MCDONNELL DOUGLAS test pilot Fred Madenwald said the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet "handled very well" on its first flight Wednesday at St. Louis, but the flight was ended earlier than planned when a warning light illuminated. Madenwald took off at 12:55 p.m. EST, and said the prototype, designated E- 1, "was smooth, precise and easy to control" during the 20-minute mission.
Congress was informed yesterday of the Dept. of Defense's intent to sell modification kits to the U.K. for its AWACS aircraft, and Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles to Belgium. The U.K. AWACS Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) deal, valued at $182 million, would involve seven kits, their installation, integration and testing. The work would be carried out by Boeing Defense and Space Group and Westinghouse Electric Corp.
It should only take an acquisition or two to make aviation support and parts specialist UNC Inc. a growth company again, after about a year's pause to restructure, says Chairman Dan Colussy. "We are looking for some acquisition opportunities" across all four of UNC's main business areas, he says - engine overhaul, aircraft accessory overhaul, aviation services and component manufacture - and "we expect to be making some announcement in 1996" on at least one and maybe more.
While proposals to boost buy rates of C-17 Globemaster III airlifters have drawn the most attention since the Pentagon decided to push ahead with the program, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ron Fogleman said yesterday that a low buy rate is also on the table and has advantages.
LUCAS INDUSTRIES said it has been chosen to supply the cargo winch for the Lockheed Martin C-130J aircraft. Its initial contract is valued at $1 million, and has a projected value, over the life of the program, of more than $20 million. Lucas said the winches will be manufactured at its Cargo Systems plant in Brea, Calif. It said it hopes to sell over 200 winches to Lockheed Martin for the C-130J and an equal or greater number to existing C-130 operators.
DEFENSE NUCLEAR AGENCY is soliciting industry for a 12-month study of laser countermeasures to determine effectiveness against lasers that have been proliferating around the world, DNA said in a Nov. 13 Commerce Business Daily notice.
REP. PATRICIA (PAT) SCHROEDER (D-Colo.), 55, who has spent her 23 years on the House National Security Committee increasing the military's acceptance of women, yesterday announced that she would not run for reelection next year. Schroeder joined the Armed Services Committee in her first year in the House in 1973.
SENIOR MEMBERS of the House Appropriations national security subcommittee said unequivocally yesterday that President Clinton would not veto the $243 billion fiscal 1996 defense appropriations bill. Clinton must act by today. He can veto or sign the bill. If he does nothing, it becomes law without his signature. "He's not going to veto it," Rep. C.W. (Bill) Young (R- Fla.), national security subcommittee chairman, told reporters yesterday. He said he based his conviction on a meeting he and other prominent defense lawmakers had Tuesday with Clinton.
House members voted 216-208 yesterday to recommit the fiscal 1996 VA, HUD and independent agencies appropriations bill to conference, with instructions that conferees add another $213.5 million in funding for veterans' medical care programs.
The U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet yesterday completed its first flight at McDonnell Douglas' St. Louis, facility, ahead of the contractor- set schedule. MDC had said flight would take place in December, The first F/A-18E/F prototype, designated E-1, flew for about 20 minutes. "This marks a significant milestone in the Super Hornet program and carrier aviation," Navy Secretary John H. Dalton said in a prepared statement. "I am extremely proud of the dedicated men and women who continue to keep this program on schedule and on budget."
The Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) program has a one-week window of opportunity next month to conduct its first intercept attempt, an event that won't raise any major environmental concerns, according to a U.S. Army study. If the test isn't conducted in the week-long period, it will be run early next year. The Army said it found that a THAAD intercept test would have "no significant impact" on the environment. The testing is conducted at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.
The McDonnell Douglas team competing for the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program is nearly halfway through a series of propulsion and aerodynamic tests of its candidate, an MDC official said.
Thiokol Corp. has purchased the government-owned solid rocket motor plant in Utah it has operated since 1962 to expand its commercial operations there. Under terms of the sale, Thiokol will preserve defense production at Air Force Plant 78 for at least five years while it shifts to commercial products like the new Castor 120 solid rocket motor, the company said. Thiokol would not release the sale price, and it was not immediately available from the Air Force.
