Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis yesterday positioned a Russian-built docking module for installation on the Mir orbital station in a maneuver planned for early today. Canadian Chris Hadfield used the Shuttle's robot arm to position the 15-foot-long module a few inches above the Orbiter Docking System. Then, with the arm's brakes disengaged, Mission Commander Kenneth Cameron fired Atlantis' thrusters and moved the Shuttle and the docking module together for a perfect "capture."
ISRAEL will buy four additional F-15I fighters, increasing its total order to 25, F-15 prime contractor McDonnell Douglas announced yesterday. Israel exercised an option that was part of the original agreement signed in January 1994. Delivery of F-15Is will begin in 1997 and be completed by the end of 1998, MDC said. Israel is already operating other F-15 variants.
Chemicals, metals and ammunition specialist Olin Corp. is thinking about spinning off its $500 million defense and aerospace operations to shareholders, and hinted yesterday that the company may make up its mind soon. Studies of a spin-off are "at an advanced stage," but the company said in a prepared statement that a "variety of factors" are still being assessed, among them the tax-free nature of such a deal and the odds of winning the go-ahead from various third parties.
EUROPE'S ARIANESPACE consortium has rescheduled launch of the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory for Thursday after the on-board computer checked out. Launch last Friday was scrubbed with a fault was discovered in an identical computer in France (DAILY, Nov. 14, page 254). On the new schedule, liftoff is set for a window opening at 8:20 p.m. EST Thursday and closing at 9:05 EST, according to an Arianespace spokesperson.
A team headed by Loral Federal Systems Co. has won a $35 million U.S. Navy contract to build a prototype of the Advanced Deployable System (ADS), intended to detect and track submarines in shallow water, coastal areas. Loral's team, which includes Alliant TechSystems, BBN and E-Systems, was chosen for the work last spring, when it won a $36.5 million contract for initial concept development (DAILY, April 13, page 66).
The U.S. Air Force has created a system program office for unmanned aerial vehicles. The Joint Endurance Unmanned Aerial Vehicle SPO, at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, will manage the Tier II Plus and Tier III Minus UAVs, according to the AF's Aeronautical Systems Center. The office, under Lt. Col. Thomas J. Di Nino, will be part of ASC's Reconnaissance Aircraft Systems Group, commanded by Col. Craig Cooning.
ROYAL AIR FORCE test pilot Squadron Leader Simon Dyde on Nov. 9 became the first RAF pilot to fly the Eurofighter 2000. Dyde was at the controls for the 57th flight of British Aerospace's DA2 aircraft, BAe said. The mission from BAe's Warton facility lasted 1 hour and 10 minutes. Dyde, according to BAe, said the "Eurofighter is remarkably simple and easy to operate even though it is highly sophisticated.
Singapore Airlines is buying 34 Boeing 777 widebody twins - 28 for itself and six for its leasing arm - and taking options on 43 more in a $12.7 billion blow to Airbus Industrie that turned out to be twice as large as originally expected. It also marks a major victory for enginemaker Rolls-Royce, whose Trent 800 turbofan vaulted from a distant third place to a close second place with rival General Electric's GE90 for 777 market share. Rolls stands to reap more than $1.8 billion from the sale if all the aircraft options are exercised.
BOEING DEFENSE&SPACE GROUP said yesterday it has changed the name of its Electronic Systems Div. to the Information&Electronic Systems Div. Jerry King, president of the group, said the change was made "to more accurately reflect the group's diverse product line." Boeing said the recent addition of the Information Services subsidiary to the group "provides a wide range of telecommunications and computer network design, operation and maintenance services to government agencies and furthers...Group business in the field."
November 6, 1996 -- Raytheon Company, Bedford, Massachusetts, is being awarded a $7,250,000 increment as part of a $66,500,000 cost plus incentive fee contract for development of remote launch/communications enhancement upgrade, Patriot missile. Work will be performed in Bedford, Massachusetts, and is expected to be completed by December 32, 1998. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on March 27, 1995. The contracting activity is the U.S.
