Development of a conformal radar for a vehicle that would demonstrate technologies for future Japanese combat aircraft is behind schedule. Other programs for the vehicle, however, appear to be on schedule for assembly beginning in 2001. The other technologies include a stealthy airframe, a five-metric ton thrust class high thrust/weight ratio engine, a fly-by-light control system, and advanced composite materials.
GE Engine Services - arguably GE Aircraft Engines' biggest success story of the 1990s - expects to keep generating solid double-digit revenue and profit growth for the next four to five years through a combination of engine overhaul, work on accessories, and expansion into some line maintenance, Engine Services President Bill Vareschi tells AP. 'We've redefined our market'
Research and development work on E-2C radar performance enhancements will kick off next year just as the U.S. Navy begins the Hawkeye 2000 program to integrate the Cooperative Engagement Capability on the early warning aircraft, a Navy official said. The APS-145 radar carried by the E-2C is less than five years old and has allowed the Navy to move the airborne early warning mission from blue water to the littoral, but Navy program manager Walter E. Bahr said the new R&D effort "will take that a quantum leap farther."
International Aero Engines, the medium turbofan consortium jointly led by Pratt&Whitney and Rolls-Royce, plans to promote a new combination target-type thrust reverser/variable exhaust nozzle configuration developed by Whittier, Calif.-based Calcor Aero Systems on V2500s it sells to new airline customers, if 1,000 hours of tests due to start at IAE next month go well.
Air France yesterday ordered 10 Increased Gross Weight Boeing 777-200 airliners and five Airbus A340-300Es. The Boeing order includes 10 777 options. The A340s follow five others ordered in June. The first 777 will be delivered in 1998, and will be powered by General Electric GE90-90B engines. GE valued the engine order at $300 million. The Boeing order is expected to cost about $1.3 billion.
Boeing has completed another pressure test of the first U.S. element of the International Space Station, subjecting U.S. Node 1 to one and a half times its operating pressure in a four-hour test at company facilities in Huntsville, Ala. Company engineers repeated tests conducted in August that validated the addition of eight aluminum struts to correct out-of-specification strain gauge readings earlier in the test program (DAILY, Aug. 29). As in the earlier tests, the node was pressurized to 22.8 pounds per square inch.
First flight of the Alliant Techsystems Outrider tactical unmanned aerial vehicle has been slipped to December because program officials weren't certain a flight in November as planned would be safe. "The delay is primarily to allow additional risk mitigation efforts to ensure a safe first flight," the UAV Joint Program Office said yesterday in a statement. The 24-month, $53 million Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program began in May.
A B-2 BOMBER yesterday dropped an inert B61 nuclear bomb for the first time. The test, which took place at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, is part of the B61 development program and certification of the munition for the B-2. The bomb, designated B61-11, is a modified version of the B61-7. It uses the B61-7 warhead in a more robust case for better penetration capability. Harold Smith, assistant to the secretary of defense for nuclear, biological and chemical weapons defense programs, has said the improved B61 would enter U.S. stockpile this year (DAILY, April 24).
Air France will power 10 firm Boeing 777-200 Increased Gross Weight (IGW) widebody twins with GE90-90B turbofans in a deal worth $300 million, GE says. Boeing will deliver Air France's first aircraft in 1998, and the order swells the GE90's total to 218 engines on order or in service.
Reliability problems with Rolls-Royce's RB211 series engines have led to engine swaps, in-flight failures, dwindling spares pools and worried customers, prompting an all-operators meeting last week in the United Arab Emirates to talk over possible solutions, airline and manufacturer sources confirm.
GE Engine Services and the Nordam Group formed Nordam Europe in Wales to work together on maintenance and overhaul of thrust reversers and nacelle components. Initially based at GE's Nantgarw, Wales, overhaul facilities, plans are to expand Nordam Europe's customer base to include other jet engine maintenance and overhaul operations worldwide. A 100,000-square- foot, $9.3 million facility in Blackwood, Wales, should be completed early next year, creating as many as 170 jobs.
Industry sources confirm that American Airlines is close to finalizing a 400-aircraft fleet replacement order, which is expected to be very nearly a Boeing sweep. A large number of 737s in the order means a guaranteed boon for CFM International, the GE Aircraft Engines/SNECMA partnership. The widebody contest, however, is wide open.
