Northrop Grumman will compete against Lockheed Martin for a U.S. Air Force contract to support the A-10 aircraft for a period of nine years. Northrop Grumman said yesterday it is teamed with Charles Stark Draper Labs, Science Application International Corp., Orbital Sciences Corp., and Symvionics Inc. The AF is expected to release the request for proposals for the program this month; a contract is scheduled to be awarded next March. The winner will be responsible for all avonics modifications, subsystems integration and logistics support.
Air New Zealand is switching engine allegiances from Rolls-Royce to GE Aircraft Engines, powering the last of four previously ordered Boeing 747- 400s with GE CF6-80C2 turbofans and setting the stage for powering all future widebodies with GE engines.
Contending that existing rules to limit engine torque loads are inadequate for modern engines spinning larger-diameter fans, U.S. airworthiness regulators want Boeing and enginemaker CFM International to meet a series of special conditions to certify the next-generation 737 twin powered by CFM56-7 turbofans.
The Interturbine Group consolidated its Dallas, Tex., Casing, Airfoil and Coating business units and the Intertubine TEAM component trading, sale and asset management group into a single entity called Interturbine U.S. Flight Repair Operations. The consolidated units - to be headed by new VP Jeffrey D. Wood - represent about half of Interturbine's worldwide Flight Repair business, the company says.
AlliedSignal Aerospace won FAA certification of its TFE731-20 turbofan to power the new Model 45 Learjet. The enginemaker says the new powerplant delivers 3,650 lbst. at up to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and should provide a 15% boost in cruise performance and a 9% improvement in fuel economy over previous engine models. The -20 will enter service with maintenance intervals of 2,500 hours for major periodic inspections and 5,000 hours for compressor zone inspections.
NASA and Orbital Sciences Corp. yesterday completed a three-day review culminating in systems design freeze of the X-34 demonstrator in agency's Reusable Launch Vehicle program. The exercise, conducted at Orbital Sciences Corp.'s facilities in Dulles, Va., "essentially anchors the design of X-34 systems," including guidance, navigation and control, main propulsion, avionics and thermal protection, NASA said. Completion of the review allows the program to proceed with fabrication and manufacturing of systems, NASA said.
The National Research Council of Canada's Institute for Aerospace Research is conducting combustion nozzle spray characterization tests on Pratt&Whitney Canada's new PW150 turboprop, being developed to power de Havilland's planned Dash 8-400 commuter aircraft series. The tests involve comparing PW150 nozzles with other P&WC product nozzles.
SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS undocked from the Russian Mir space station Wednesday night, concluding five days of joint operations. About 7,000 pounds of supplies, experiments and water were transferred between the two vehicles. NASA Astronaut Mike Foale remained on Mir replacing Jerry Linengar. Atlantis is slated to land Saturday morning at Kennedy Space Center.
Boeing North American is working on a supersonic ramjet missile engine to help the U.S. Air Force meet its vision for the future of air warfare, says Thad Sanford, VP for research, engineering and advanced programs at the North American Aircraft Div. Derived from work done for the National Aerospace Plane, a supersonic ramjet can reduce the size of missiles because they would not have to carry their own oxygen, Sanford tells reporters at BNA's headquarters here.
Russian President Boris Yeltsin yesterday fired Defense Minister Igor Rodionov and the head of the general staff, Gen. Viktor Samsonov, citing dissatisfaction with the pace of reform in the military. Rodionov's ouster comes only days after he visited U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen at the Pentagon. Rodionov served as Defense Minister for less than a year.
Nacelle and aerostructures specialist Rohr, Inc., completed its first Super 27 Boeing 727 re-engining and modification since the former Valsan program was relaunched last August. The aircraft, the 24th overall in the Super 27 fleet, was modified for an otherwise unidentified Middle East government. Mod kits include composite nacelles, new hydraulic thrust reversers, new struts and Pratt&Whitney JT8D-217C and -219 engines. Any FAA-approved 727 modification and maintenance center can install the package.
Even though the Deep Attack Weapons Mix Study (DAWMS) feeding into the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review failed to say where cuts could be made, lessons from the process will influence future munitions requirements of the services, said Maj. Gen. Charles Link, who led the U.S. Air Force's QDR effort.
