Fokker has received type certification for its Fokker 70 transport from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority and has delivered the first of five F70s to British Midland, the Dutch manufacturer said this week. The carrier ordered four Fokker 100s and five Fokker 70s in November 1993, and took options on three aircraft that it can order as either type. The F100s have been delivered, and delivery of the F70s will be completed early next year.
An international team headed by Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) is developing a free-flying robotic camera to inspect the International Space Station from the outside and perform other off-board duties in lieu of space-suited astronauts.
The Northrop Grumman political action committee, which favored Republicans by better than a 6-1 ratio in contributions in the 1994 post- election period, has since funneled its largest disbursements to the campaigns of Senate Republicans who moved into chairmanships as their party took control of Congress, an examination of Federal Election Commission records reveals.
A lightweight satellite designed to sense the electromagnetic pulse of the sort of low-yield explosion a nuclear club newcomer might develop will also test a unique composite bus structure that largely avoids the expensive custom layup used in past composite satellite structures.
Orbital Sciences Corp. engineers are working to correct a malfunction in a second on-orbit Orcomm satellite. Orbital engineers detected a problem during the past weekend with the satellite's subscriber communications subsystem, the company said yesterday. The subsystem is responsible for communicating with ground terminals that will be used by Orbcomm subscribers to send two-way messages via the satellites (DAILY, July 1, 1994, page 7).
The German Air Force today is slated to take delivery of a newly modified aircraft for use under the Open Skies agreement. The German defense ministry said Tuesday that plane, a Tupolev Tu-154M transport inherited from the former East Germany, has been fitted with imagery systems and is slated to get three more sensors under an additional upgrade: -- An infrared scanner, for which the contractor has not yet been selected.
SLC-6, the multi-billion dollar facility at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., that has never been used, is preparing for its first launch. Lockheed Martin last week delivered a launch control van, payload fairing, and other components to SLC-6 for its first Lockheed Launch Vehicle (LLV) flight. LLV's debut test flight is expected in late-spring or summer, when it is scheduled to place the 300-pound GEMStar communications satellite in a 360 nautical mile polar orbit. SLC-6 was originally built for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program that was terminated by President Nixon.
MARYLAND'S General Assembly has adjourned for the year without passing a proposed tax on video programming, including direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association reports. A similar bill in Virginia passed but was amended to exempt satellite-based services. Similar legislation is still pending in Pennsylvania and Florida.
The Navy will hold an industry day tomorrow in Ridgecrest, Calif., for contractors who can build an advanced precision-guided cruise missile based on existing weapons and off-the-shelf avionics. Is this the Navy's follow-on to the canceled AGM-137 Tri-Service Stand-off Attack Missile (TSSAM)? "If it turns into a program, it is," a high-ranking Navy official told The DAILY yesterday.
With B-2 testing still less than half done and due to finish in two years, U.S. Air Force programmers have no lack of challenges ahead of them, said AF long-range power projection acquisition director Brig. Gen. James Richards III. "We still have a lot to do," he said.
U.S. NAVY on April 8 christened the eighth ship in a series of Aegis guided missile destroyers being built by Litton's Ingalls Shipbuilding Div. in Pascagoula, Miss.
The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization could "productively use" a fiscal 1996 addition of $1.2 billion over the Administration's $2.91 billion budget request, the organization's deputy director told The DAILY in an interview.
The U.S. Air Force received the twentieth C-17 airlifter Friday, McDonnell Douglas said. It was delivered to the 437th Airlift Wing at Charleston AFB, S.C. The aircraft, the fifteenth C-17 to go to the 437th, was flown from McDonnell Douglas' Long Beach, Calif., plant to Charleston by Air Mobility Command Inspector General Brig. Gen. Antonio Ramos. It will join the wing's 14th Airlift Squadron, which next year is slated to become the second operational C-17 squadron.
Defense Secretary William Perry will recommend to President Clinton that John White, chairman of the Pentagon's roles and missions commission, take the No. 2 spot at the Defense Dept., DOD sources said yesterday. Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch is expected to leave the department to become the director of central intelligence, replacing R. James Woolsey who resigned. Confirmation hearings for Deutch are expected to begin next week.
NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND plans to conduct a competition for production of the Advanced Tomahawk Weapon Control System (ATWCS). Plans call for release of a draft RFP in October, the formal RFP in March 1996, contract award in October 1996, and first deliveries in October 1997, NavAir said in an April 6 Commerce Business Daily notice. Planned quantities, it said, are 27 Phase 1 Track Control Group kits, 16 Phase 2 Launch Control Group kits, 9 Phase 1 LCG/TCG suites, and 5 submarine ATWCS kits.
VITRO CORP., Rockville, Md., will provide engineering services too the U.S. Navy for surface ship sonar and combat systems under a $9.2 million contract from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center Detachment, New London, Conn. The company, a subisiary of Tracor Inc., said its services will include analysis, test and evaluation, and fabrication for systems aboard FFG-, DD- and DDG-class ships.
NAVAL SEA SYSTEMS COMMAND said it is solicting designs and concepts for a Towed Active Receiver Subsystem (TARS) "to demonstrate bistatic mid-frequency performance in reverberation limited environments." NavSea said in a two-part "broad agency announcement" in the March 23 issue of Commerce Business Daily that the effort "includes relevant research, analysis&design, towed array and associated modules, any enabling technologies to miniaturize components, integration, and test&evaluation support."
MARTIN MARIETTA, Government Electronic Systems, Moorestown, New Jersey, a unit of Lockheed Martin Corp., received a $73.5 million U.S. Navy contract for Aegis Combat System (ACS) baseline upgrade and critical experiment development. The sole source contract was awarded April 12 by U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command.
Aerospace restructuring charges turned first quarter net earnings into a net loss at Sundstrand Corp., but Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Don O'Hare predicted "accelerated recovery in commercial aerospace sales" and increased the company's forecast of full-year earnings. O'Hare said Sundstrand still thinks its 1995 aerospace operating profit margin will be about 13% on flat sales, but "we anticipate that our operating margins will improve in 1996 and then return to historical levels as the benefits from the current restructuring take effect."
Six of the ten Republican freshmen on the House National Security Committee won by less than 55% in a good Republican year and thus will probably face strong Democratic challenges next year.
The U.S. Army's Phoenix battle command mission support system is an example of the success of the Advanced Concepts and Technology II (ACT II) program and the use of inputs from Battle Labs in speeding up acquisition, Col. William Hubbard, Battle Lab Integration, Technology and Concepts director said Monday.
