The first refurbished SR-71A Blackbird made its debut test flight Wednesday, remaining aloft for one hour and 17 minutes, a Lockheed Advanced Development Co. spokesman said yesterday. The plane, piloted by a NASA crew, took off from the U.S. Air Force's Plant 42 at Palmdale, Calif., at 10:20 a.m. PST in a flight to check hydraulics, landing gear, generators and engine performance. "All indications are that it went quite well," the spokesman said.
ARMY MAJ. GEN. ROBERT E. GRAY has been nominated for a third star and assignment as deputy commander in chief of the U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army. He is currently the chief of staff in those commands.
U.K. Trade and Industry Minister Michael Heseltine is reviewing recommendations from the Monopolies and Mergers Commission on whether either or both GEC's or British Aerospace's bids to buy shipbuilder VSEL can go forward, and industry sources expect his decision on May 14. MMC reported its findings two weeks ago (DAILY, April 12, page 63), and Heseltine has a month to endorse or reject the findings, which is why traders and company sources all believe the decision will be made public next month.
NASA is narrowing its list of candidate technologies for the New Millennium smallsat initiative, pushing toward a late-summer decision on the robotic scientific missions it will fly to demonstrate the "faster- better-cheaper" approach NASA says will boost space science in the coming century.
Here is a partial list of technologies and spacecraft capabilities NASA's New Millennium program will study as it works to identify three demonstration space missions late this summer.
Contrary to conventional wisdom that last year marked a 10-year low for the large jet transport market, an analysis of final 1994 data compiled by the Aerospace Industries Association and released yesterday shows that the industry probably really hit bottom in 1993 and began a slow recovery last year. At first blush, 1994 looked awful. Commercial aircraft makers booked nearly 100 fewer new sales during the year than in 1993, which was itself a record-low year (DAILY, Jan. 5, page 15).
The Defense Dept.'s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) on Wednesday released its new focus area list for its Technology Reinvestment Program (TRP). Reductions in the program's FY '95 funds forced ARPA to reduce from 13 to eight the number of focus areas. In addition, ARPA canceled two categories of projects-Manufacturing Education and Training and Regional Technology Alliances.
John Deutch yesterday vowed to move forward rapidly to reshape the intelligence community, outlining plans to bring in a new generation of upper management and make satellite acquisition and collection activities more efficient. The nominee for director of central intelligence (DCI) breezed through a confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, winning praise from Republicans and Democrats alike for coming forward with specific plans to reshape the intelligence community to deal with post-Cold War challenges.
TIBURON SYSTEMS INC., San Jose, Calif., was awarded an $11.6 million contract on April 25 by U.S. Naval Air Systems Command for mission distribution system software for the Tomahawk cruise missile weapon system. The effort is expected to be completed by December 1996.
The Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday filed an insider trading complaint in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California charging that an attorney in the Lockheed legal department obtained non-public advance word of the impending merger with Martin Marietta last August to reap $42,188 in one-day profits on an investment of about $5,000. The complaint was the first legal action taken by the SEC in connection with heavy options trading in advance of the merger, which was announced Aug. 30, 1994, and consummated earlier this year.
The U.S. is funding 75% of the cost of the missile portion of Israel's Arrow program-not 75% of the whole program, as The DAILY reported in the April 26 issue (page 137). The other components, including the radar, are being funded by Israel's Ministry of Defense.
ALLIEDSIGNAL's Bendix Guidance Systems Div., Teterboro, N.J., is in line for a sole source U.S. Navy award for continued operation and maintenance of MQM-8G (ER) and MQM-8G (EER) Vandal aerial target systems at Wallops Island, Va.
Companies supplying components for nuclear submarines in 34 states are being urged to lobby their congressmen in advance of hearings next month by two House committees. A Washington-based group, The Submarine Industrial Base Preservation Council, is asking the companies to press for construction of the third Seawolf submarine and continued research and development of the New Attack Submarine.
Dominance of future battlefields will depend on more sophisticated use of weapons and sensors, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday in Washington. Adm. William Owens said at a military technology conference sponsored by the Defense Budget Project that it is vital to leverage money already in the budget to integrate systems that can increase the availability of information to battlefield commanders. He said technology in the following three areas is of particular importance:
The weak dollar "represents a threat to the aerospace industry and therefore to Germany as a high-tech location," Daimler-Benz Aerospace Chairman Jurgen Schrempp said just before taking over as the chief executive of Daimler-Benz Group last week.
The U.S. Navy will start evaluating a new heliborne countermine munition in tower tests later this year and in airborne tests early next year, according to Frank Edwards, Hughes Aircraft Co.'s business development manager for the Rapid Airborne Mine Clearance System (RAMICS).
E-Systems said its Montek Div., Salt Lake City, Utah, has received a contract from Boeing Commercial Airplane Group for flight controls for the 737-700 aircraft. It said it will provide four autopilot actuators-two for the pitch axis control system and two for the roll axis control system-and one elevator feel computer used in the artificial feel system.
An increase in the Defense Dept.'s modernization account, which could reduce the shortfall in such programs as the Air Force's F-22 fighter, is largely dependent on savings from drawing down the Defense Dept.'s infrastructure, DOD's comptroller said yesterday. But envisioned savings for modernization alone won't suffice to make up the U.S. Air Force's shortfall in replacing F-16s with F-22s, Hamre said. "We will have to take another look at that," he said.
George W. Mikelsons, founder and chief of Indianapolis-based American Trans Air, was elected chairman of Allison Engine Co.'s newly formed board of directors, Allison parent Rolls-Royce reported yesterday. "George brings to Allison a wealth of knowledge of the airline industry, a clear understanding of today's customer requirements and proven leadership abilities in what for some time has been a tough economic environment for the airlines," said John Sandford, president of Rolls' U.S. subsidiary Rolls-Royce Inc.
HUGHES MISSILE SYSTEMS CO. Tucson, Ariz., on April 25 received a $52 million modification to previously awarded contract from U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command for production of the Guided Missile Launching System (GMLS) for the Rolling Airframe Missile (RAM). The Dept. of Defense said the contract provides nine GMLS's for the U.S. and four for Germany. The RAM Mk. 31 is a NATO cooperative development and production program between the two countries.
COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP., Falls Church, Va., received an $8 million modification to previously awarded contract from the U.S. Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command on April 25 for technical and engineering services in support of the Navy's satellite communications programs.
Ball Corp. reported a 93% jump in earnings for the first quarter, to $18.8 million from the $9.7 million of 1994. The Muncie, Ind., company, which manufactures beverage and food containers and provides aerospace systems and services, said first quarter sales were up 3.1% to $605.6 million from the $587.1 million reported for the first quarter of 1994.
The success of adapting new, advanced technology to increase the effectiveness of U.S. fighting power will depend on developing appropriate concept of operations and organizational structures, Andrew Marshall, the Defense Dept.'s director of net assessment said yesterday.
Weather researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are finding new forecasting uses for data produced by the first Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-8), as NASA prepares the second in the series of five GOES weather satellites for a May 19 launch.
