Norman R. Augustine has been elected chairman of Lockheed Martin's board of directors effective Jan. 1, 1997, the company announced. "This action fulfills the succession plan set in place in the original August 1994 agreement to merge Lockheed and Martin Marietta," Daniel M. Tellep, who will step down as chairman, said in a prepared statement. Augustine, currently Lockheed Martin's vice chairman and CEO, served as president after the merger in March 1995. He was chairman of Martin Marietta from 1988 to 1995 and CEO from 1978 to 1995.
Meanwhile, on the Senate Armed Services Committee new ranking minority member Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) says he has selected David Lyles to serve as minority staff director of the committee. Lyles is no stranger to SASC, having worked for years as SASC staff director under retiring Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga.) when the Democrats controlled the Senate. Lyles took a top job at the Base Realignment and Closure Committee when the GOP won the Congress after the 1994 election. Recently he has been back on Capitol Hill working as a member of Levin's personal staff.
The Senate Armed Services Committee has not yet set a date for confirmation hearings on President Clinton's nomination of retiring Sen. William S. Cohen as secretary of defense, a SASC spokesman says, adding that hearings could even be held after the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. Four years ago, SASC did not wait until the inauguration and held hearings on the nomination of the late Les Aspin as defense secretary in early January, permitting him to be sworn in on Jan. 20. The difference now, SASC spokesman says, is that there is a sitting secretary, William J.
The interdepartmental Russian commission investigating the Mars-96 failure has narrowed the choice of possible causes of the embarrassing loss to three, but it delayed its official report until later this week or early next week. The investigation commission, headed by the Academician Vladimir F. Utkin, Director of the Russian Space Agency's Central Science and Research Institute of Machine-building (TsNIImash), was originally given until Dec. 5 to complete its official report.
Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Maine), President Clinton's choice for Defense Secretary, has made a congressional career of being able to cross party lines when the issues were big enough. "My entire congressional career has been devoted to pursuing a national security policy that is without partisanship," he said yesterday after President Clinton nominated him to replace William Perry as secretary of defense.
Funding delays will force an eight-month slip in launch of the Russian Service Module to the International Space Station, NASA's Station program manager said yesterday, delaying full-time habitation by at least that long but maintaining the original June 2002 Station completion date.
Pratt&Whitney signed an agreement with Aviation Industries of China, or AVIC, outlining a risk- and revenue-sharing partnership on the new PW6000 engine series, including "significant production in China," P&W reports this week.
Attorneys suing low-cost carrier ValuJet over the May crash of a ValuJet DC-9 into the Florida Everglades this week dropped Pratt&Whitney JT8D engine overhauler AeroThrust from most of the pending lawsuits brought by crash victims' families, AeroThrust reports. "It is unfortunate that we were named, and that our company's involvement in that accident was inaccurately described in the lawsuits, but this helps to clear the slate," says AeroThrust President James E. McMillen.
The Federal Trade Commission said yesterday that Boeing Co. must settle FTC charges that its takeover of Rockwell International's aerospace and defense businesses would violate antitrust laws. The announcement came as Boeing said it planned to finalize the move (see story on page 351). The FTC, detailing terms of a proposed settlement for public comment, charged that the deal would reduce competition in two markets - high- altitude endurance unmanned air vehicles and space launch vehicles.
President Clinton yesterday named William S. Cohen his nominee to replace William Perry as the next secretary of defense. He also nominated Anthony Lake as new director of central intelligence, Samuel Berger to become his national security adviser, and Madeleine Albright to head the State Dept. Speaking at the White House, Clinton praised Cohen, the former Republican Senator from Maine who served on the Senate Armed Services Committee, for "his willingness to cross party lines."
Engineers at CFM International partner SNECMA successfully conducted a full engine blade-off test Monday on the new CFM56-7 turbofan for Boeing's next-generation 737 jetliner series, validating a fix for persistent troubles with the fan blade retention system that had posed the only remaining hurdle to certification. Technicians "released one blade, and all they got was minor damage," a spokesman for GE Aircraft Engines, SNECMA's partner in CFM, tells AP.
Allison Engine Co. won U.S. FAA certification for its AE 3007A turbofan, which powers Embraer's 50-passenger EMB-145 twin-engine regional jet, and the full aircraft/engine combination should win its certificate before the year is up.
