The U.S. Air Force wants to maintain and maybe even reduce the unit cost of the F-22 fighter as it moves from the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase to production, and may do so by applying some of the techniques used to control the cost of the C-17 airlifter. "As we look at the F-22, what we find is a program that has very little margin," said Gen. Richard E. Hawley, commander of Air Combat Command.
TRW said it has completed a test that verified design and performance of a new anti-jam antenna for Milstar II satellites. The test showed that the nulling antenna will allow Milstar users to transmit information at medium data rates without fear of interference by hostile jammers, the company said.
McDonnell Douglas hopes to build on its Wednesday win of the U.S. Air Force's T-38 Talon avionics upgrade program by pursuing the big international F-5 and T-38 market, company officials said yesterday. Overseas sales, they said, could add a couple of hundred planes to the USAF program of 425.
Senate and House defense authorization conferees direct the Pentagon to modify its near-term budget for the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system by adding a second radar and 40 more user operational evaluation (UOES) missiles. The Pentagon's THAAD plan calls for 40 UOES missiles, but the conferees boost the number to 80.
The U.S. and Japan signed a memorandum of understanding for shared production of Japan's F-2 fighter, formerly the FS-X, that will increase the amount of work done by American companies. The MOU, signed Tuesday in Tokyo, launched a $10 billion program to produce 130 of the planes, the Pentagon said. The signatories were Lt. Gen. Thomas G. Rhame, director of the Pentagon's Defense Security Assistance Agency, and Katsuhiko Tokita, director general of Japan's Defense Equipment Bureau.
House and Senate fiscal 1997 defense authorization conferees have agreed to authorize a $28.5 million boost for the DarkStar unmanned aerial vehicle, increasing the authorization to $45.9 million, more than the amount in either bill. In adding the funding to complete the necessary engineering and design efforts to recover from a crash, the conference underscored "the potential of the DarkStar to provide unique support to the operational users."
The U.S. Marine Corps hopes to showcase its improved Hawk missile system this month with demonstration shoot-downs of seven Lance missiles and three drone aircraft. The main objective of the series, to take place at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., is to show that the Hawk, originally designed as an air defense system, is now also capable of performing the theater missile defense (TMD) role, said Marine Maj. Ronn Johnson Marine, director of the demonstration.
Magnavox Electronic Systems Co. yesterday officially changed its name to Hughes Defense Communications. The company has 500 employees at facilities in Torrance and El Segundo, Calif. It supplies defense electronics equipment for airborne, ground/co-site and satellite communications, and for electronic combat, command and control systems, anti-sub-marine warfare, munitions and ordnance, and weapons systems and unmanned aerial vehicle avionics.
DELTA AIR LINES ordered 25 NORDAM hush kits for its fleet of Boeing 737- 200s, and took options for 30 more, Delta reported yesterday. While the kits are the same low gross weight NORDAM/Pratt&Whitney kit certified in November 1994, Delta said they will use a new-design 18-lobe exhaust duct mixer still being developed by NORDAM and P&W.
The second attempt to launch the Progress M-32 cargo vehicle to Russia's Mir orbital station is scheduled early today, following replacement of the Soyuz booster that shut down automatically seconds before its most recent launch attempt. Meanwhile, Russian space officials have gone to extra shifts to prepare a second Soyuz booster to lift two replacement cosmonauts and a French researcher to Mir by Aug. 19, five days behind their original schedule (DAILY, July 9).
The House today is expected to act on $265.6 billion compromise fiscal 1997 defense authorization, sending the conference report to the Senate for final congressional approval before the start of the month-long August recess, which could start as early as the close of business Friday. House National Security Chairman Rep. Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) told The DAILY: "I think we'll get it through" the House.
South Carolina-based King Air refurbishment specialist Stevens Aviation gave Orenda Aerospace's aviation V-8 program a lift this week, committing to order 140 engines and installation kits worth some $20 million. The Canadian company completing the Thunder engine development program as the cornerstone of its Orenda Series of V-8 power plants expects to have both U.S. FAA and Transport Canada certification for the 600 horsepower variant - the OE-600 - soon and Stevens will start getting engines later this year.
McDonnell Douglas Corp. beat out seven other companies for the U.S. Air Force's hotly contested T-38 cockpit upgrade program that includes production options for 425 of the improved trainers. The U.S. Air Force yesterday awarded McDonnell Douglas a $45.7 million contract for the design and development of the T-38 avionics upgrade and delivery of two improved aircraft. MDC teamed last year with Israel Aircraft Industries to pursue the program.
