Components for NASA's Space Shuttles and the International Space Station may be endangered because potentially hazardous materials are used in processing them at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., NASA's Inspector General has found.
New regulations to ease the export of satellite components will be announced within two months by the U.S. State Dept. Modifications to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) would enable companies to apply in advance for four-year, bulk licenses for eight categories of satellite components.
ROCKWELL COLLINS is expanding its in-flight entertainment business by acquiring Sony Trans Com. The combined businesses are expected to generate revenues in excess of $500 million a year by 2001, said Clay Jones, president of Rockwell Collins.
LOUIS R. HUGHES was elected yesterday as president and chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin Corp., succeeding Peter B. Teets who retired in 1999. Hughes, 51, joins Lockheed Martin from General Motors Corp., where he had served as executive vice president and president of GM's international operations in Zurich.
GENERAL AVIATION aircraft shipments rose by 22.1% to 613 airplanes in the first quarter while billings increased 12.3% to a record $2.1 billion, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported. "The momentum generated by first quarter shipments and billings promises to make 2000 another record year for every aspect of general aviation," said Ed Bolen, GAMA president. Jet deliveries rose by 15.3% to 136. Piston-engine shipments were up by 20.9% to 399 aircraft. Turboprop shipments climbed 44.4% to 78 units. The number of exports rose by 28.2% to 141 aircraft.
Lockheed Martin will upgrade 27 U.S. Air Force B-52H Avionics Control Unit (ACU) mission computers as part of the effort under a $4 million Avionics Midlife Improvement (AMI) contract awarded by Boeing Military-Wichita. Avionics improvements include a 50-fold increase in ACU computer power and memory, and a reduction in the number of circuit cards from 21 to 3. Lockheed Martin Owego, in Owego, N.Y., said its trademarked Single Board Computer (SBC) is key to the upgrade.
Boeing Co. announced plans to develop a global communications network which Chairman Phil Condit said "will change air travel." Called "Connexion by Boeing," the system will permit airline passengers to access the Internet, e-mail, television, news, sports and "essentially any form of high data-rate communication today's business or leisure travelers require, in real time at 40,000 feet," Condit said in a company press release. The service also will be aimed at corporate jets, U.S. government platforms and health monitoring of aircraft in flight.
Raytheon Co. Chairman and CEO Daniel P. Burnham criticized Pentagon industrial base policies yesterday, saying they have driven $50 billion of consolidation value out of the industry, making it difficult for companies to retain talented employees.
A U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft was approached early yesterday by two Chinese F-8 fighters while conducting routine reconnaissance over the South China Sea, the Pentagon reported. The Rivet Joint was "well into international airspace" when it was approached, according to Adm. Craig Quigley, a Pentagon spokesman. The Chinese jets "did not come very close to the aircraft," said Quigley. He played down the event, saying the Defense Dept. does not consider it "particularly unusual."
Unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel and 66 Hawk jet trainers from Britain are among new equipment planned in India's soaring fiscal year 2000 defense budget, according to recent Delhi press reports. Increases of 28.9% over the 1999 total will hoist military expenditure in the coming fiscal year, from April to March 2001, to a new level of Rs585.87 billion ($13.6 billion). More than half of this goes to the Indian army, while the Indian air force will receive some Rs78.96 billion ($1.83 billion), and the navy Rs40.4 billion.
BAE Systems said it has agreed to acquire Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Control Systems business for $510 million. The Lockheed Martin unit, based in Johnson City, N.Y., and Fort Wayne, Ind., had 1999 sales of $64 million. It will complement the British company's electronic systems and flight control systems businesses, BAE said. The deal is expected to close in the next few months, assuming approval of regulatory authorities.
Lockheed Martin's Sanders unit reported completion of a series of tests of the Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasures (IDECM) Radio Frequency Countermeasures (RFCM) system. A team of Navy pilots and testers concluded the tests in March at the U.S. Navy's China Lake facility in California.
Russia's 14-year-old Mir orbital station is probably good for two more years in orbit, provided private funds are available to pay for its operation, the head of the Russian Aerospace Agency told reporters in Moscow. Yuri Koptiev told a press conference his agency has received $10 million in commercial funds, which is enough to keep Mir running until mid-August. If the funds dry up then, the station will be deorbited in October, he said.
Pratt&Whitney's top priority in the commercial sector is expansion of the aftermarket services business, said Karl Krapek, president and chief operating officer of United Technologies Corp. and former president of P&W.
Lockheed Martin Chairman, CEO and President Vance Coffman said his company is likely to split the $200 billion Joint Strike Fighter production contract with competitor Boeing Co. The Pentagon, he said, is getting away from its original plan to award a winner-take-all contract.
The U.S. Army, in its first major procurement under a plan to field an interim force while it transitions to an ability to deploy a combat brigade anywhere in the world in 96 hours, plans a downselect decision this summer on an Interim Armored Vehicle, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki testified Wednesday.
Raytheon Co. said it delivered 50 GBU-12 Paveway II laser guided bomb kits less than 30 days from contract award -- well under the 90-day contract requirement -- in response to an urgent U.S. Air Force need. The kits were the first deliveries under a $43.5 million award announced in January for 2,245 kits and associated equipment to replace weapons expended during last year's Kosovo conflict. Deliveries of the remaining kits will be complete by the end of the year, Raytheon said.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce Carlson, force structure, resources and assessment director (J-8) on the Joint Staff, said that if Congress restored $92.8 million in fiscal 2001 funding for the Airborne Laser program, the first increment of an $800 million reduction from 2001 through 2005, there would be "a more robust" testing and risk reduction effort leading to a 2003 demonstration. The $800 million reduction was made before the fiscal 2001 budget was sent to Congress.
While the Pentagon is on the right track today in demanding performance at affordable cost, as opposed to the past practice of requiring performance alone, the approach is generating "some potentially troubling results" and it is up to the government to "create an enabling environment" to help the industry, a top Pentagon official said yesterday.
Orbcomm, the "Little LEO" satellite data communication service started by Orbital Sciences Corp., is finding the Internet explosion an unexpected boon as it grows toward profitability, the company's chief executive says. Scott Webster told The DAILY yesterday Orbcomm's narrowband satellite service is ideally suited for low-data-rate communications between machines, an Internet application Webster said is expected to equal human-to-human communication in 2003 and surpass it fivefold by 2007.
BAD WEATHER at all three transatlantic abort sites forced NASA managers to scrub launch of the Space Shuttle Atlantis for the third day in a row yesterday, leaving the next International Space Station logistics mission on hold while the flight and ground crews rest and range planners try to find a new window for the launch.
Picket lines came down in Fort Worth yesterday after members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted 1,514 to 246 to accept a three-year labor agreement from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. "This is a good settlement, and the first workers will return to work at 7 a.m. Thursday," said union spokesman Terry Smith. Dain M. Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, said with the new contract "we can continue concentrating on...producing the world's most advanced fighter aircraft."
U.S. MARINE CORPS AV-8B Harrier crashed April 15 at Yuma, Ariz., but the pilot safely ejected, the service said. The accident came a week after the April 8 crash of Marine MV-22 at Marana Northwest Regional Airport near Tucson. That crash killed all 19 aboard. The AV-8B crashed at about 3:30 p.m. on the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range at MCAS Yuma.
