Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, intends to introduce a resolution soon after Congress returns Jan. 21 calling for a biennial budget cycle. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) has 10 resolutions he wants the Senate to address when it convenes and the Domenici resolution is slated to follow those actions, a Senate aide said.
DERLAN INDUSTRIES LIMITED, Toronto, signed an agreement to sell Carriere Technical Industries to management for proceeds of $2.5 million. The divestment follows Derlan's strategy of narrowing its focus in the aerospace and industrial technologies markets.
Raytheon Co. says it could pay off debt from the planned purchases of Texas Instruments and Hughes Electronics' defense operations in seven years. It would assume $7.4 billion in debt with a $3 billion cash purchase of TI, and $4.4 billion in debt with a $9.5 billion acquisition of Hughes. "Obviously we'll be taking some of this debt long term," Raytheon CFO Peter D'Angelo said Friday. "We have a plan to increase our 5-10 year borrowings to finance that."
Japan's Meteorological Agency will set up an Airway Volcanic Ash Information Center to help airline pilots avoid dangerous ash. The center, being established in response to a recommendation by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), will monitor about 200 volcanoes in the western Pacific and eastern Eurasia using data from satellites and ground observation stations. The information will be passed to weather bureaus of various countries.
NASA has picked an upper stage built by the Naval Research laboratory for classified military missions to supplement Russia's FGB space tug during the first year of International Space Station assembly in lieu of the delayed Russian Service Module. Andrew Allen, Station program director at NASA headquarters, said Friday an Interim Control Module (ICM) based on the NRL's Titan Launch Dispenser will give the Station program about a year of backup for the FGB regardless of whether the Service Module reaches the Station.
Meanwhile, Mars Pathfinder is on trajectory for the Red Planet after completing its first and largest course correction maneuver Jan. 9. JPL controllers ordered two of the spacecraft's eight one-pound thrusters to fire continuously for 90 minutes, changing spacecraft velocity by 69 mph. Later they rotated the spacecraft about 35 degrees toward Earth to facilitate radio navigation. After the maneuver all spacecraft subsystems continued to function normally, and Doppler data indicated it was on course, JPL reported.
Officials of the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the Russian defense establishment have agreed to proceed with a scaled-down version of the Russian-American Observation Satellite (RAMOS) program, under which Moscow will get U.S. satellite data, a BMDO official told The DAILY.
Engine and component reseller Kellstrom Industries bought reseller International Aircraft Support this week for $26.5 million in cash, plus warrants for Kellstrom stock, broadening Kellstrom's customer and product line base and more than doubling its short-term engine lease portfolio. San Francisco-based IASI's strengths are in Pratt&Whitney JT8D, PW2000 and PW4000 engines, along with the CFM International CFM56, adding to Kellstrom's P&W JT9D-based business.
AlliedSignal's 131-9[A] auxiliary power unit heads to critical design review next month, the company says, and is on track for first engine to test in March. First aircraft delivery with the new APU is planned for September 1998. The [A] is being developed for Airbus Industrie's A319, A320 and A321 aircraft as an additional option to the existing 36-300 series APU.
NASA has decided to have the Space Shuttle Atlantis overhauled at the Boeing North American facility in Palmdale, Calif., that has handled past orbiter maintenance periods rather than at Kennedy Space Center, Fla. The U.S. space agency said its Shuttle managers accepted a recommendation from United Space Alliance, the Shuttle operations prime contractor, that the work be done in Palmdale. Atlantis will go to Palmdale for its "Orbiter Maintenance Down Period" after it returns from STS-86, a Mir-docking mission scheduled for September.
A green light for low-rate initial production this spring of the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F strike fighter is likely following a key assessment of the plane. Capt. Joe Dyer, program manager for Naval Air Systems Command, said in an interview that "The second phase of operational testing is just complete. The report is not written, but the informal feedback that I have received from our operational test folks is that, just as we expected, there are no surprises."
Canada's government is going ahead with plans to pump C$147 million into Pratt&Whitney Canada to support the company's work to power Montreal-based Bombardier's new de Havilland Dash 8-400 regional turboprop.
