CMC ELECTRONICS of Montreal has been selected as cockpit avionics systems integrator for Boeing B747 aircraft by Saudi Arabian Airlines, Corsair and Hong Kong Dragon Airlines. CMC will supply its CMA-900 Flight Management System for the B747 fleets, according to the company. The CMA-900 uses the Global Positioning System to provide navigation and oceanic and remote area operations capability.
TANKER&TRANSPORT SERVICE CO. LTD., representing a consortium made up of BAE Systems, the Boeing Co., Serco Group and Spectrum Capital, submitted a response to the United Kingdom Ministry of Defence's invitation to negotiate for the Future Strategic Tanker Aircraft (FSTA) program. Through the FSTA, the Royal Air Force will acquire air-to-air refueling services through a private-financing initiative from a contractor company. The Tanker&Transport Service Co. will acquire, modify and use a Boeing 767 aircraft to provide the services if selected.
The European Commission's veto of the GE-Honeywell merger will undoubtedly cause aerospace companies to think through all of their options before pursuing mergers and acquisitions, key aerospace analysts said July 3. Paul Nisbet, aerospace analysts with JSA Research, Inc., of Newport, R.I., said U.S. aerospace companies "certainly got an eyeful about how the Europeans think." "They're out to protect the competitors rather than the consumers, which is not the approach we take, unless it is a monopoly. And this certainly wasn't that," he said.
Fitch Inc., the international ratings agency, affirmed its debt rating for Raytheon Corp. July 3 despite recent reports of higher cost estimates to complete construction projects abandoned by the Washington Group International. Fitch analysts said the ratings outlook for the company remained stable.
LORAL CYBERSTAR of Rockville, Md., has been awarded a multi-year contract to provide very small aperture terminal (VSAT) services to Global Crossing, in support of that company's contract to develop a virtual private network (VPN) for British embassies worldwide. CyberStar's two-way VSAT network will deliver secure voice, data and Internet services.
Some supporters of U.S. efforts to build a missile defense program believe the Bush Administration may not be going far enough or fast enough to deploy the necessary technology. Speaking at last week's conference here on "Defending the Northeast, the Nation and America's Allies," former Ambassador Henry Cooper expressed concern that the Administration is not incorporating research done under the old Strategic Defense Initiative.
Three members of the House and Senate armed services committees have introduced legislation that would repeal a ban on cutting the U.S. arsenal below the START I Treaty level of 6,000 strategic nuclear weapons.
AMERICOM ASIA-PACIFIC LLC has announced a new occasional use service using a GE-1A satellite over Asia. The service allows broadcasters, programmers and news gatherers the opportunity to book occasional satellite transponder space segments online via STARS Online, a web-enabled interface, or over the telephone. GE-1A is a Ku-band satellite located at 108.2 East longitude, which provides service via three beams to China, South Asia, including India, northeast Asia and the Philippines. The satellite features 28 active 36 MHz Ku-band transponders.
The Lockheed Martin team's X-35B Joint Strike Fighter is entering its final phase of testing at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., after making a quick but significant hop July 3 from Palmdale, Calif. - its first conventional flight, a company spokesman said. "The plan at Edwards is to open up the whole STOVL envelope," Lockheed Martin spokesman John Kent said. "They'll be transitioning from wingborne to jetborne flight, then into hover and vertical landings. We'll be doing short takeoffs. We plan to take the plane supersonic."
INTEGRAL SYSTEMS, INC., of Lanham, Md., has been awarded a contract from Alcatel Space Industries to provide the primary and backup control software for the METOP satellites of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) Polar System (EPS). The satellites are part of the joint program between EUMETSAT and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to provide weather data using polar satellites.
Maj. Jeff Karnes, a U.S. Marine Corps test pilot, made two vertical landings in the Boeing team's X-32B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator July 3 at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. Company test pilots have landed vertically in the X-32B, but Karnes is the first government pilot to do so. On June 29, Maj. Art "Turbo" Tomassetti became the first Marine to land vertically in the rival Lockheed Martin team's JSF candidate, the X-35B. Replacement for its aging fleet
Harris Corp., of Melbourne, Fla., will continue engineering support of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program's Small Tactical Terminals under a new contract, the company announced July 3. The $2.3 million contract will allow the company to continue supporting the 143 STTs it delivered in the late 1990s under a separate contract. The STTs are deployed throughout the world to provide real-time weather information to U.S. Air Force and Army operations.
