Persistent troubles with the fan blade retention system will slip certification of CFM International's new CFM56-7 medium turbofan for Boeing's next-generation 737 jetliner series - originally slated for the end of this month - to sometime "before year's end," a spokesman for CFM partner GE confirmed Friday. Engineers hope to have a fix in hand and tested in mid-November, well before the engine is needed to begin flight tests on a Boeing 737-700 in February. Aircraft/engine certification remains scheduled for next September.
Capitol Hill observers expect to see a bit of seat shifting on the Senate Armed Services Committee in the 105th Congress, not due entirely to election outcomes. Very few members are in close reelection races, but there are at least four open seats and indications that a few are eyeing other committee posts.
The Joint Space Management Board, made up of Pentagon and CIA officials, has signed off on objectives for a new Military Satellite Communications System. The board took the action largely on recommendations of Maj. Gen. Robert Dickman, the Defense Dept.'s space architect The Pentagon said Tuesday that the four objectives are to provide assured, secure communications; to fully integrate with the Defense Information Systems Network; to reduce the communications "footprint" of terminals, radios and antennas; and to be user friendly and interoperable.
The Pentagon should improve its capability to perform the strategic mobility mission, according to a Defense Science Board task force. The report to Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski was submitted in September but released only recently. It said "[p]lanning must account for the likelihood of adversaries with both capability and motivation to delay, disrupt, and otherwise raise the price of entry into [a] theater."
Continental Airlines has ordered 60 Boeing 737s for $1.8 billion, split evenly between the 737-500 and the new-generation 737-600, the carrier said yesterday.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Fairchild Systems won a $4.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to replace the B-52's AVQ-22 Steerable Television (STV) systems with solid-state imaging technology. The full-scale development contract could lead to production options exceeding $15 million, Lockheed Martin said.
The U.S. Navy's strategy to upgrade EA-6B tactical jamming planes with a reactive receiver is being driven largely by the desire to field the system quickly, but the service doesn't plan to boost funding in fiscal '98 beyond what Congress provided as part of the fiscal '97 defense appropriations.
Lockheed Martin, LHTEC and McDonnell Douglas received contracts Sept. 30 from the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command for work on helicopter programs. Lockheed Martin won three contracts totaling $13.2 million for the AH- 64 Apache program. The contracts are as follows: -- $6.5 million modification to an earlier contract to Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, Inc., Owego, N.Y., for radio frequency interferometer (RFI) production Lot 1 and related support.
Republican members of Congress have a right to sue the Administration for not adhering to mandated deployment dates for missile defense programs, a U.S. District Court judge said yesterday. But Judge Stanley Sporkin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said he wants Congress and the Administration to try to work out the disagreement before moving it to court.
NASA has broadened the list of potential landing sites for its X-33 reusable launch vehicle (RLV) suborbital prototype, and has scheduled public hearings in the flight operations area as part of the environmental impact statement (EIS) required for the flight program under federal law.
Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles has delivered the first LANTIRN pods to the Israeli air force for its use on F-15s. Israel is buying both the LANTIRN navigation pod and the Sharpshooter targeting pod for its F-15Is under a $106 million foreign military sales program called Peace Fox, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. The number of pods being delivered couldn't be disclosed, it said.
FIRST DROP of a live Global Positioning System-Aided Munition (GAM) by a B- 2 bomber took place Oct. 8 at the Nellis AFB, Nev., range, the U.S. Air Force said. Three B-2s from Whiteman AFB, Mo., dropped 16 of the GPS-Aided Targeting System/GAMs. Inert weapons were dropped in earlier B-2 tests. The Air Force plans initial operational capability for GATS/GAM next spring.
AlliedSignal Aerospace is preparing to bid on a U.S. Navy airborne mine detection and destruction program, according to Steven T. Schorer, vice president and general manager Electronic Systems Ocean Systems. Schorer said Monday in Washington at a briefing for reporters that the Navy is considering moving to engineering and manufacturing development of the Airborne Mine Neutralization System, which would likely consist of a fire control sonar and expendable mine destroying device.