Top officials at NASA headquarters have ordered the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Johnson Space Center to pull together their respective planning for robotic and human Mars exploration, and to chart a rough course for a human mission to the Red Planet between 2010-2020 that costs no more than NASA's share of the International Space Station.
TRW DELIVERED the first satellite antennas with the ability to detect and overcome electronic interference automatically. The new "nulling" antennas allow tactical users of the Milstar II satellites to communicate at medium data rates (MDR) without fear of enemy jammers, the company said. It designed and developed the antenna as part of a $477 million MDR payload contract to Hughes Space and Communications Co. Eight antennas will be built, two for each of four MDR payloads Hughes is producing for Lockheed Martin.
U.S. ARMY is buying 600 solid-state cameras from Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles for $26.4 million to outfit its AH-64 Apache helicopters, the company reported yesterday. The charge coupled device cameras are slated to replace vidicon tube cameras used in the Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor (TADS/PNVS) system. The move allows the camera to withstand greater stresses, Lockheed Martin said.
The U.S. Air Force's new vision of the future, slated to be formally unveiled later this week, sees evolution to a "space and air force" and use of battlelabs to promote innovation. AF Secretary Sheila Widnall and Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman said the strategy "embodies our belief that in the 21st century the strategic instrument of choice will be air and space power." Copies of the new strategy, grounded in the "Joint Vision 2010" of Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, were released at the Pentagon yesterday.
Canada, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway are about to sign agreements to partially join the Joint Strike Fighter program, says U.S. program director Rear Adm. Craig Steidle. Since last year, the program has been briefed to more than 10 countries (DAILY, Oct. 23, 1995). During a recent meeting of the F-16 European Steering committee, Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway also were briefed (DAILY, June 7).
LOCKHEED MARTIN Missiles&Space opened its new satellite manufacturing facility in Sunnyvale, Calif., yesterday. The $65 million, 158,000-square- foot Commercial Satellite Center will build and test the A2100 satellite bus, consolidating activities shifted from East Windsor, N.J.
The Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review won't require changes from the Navy and Marine Corps, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jay L. Johnson tells his flag officers. In a message to the officers, Johnson highlighted recent Navy operations in Bosnia and against Iraq, and said "as you can see, it is clear we do not need to reinvent the Navy in response to the QDR."
Alliant Defense Electronic Systems Inc. has acquired the Lundy Div. of Advanced Technology Materials Inc., Alliant announced yesterday. It didn't disclose terms of the transaction. It said Lundy, of Pompano Beach, Fla., manufactures next-generation chaff, dispenser systems for chaff and avionics spare parts, and will be consolidated into Alliant operations in Clearwater, Fla.
The June terrorist bombing of the U.S. military facility at Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 people prompted Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to call for U.S. preeminence in protection of forces. He said yesterday at a conference in Arlington, Va., that U.S. industry and military should work together to "fix the one area that I am aware of that we're not the undisputed leader." He noted that while the U.S. has the lead on technologies such as stealth and submarines, countries like Israel and the
NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia carried the Wake Shield Facility to orbit yesterday for its third exercise in enhancing the vacuum of space to make ultra-pure semiconductor wafers, flying without apparent mishap after safety delays for weather and checkouts of the insulation on its solid-fuel boosters.
Rep. John M. Spratt (D-S.C.), a defense centrist on the House National Security Committee, is running for election as ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee. His opponent is Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), who is on the Budget Committee. The House Democratic Caucus, which consists of all present Democratic House members, is slated to make its decision today.
McDonnell Douglas doesn't plan to protest the Pentagon's choice of Lockheed Martin and Boeing for the next phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program, and isn't likely to approach other companies for potential JSF teaming arrangements, Chief Executive Officer Harry Stonecipher said. At this point, he said, "the JSF is dead for McDonnell Douglas." Stonecipher told reporters shortly after the Saturday announcement that "it's really not a good morning for us," and that the choice was "clearly a surprise," but "we do not have any plans to protest."
Airbus Industrie is discussing with at least one North American manufacturer the idea of sharing risk and production of the A3XX superjumbo jet, Airbus Chairman and Chief Executive Jack Schofield said yesterday.
