Joseph I. Murli has been appointed vice president, manufacturing of Kamatics Corporation, a subsidiary of Kaman Corporation and John K. Stockman has been appointed vice president, finance.
Boeing said several airlines are evaluating a commercial version of the military's C-17 following a briefing by President Harry Stonecipher and other top Boeing officials, who briefed representatives of more than 40 companies and institutions. The conference was held in the last week of January in Long Beach an attracted more than 150 people, including executives "from many of the world's leading freight forwarders and cargo airlines," Boeing said.
Qatar Airways has ordered two A380s and five A330-200s plus three options, Airbus said yesterday. The A380, launched in December, has received 66 firm orders from nine customers plus 54 options, Airbus said. Both Qatar A380s will be delivered in the last quarter of 2007 and deliveries of the A330s will begin in April 2002, replacing A300-600Rs. Airbus said the A380 has "won every single competition for very large aircraft so far."
THE INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION, together with BIDjet.com, said yesterday it has launched www.IATA.BIDJET.com., which will provide the airline industry with a "neutral and cost-effective means of buying, selling and leasing commercial aircraft." IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot said the IATA's "unique position within the industry will ensure that IATA.BIDjet.com is available to the widest possible pool of potential users among the airlines."
The Senate Appropriations VA-HUD Subcommittee announced yesterday that it will hold a "budget overview" hearing on NASA on May 9. The subcommittee also said it plans to hold a budget overview hearing on the National Science Foundation and the Office of Science Technology Policy on June 6.
A giant research balloon designed to fly around the world at the edge of space came down a little more than four hours into its flight due to a mysterious leak. NASA scientists still are unsure why the leak occurred on the Ultra-Long Duration Balloon (ULDB) that lifted off Sunday from Alice Springs, Australia, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviationnow.com reported. The balloon reached an altitude of nearly 85,000 feet before NASA decided to bring down the balloon and its payload.
Certification of the upgrade program for Greece's fleet of F-4 fighters is imminent, according to the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS). The Hellenic Aircraft Industry plant in Tanagra has already modified and fully tested five F-4s for the production modification program. They will be handed back to the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) after approval this month of the upgrade's formal initial operational clearance (IOC). The remaining ten will be returned within the next four months.
Even as work continues on board the International Space Station Alpha, Russian politicians and space experts are still trying to make the case for preserving Russia's aging Mir station, which is slated to be dumped out of orbit and into the Pacific in mid March. Some Russian cosmonauts, who are also deputies in the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, are going to meet with Russian Aerospace Agency head Yuri Koptiev to discuss possibilities for keeping Mir aloft.
EXPORT POST: President George W. Bush plans to nominate Mel Sembler, a former ambassador to Australia, to be president of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, the White House announced yesterday.
DEFENSE DOLLARS: The National Defense Political Action Committee is hoping to raise $10,000 before May 1 to prepare for the 2002 elections. The group, which backs military veterans who run for Congress and are deemed to favor a strong national defense, said it needs the money to pay for overhead and contributions to candidates.
Raytheon Company, St. Petersburg, Fla., is being awarded a $20,909,977 cost-plus-award-fee contract for the fiscal year 2001 design agent support requirements for the Cooperative Engagement Capability (CEC) program. CEC significantly improves battle force anti-air warfare (AAW) capability by coordinating all force AAW sensors into a single real-time, fire control quality composite track picture. Work will be performed in St. Petersburg, Fla., and is expected to be completed by September 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Northrop Grumman, in hopes of winning a large share of the unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) pie, together with the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Navy, is building a naval unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) concept demonstrator scheduled to begin flight test this fall.
Lockheed Martin has begun hover pit testing of the X-35B, the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) version of its Joint Strike Fighter. In the tests, which began Feb. 22 at Palmdale, Calif., the aircraft is fixed atop a ground-level metal grate over a pit, a large rectangular basin with special ducting to pull away the downward rush of air and engine exhaust.
An unmanned Russian Progress supply ship is en route to the International Space Station Alpha after launch early Monday on a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The Progress M-44, the third supply ship to visit Alpha, is scheduled to dock to one end of the Zvezda Service Module on Wednesday, Aerospace Daily affiliate Aviationnow.com reported.
Lear Siegler, Inc., Annapolis, Md., is being awarded a $13,890,520 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for simulator and academic instructors from March through September 2001 for Undergraduate Flying Training (UFT), Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF), and Joint Undergraduate Navigator Training (JUNT) in support of training with the T-37 and T-38 aircraft. The contract contains options that could, if exercised, extend performance through September 2007 at a total potential value of approximately $150 million.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $6,107,916 modification to a cost-plus-award-fee contract to provide for contractor logistics support from March through June 2001 for the Predator unmanned aerial reconnaissance vehicles. The work is expected to be completed June 2001. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-00/C-4010, P00008).
CORRECTION: An article in The DAILY of Feb. 23 about Mars orbiters omitted some words about the Mars Exploration Rovers. The sentence should have read, "They will be larger and more mobile than the Sojourner, and will have the capability to travel longer distances on the surface."
A Navy-led joint study has begun an extensive review of the Defense Dept.'s options for meeting its electronic attack (EA) needs when the EA-6B Prowler enters retirement around 2010, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.
ITT Industries Inc. announced the appointment of Louis J. Giuliano to the position of chairman, president and chief executive officer. Giuliano, who will assume his new role on March 1, succeeds Travis Engen who is leaving the company to become president and CEO of Alcan Inc., an aluminum and packaging company based in Montreal. Engen will remain on the ITT board until completion of his term in May.
NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has removed Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey from that post, NASA announced late Friday, and has made him senior assistant for international issues. "As the President has indicated, there needs to be reform in human spaceflight," Goldin said in a statement. "During this time of transition, it is also the time for a change in leadership at the Johnson Space Center."
General Electric Co., Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $17,591,860 delivery order as part of firm-fixed-price contract DAAJ09-97-D-0196, for the procurement of twenty-six 401C Install Engines (complete). Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by Aug. 30, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 20, 1997. The U.S. Army Aviation&Missile Command, Redstone Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded a $14,579,077 modification to previously awarded requirements contract N00383-01-D-004M that provides for the purchase of 808 afterburner flameholders in support of the F404-400 engine on F/A-18 aircraft. This modification has option periods, which if exercised, would bring the total estimated value for the modification to $72,895,380. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by March 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Boeing Corp. has received a contract worth $25.5 million to install a global positioning inertial navigation system (GINS) capability into the mission system and flight deck of the French Air Force's fleet of four E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft, the company announced yesterday. The aircrafts' altitude measurement system will also be upgraded to meet the near-term requirements of the European Global Air Traffic Management (GATM) system for reduced vertical separation minimum, Boeing announced.