Olin Corp., Norwalk, Conn., will spin off its ordnance and aerospace divisions to shareholders as an independent company called Primex Technologies Inc., Olin announced yesterday. It said the move is part of a series of strategic initiatives designed to create a stronger, more focused company.
A Canadian company developing a commercial spaceport at the Churchill Research Range in northern Manitoba has signed an agreement with the Russian firm marketing converted SS-25 ICBMs to launch satellites into polar and high-inclination sun-synchronous orbits. Officials of Akjuit Aerospace Inc. and Russia's STC Complex signed the agreement in Ottawa Wednesday, paving the way for commercial launches at the Arctic facility late in 1998, according to information supplied by the Canadian firm.
WILCOX ELECTRIC plans to take several days to decide if it will appeal FAA's denial of its protest of the sole-source award of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) contract to Hughes Aircraft Co. Director of Business Development Wayne Dolhman told DAILY affiliate ATC Market Report that "we haven't decided yet, either internally or in conjunction with Thomson-CSF [Wilcox's parent company], what, if any, action we might take with regard to an appeal."
The world's airframers will need to build some 600 new, mostly large freight-carrying aircraft between now and 2015, representing market opportunity of about $65 billion for Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, according to Boeing's latest annual air cargo forecast, made public yesterday.
DUTCH ECONOMIC AFFAIRS MINISTER Hans Wijers is expected to set a date for negotiations on Samsung Aerospace Industries Ltd.'s bid to take over Fokker NV. Talks could begin later this week or next.
A unique AlliedSignal-designed fuel-driven motor is one of two candidates to power the Rolls-Royce three-bearing swivel nozzle used on Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter concept, a senior AlliedSignal executive reports. The so-called Fuel-Draulic Control, developed by the Engine Systems and Accessories unit of AlliedSignal Aerospace Equipment Systems, replaces hydraulic fluid with fuel already being carried aboard the aircraft. As a result, the plumbing needed to handle hydraulic fluid is eliminated, along with its weight and complexity.
The U.S. Air Force is proposing to speed up integration of the Joint Direct Attack Munition on the B-1B bomber, a move that would see the plane ready for its first missions with precision guided weapons by early 1999.
FAA denied Wilcox Electric's protest against its Wide Area Augmentation System contract award to Hughes Aircraft Co. yesterday, citing a special master's conclusion that the agency did not have to compete the award and that its market analysis was sufficient. Wilcox protested the contract May 28 after FAA canceled Wilcox's original contract to develop WAAS and retained Hughes, a Wilcox subcontractor, on a sole-source basis as the new prime.
Dragonair of Hong Kong is looking hard at buying two more Airbus Industrie A320 single-aisle twins, probably powered by International Aero Engines V2500s, industry executives confirm to AP. The carrier already flies 14 V2500s on seven A320s, but needs more as the airline industry's recovery ripples out to generate steep demand by Western travelers trying to reach China.
Tracor Inc.'s completion last month of the acquisition of information specialist Cordant continues a growth-through-acquisition strategy that has moved it from a top-100 defense electronics company three years ago to the rank of the top 15, chairman and president James Skaggs told The DAILY.
Nichols Research Corp., Huntsville, Ala., brought in revenues of $242.3 million for the year ending Aug. 31, 1996, up from $170.3 million from the previous year, an increase of 42%. Quarterly revenues were $89.1 million, up from $53.5 million in the same quarter in 1995, a growth of 67%, according to a statement released yesterday.
The U.S. Navy plans to award Sikorsky Aircraft Co. a contract to demonstrate a CH-60 Black Hawk for vertical replenishment to replace the aging CH-46, according to an Oct. 8 Commerce Business Daily notice. The composite of the Army UH-60 Black Hawk and the marinized SH-60 Sea Hawk would be used for tactical missions, such as within carrier battlegroups. During the sea trials, Sikorsky would demonstrate and test the Black Hawk's VERTREP capability.