Sundstrand amended its shareholder rights plan last week, boosting the exercise price of the rights to $200 from $150 and extending the expiration of the rights ten years to May 2006. "The plan is not designed to prevent a takeover, but to encourage a buyer to negotiate appropriately with the Board of Directors prior to attempting a takeover," said VP and General Counsel Richard Schilling in a prepared statement.
RAYTHEON'S Electromagnetic Systems Div., Goleta, Calif., has received a $7.8 million U.S. Navy contract for materials and the restoration of three AN/SLQ-32V countermeasure sets. Naval Sea Systems Command awarded the contract on Nov. 22.
The U.S. Air Force wants to hold a fly-off between fighter reconnaissance systems to determine how to cost effectively meet its interim tactical recce requirement. The Air National Guard has been developing a podded recce capability to be flown on F-16s (DAILY, Oct. 2, page 6), while the Marine Corps has continued to develop the Advanced Tactical Airborne Reconnaissance System (ATARS).
Engineers from France's Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) have completed a series of four full-duration hot fire tests on the cryogenic main stage propulsion unit of Europe's new Ariane V space launch vehicle, the European Space Agency reported. In the final test on Nov. 23, the "flight-type" stage ran for 10 minutes, 30 seconds. Three other tests of at least 10 minutes duration had been conducted at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana since the series began in June, ESA said.
Workers at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, Calif., have started producing MD-11 trijet fuselage sections, about a year and a half after plans emerged to move the work back to Douglas from General Dynamics' Convair plant in San Diego. GD and MDC mutually agreed last summer to terminate the fuselage contract (DAILY, July 5, 1994, page 13), and MDC Chief Financial Officer Herb Lanese suggested at the time that the work could be brought back "somewhere in Douglas," although a "third party" was also an option (DAILY, July 21, 1994, page 109).
SAAB'S Military Aircraft Div. has ordered a new simulator that it says will "greatly enhance" the capability of its simulator center. The system consist of Silicon Graphics' Image Generator and a Full Dome Display System from SEOS Displays, the company said. The system "is considered to be the most advanced visual simulator of its type," Saab said.
KOREAN AIRLINES received a $36.8 million contract from the U.S. Air Force for programmed depot maintenance through November 2000, of McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters assigned to the Pacific Air Force theater. KAL was the only company the Air Force solicited for bids. The contract was issued by Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., the F-15's U.S. depot.
The first engine produced by the five-year-old BMW Rolls-Royce engine consortium flew for the first time Tuesday, a one-hour flight by two 15,000-lbst.-class BR710s powering a Gulfstream V business jet. "The flight went extremely well," said Gulfstream's top test pilot, John O'Meara, "and the engines performed superbly, exactly as we had expected." The flight at Gulfstream's Savannah, Ga., headquarters kicks off an intensive flight test program aimed at certification of the engine next August and entry into service by the end of 1996.
The National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) announced yesterday at the Pentagon will, in the words of one observer, "do for imint [image intelligence] what the National Security Agency does for sigint [signal intelligence]." First of all, it will be an agency of the Defense Dept., absorbing the activities of the CIA's National Photographic Intelligence Center (NPIC). The Defense Mapping Agency (DMA) will constitute the core of NIMA and account for 7,000 of the planned employment of 9,000.
A lightweight liquid oxygen tank for NASA's DC-XA reusable launch vehicle testbed has been delivered to Huntington Beach, Calif., for installation, McDonnell Douglas reported yesterday. McDonnell Douglas Aerospace technicians will install the aluminum- lithium tank in the company's DC-X flying prototype, built for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and being reworked for NASA's RLV program as the DC-XA. Formed of 1460 aluminum-lithium alloy, the eight- foot-diameter tank weighs 20% less than a comparable all-aluminum structure.
Lockheed Martin beat out McDonnell Douglas for the demonstration/validation phase for the U.S. Army's Atmospheric Interceptor Technology (AIT) program that could be worth $111 million. The U.S. Army Space and Strategic Command said it had selected Lockheed Martin for the "continued development, fabrication, and flight testing of a new kill vehicle" for national and theater missile defense programs. Flight demonstrations are slated for 1998.
