Lufthansa Technik (LHT) said it is acquiring an interest of about 40% in Hawker Pacific Aerospace to strengthen its presence in the landing gear overhaul business. Hawker Pacific Aerospace, with some 500 employees, is based in Sun Valley, Calif., and has additional facilities in London and Amsterdam. It had 1999 revenues of $82 million, and its share of the global market for the overhaul of large commercial jet landing gears is about 20%. Before the transaction, it was the second-largest provider of such services, LHT said.
Regardless of which presidential candidate sits in the White House in January, there won't be enough money for defense planners to resolve the paradox of funding near-term operational requirements and transforming the forces to contain future threats, meaning tough choices lie ahead, panelists at the Alternative National Military Strategies for the U.S. forum at Georgetown University in Washington said yesterday.
AAR Corp., of Wood Dale, Ill., posted lower sales and earnings, citing pricing pressures, soft demand and customer issues during the first fiscal quarter of 2001. "We are working to resolve issues with a main program customer," said David P. Storch, AAR president and CEO. "As we reduce our investment in older technology engine parts consistent with reduced demand, we will be increasing our investment in aircraft, engines and newer generation engine parts."
House Armed Services procurement subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) argued yesterday for increased spending on military modernization, citing such problems as aircraft readiness declines and a shortage of Tomahawk cruise missiles.
TRW started production on the Space Applications Interface for the Astrolink global broadband telecommunications system after completing its critical design review (CDR) on schedule. "SAI is the first major Astrolink element to complete CDR," said Paul Borzcik, vice president and program manager of TRW's Astrolink program. "We've gotten the green light to begin procuring hardware and developing the software modules for integration, leading to system test and delivery of the first SAI in 2001," he said.
NASA next week will begin flight testing a Synthetic Vision System (SVS) that promises to give pilots "clear skies all the time." The technology, officials say, will have a profound impact not only on expanding airport capacity during bad weather but also on a primary cause of fatal accidents - controlled flight into terrain.
SOCIETE EUROPEENNE DES SATELLITES (SES) has demonstrated a satellite interactive terminal at a trade show in Amsterdam, using an EMS Technologies unit indoors and a Norsat hybrid Ka/Ku-band prototype outside. Working with the operational Astra Broadband Interactive system, SES displayed a two-way satellite Internet Protocol platform with open standards to collect and distribute broadband content 30 times faster than possible with a standard 64 kilobits per second ISDN connection.
A COMPUTER shut down yesterday's planned launch of the NOAA-L weather satellite on a Titan II rocket early yesterday after detecting a possible malfunction in ground equipment, the Air Force reported. Launch of the $267 million satellite from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., had been scheduled for a 10-minute window that opened at 6:22 a.m. EDT. Technicians were checking out the shutdown in hopes they would be able to launch today, the Air Force said.
The Boeing Company continues to be a cash cow this year -- upping cash flow estimates for fiscal 2000 to more than $4.0 billion -- and investors responded yesterday by pushing the company's shares up more than 5%, despite a day of dicey trading in blue-chip stocks. "Our cash position continues to improve," said Mike Sears, Boeing CFO. "We are making extraordinary strides in our commercial production processes."
The U.S. Air Force grounded its T-6A Texan II trainers Monday and ordered replacement of the aircraft's oil cooler, tied to an incident in which the engine of a Canadian T-6A seized in flight.
LUXEMBOURG has joined the European Space Agency's Advanced Research in Telecommunications Systems (ARTES) program, which is focusing on several different advanced satellite communications areas. Among them are on-board processing, multimedia/global information infrastructure and advanced mobile systems. The tiny Grand Duchy, which has long used its sovereign territory wedged between France and Belgium as a base for communications businesses reaching the rest of Western Europe, is home to the Societe Europeenne des Satellites (SES), a commercial operator.
Boeing's Airlift and Tanker Support Equipment Team has selected Teradyne's Spectrum 9100-Series Automatic Test Equipment (ATE) to replace aging I-Level Test System used on the C17 airlifter. "The selection of Teradyne's Spectrum 9100-Series was the result of an exhaustive proposal evaluation effort emphasizing: cost, technical capability, schedule, and program management," said John Allen, program manager, C-17 Automatic Test Systems. "The Boeing Team determined that Teradyne provided the best overall value to Boeing and the USAF for this effort."
Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, head of the Russian General Staff, has shifted command of military space-launch units from the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) to the General Staff itself or the Rocket and Space Defense Forces, continuing an emphasis on conventional forces at the expense of those responsible for nuclear weapons. Kvashnin's directive - "On the Centralization of Military Space Activities" - implemented previously unpublished decisions of the Security Council taken Aug. 11.
Northrop Grumman Corporation won a Total System Support Responsibility (TSSR) contract for the U.S. Air Force's E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) fleet, worth more than $500 million over the initial six-year period. The contract, which includes options extending Northrop Grumman's role through the next decade, represents a partnership between the company's Integrated Systems Sector (ISS) and Warner Robins Air Logistics Center to cut E-8C fleet support costs.
ASIASAT has bought another Hughes HS 601HP satellite, and has picked the Atlas III to launch it in the first half of 2002. The Hong Kong-based satellite operator, in which Luxembourg's SES has a 34.13% stake, launched another HS 601HP in March 1999 on a Russian Proton as AsiaSat 3S, and the new spacecraft will be designated AsiaSat 4. It will carry 28 C-band and 20 Ku-band transponders at 122 degrees East longitude, where it will serve the Asia Pacific region. International Launch Services (ILS) will provide the Atlas III launch.
Northrop Grumman officials say they have received a positive Military Utility Assessment (MUA) of their Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle and are ready for an Oct. 12 Milestone II decision, necessary to move into the engineering, manufacturing and development (EMD) phase.
SOFIA, the U.S.-German Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, has completed critical design review. The NASA/DLR project is mounting a 2.5-meter reflecting telescope in a Boeing 747SP aircraft.
GLOBALSTAR officially launched mobile satellite telephone service in Saudi Arabia. The satellite communications provider had been conducting a limited test of the system since June. Saudi Globalstar is initially providing mobile voice service, but will soon offer Globalstar Fixed Access Unit (FAU), which can serve as public phones in remote communities.
Lockheed Martin beat TRW for the U.S. Air Force's Integrated Space Command and Control (ISC2) contract, worth about $1.5 billion and designed to consolidate and modernize some 40 discrete information systems at the U.S. Space Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command. The effort will be managed under a new "award term" strategy in which the length of the contract will be based on the contractor's performance (DAILY, Oct. 14, 1999).
WORLDSPACE has inaugurated its digital radio service in Asia, using the AsiaStar satellite launched March 21. The Washington, D.C.-based company will provide more than 40 channels of audio and multimedia content, broadcasting to the region in Mandarin, Malay, Thai, Hindi, Tamil, English and other languages spoken there. The company also broadcasts to Africa with its AfriStar spacecraft, and plans to launch AmeriStar next year for service in the Americas.
UNIVERSAL SPACE NETWORK has entered a long-term agreement with Orbital Sciences Corp. to support satellite customers with "one-stop-shopping" at the two companies. Under the deal, Orbital will provide the spacecraft while Universal will provide ground segment and communications gear. The companies will market their services jointly, using standardized spacecraft, ground communications and operations to reduce non-recurring engineering costs.
Russia's persistent economic troubles mean that it can be expected to continue its recent push to expand its exports of advanced weaponry, according to a new report released yesterday by a congressional panel chaired by House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Christopher Cox (Calif.).
ARIANESPACE has switched payloads for its next launch after the payload, Europe*Star, was pulled at the last minute. Instead, the European launch consortium will orbit Japan's N-SAT-110 early next month. The change involved switching the Ariane 44LP, with two liquid- and two solid-fuel boosters, that was originally planned, for an Ariane 42L, with two liquid-fuel boosters.
NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to Kennedy Space Center early yesterday from its mission to outfit the International Space Station, as crews worked nearby to prepare the Shuttle Discovery for launch on the next Station assembly mission two weeks from today.
Members of the U.S. Air Force's 46th Test Wing are scratching their heads over what went wrong yesterday when the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) they were testing dove into the Gulf of Mexico a little over a third of the way into its mission. "The missile didn't fly its entire route," Lt. Col. Tim Moore, deputy director of the JASSM program told The DAILY in a telephone interview from the Air Armament Center at Eglin AFB, Fla. "It impacted the ocean about nine minutes into the flight. At this point, we have no idea why."