DELTA II ROCKET launched Norway's Thor II satellite on May 20 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., McDonnell Douglas said. Liftoff from Pad 17A cane at 6:39 p.m., EDT. The satellite, built by Hughes Space&Communications and intended to enhance television services in the countries of Scandinavia, went into geosynchronous transfer orbit. Hughes said signals received by the Castle Rock tracking station in Colorado confirmed that the satellite was operating normally.
Defense Secretary William Cohen yesterday appeared to link U.S. willingness to promote "two-way" transatlantic weapons procurement and NATO's evaluation of the Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System. "We're trying to promote as much 'two-way' as we can, but we also want the NATO allies to look at JSTARS much more vigorously than they have today," Cohen told the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
With settlement earlier this week of a civil fraud dispute with the U.S. Justice Dept. stemming from the Rami Dotan foreign aid diversion scheme, Pratt&Whitney hopes to put the case behind it for good. "It has been very expensive to defend and disruptive to the enterprise," a P&W spokesman says, following the company's agreement Tuesday to pay $14.8 million to the U.S. government.
GREECE'S AIR FORCE took delivery of its first Lockheed Martin Block 50 F- 16C in a ceremony at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Tex., facility yesterday. Production of the first five of 40 aircraft for Greece has been completed.
ACR Industries, a small, Michigan-based gearbox specialist, won multi- year contracts together worth more than $24 million from GE Aircraft Engines for CFM56 Series gearboxes, pushing the company's backlog to record levels. "Our success has not come without some risk-taking," says ACR chief Ken Hollidge. "We have made significant commitments to our customers to make certain we have the best available machining and production technology."
The Ballistic Missile Defense Office said it will have to delay a planned May 30 launch of the Boeing North American Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle (EKV) because of a software problem with equipment at the Kwajalein test range in the Pacific. BMDO said yesterday that it hasn't decided on a new launch date. This is the second attempt to launch the EKV. In a January try, the missile carrying the vehicle failed to launch because of a power system problem. No intercept will be attempted on the next launch.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. said Brian D. Dailey has been named vice president, strategic development, effective immediately. Dailey, who also becomes a corporate officer, succeeds John F. Egan, 62, who will retire early next year. Lockheed Martin said Dailey, 45, will be responsible for strategic plans to strengthen positions in core businesses and movement into closely related markets. He most recently served as VP, business development for the corporation's Space&Strategic Missiles Sector.
The Defense Dept.'s top 100 contractors for fiscal year 1996 are listed in the following table, released by the Pentagon (DAILY, May 20). Net value of prime contract awards to each contractor and the value of awards to their divisions are given. Total of All Contract Awards $119,555,763 Total of 100 Companies/Subsidiaries $69,864,556 Thousand of Rank Companies Dollars 1 LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION 1,429,646 AIRPORT GROUP INTERNATIONAL IN 32,397
The NASA/McDonnell Douglas X-36 completed its first flight on Friday at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Calif., NASA and MDC reported yesterday. In the first of 25 test flights, the tailless, remotely piloted subscale research prototype of future fighters flew for five minutes, reaching a maximum altitude of 4,900 feet. Two X-36s have been built, both at a 28% scale.
Northrop Grumman Corp., after hitting record sales of $8.1 billion in 1996, is poised to continue a growth pattern with projected sales of $12 billion by 2001, Kent Kresa, president, chairman of the board and chief executive officer, said yesterday at the annual shareholders' meeting in Santa Monica, Calif.
The Pentagon has once again endorsed greater reliance on precision weapons, this time in the Quadrennial Defense Review. The move spares the systems from budget cuts that will have to be endured by many other weapons. The QDR recommendation was largely shaped by the Deep Attack Weapons Mix Study, underway since last summer. The QDR, released this week (DAILY, May 20), found that "with modest adjustments," plans to buy deep strike and anti-armor weapons and munitions are in good shape.
The Pentagon actually needs an additional $15 billion more than the current annual budget to do its job, but to have said that in the Quadrennial Defense Review would have been unrealistic, Defense Secretary William Cohen told members of the House National Security Committee yesterday. Cohen made the remark when asked by HNSC Procurement Subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) how much money DOD would really need if there were no budget constraints.
