BOEING, in the second month of its Machinists strike, began wing and fuselage assembly Friday for the first of its three next-generation 737 models, the 737-700. The first 737-700 is scheduled for delivery in October 1997, to launch customer Southwest. Assembly of the first -800 is scheduled to begin next November, and -600 assembly is to follow in May 1997.
Loral Federal Systems-Manassas won work from the U.K. Defense Ministry worth some $60 million to develop and produce kits to give seven Royal Navy submarines - Trafalgar and Swiftsure classes - the ability to fire Tomahawk long-range cruise missiles, a contract Loral hopes will position it for more British and international Tomahawk integration wins.
U.S. ground forces in Bosnia will be probing for mines "the old fashioned way" because the U.S. has no technology that can identify anti- personnel mines made of plastic, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. John Shalikashvili told Congress last week.
Lt. Gen. Richard M. Scofield continues as commander of the Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center until his retirement becomes effective, probably around the middle of next year. The DAILY incorrectly reported (Dec. 5, page 360) that Scofield retired Friday. In fact, the Dept. of Defense announced Friday that President Clinton has nominated Scofield for advancement on the retired list in the grade of lieutenant general.
A multi-function landing receiver has been given high marks after six weeks of tests by the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center and GEC- Marconi. The Precision Landing System Receiver (PLSR) was installed in a C-135C transport and an S-76 helicopter and was flown on 130 approaches between Sept. 21 and Nov. 6, according to GEC-Marconi Systems, Wayne, N.J. PLSR is a prototype of the Military Microwave Landing System Avionics receiver with a Differential Global Positioning System capability.
Rep. Barbara Vucanovich (R-Nev.), who heads the House Appropriations military construction subcommittee, announced yesterday that she would not seek re-election next year. Vucanovich, 74, is in her seventh term in the House.
Even if the more than 32,000 Machinists on strike at Boeing return to work right away, the company will probably only deliver at best another 15 aircraft by year-end, according to investment house Merrill Lynch, which cut its fourth-quarter earnings estimate on the company nearly two-thirds to $61.76 million.
The U.S. Air Force successfully launched a Titan IV with a classified payload yesterday at 1:18 p.m. PST from Space Launch Complex 4-East, Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The launch, the first of a Titan IV from Vandenberg in more than two years, was performed by the 4th Space Launch Squadron of the Air Force's 30th Space Wing.
The Defense Dept. is asking industry for off-the-shelf systems it can showcase during next year's Joint Warfighter Interoperability Demonstration. JWID '96, to run in August-September 1996, will highlight a number of interoperability areas which could benefit from industry input, according to a Dec. 5 Commerce Business Daily notice from U.S. Central Command, the U.S. Army and the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA).
LANDSAT 5 satellite, which has been in orbit 11 years, successfully completed three orbit inclination adjustment maneuvers conducted by EOSAT between Oct. 27 and Nov. 29, the Lanham, Md., company said. The maneuvers corrected normal orbital drift and "will ensure that future data collected will have...solar illuminative conditions" similar to that already in archives, EOSAT said.
Lockheed Martin and Delta Air Lines announced yesterday that they are considering teaming up to offer a "full range of maintenance and technical services to owners and operators of L-1011 aircraft worldwide."
DEPT. OF DEFENSE awarded three contracts yesterday, one from each of the services, totaling just under $38 million - $16.9 million from the Naval Warfare Center Training Systems Div. to Hughes Training for the Army's Battle Lab Reconfigurable Simulator Initiative; $12.6 million from the Army through the Defense Supply Service to Rand Corp. for analytical services (an increment in a $113.2 million ongoing contract); and $8.4 from the Air Force's Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center to Beech Aerospace Services for FY '96 logistics support of the C-12 aircraft.
Space Applications Corp., Vienna Va., is providing technical and management assistance to Advanced Research Projects Agency program managers working on the Speakeasy multiband, multimode mobile radio program under a letter contract awarded Oct. 30. The program involves ARPA's Information Systems Office and the Air Force's Rome Lab, according to SAC program manager Pete Gill, and spans open systems architectures for communications "from a couple megs [megabytes] to Milstar [military communications satellite]."
T-1A JAYHAWK TRAINERS logged their 100,000th hour of U.S. Air Force service last month, according to Raytheon Aircraft Co. It said the AF awarded the T-1A Training System contract to McDonnell Douglas in 1990 to include Raytheon's Jayhawk, simulators, computer-based training and related systems. The first of 180 Jayhawks were delivered in January 1992 to Reese AFB, Tex. The 100th aircraft was delivered early this year, and No. 180 is slated for delivery in May 1997. So far, over 1,000 pilots have trained in the aircraft.
Hughes will build a high-power version of its HS 376 model satellite to provide direct-to-home television service across Scandinavia, the company reported. Oslo-based Telenor Satellite Services AS has purchased the satellite from Hughes for an undisclosed sum. The contract calls for on-orbit delivery in the spring of 1997.
NASA is leaning toward launching the next U.S. Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument on a Pegasus XL booster as originally planned, despite long delays in getting the upgraded Orbital Sciences Corp. launch vehicle to fly.
The main U.S. forces to be deployed in Bosnia will have their own logistics and organic intelligence capabilities, Defense Secretary William Perry told a Pentagon news briefing yesterday.
U.S. AIR FORCE has scheduled a Titan IV launch with a classified payload for 3:00-5:30 p.m. EST today from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The payload is due to be placed into a polar orbit sometime during that period. The actual launch window is also classified, an Air Force official said yesterday. It will be the first attempt to launch a payload with a Titan IV from Vandenberg since an unsuccessful try in August 1993, when the booster exploded a few minutes into the flight.
Aviation support and parts specialist UNC Inc. should know just days before the Christmas holiday whether it will win a landmark contract to "privatize in place" the U.S. Air Force's maintenance and metrology depot operations at Newark AFB, Ohio. UNC is competing against Boeing and a consortium led by Rockwell International for the widely watched contract, which could set the tone for how military depot privatization will work throughout the U.S. military.
BFGoodrich Aerospace chief David Burner, who orchestrated a series of acquisitions that quadrupled his segment's businesses in less than a decade, will take over as president of the company and heir-apparent to Chairman John Ong. Ong plans to step down as chairman sometime during the first half of 1997, and said yesterday in a prepared statement that "Dave Burner's election as president and a director represents the first step" in the execution of a management succession plan in the works for "several years."
