Germany and the U.K. may not be able to persuade France to support restructuring Airbus Industrie in time for the next round of big program decisions, but the consortium's current structure won't prevent it from making and carrying out those decisions, Daimler-Benz Aerospace Chief Executive Manfred Bischoff said yesterday in Washington.
The first supersonic flight using engines for pitch and yaw vectoring was achieved April 24 by an F-15 fighter at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, Calif. In the 1.5 hour flight - conducted under the joint NASA-Air Force- McDonnell Douglas Advanced Control Technology for Integrated Vehicles (ACTIVE) program - the F-15 vectored plus and minus 15 degrees in pitch and plus and minus 10 degrees in yaw at Mach 1.2 and 30,000 feet, McDonnell Douglas said.
The U.S. Air Force yesterday declassified the "Tacit Blue" program, used in the early 1980s to test out the concept of a low observable reconnaissance platform and provide information on reducing radar cross section through curved surfaces,
The Senate Armed Services Committee's acquisition and technology subcommittee marked up a fiscal year 1997 defense bill that adds $300 million to the Administration's request and puts $75 million into a program to develop an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) system, a senator on the panel told reporters. The subcommittee budget mark also bolsters funding for the Army's Force XXI and the Marine Corps' Sea Dragon operational test programs, said the senator, who requested anonymity.
The U.S. Air Force's experimental information warfare squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C., will concentrate on protecting Air Force information, rather than on the mission of information attack, an Air Force official said yesterday.
ATLAS I rocket launched Italy's Satellite per Astronomia X (SAX) early yesterday in the 100th flight of a Centaur upper stage, according to Atlas- builder Lockheed Martin. Liftoff came at 12:31 a.m. EDT from Complex 36B at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., carrying the x-ray astronomy satellite into the into a 370-mile circular orbit where it will carry out x-ray astronomy.
China's Long March space launch vehicle lost another customer Monday as Arianespace announced it had signed a contract to fly the EchoStar II direct broadcast satellite. EchoStar Communications Corp. had an option to fly on Russia's Proton in 1998, but signed with the European launch consortium when it was offered a launch slot late this summer. EchoStar II will fly aboard an Ariane 42P booster to geosynchronous orbit, where it will supply DBS services to the continental U.S. via 16 Ku-band transponders.
The U.S. Air Force has budgeted about $50 million for the F-16 reconnaissance pod program and plans to release the request for proposal later this week, said program manager Lt. Col. Bill Maxwell. The Air Force plans to buy 16 of the Theater Airborne Reconnaissance Systems (TARS) for the Air National Guard, and will ask contractors to submit options for retrofit or replacement of the four existing pods being flown now by the Virginia ANG, Maxwell said in an interview Friday.
The U.S. Air Force is taking its first steps toward re-engining at least 33 four-engined Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, with plans to launch engineering studies soon with airframer Boeing on how best to fit CFM International CFM56 medium turbofans to the fleet.
The Navy wants to add automatic target recognition to its enhanced Standoff Land-Attack Missile (SLAM), a move which has the potential of making the missile autonomous, according to Capt. Robert N. Freedman, the Navy's anti-ship weapon systems program manager. Freedman said the McDonnell Douglas-developed ATR "is a very, very impressive system." He told The DAILY during an interview Friday in his Arlington, Va., office that "this would be a great benefit to the fleet."
Indonesia will take up U.S. President Clinton's offer to sell that nation Lockheed Martin F-16s, the first U.S. arms sale to Indonesia since such sales were suspended four years ago over human rights complaints, according to Jakarta press reports. Local newspapers quoted Indonesian air force Vice Marshal Sutria Tubagus as saying that President Suharto not only decided to buy nine F- 16s, but that he is considering buying more British Aerospace-made Hawk fighters as well. "We need around 20 more Hawk fighter jets," Tubagus said.
BOMBARDIER said final assembly of the Global Express business jet was completed April 11 with mating of the horizontal stabilizer. The stabilizer, complete with ailerons and manufactured by Short Brothers, was the final structural subassembly to be installed at Bombardier's Toronto facility.
Preliminary data distributed to members of the House National Security procurement subcommittee indicate subcommittee chairman Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) probably will seek about $1 billion for one additional B-2 bomber, congressional sources said yesterday. Sources said Hunter would probably seek more than $1 billion for the B-2 program. It was unclear whether this total included or was in addition to the $150 million the Defense Dept. requested in upgrades, sources added.
ALLIEDSIGNAL AEROSPACE said it will supply air turbine starters, wheels and brakes, and avionics equipment for up to 61 Boeing 777 airliners under a $250 million contract with Singapore Airlines.
Lockheed Martin for the first time tops the list of 100 major Defense Dept. contractors, replacing McDonnell Douglas which held the position two years in a row. The list, released yesterday by the Dept. of Defense, shows that Lockheed Martin received $10.5 billion in contract awards in fiscal year 1995, the last year for which data are available. In FY '95, the Pentagon awarded $117.9 billion in contracts of more than $25,000 apiece, and the top 100 companies got $69.2 billion, or 59%, of the total.
ALLISON ENGINE CO. said Norman F. Egbert has been named executive vice president of engineering. The company said Egbert's appointment is effective immediately, and that he replaces S. Michael Hudson, who has acted for the past year as both executive vice president of engineering and president and chief operating officer. Egbert joined Allison in 1966. Most recently, he served as chief engineer for large engines.
ROLLS-ROYCE completed a test simulating 3,000 operational flights of the Trent 800 engine, a step on the way to approval of early 180-minute ETOPS (Extended-range Twin Operations) on the Boeing 777. The 777 with Trent 800s was certificated in February and entered service this month with Thai Airways International. Rolls said the 3,000-cycle program lays the foundation for completion of test flying in the ETOPS approval program before midyear.
The Polish and Czech air forces are establishing a special commission which could lead to the joint purchase of fighter aircraft. Following high-level discussions attended by the Czech and Polish defense and foreign ministers, Czech defense minister Vilem Holan and Polish defense minister Stanislaw Dobrzanski signed an agreement setting up the "Special Commission to Study Air Force Problems," as it has been named.
