In a report released last week, Standard&Poor's raised the long-term credit and senior unsecured debt ratings of Lockheed Martin Corp. Citing the company's improved financial condition, aerospace and defense analyst Martin Knoblowitz raised the company's rating from "BBB-" to "BBB" and its commercial paper rating from "A-3" to "A-2." The rating outlook for the company is stable.
Space Shuttle Atlantis landed at 12:26 p.m. EDT April 19 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., returning from mission STS-110, which lasted nearly 11 days. Crewmembers installed the starboard-zero (S0) truss on the International Space Station, setting the stage for future station expansion. The next spacecraft to visit the station will be a Russian Soyuz, slated to arrive April 27. Among its crew will be South African Internet entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, the second "space tourist" to visit the station.
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP. is shipping the last of its Titan IV launch vehicles from its Denver facilities to launch sites at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Five Titan IV launches are left before the last Titan IV mission, scheduled to launch a classified U.S. Air Force payload in 2003. The Titan launch system began as the Titan ICBM, which first launched in 1959. The Titan system evolved into the Titan II, III and IV, and has had more than 350 launches since the first flight.
'POURING' PLANES: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics is working on laser-deposition techniques that would allow parts on future aircraft to be laid down, molecule by molecule, as one continuous piece, according to Neil Kacena, deputy for advanced development programs at the company. "Our boss, Dain Hancock, would say, 'Someday, I want to pour an aircraft,'" Kacena says.
In a make-or-break deal for the F-15 Eagle production line, the Republic of Korea announced April 19 it has selected the Boeing-made fighter over the French-made Rafale. Four companies responded to South Korea's original request for proposals: the Boeing Co. with the F-15K, a variant of its F-15 Eagle; Sukhoi of Russia with the Su-35; Dassault of France with the Rafale; and the Eurofighter consortium with the Typhoon (DAILY, Oct. 3). The $4 billion competition for 40 fighters, dubbed F-X, was delayed several times.
Northrop Grumman Corp. Chairman and CEO Kent Kresa said TRW Inc.'s request to postpone a special shareholder meeting until May 3 was "an obvious delaying tactic," but pledged not to contest the action.
Brazil has asked to buy 12 F-16C/D Block 50+ aircraft from the U.S., along with related equipment and support services, at an estimated cost of $909 million. The prime contractor for the sale would be Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems of Fort Worth, Texas. One or more proposed offset agreements might be related to the sale, according to the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which notified Congress of the possible sale on April 18.
HONEYWELL will provide two Range Safety Tracking Systems at the Kodiak Launch spaceport complex in Alaska under a $13.5 million contract from the Alaska Aerospace Development Corp. The systems, which will enable flight control officers to monitor space-bound vehicles and destroy ones that go off course, will become operational in 2003. The Honeywell system is mobile and can be transported in a C-17 or shipped by land or sea. Each system consists of a mobile control center van and two trailer-mounted tracking antennas.
COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS: Even though the military has not activated the Civilian Reserve Aircraft Fleet (CRAF) for years, the Air Force has issued contracts to participating commercial carriers to supplement military airlift capabilities, according to Air Force Gen. John Handy, the commander-in-chief of Transportation Command and the commander of Air Mobility Command. Commercial carriers participating in the CRAF program are required to support Department of Defense airlift requirements during times of war or in the case of emergencies.
SIX D INC., of Honolulu, has been licensed by NASA to market an image compression technology developed by the aerospace agency. NASA's DCTune technology allows still images to be compressed without a perceptible loss of image quality.
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH: Having won several important missile defense contracts in Europe over the last five years, MBDA's sales revenues will nearly double by 2005, according to CEO Fabrice BrEgier. In an interview with The DAILY last week, Bregier said his company, created through a consolidation of several British, Italian and French missile manufacturers, will grow from a 2 billion euro company ($1.78 billion) at the end of 2001 to a 4 billion euro company ($3.56 billion) by the end of 2005. "We are, in all of our programs, still in the development phase," Bregier says.
The T-50 Gold Eagle, a supersonic trainer being developed by Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) and Lockheed Martin, has completed the readiness review for its first flight, which is slated for June. Verification tests of some systems remain before that flight, but company officials said April 19 they are confident it will stay on schedule.
CR/W CONSORTIUM?: As Canard Rotor/Wing (CRW) technology matures, the Boeing Co. might form a consortium to further its commercial advancement, according to Steve Bass, program manager for Boeing's Dragonfly CR/W unmanned aerial vehicle (DAILY, April 13). "I would say that that [a consortium] would certainly not be out of the question for the future," Bass says.
