A U.S.-Taiwan engine joint venture won its first export order, selling a version of the engine that powers Taiwan's Indigenous Defense Fighter (IDF) to the Czech Republic for its new military jet trainer, Taiwan officials reported. International Turbine Engine Corp. - a joint venture of Taiwan's military-run Aero Industry Development Center and AlliedSignal Engines, formerly Garrett - expects to sign an agreement soon covering 72 F-124 low- bypass turbofans to power L-159s made by Czech airframer Aero Vodochody Co.
Taxes, R&D expense, accounting changes and a 10-week Machinists strike bounced profits up and down throughout 1995 at Boeing, which wound up posting 22% lower operating profits on 11% slower sales despite a solid fourth-quarter and a dominant showing against rival Airbus Industrie.
Jack E. Schang has been appointed vice president and general manager for Land Transportation Electronics. Schang joins the company from Ryder P.I.E. Nationwide, where was chairman and chief operating officer. He was also president and chief operating officer of Allied Van Lines and executive vice president of North American Van Lines.
U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles have an important year ahead of them, and future funding will increase dramatically over the next five years, a Pentagon official said yesterday. "I can see the level of investment quadrupling" over the future year defense plan ending in fiscal 2001, said Terry Ryan, the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office's deputy director for programs and planning. He spoke at an Arlington, Va., conference sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicles Systems and the Cruise Missiles Association.
A U.S. Air Force B-2 bomber will be one of the aircraft participating in the Singapore Air Show next month, the Air Force confirmed yesterday. This will be the second public viewing of the aircraft outside the United States, the first being last year at the Paris Air Show. Nine of the Northrop Grumman stealth bombers have been built.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Perry yesterday outlined a three-part approach to maintaining an adequate defense infrastructure - increasing the DOD budget over the next five years to fulfill President Clinton's plan, continuing to effect savings through base closing and privatization, and pressing forward with acquisition reform. Of the three, acquisition reform is the most difficult to quantify, he conceded during a breakfast meeting with reporters in Washington, but he stated flatly, "Acquisition reforms must be successful."
House Republicans yesterday were preparing a continuing resolution to fund the federal government beyond its current Friday shutdown date that would allocate NASA full funding until March 1 and perhaps after that, sources said.
Rockwell International's North American Aircraft Modification Div., Anaheim, Calif., unveiled its team members yesterday for the competition on the Air Force's T-38 avionics upgrade program (AUP). The company will serve as the prime contractor and system integrator if the team wins the award, and the company's Rockwell Collins Div. will supply the advanced digital electronics and software. Other team members are: -- Flight Visions Inc., Sugar Grove, Ill., for the head-up display (HUD);
The future of the Czech military aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody has been thrown into question following an announcement earlier this week that the consortium of banks which own a majority stake in the company is considering selling off its shares.
Hughes Aircraft Co. said yesterday that its Preliminary Early Warning System (PEWS) had been officially accepted by the Kuwaiti Air Force as part of an upgrade of the country's defenses to their level prior to the Iraqi invasion. Hughes will continue to provide technical and maintenance support through mid-1997.
The rollout ceremony for the first F/A-18 Hornet for the Swiss Air Force is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the McDonnell Douglas plant in St. Louis. The rollout follows a successful first flight last Saturday at Lambert International Airport, St. Louis, in which McDonnell Douglas test pilots Dave Desmond and Guy Clayton flew the two-seat D model uneventfully for one hour and 15 minutes.
American Mobile Satellite Corp. launched its mobile satellite voice communication service yesterday with a call from a Red Cross worker at a flood site in Pennsylvania, one of about 500 startup customers for the first such service to go on line in the U.S. But Alan Pemberton, AMSC president and chief executive, told reporters at a ceremony in Washington that he expects the number of subscribers to grow so fast that a second satellite will be needed in the 1998-99 period, requiring the company to place its order this year.
