that is fully compatible with similar systems in Western Europe.