An independent federal agency said this week that the U.S. civil aerostructures industry is losing "some of its competitive edge" as a result of consolidation in the large civil aircraft industry (LCA), Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviation Daily reported.
PANAMSAT has become the platform for the international distribution of nearly all major Korean broadcasters, the company announced. The company's PAS-2, PAS-8, PAS-9 and Galaxy XI satellites, as well as a Napa Valley, Calif., teleport facility, form the backbone of a distribution network broadcasting Korean programming throughout Asia and the Americas, according to the company.
The Air Force Research Laboratory has awarded Integrated Sensors Inc. a $99,000 contract to study radar that could locate ground targets hidden under trees and bushes and other thick foliage. The Utica, N.Y.-based company will investigate radars capable of seeing through foliage. It will look at synthetic aperture radar, which can image fixed targets, and ground moving target indication radar, which helps detect moving targets or vehicles.
STRATOS GLOBAL CORP. has developed dealerships in Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, China, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Russia, Thailand and Taiwan to market the recently relaunched Iridium mobile satellite service, the company announced. It is also completing agreements with local agents in Japan, India, Indonesia, Brunei and Papua New Guinea. The Stratos dealers have longstanding relationships with users of mobile satellite services, particularly in the shipping, fishing, government and mining sectors, according to the company.
A House spending panel has tentatively decided to add $400 million to the Bush Administration's fiscal 2002 budget request for NASA to revive plans for a crew return vehicle (CRV) on the International Space Station, a congressional source told The DAILY July 3.
McDonnell Douglas Training Systems, St Louis, Mo. is being awarded a $146,433,030 firm fixed price/cost plus fixed fee contract to provide for upgrade of 36 APG-63 (V) radar systems applicable to the F-15 aircraft, and associated contractor support. At this time, the total amount of funds have been obligated. This effort will be performed by Raytheon Systems Co., El Segundo, Calif. (55%), Forest, Miss. (29%), and other locations. This work is expected to be completed December 2003. Solicitation began December 2000; negotiations were completed June 2001.
THE EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY'S Planck mission to map cosmic background microwave radiation will be at least 10 times more sensitive than NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe, which launched over the weekend (see story on Page 7), according to ESA. Planck is scheduled to launch in 2007.
Scientists at the Human Effectiveness Directorate of the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) are exploring interfaces that will allow unmanned aerial vehicle "managers" to control up to four - and possibly more - UAVs simultaneously. The task of supervising multiple UAVs, without actually piloting them, will involve a mixture of traditional piloting skills and new skills, according to Maj. Mark Draper, program manager for AFRL's SIRUS (Synthetic Interface Research for UAV Systems) facility.
NASA's Microwave Anisotropy Probe (MAP) is on its way to the distant L2 point to begin its study of the afterglow of the "Big Bang" after its successful launch on Saturday, June 30. MAP will study tiny temperature differences in the microwave light from the Big Bang, differences that could help scientists determine the content, shape and history of the universe, including its ultimate fate (DAILY, June 13).
Sikorsky Aircraft Co., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $203,239,894 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAJ09-97-C-0005, for sustaining engineering and engineering change proposal for conversion of 14 Army UH-60L aircraft to Navy MH-60S aircraft; 17 Navy MH-60S; and logistics support for 31 MH-60S Navy aircraft. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and completion is expected by Nov. 30, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Jan. 13, 2000. The U.S.
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., Mesa, Ariz., is being awarded a $5,966,362 delivery order amount, as part of a not-to-exceed $12,176,250 firm-fixed-price, unpriced order for 750 rotary rudder blades applicable to the AH-64 Apache helicopter. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and completion is expected by July 5, 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 19, 2001. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity (DAAH23-99-G-0014).
The Aging Aircraft Integrated Product Team (AAIPT) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., is developing a number of new weapons in the fight against aircraft corrosion - a problem that costs the Navy more than a billion dollars a year. These technologies include corrosion removal brushes that don't allow the user to damage the underlying surface, as well as networks of embedded sensors that could enable non-invasive inspections.
Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control and ELTA Electronics Industries Ltd., a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd., announced they have won a U.S. Navy contract to study a way to give attack fighters all-weather targeting. The contract funds an integration and impact study to incorporate the Tactical All-Weather Collection and Long Range (TACL) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) system capabilities into the Shared Reconnaissance (SHARP) system for use on the Navy's F-18E/F Super Hornet.
