Hexcel Corp., absent from the last Paris air show because it was bankrupt, returned this year as a clear winner in the advanced materials industry. Battered by B-2 bomber production cutbacks - just after building a new plant in Arizona to support the Northrop Grumman program - the honeycomb and composite materials company couldn't pay its bills, and sought Chapter 11 protection from creditors in December 1993.
The Senate Armed Services Committee tells the Pentagon in its fiscal 1998 defense authorization bill not to begin serial production of the ITT/Northrop Grumman Airborne Self Protection Jammer.
British Airways is converting options placed in 1991 into orders for five 777-200 increased gross weight aircraft powered by GE-90-90B engines. The orders increase BA's fleet of 777s to 23. The airline also ordered three 767s with Rolls-Royce RB211-534 engines for delivery next April and May, bringing its 767 fleet to 28, according to Boeing. The 777s will be delivered beginning in September 1998. Boeing valued the orders at $1 billion.
Kennedy Space Center's new Space Station Processing Facility will get its first business tonight when U.S. Node 1 arrives there from Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. An Air Force C-5 transport will deliver the outsized cargo to the Florida center's Shuttle Landing Facility from the old Saturn fabrication building at MSFC where Boeing is building all of the U.S. pressurized hardware for the International Station.
Two broadband satellite communications networks announced last week are out to capture the same next-century multimedia market targeted by startup Teledesic's low Earth orbit system by cobbling together already- planned geostationary and LEO constellations.
The vote is too close to call on whether the House will approve extension of most favored nation status to China. The House could take up MFN as early as Tuesday. The Senate is expected to act after the House, if the measure passes in that chamber. Some House members, including Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.), have pressed for out MFN in the last week, but the Whip Office is said to believe the vote will be very close.
ICELANDAIR will be the second customer for the new 757-300 with an order for two, Boeing said. The carrier also ordered two 757-200s. Its first 757- 300 will be delivered in the second quarter of 2001, and the first 757-200 will be delivered next January. All will be powered by Rolls engines.
PRATT&WHITNEY CANADA and Fiatavio have signed an agreement under which the Italian company will participate in development of a new family of turbofan engines. The PW308 will be a growth derivative of the PW300 family and, with thrust in the 8,000-lbst. class, will power the next generation of larger and faster corporate aircraft. The engine was selected by Raytheon to power its Hawker Horizon.
The idea of creating a CINC for command, control, communications, computers and intelligence doesn't appeal to some members of the U.S. information technology community. Rear Adm. Robert Nutwell, the Navy's deputy director for Space Information Warfare Command and Control, says it's "not a good idea." C4I should be "owned by the warfighter," he says. He says the same goes for the already established CINC Space.
Canada could follow the Netherlands and Norway as the latest countries to sign up for the Joint Strike Fighter program. Negotiations between Washington and Ottawa have been largely finalized; the memorandum of understanding is being staffed and could be concluded in August.
The House on Friday put off until today a vote on a $330 million add- on to the fiscal 1998 defense authorization that is considered a down payment for additional B-2 bombers. With attendance on the House floor declining rapidly, the House leadership decided to put off the planned vote until late Monday. At that time, it will vote on the B-2 and other issues.
The Senate last week passed its fiscal year 1998 intelligence authorization bill by a vote of 98 to 1, turning back an attempt to make public the figure for the overall intelligence budget. It rejected, 56-43, an amendment by Sens. Robert Torricelli (D-N.J.) and Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) to disclose the overall level of intelligence funding. Opposing the amendment, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said it is up to the president, not Congress, to decide whether to declassify the intelligence budget.
Airbus Industrie and Alenia have signed agreements that formally create Airbus Industrie Asia, which will represent the joint European interests in the new Euro-Asian 100-seat aircraft project and will act as the single interface in a joint venture company to be established with AVIC of China and STPL of Singapore.
British Aerospace had a strong presence at last week's Paris air show, although its emphasis was more on collaborative projects and technology partnerships than hardware displays. With the closure of Jetstream production at Prestwick, sole civil aircraft output of Regional Jets from Woodford was represented by the Aero International (Regional) joint-marketing organization, formed with Aerospatiale and Alenia.
