The Rolls-Royce/Pratt&Whitney-led International Aero Engines consortium is already on track to post $1.8 billion in sales this year, but still hopes to reach management's target of $2 billion, says IAE chief Barry Eccleston.
NASA hopes the seed money it plans to give small engine specialists Williams International and Teledyne Continental Motors will lead to orders- of-magnitude cost reductions in power for small aircraft, says Leo Burkardt of NASA's Lewis Research Center.
Lucas Industries aerospace sales increased 8% to 528 million pounds ($823 million) during the financial year ended July 31, the company reported, noting that the industry has begun an upturn. It said the recent surge in new aircraft orders will result in a significant increase in civil aircraft deliveries for the next several years.
Rep. Bill Archer (R-Tex.), who heads the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, is on the offensive following the Internal Revenue Service's decision that major aircraft engine overhauls are capital expenditures rather than expenses - making those expenses not deductible for tax purposes.
Textron Systems, which has used silicon carbide fibers to make engine components for several years, has decided to start selling the fibers on a wider scale in order to spur more applications for the advanced material. In the past Textron sold SiC fibers "on a limited basis and utilized the fibers to manufacture its own SCS fiber-reinforced components," Textron says.
The U.S. Navy has designated surface fire support as the top item to be considered for additional funding in its portion of the Pentagon's fiscal 1999 program review, Rear Adm. Daniel J. Murphy, the Navy's surface warfare director, said yesterday.
Canada's top military officer, Gen. Jean Boyle, resigned Tuesday after months of criticism over a scandal involving abuses by Canadian peacekeepers in Somalia.
AlliedSignal Engines' ITEC F124 turbofan won't be flight-qualified on McDonnell Douglas' T-45 Goshawk trainer, at least for now, in the wake of the F124-powered Goshawk's elimination from Australia's Lead-In Fighter contest last month, MDC executives say. MDC and AlliedSignal went ahead last week with the first test flight of the aircraft (DAILY, Oct. 8), flying a 90-minute test mission in a leased T-45 reaching 25,000 feet that should have launched a test series leading to full qualification of the 6,300-lbst. F124-GA-400 on the aircraft.
Kistler Aerospace, the private Seattle-based startup company that has applied for the first commercial license to fly a reusable launch vehicle, has first right of refusal on all 70 Russian NK-33 rocket engines that Aerojet plans to import and upgrade for the U.S. market. Marc Constantine, director of business development in Aerojet's strategic and space propulsion unit, said yesterday published reports that another firm plans to use the Russian engine in an air-launched RLV it has proposed caught him by surprise.
Northrop Grumman has begun producing newly designed engine nacelles for the McDonnell Douglas C-17 airlifter. MDC said they will shave about $4 million from the cost of each plane. The new nacelle replaces titanium and composite parts with lower cost aluminum components in areas such as the fan thrust reverser cascades, MDC said. The exterior inlet surfaces and the sleeve covering the cascades were changed from composite to aluminum and the core reverser and translating fairings were changed from multi-piece assemblies to single-piece parts.
The fiscal year 1997 intelligence authorization bill passed by Congress late last month directs the secretary of defense and director of central intelligence (DCI) to develop a database of all intelligence and intelligence-related programs and activities. The database, to be in place by Jan. 1, 1999, must specify the purpose of each program or activity and include information for past and future years on the types and quantities of resources planned, programmed, budgeted and executed, the conferees say in their report on the bill.
The scheduled deployment of the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system could slip if a December intercept test goes awry, new BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester L. Lyles told reporters yesterday. Lyles has met over the past few days with Lockheed Martin senior managers to verify that the THAAD prime contractor has the very best people and teams looking at problems that have cropped up in preceding flight tests. THAAD has yet to demonstrate it can intercept a target.
A liberal Democratic vendetta against the Pentagon budget is unlikely to materialize even if congressional Democrats ride President Clinton's expected re-election to regain control of the House (a good chance) and the Senate (an outside shot). The Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill, sobered by the 1994 loss of majority status in the House after 40 years, has put forth a modest agenda of centrist proposals.
The U.S. Air Force will buy satellites G4 and G5 of the Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) as low rate initial production items with production funds, Pentagon acquisition chief Paul Kaminski said in a memorandum approving the program for engineering and manufacturing development. Kaminski gave the Milestone 2 approval earlier this month following a program review (DAILY, Oct. 8). The acquisition decision memorandum signed out Oct. 3 and released by the Pentagon yesterday designated the two satellites as LRIP items.
Justice Dept. attorneys argued in U.S. District Court last week that a lawsuit filed against President Clinton and Defense Secretary Perry for not adhering to congressionally mandated theater missile defense (TMD) deployment dates should be dismissed.
The TRW-built megawatt-class Alpha chemical laser returned to testing last month after a two-year hiatus. In a Sept. 18 test at TRW's Capistrano Test Site, the laser was fired for five seconds, a full-duration test, TRW Space and Electronics said Monday. Alpha is a space-compatible, hydrogen fluoride laser developed by TRW in the early 1980s as part of a program for a Space-Based Laser (SBL) system. The program was reinvigorated in large part by congressional additions last fiscal year.
Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials and the services' senior acquisition chiefs will meet today to refine an acquisition strategy for a national missile defense (NMD) system, new BMDO Director Lt. Gen. Lester L. Lyles (USAF) told reporters at the BMDO offices in the Pentagon yesterday. The meeting will center on discussion of the best systems integration approach for NMD, he said.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), having won $4.9 million in the fiscal 1997 defense appropriations act for safety modifications to the Dragon anti-tank missile system, is now pushing for $25 million in development work to upgrade the 1970s weapon to make it nearly as capable as the Javelin, the Army's latest medium anti-tank system. Lott made his intentions clear in Senate debate a week ago on the defense appropriations portion of the omnibus appropriations conference report.
A new RAND study finds Russia's air force struggling like the rest of the country to make ends meet, with stingy funding producing poorly trained aircrews, a dwindling stock of operational warplanes, and the prospect of fielding a match for the U.S. F-22 slim at best.
Employees of Alliant Techsystems Defense Systems Group went on strike against the company's three facilities in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area Monday. Workers rejected a new three-year contract, and a critical issue is Alliant Techsystems' flexibility to outsource.
TECHNICIANS at Kennedy Space Center were able to replace the forward-facing windows on the Space Shuttle Columbia over the weekend, clearing the way for the job to be completed and the Shuttle rolled to the Vehicle Assembly Building this afternoon.
The international program office overseeing development of the Medium Extended Air Defense System has awarded $80 million contracts to each of the two competing international joint ventures for the program definition and validation phase. The teams - MEADS Inc. and MEADS International Inc. - were selected after a downselect of U.S. competitors last year and teaming with their European counterparts. The teams have been refining their PD&V contract bids for most of this year.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) gave CALSTART the go-ahead on eight programs involving electric and hybrid electric vehicle technologies. CALSTART, California's advanced transportation consortium, said one part of the $5.3 million agreement involves Northrop Grumman, and a second part will try to develop an advanced, stealthy hybrid electric military reconnaissance vehicle.
LOCKHEED MARTIN said Hugo B. Poza has been named vice president, business development of the C3I&Systems Integration Sector. Poza, an executive VP at Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit since October 1995, will direct new business initiatives across the sector.