LITTON INDUSTRIES will purchase a division of Science Applications International Corp. for an undisclosed sum, and expects to close the deal by the end of next month, Litton said yesterday. SAI Technology (SAIT) of La Jolla, Calif., is a supplier of mobile computing equipment and systems for military and commercial systems. Litton said the acquisition will allow it "to provide a complete suite of hardware" for handheld computers used by soldiers in the field.
HIGH ALTITUDE WINDS over Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., yesterday forced a one-day delay in launching the next Navstar Block IIR Global Positioning System satellite. The Delta II launch was rescheduled for today in a 30- minute window that opens at 11:28 EST.
Toronto-based Derlan, parent of engine component supplier Derlan Aerospace Canada, is winning mixed reviews from the financial community for its second major financial shakeup since its inception in 1984. Derlan launched a refinancing last week of some $150 million extending the maturity of its debt and dipping a toe into U.S. capital markets. Moody's Investors Service, a debt-rating agency, assigned cautiously positive - but still speculative-grade - ratings to Derlan's new bank credit facility and notes.
A JOINT VENTURE of Brown and Root Services and Pioneer Contract Services has won a five-year, $128.2 million contract for base operations at NASA's Johnson Space Center, Tex., the U.S. space agency said yesterday. The joint venture, BRSP Inc., will provide plant maintenance and operations; rigging and heavy hauling; logistics support; security; grounds maintenance and other support services at the Houston facility.
Fuji NDT Systems of Japan has developed a new technology for X-ray imaging that "provides enhanced images and dramatically cuts operating costs." Aerospace applications of the technology, called Computed Radiography (CR), include inspection of structural engine castings, landing gear components, aluminum wheels, aluminum sandwich structures, jet engine turbine blade and vane castings, composite structural components and solid rocket motors, according to Doug Hackradt, U.S. national sales manager, based in Roselle, Ill.
Raytheon Co. said yesterday it will acquire Hughes Electronics defense operations for $9.5 billion, edging out Northrop Grumman which also wanted Hughes. Raytheon agreed to pay about $5.1 billion in common stock and assume $4.4 billion in debt. Raytheon Chairman and CEO Dennis J. Picard said the combination is consistent with the company's objective of remaining a top-tier defense player. The combined enterprise would have revenues of $21 billon.
GE Aircraft Engines expects in mid-1997 to perform the first-ever three-dimensional computer-based simulation of a complete engine - a GE90 high-bypass turbofan - under a new contract with NASA's Lewis Research Center. Engineers will model all of the engine's major components - inlet, fan, outlet guide vanes, bypass duct, booster, high-pressure compressor, high-pressure turbine, low-pressure turbine and exhaust nozzles - analyzing 50 blade rows of turbomachinery in the primary engine flowpath at an altitude cruise condition.
The Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office objects to a classified report from the General Accounting Office that challenges the Pentagon's mix of reconnaissance assets, officials say. DARO Director Maj. Gen. Kenneth Israel told a meeting of the Precision Strike Association in Arlington, Va., Wednesday that the GAO called into question the need for the Teledyne Ryan Tier II Plus, or Global Hawk, high altitude endurance unmanned aerial vehicle. But Israel said he disagrees with that opinion, and that the planned mix of HAE UAVs is necessary.
GROUND CONTROLLERS restored the GOES-8 weather satellite to service about 8 p.m. EST Sunday after correcting a computer problem. The satellite lost its Earth lock last week, hampering weather forecasting over the East Coast (DAILY, Jan. 14).
Attorneys at the U.S. General Accounting Office have rejected a bid protest that charged a $39 million Russian language translation services contract was improperly awarded by NASA's Johnson Space Center because the winning bidder had a "close personal relationship" with JSC Director George Abbey.
Pratt&Whitney Canada inked a long-term strategic deal with China National South Aeroengine and Machinery Company (SAEC), P&WC says. Centered around a joint venture company making engine components for P&WC in Zhuzhou, the deal also covers co-development of gas turbine engines for Chinese and international markets, and assembly, test and overhaul of P&WC engines at the joint venture's facilities. Initial investment comes to US$25 million.
Northrop Grumman said it will close four plants as part of a continuing effort to consolidate facilities and streamline its operations. The closings will result in a net reduction of 755 jobs and eliminate 2.5 million square feet of excess plant capacity, the company said.