President Clinton's nomination yesterday of Anthony Lake to replace John Deutch as director of central intelligence probably won't mean a big shift in the White House's position on intelligence community reform and policy, Capitol Hill aides and observers predict. But Lake, who has been serving as the national security adviser, is seen as less likely than Deutch to take stands that may appear to conflict with the Administration.
NASA's Lewis Research Center has $800,000 to fund anywhere from eight to 12 grants or cooperative research agreements in Aeropropulsion Base Research Technology. Engineers are hoping to see proposals from educational institutions and non-profit organizations through February 14 covering Fluid, Materials, Structures, Instrumentation and Control, and Multidisciplinary Design and/or Analysis areas for aircraft airbreathing engines. Details are on LeRC's World Wide Web site, at http ://www.lerc.nasa.gov/WWW/Procure/grant.htm
Boeing expects to close its $3.1 billion acquisition of Rockwell International's aerospace and defense units today, Boeing said. The new company, Boeing North American (BNA), will become the largest subsidiary of Boeing Defense&Space Group. "We're overwhelmed when we think of the opportunities that are opened up when we go through and combine these two great businesses," BNA President John McLuckey said in a telephone press conference yesterday. "It opens up new opportunities that wouldn't have been available to us singularly."
Orbital Sciences will supply suborbital launch vehicles and services to the U.S. Air Force under a contract worth as much as $67 million over five years if all options are exercised, the Dulles, Va.-based company reported yesterday. Orbital will conduct as many as 30 sounding rocket launches for the three U.S. military services and the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, included both guided and unguided vehicles, the company said.
The U.S. Navy's New Attack Submarine isn't likely to be much less expensive than the Seawolf sub, the General Accounting Office said in a new report. The report, "New Attack Submarine: Program Status" (NSIAD-97-25), said the fifth ship of a 30-ship, two-shipbuilder NSSN-class sub would cost about $1.8 billion, while the average acquisition cost of a Seawolf sub in a 30-ship, single-builder program would be about $1.85 billion.
The U.S. Navy and General Electric are evaluating whether to adopt a temporarily restricted flight envelope for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, proposed this week in an effort to restore the flight test program suspended following an engine problem.
Chula Vista, Calif.-based nacelle and aerostructures specialist Rohr signed a deal for a Super 27 re-engine kit with Nomads Inc. - a Detroit travel club flying a Boeing 727-200. The kit includes new nacelles, struts, engine mounts and thrust reversers fitted to new Pratt&Whitney JT8D-217C/219 turbofans, and brings the aircraft into line with FAA Stage 3 and ICAO Chapter III noise rules.
Pratt&Whitney and longtime supplier and aftermarket specialist Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. both claimed victory last week in an antitrust suit brought by Chromalloy. Chromalloy says a Texas jury agreed with its charge that P&W "illegally attempted to monopolize the replacement business" for P&W engine parts. But P&W points out that the jury also turned down all of Chromalloy's claims for damages and relief, and agreed with P&W's counterclaim that Chromalloy "misappropriated" P&W data and drawings to compete unfairly with the enginemaker.
Space Systems/Loral has purchased launches for the final 12 of its Globalstar "big LEO" low-Earth orbit communications satellites aboard a variant of Russia's venerable Soyuz booster from the European/Russian Starsem joint venture. The deal, signed Tuesday in Palo Alto, Calif., also includes options for eight more launches. Each three-stage Soyuz-Icare booster will carry four Globalstar spacecraft, and use its maneuverable positioning stage to deploy them in their proper positions in the Globalstar constellation.
Japan Air System Wednesday formally accepted its first Boeing 777-200 widebody twin, powered by Pratt&Whitney PW4084 turbofans, becoming the fourth airline to receive a P&W-powered 777 since the first aircraft was delivered to launch customer United Airlines in May, 1995.
Globalstar won final approval from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to build and operate its planned 48-satellite low-Earth orbit communications satellite constellation, the company reported Tuesday. Headed by Loral Space and Communications, the international limited partnership plans to begin launching satellites in the second half of 1997 and to initiate commercial service late in 1998.
