Airfoil Technologies International, the joint venture formed last fall by GE Aircraft Engines and coatings and repairs specialist Sermatech (AP, Oct. 12, 1995), set up a Singapore subsidiary called Airfoil Technologies Singapore Pte., Ltd., to capture some of the fast-growing Asian aviation market, GE reports. The new unit is building a 65,000 square-foot-facility to refurbish more than one million compressor airfoils each year "within extremely quick turnaround times," GE says in a prepared statement.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Vought Systems, Dallas, received the U.S. Army's first production order for the extended range Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS). The company said the $45 million contract from the Army Missile Command calls for 70 of the Block 1A ATACMS, with delivery to be completed by April 1998.
The Senate yesterday wrote into the $244.7 fiscal 1997 defense appropriation bill a provision requiring the president submit to Congress the future years defense plans of the National Guard and Reserve chiefs - an approach that would restrict the present congressional approach of directing procurement of specific equipment for the Guard and Reserves. Offered by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services readiness subcommittee, the amendment was approved by voice vote.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency plans to press ahead with development of micro unmanned aerial vehicles and is trying to establish funding for a fiscal 1998 program. DARPA should have the funds for an open competition in "the next two years," according to Col. Mike Francis of the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office. Francis, who recently moved to DARO from DARPA where he ran the miniature UAV effort, said at the annual convention of the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems here that study contracts are already being awarded.
With Australia having bought the AGM-142 standoff missile, a Lockheed Martin official says the focus now is on additional overseas sales. Peter B. Spivy said two export licenses for the missile, developed by Israel's Rafael and co-marketed here by Lockheed Martin Electronics and Missiles, have expired but that new licenses are now being pursued.
Doubled profits in Northrop Grumman's electronics business segment swelled the company's second quarter operating margins to a record $208 million - 25% ahead of 1995's second-quarter performance, also a record, Northrop Grumman reported yesterday.
Two Russian submarines of the Northern fleet launched SS-N-8 and SS-N-23 SLBMs against "conditional targets" located on Kamchatka peninsula and in the Pacific Ocean during a fleet training exercise on Monday. As reported by Russia's ITAR-TASS news agency, the missiles were launched after a long storage period and still were reported to hit their targets with a high degree of accuracy.
Netherlands industrial firm Stork N.V. said yesterday it will acquire Fokker Aviation, the surviving services and components businesses of Fokker Aircraft, for 302.5 million guilders (about $178.5 million). Terming the acquisition a "logical extension" of its businesses, Stork said its takeover agreement requires it to "provide the maximum possible support in the event of any decision to recommence Fokker aircraft production," something it would do anyway for the sake of the service business it is acquiring.
HOUSE-SENATE CONFEREES on the fiscal 1997 defense authorization are making no progress on major issues and appear to be slipping substantially behind the tight schedule that called for completion and approval by Congress before the August recess, which starts Aug. 3, congressional sources said yesterday. They said the key issues of multilateralization of the ABM Treaty and Theater Missile Defense demarcation are unresolved. Defense Secretary William J.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday released its strategy to allow the U.S. to dominate the high-tech battlefield envisioned for the early part of the next century. Long range precision capabilities, improved information warfare and low observable technologies will all be key, according to the strategy, called "Joint Vision 2010." It has been in the making for two years and will be the "yard stick by which service programs will be measured," JCS Vice Chairman Gen. Joseph Ralston told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday.
Littleton, Mass.-based Spectro Inc. won a $2.98 million Pentagon contract covering on-site support for Spectro-made oil analysis spectrometers in service with the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Army as well as with overseas customers under U.S. military-administered contracts. Spectro has so far delivered more than 250 Spectroil M, Spectroil M/N and Spectroil Jr+ oil analysis spectrometers to the U.S. Defense Dept., and another 44 M and M/N models are due for delivery during the next six months, Spectro reports.
Engineers at BMW Rolls-Royce recently released the first flight engine hardware for the BR700 Series' larger BR715 turbofan, which will power McDonnell Douglas' new MD-95-30 twin jetliner. "The program is on target for first engine run in March, 1997," BMW Rolls says in a prepared statement updating the BR700 Series' progress. The 18,500-lbst. BR715 is slated for certification in September 1998, while the 15,000-lbst. BR710 is still expected to win its European airworthiness clearance next month.
British enginemaker Rolls-Royce this week unveiled its answer to the joint venture set up by General Electric and Pratt&Whitney in May to power stretched derivatives of Boeing's four-engine 747 - the Trent 900, a "derivative" of the existing new Trent Series with a scaled-down core, a top program executive tells AP. Boeing program managers had been dead set against a derivative engine approach. It's one reason why GE and P&W set aside their differences to develop an all-new centerline engine (AP, May 9).
