"It's something like" four to six weeks before Boeing's strike-disrupted airline customers will be getting jetliners "in the same month they were originally ordered for," says Commercial Airplane Group President Ron Woodard. It will take that long to get "specific resolution with every customer about specific deliveries," he says, adding that it will be at least as long before the company will have a firm grasp on what 1996 and 1997 delivery totals will be.
The Pentagon is moving closer to carrying out Secretary William Perry's threat to use unrequested congressional plus-ups to pay for U.S. operations in Bosnia, putting $493 million of unrequested appropriations for additional B-2 bombers back on the chopping block. Working papers representing DOD's wish list for the rescissions have made it up to Deputy Defense Secretary John White's office and were informally briefed to key congressional leaders last week, sources said.
Russia is gearing up to launch its first large Western satellite aboard a Proton booster in March, but the former Soviet republic has already racked up an impressive list of commercial launch attempts. Growing from a single commercial launch in 1994, Russia launched eight commercial payloads in 1995 among its 32 launches of all types. Most of those were small piggyback payloads like the Pentagon's "Skipper" launched with an Indian remote sensing platform Dec. 28, 1995, to study reentry vehicle phenomenology (DAILY, Jan. 2).
ARPA and the Army's Medical Advanced Technology Management Office, Ft. Detrick, Md., are developing personal status monitors (PSMs) to track the health of soldiers on the battlefield. The wristwatch-like devices monitor body temperature, heart rate and movement and transmit the data, along with GPS-derived position coordinates, by radio to field commanders - much the way the biomedical telemetry units work for the astronauts. Why aren't they being used in Bosnia? "They weren't ready in time," said a Ft. Detrick spokesman.
Discussion of a business plan for 1996 by the Board of Directors of Perm Motors Joint Stock Company, manufacturer of first- stage engines for the Proton launcher and of the PS-90A aircraft engine, has erupted into a power struggle among leaders of the company.
Transportation Secretary Federico Pena will make a major announcement about the Administration's position on developing an intelligent transportation system for surface vehicles this afternoon at the 75th annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. According to the National Research Council, the speech will deal with a deployment strategy and system goals.
Singapore's Channel KTV has signed up with PanAmSat to beam its unique Chinese-language Karaoke service across Asia via the U.S. commercial satellite company's PAS-2 satellite. KTV will supply voice- optional music videos two separate Chinese feeds in Mandarin and Cantonese to markets in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the People's Republic. Beginning in February he service will uplink from Singapore for relay via PanAmSat's high-power Ku band Northeast Asia spot beam to sing-along customers using small antennas, according to PanAmSat.
REFLECTONE INC., Tampa, Fla., has won a $2 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Command for academic and simulator instruction to German Air Force F-4E aircrews at Holloman AFB, N.M. The contract includes courseware development and performance options for five years.
The Pentagon still is mulling the idea of mounting lasers on unmanned aerial vehicles to carry out ballistic missile defenses, but the concept still isn't practicable, according to Col. Bruce Gillett, Air Force requirements chief for theater missile defense. "We're not ready yet to have something out there that has a speed-of-light killing mechanism that operates on its own," he says in an interview Friday.
A sobered Airbus Industrie will look hard this year at how to fill gaps in its product line quickly - particularly in the large, long-range segment where rival Boeing went unchallenged in 1995 - in the wake of last week's embarrassing slide against Boeing in the year-end tally of new aircraft orders.
McDonnell Douglas is preparing for drop testing of F/A-18E/F ground test articles and is flying its early prototypes in preparation of the flight test program to begin in February at Naval Air Warfare Center, Patuxent River, Md. MDC laid out its test schedule for the F/A-18E/F Super Hornets in a press release announcing the first flight of its second prototype, designated E-2 (DAILY, Jan. 2), which took place Dec. 26 at MDC's St. Louis facility. It flew for one hour and 45 minutes piloted by Fred Madenwald, who also piloted E-1 during its first flight.
LEIGH AEROSYSTEM CORP., Carlsbad, Calif., won an $8.2 million contract Dec. 22 for a subscale system of an explosive neutralization advanced technology demonstration beach zone array system. The contract was awarded by Naval Sea Systems Command. The Dept. of Defense said 44 proposals were solicited and one offer was received.
Boeing booked more than three times the new jetliner orders as rival Airbus Industrie in 1995, even though the European consortium enjoyed the strongest revenue performance of its 25-year history. Delivering 124 aircraft to 30 customers, Airbus posted $9.6 billion in sales for 1995, more than $1 billion ahead of 1994's pace. But Airbus only won $7 billion in new orders for 106 aircraft, compared with 346 jetliners worth more than $31 billion for Boeing.
LORAL FEDERAL SYSTEMS CO., Manassas, Va., won a competition to supply one AN/BQG-5(V) passive sonar receiving set and related equipment and services. The effort, under an $18.5 million contract announced by the Dept. of Defense on Dec. 27, will be completed by December 1998. Twenty-five proposals were solicited and two offers received. The contract was awarded by U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command.
McDONNELL DOUGLAS is scheduled to launch the Republic of Korea's second telecommunications satellite Jan. 14 atop a Delta II booster, the company reported. Liftoff of the Koreasat-2 payload is scheduled for 5:27 a.m. EST from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla. The new platform will join Koreasat- 1, launched in August 1995 (DAILY, Aug. 11, 1995; Sept. 1, 1995).
OCEANEERING TECHNOLOGIES INC., Upper Marlboro, Md., has won a $5.2 million contract for operation and maintenance of the U.S. Navy's deep ocean search and recovery and remotely operated vehicle assets. If all options are exercised, the cumulative value of the contract would be $26 million, according to the Dept. of Defense. The contract, announced by the Dept. of Defense on Dec. 22, was awarded by U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command.
Germany's struggling Daimler-Benz hopes to return to profitability this year, after two years of hemorrhaging at the hands of a weak dollar and bloated corporate structure. Company executives quoted in Bonn press reports repeated forecasts of huge 1995 losses, but contended that restructuring plans already underway, coupled with the beginnings of recovery in the aerospace market, should improve 1996 results.
Officials on the FAA's Reliability Assessment Board - the body that gives thumbs-up or down to enginemakers' requests for extended twin operations (ETOPS) clearance - will probably give General Electric the go- ahead this month to begin its crucial 1,000-cycle flight test series on the GE90, but early ETOPS probably won't be granted without additional ground test runs, sources told DAILY affiliate Aerospace Propulsion.
GENERAL DYNAMICS' Electric Boat Div., Groton, Conn., received a $30 million modification to a previously awarded contract from Naval Sea Systems Command to fabricate hull structures and assemblies for the Seawolf class attack submarine. The Dept. of Defense announced the contract on Dec. 22.