Missouri's Labor Dept. ruled this week that striking McDonnell Douglas Machinists can draw unemployment benefits, in part based on company executives' boasts that production is close to normal levels despite the walkout. Throughout the strike, company officials have pointed out that production continues even without the Machinists. McDonnell Douglas Aerospace chief Herb Lanese in fact said recently that what management is discovering is that it only needs 5,000 people to do the work now being done by the 6,700 walking the picket lines.
U.S. Air Force plans to upgrade its McDonnell Douglas F-15C fighters with modernized Pratt&Whitney F100-PW-220E engine kits have fallen victim to more pressing modernization needs as Pentagon budgeteers continue to battle over establishing the program objective memorandum, or POM, for fiscal years 1998 through '03.
Technicians at McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis should finish installing AlliedSignal's 6,300-lbst. F124-GA-400 turbofan in a leased U.S. Navy T-45A trainer in time for qualification flights to begin in early September, but the aircraft won't be F124-powered early enough to give Australian officials the chance to fly the plane before making their Lead-In Fighter program decision.
House and Senate negotiators Tuesday night approved a $265.6 billion defense authorization conference report. Despite being $11 billion over President Clinton's $254.3 billion request, Democratic sources involved in the conference said yesterday that they expected Clinton to sign the bill into law.
Portland, Ore.-based Precision Castparts Corp. bought Britain's AE Turbine Components for $63.6 million, a move to boost its already burgeoning Airfoils Div. with investment casting work for both aircraft engine and industrial gas turbine programs. "We are positioning PCC to be the preeminent supplier of investment castings around the world," says CEO William McCormick, although much of the company's anticipated growth in that market will come from the industrial side of the business, rather than aerospace.
NASA's DC-XA reusable launch vehicle testbed was "severely damaged" yesterday when it tipped over and burned upon landing after its fourth test flight. Dan Dumbacher, NASA's DC-XA program manager, told reporters late yesterday only three of the vehicle's four landing struts deployed properly after the flight. As the three operative struts took the vehicle's weight upon landing the flight program automatically shut down the engines, Dumbacher said, but the DC-XA still caught fire after it fell onto the side not supported by a strut.
Second-quarter profits at enginemaker Pratt&Whitney were 26% ahead of last year's pace on 3% stronger sales, leading all units at parent United Technologies and helping the company post overall double-digit earnings gains for the period.
Atlantic Research Corp. and GenCorp.'s Aerojet unit will develop a new upper stage rocket engine based on the 1960s-vintage Agena upper stage for Lockheed Martin's entry in the U.S. Air Force's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, or EELV, contest, Lockheed Martin reports.
Cessna's McCauley Propellers unit won three supplemental type certifications for retrofit props on Cessna 172RGs, Beech Sierra models, and Piper's Cheyenne I, the company reports. The STC for the 172RG and Sierra covers McCauley's BlackMac QZP three- bladed aluminum prop with scimitar-shaped blades, designed to replace factory installed two-bladed propellers. The three-bladed design improves takeoff and climb performance, and its new blade airfoil distribution and tip design cuts flyover and cabin noise.
JEREMIAH CREEDON, a 33-year engineering veteran at NASA's Langley Research Center, has been named director of the facility effective Aug. 5. Most recently director of the Airframe Systems Program Office, Creedon will replace Paul F. Holloway, who resigned (DAILY, July 3). The 56- year-old electrical engineer was a Sloan Fellow at Stanford in 1982-83 and is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The outcry over FAA's charter to provide safety oversight of the aviation industry while also promoting the industry is a "total red herring," according to Tony Broderick, the agency's former deputy administrator for regulation and certification. Because of this, he said, "I am strongly in favor of eliminating the promotion" aspect. "It will have no effect on FAA, but it may help eliminate the senseless debate."
The Pentagon, in an appeals package sent to congressional appropriators, warns that proposed changes in the fiscal year 1997 budget for the Tomahawk cruise missile program will interfere with the Navy's ability to keep the restructured program on track. The House, in its FY '97 defense appropriations bill, reduced the $136.5 million request for Tomahawk development by $12 million. The Senate increased the request by $20 million and directed the Navy to accelerate the Block IV program.