Airbus Industrie officials expect board approval before yearend to launch a stretched version of the A340 airliner and a shorter version of the A330. Airbus officials decided recently to seek approval for a 350-seat A340-400 and to shrink the A330 to 250 seats. While the range of the A340 would remain about the same at 7,000 nautical miles, the range of the A330 would increase from 4,850 to 6,000 n.m. Airbus is still studying the 8,000- n.m. A340-8000.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS received $202.2 million from the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command on Nov. 9 as initial funding for 30 AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopters for The Netherlands. The entire foreign military sales deal is valued at just below $700 million. The Dutch air force is slated to receive its first Longbows in 1998. Until then, they will lease 12 AH-64As.
November 9, 1995 -- TRW Avionics and Surveillance Group, San Diego, California, is being awarded a $8,905,552 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-89- C-0346 for Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Hunter (JTUAV-Hunter) 1995 contractor logistics support. Work will be performed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona (75%), and San Diego, California (25%), and is expected to be completed by December 1995. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured.
Boeing is running away with the jetliner market share race in 1995, winning nearly three-quarters of announced orders so far for the year to rival Airbus Industrie's 24%, investment house Merrill Lynch's latest monthly analysis shows.
The start of this week's Dubai air show saw Airbus Industrie and McDonnell Douglas book new jetliner orders for more than ten aircraft, but neither company would disclose the value of the contracts. Douglas executives at Dubai said a formal deal with Turkish charter carrier Onur Air would be signed Thursday during the show for five MD-88 narrowbody twins with options for five more. Deliveries should start in the first quarter of 1997, replacing Onur's existing fleet of nine Airbus A320s.
The prototype Beriev Be-200 multi-role twin-turbofan amphibian taking shape at the Irkutsk Aircraft Production Association is nearly complete as it heads for the start of flight tests next month.
November 7, 1995 -- Boeing Defense and Aerospace, Seattle, Washington, is being awarded a $9,543,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-94-C-0038 to provide rapid response repairs and parts replenishment for the E-6A TACAMO aircraft. Work will be performed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is expected to be completed by September 1996. Contract funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting activity (N00019-94-C-0038).
First flight of an F-16 aircraft with color multi-function displays (CMFDs) took place at Fort Worth, Tex., on Oct. 3, Lockheed Martin said yesterday. An engineer for the company's Tactical Aircraft Systems unit said pilots of the two-seat F-16D found the Honeywell displays to be "viewable under various lighting conditions and the color looked good."
November 6, 1996 -- Today the Air Force is modifying a contract with UNC Lear Siegler, Incorporated, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The modification is in the amount of $5,100,000 to a firm fixed price contract for spare parts in support of the F-5 and C-130 aircraft and repair for assorted components for various aircraft. The work will be performed at UNC Lear Siegler, Incorporated, San Antonio, Texas. This effort supports foreign military sales to Saudi Arabia.
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS AEROSPACE won a U.S. Navy competition and a $26.7 million contract for depot level aircraft maintenance and support for 5 F-14A, 38 F-5E/F, 43 F/A-18A/B fixed wing aircraft and three SH-2/SH-60 helicopters. Under the contract from the Naval Aviation Depot Operation Center, Patuxent River, Md., work will be carried out at Fallon, Nev.; San Diego, Calif.; Key West, Fla., and Yuma, Ariz.
Arianespace scrubbed its planned launch Friday of the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory after technicians in France discovered a fault in an on-board computer identical to the one mounted in the Vehicle Equipment Bay of the Ariane 44P booster ready to fly from Kourou, French Guiana.
Astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis prepared for their first crack at on-orbit space station assembly yesterday after an on-time departure from Kennedy Space Center on Sunday. Canadian Chris Hadfield checked out the robot arm he will use today to handle a new docking module for Russia's Mir space station, while his U.S. crewmates piloted Atlantis ever closer to Mir and checked out the spacesuits they will need if a problem develops during the assembly sequence.
Switzerland plans next year to pick either Hughes Aircraft or Thomson- CSF to up-grade its aging ground-based air surveillance radar system, a Swiss Air Force official said in Washington.
The U.S. Air Force says the first integrated test of a B-2 bomber and its 2,000-pound Global Positioning System-guided bomb went without a hitch. The end-to-end test of a GPS-Aided Targeting System/GPS-Aided Munition (GATS/GAM) was completed Nov. 3 at the U.S. Navy's China Lake, Calif., range, the AF said in a response to queries. The bomb was released from a B-2 flying at 0.75 Mach and 35,000 feet. The plane was 30,000 feet downrange of the target.