INTELSAT has signed a 10-year contract with Katelco, the authorized provider of direct-to-home services in Kazakhstan, to deliver television and high-speed Internet services to businesses and households in the country. Intelsat will provide the capacity to provide access to between 10 and 20 pay-TV channels, Internet, distance education, pay-per-view, corporate TV and satellite cable stations, as well as the six channels of local video programming already available. The services are being provided using the Intelsat 904 satellite, which became operational March 27.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is widening his scrutiny of a possible Air Force lease deal for 100 Boeing 767 aerial refuelers. McCain, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), sent letters April 17 to congressional budget director Dan Crippen, Defense Department Inspector General Joseph Schmitz and White House budget director Mitch Daniels asking for their views on the potential lease, including how it would compare cost-wise to a purchase and other options.
BITMICRO NETWORKS INC. of Fremont, Calif., will provide its E-Disk solid-state storage for a French instrument that will observe the interactions between radiation, clouds and aerosols, and their impact on Earth's greenhouse effect. The instrument was first developed by Laboratoire d'Optique Atmospherique as an airborne experiment, and was modified for use on the International Space Station by the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES), the French space agency. E-Disk drives provide reliable high-speed, high-capacity data storage, according to the company.
PANAMSAT CORP. has signed a 15-year transponder lease agreement with the Eternal Word Television Network, the world's largest religious media network. The agreement consists of one 36 MHz C-band transponder on the G1-RR satellite, for U.S. domestic distribution of the network's programming. PanAmSat operates a network of 21 satellites with 870 transponders.
BUDGET BOOST?: Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, says he expects the panel will add money to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2003 defense budget request for aircraft and ships. Weldon also says committee Chairman Bob Stump (R-Ariz.) and ranking Democrat Ike Skelton (Mo.) are trying to reach a compromise on missile defense funding to avoid a major public fight over the issue. The panel is scheduled to finish consideration of the FY '03 defense authorization bill by early May.
NASA officials said April 18 that the agency is shutting down the X-38 experimental vehicle program, which could have led to the development of a crew return vehicle (CRV) for emergency escape from the International Space Station. "The X-38 program has been given direction to shut down," Fred Gregory, NASA's associate administrator for human space flight, told reporters after testifying before the House Science space subcommittee.
NASA officials said April 18 that the agency is shutting down the X-38 experimental vehicle program, which could have led to the development of a crew return vehicle (CRV) for emergency escape from the International Space Station. "The X-38 program has been given direction to shut down," Fred Gregory, NASA's associate administrator for human space flight, told reporters after testifying before the House Science space subcommittee.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's (DARPA) Orbital Express program is gearing up for a critical design review (CDR) this winter, in anticipation of a six- to 12-month on-orbit demonstration to begin in fiscal year 2006. The $100 million program is an Advanced Technology Demonstration (ATD) aimed at developing architectures and technologies for refueling, upgrading, and reconfiguring spacecraft while they are in orbit.
While the Vertical Flight Consortium awaits the resumption of V-22 testing next month, the group is working to advance the broad acceptance of rotorcraft in general, according to American Helicopter Society (AHS) Executive Director Rhett Flater. The consortium is an informal coalition - featuring participation from Bell Helicopter/Textron, Boeing, AHS, and others - aimed at advancing the cause of vertical flight technology (DAILY, April 17).
CONVERSION APPROVED: Pemco Aviation Group of Birmingham, Ala., has received FAA approval to convert Boeing 737-300 aircraft from passenger to cargo configurations, the company announced April 18. The FAA approved the Supplemental Type Certificate, making Pemco World Air Services, the company's commercial facility in Dothan, Ala., the only company approved by the FAA to perform the conversions, the company said. Modification of a 737-300 will begin immediately at that facility, according to Pemco.
Despite a 10 percent growth in its defense businesses, Raytheon Co. reported a net loss of $434 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2002, compared with a loss of $124 million a year ago at this time. In an April 18 conference call with analysts and investors, company officials said the loss was due to a $360 million write-off for goodwill related to the sale of its Aircraft Integration Systems unit to L-3 Communications Corp. in March. The company also recorded a $211 million after-tax loss on the transaction.
With a new air mobility study already underway, Air Force Gen. John Handy, the commander-in-chief (CINC) of Transportation Command (TRANSCOM) and commander of Air Mobility Command, predicts that there will be a clear need for more airlift.