Auxiliary Power International Corp., the APU joint venture of France's Labinal and Sundstrand, won two-hour extended-range twin-engine operation, or ETOPS, clearance for its APS 3200 APU from Europe's Joint Airworthiness Authority. "The APS 3200 has been in service for over two years and during that time has set new standards in reliability, with high-time APUs exceeding 5,000 hours," notes APIC corporate marketing chief Karl Johanson.
Pratt&Whitney is asking subcontractor Volvo Flygmotor of Sweden to reject components it supplies whenever there's a surface anomaly, even if the component passes basic inspection tests, a P&W spokesman tells AP. The request comes as P&W moves to recall six JT8D-200 Series fan hubs with "unusual machining marks" from four operators - including Delta Airlines - in the wake of a fatal incident involving a JT8D fan hub on a Delta MD-88 (DAILY, July 17).
FAA Administrator David Hinson dismissed concerns by National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall that the agency is not singling out early-series 737 airliners for a special retrofit of flight data recorders but will include them in the program recommended for other older aircraft types. Hinson also discounted the board's concerns, contained in its findings on the 1994 ATR 72 crash near Roselawn, Ind., about the competence of European airworthiness authorities.
The House National Security Committee yesterday set the stage for a battle with the House Intelligence Committee on the fate of a new National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). HNSC marked up its own version of the Intelligence Community Act, already drafted and reported out of the House Intelligence Committee. Because HNSC shares jurisdiction with the House Intelligence on intelligence matters, it can review and introduce amendments to the bill. The goal of the bill is to streamline the intelligence community.
GE Aircraft Engines' rapid response engine repair team - GE On-Wing Support Inc., now based at Heathrow Airport outside London - expects to open a second site in northern Kentucky early next year, adding 50 jobs along the way. Although initially aimed at maintaining CFM56-powered aircraft operated by package carrier United Parcel Service, the new expansion facility near Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport will also "serve future airline customers worldwide," GE says.
AlliedSignal Aerospace will supply BMW Rolls BR715 engine buildup units, or EBUs, under a new subcontract from nacelle-maker Rohr worth more than $50 million, AlliedSignal reports. The EBU is where the engine meets the aircraft in the nacelle, and includes check valves, thermal anti-ice valves, environmental control system ducting, engine starter ducting, fuel lines, hydraulic lines and a fire suppression unit, all integrated in a single package.
Aftermarkets specialist AAR bought more than 22,000 line items of factory-new excess inventory worth more than $200 million from United Technologies' Hamilton Standard unit as part of a larger joint marketing effort joining the distributor and the original equipment maker. Ham Standard's facilities in Windsor Locks, Conn., will continue to warehouse and distribute the components, but AAR's international sales network will market the parts.
Overhauler Sabreliner bought five-year-old proprietary repairs specialist Turbotech Repairs Inc. for $4 million, and Turbotech founders David Dekker and Raffee Esmailians agreed to stay on to run the unit, Sabretech reports. Turbotech turned in $4.8 million in sales for its fiscal 1995 overhauling components for Pratt&Whitney PT6 and PW100 engines, as well as AlliedSignal Engines' auxiliary power units.
TRACOR FLIGHT SYSTEMS INC. will join MD-95 wing halves under an initial $30 million contract from the developer of the aircraft, Douglas Aircraft Co. The Tracor Inc. subsidiary's Aircraft Systems Div., based in Mojave, Calif., said it expects the contract to create more than 100 new jobs in the Palmdale-Lancaster area. Prospects for the MD-95 became less certain in May and June when Douglas' only customer to date, ValuJet, sustained the Flight 592 crash and suspended operations.
Officials suspect bird strikes in two separate incidents Monday involving military transports - one in Greece that caused only minor injuries, and a fatal crash that killed 32 in The Netherlands. On Monday morning a NATO E-3A AWACS aircraft was damaged when it aborted a takeoff from a base in Aktion, Greece, overshooting the runway and coming to a halt with part of its fuselage in the water, NATO said. One of the 14 members of the international crew, a Canadian officer, had minor injuries.
EchoStar Communications Corp. has completed construction and testing of the EchoStar II spacecraft, its second direct broadcast satellite for the DISH network. The Lockheed Martin Series 7000 satellite is slated to be delivered by Wednesday to Lockheed Martin Astrospace Kourou, French Guiana. Arianespace is slated to launch EchoStar II atop an Ariane 4 launch vehicle from its Guiana Space Center in early September.
With U.S. regulatory approvals now in hand, GEC-Marconi Electronic Systems Corp. is expected to close within the next 15 days on its buy of ESCO Electronics' Hazeltine unit, ESCO reported yesterday. Terms weren't disclosed (DAILY, May 24). GEC-Marconi hopes buying the electronics and communications specialist will add muscle in market areas where both companies now offer separate capabilities - military communications, for example.