Combustion science research performed in the microgravity environment on the International Space Station could be worth the costs of getting the Station in orbit. Scientists developed the Ring Flame Stabilizer, which increases home furnace efficiency by 2% while cutting oxide emissions by a factor of 10, based on research done in the two weeks of a Space Shuttle mission. Long term research on the Station could really pay off. Goldin says with America burning a half-trillion dollars in fuel a year, a 2-3% increase in combustion efficiency could pay for the NASA budget.
Russia seems to have gotten its Proton heavy-lift space launcher back together after a November 1996 failure sent the Mars-96 probe spinning back to Earth. Last week's launch of seven Iridium low-Earth orbit communications satellites was Proton's third since May 24, leaving less than two weeks between launches. The Iridium launch used the same pad as the Telstar 5 mission in May, while the classified Cosmos 2344 flight on June 6 went from the second Proton pad at Baikonur Cosmodrome (DAILY, Nov. 19, 1996; May 25; June 10, 11, 19).
The setting of spending ceilings for the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees means the panels can now make markup plans. Rep. C. W. (Bill) Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee, says he plans to begin markup of the fiscal 1998 national security appropriations on July 8, the day Congress returns from the July 4 recess period. The subcommittee's ceiling is $248.1 billion in budget authority. The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee's ceiling is $246.7 billion.
Formation of a formal consortium supported by funding from the Italian, Russian and Slovakian governments to develop, produce and market the next-generation Yak-130 advanced trainer was disclosed at the air show here by Aermacchi Managing Director George Brazzelli and Yakovlev Chairman and General Designer Alexandr Dondukov. Brazzelli said that 180 billion lire ($106 million) had been included in a 1995 Italian aerospace industry five-year technology plan to help Aermacchi become a trainer market leader.
ALLLIEDSIGNAL INC. will acquire Grimes Aerospace from an affiliate of New York investment firm Forstmann Little&Co. Terms were not announced. Grimes, of Urbana, Ohio, makes exterior and interior lighting systems, strobes, night vision imaging systems, power supplies, aircraft engine systems and electronic system. Annual sales are about $230 million, with 70% of the company's business commercial and 30% military. It employs 1,400 and has facilities in Urbana; Greenwood, S.C.; Plymouth and Bristol, Conn., and Ocala, Fla.
Aspen Mountain Air has ordered four 328JETS and placed options with Fairchild Dornier on four more of the 32-seat aircraft. The carrier said last week that it has also ordered eight 328 turboprops. Aspen is the first North American customer for the regional jet. Fairchild Dornier said the aircraft, powered by Pratt&Whitney Canada PW306B engines, is the only regional jet able to operate from 4,000- foot runways.
SUNROCK AIRCRAFT CORP., an operating leasing arm of Nissho Iwai of Japan, has ordered five Boeing 737-600s and two 737-300s and is negotiating for 13 more aircraft. The company is based in Dublin.
Deployment of a stealthy aircraft capable of carrier-based operations should be the first priority of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, the Senate Armed Services Committee says in its fiscal year 1998 defense authorization bill. While JSF concepts, goals and progress to date have been encouraging, the committee says, it is concerned about the proposed order of fielding the multi-service jets. "The program cancellations and combinations that led to the JSF most directly affected the Navy's strike capability," SASC says.
Executive Jet, Columbus, Ohio, placed a $400 million order for 50 Cessna Citation Excels, calling it the "largest single order in unit size for business aircraft in aviation history." The aircraft will join Executive Jet's NetJets fractional ownership program. The company in the past two years also has ordered 50 Citation V Ultras, 20 Citation VIIs and 31 Citation Xs for the NetJets program. First Excel is to be delivered in 1999 to Executive Jet.
Northrop Grumman test pilots have completed the first flight of the newest configuration of the EA-6B electronic combat aircraft. The first Block 89A Prowler flew for two hours on June 6 from the company's St. Augustine, Fla., facility, Northrop Grumman said. The plane, which features the global positioning system and an embedded inertial navigation system, will transition to NAS Patuxent River, Md., after a Navy acceptance flight.