Fokker Chairman Ben Van Schaik has a month to find a new partner and salvage as much of the company as possible, thanks to a Dutch court order Tuesday night shielding the money-losing parts of Fokker from creditors while he and his team try to replace Daimler-Benz, which abandoned the company Monday. The financial community predicted Fokker would quickly unravel when the German company pulled the plug on its 51% stake in Fokker (DAILY, Jan. 23), but Van Schaik said then that all he really needed was a month's "breathing space" to reorganize.
The House yesterday approved the revised fiscal 1996 defense authorization conference report which dropped the requirement for deployment of a National Missile Defense by 2003 to satisfy the main objection of President Clinton's veto of the first compromise bill.
South Korea is planning extensive defense modernization in the next couple of years, an effort that will translate into more helicopters for each military service, Korean defense officials said Tuesday in Washington.
SIMULA INC., Phoenix, Ariz., said yesterday that its Simula Government Products unit will do work leading to military qualification of the Lightweight Environmentally Sealed Parachute Assembly (LESPA). If all options are excercised, the company said, the contract will be worth about $1 million.
Enginemaker Pratt&Whitney led the way in 1995 as once-ailing United Technologies punctuated its turn-around with strong sales and earnings and more than $1 billion in free cash flow, financial results reported yesterday show.
CHARLES F. KENNELL, NASA associate administrator for the Mission to Planet Earth, will leave the U.S. space agency in the spring to take a job as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer at the University of California, Los Angeles. He left UCLA's physics department in January 1994 for the NASA job, where he oversaw restructuring of the planned Earth Observing System to cut costs and incorporate technology advances.
Federal Communications Commission auctioneers suspended bidding on the first of two Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS) spectrum blocks yesterday after MCI bid $450 million for the U.S. slot and EchoStar took a waiver following a $348 million bid, with bidding set to resume today at a $472 million minimum. An FCC spokesman said at the end of 12 rounds MCI was leading with a bid of $450,000,450, while EchoStar used one of its proactive waivers to stay in the action. TCI dropped out earlier yesterday after using all of its allowed waivers.
Loral Federal Systems in Owego, N.Y., won an initial $1.4 million contract out of $10 million expected during the next five years to upgrade the AP-102 computer in the F-117A stealth fighter. Lockheed Advanced Development Co., whose parent, Lockheed Martin, is buying Loral's defense businesses, awarded the contract, and Loral said yesterday it expected an additional increment to its contract later this year.
Defense Department contract auditors reviewed $157 billion of incurred cost and contract proposals during the six-month period ended Sept. 30, 1995, taking exception to $1.9 billion and recommending that $6.2 billion be put to better use, according to the semi-annual report to Congress issued by the DOD Inspector General. For the comparable period of 1994 the figures were $167 billion in contracts and proposals, of which the auditors took exception to $2 billion and recommended that $4.5 billion be put to better use.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CO., Baltimore, received a $7 million contract Dec. 13 from U.S. Naval Research Laboratory for the design, engineering, fabrication, integration and testing of an electronic countermeasures transmitter for ship defense in support of the Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) program. The Dept. of Defense said 41 proposals were solicited and four offers were received.
HUGHES AIRCRAFT CO., Radar and Communication Systems, El Segundo, Calif., received a $749,773 contract Nov. 28 for work under a Broad Agency Announcement from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for short term concept studies relating to advanced state-of-the-art electronic warfare.
Lt. Gen. Kenneth A. Minihan (USAF), currently director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), has been assigned as director, National Security Agency/chief, Central Security Service, Fort Meade, Md., Defense Secretary William Perry announced yesterday. Minihan succeeds Vice Adm. John M. McConnell (USN), who has been placed on the retired list in his current grade and is scheduled to retire Feb. 1.
Lockheed Martin profits slipped a third in 1995 to $682 million, as bills stemming from its continuing merger and consolidation activities took a $690 million pre-tax bite out of otherwise strong earnings, the company reported yesterday.
