A NET MARKET MAKERS (NMM) STUDY, backed by e-commerce company Casbah Corp. and conducted by A.T. Kearney, forecasts "explosive growth" in the B2B arena. E-commerce revenues, according to polled NMMs, will increasingly be derived from value-added services -- such as inventory and content management, logistics and payment services -- rather than traditional transaction-based fees. Right now, transaction fees account for about 87% of NMM revenues. The shift to value-added services is natural as marketers try to build customer loyalty and usage, said the report.
France's Alcatel Space exported its first communications payload for XM Satellite Radio to Hughes Space&Communications Co. "Our collaboration with Hughes went extremely well, and I am proud of the confidence placed in us by both Hughes and XM Radio," said Jean-Claude Husson, president and CEO of Alcatel Space. The 3,500 pound payload, the largest ever built by Alcatel Space, will be integrated into Hughes 702 spacecraft bus, and Hughes will be in charge of testing to prepare for the satellite's launch later this year.
BAE SYSTEMS is rolling ahead with another e-commerce project, deploying Aspect Development's Aspect E-Source across the entire organization to make procurement a little less complicated, and less expensive. Marconi Electronic Systems, a user of Aspect's products before the company's merger with BAE Systems last year, managed to chop millions in costs and thin out supplier ranks by 80%.
TRAININGTEK.COM will take flight next week at the World Aviation Training Symposium in Frankfort, Germany. The fledging touts itself as the "first aviation training company" to hit the Web market. TrainingTek.com's Internet learning network will be a cheaper alternative to traditional training programs. The site, with its extensive data-tracking and report capabilities, will also make life easier for regulatory officials to track qualifications.
EUTELSAT's newest satellite, SESAT, was launched into geostationary orbit, at the 36 degrees east orbital position, from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome on a Proton/Block DM rocket. Liftoff occurred at 03:06 Baikonur time (April 18), or 21:06 GMT (April 17). Separation of the satellite from the rocket took place six hours and 35 minutes after launch. Successful deployment of the solar array and antenna followed, according to EUTELSAT.
Ultra Electronics Holding plc, a British aerospace and defense electronics company -- making its largest acquisition since going public in 1996 -- will pay about $67.4 million for another U.K.-based concern, the DF Group Limited, in a move to boost systems and software capabilities. "The DF Group has shown exceptional growth over recent years and operates in markets where strong growth looks set to continue," said Dr. Julian Blogh, chief executive of Ultra Electronics.
Honeywell Sensor and Guidance Products, Minneapolis, said it has received a contract from Boeing for more than 8,000 HG1700 Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM). While terms of the contract were not disclosed, Honeywell said it has developed the IMU in collaboration with the Air Force Research Lab at Eglin AFB, Fla.
XM SATELLITE RADIO will build a 60,000-square-foot radio production facility in Washington, D.C., which is trying to establish a technology district in an area of abandoned warehouses in the city's northeast quadrant. The digital satellite radio concern has hired Klotz Digital, Northeastern Communications Concepts, Acoustic System, Radio Systems Inc. and Telos Systems to provide audio equipment for the facility, which will contain a network of more than 80 inter-connected audio studios. The facility is set to begin production in the fall, XM said.
Lockheed Martin picked up work on eight additional F-2 fighters for Japan under a new contract from F-2 prime contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The contract is valued at over $100 million. "The Lockheed Martin F-2 team is very dedicated to this important cooperative program, and this additional contract will enable our continued, successful involvement," said Charles E. Doyle, program director for the F-2 at Lockheed Martin.
GLOBALSTAR has demonstrated that its constellation of low-Earth orbit communications satellites can handle some types of Internet data, and plans to make the service available later this year. In tests at the ITU America show in Rio de Janeiro this month, the company transmitted Internet data through a Qualcomm Globalstar tri-mode telephone. The "Big LEO" company's satellite telephone service is available in 10 Latin American nations, and has recently come on line in Australia and Scandinavia.
A major gap in the operational inventory of the Indian air force is being filled, according to Delhi press reports, by the lease of two Russian air force (VVS) Beriev A-50M "Mainstay" early warning and control versions of the Ilyushin Il-76M. Based since March at Chandigarh, in the extreme north of India near the Kashmir and Pakistani borders, the A-50Ms are reportedly being flown by joint VVS/IAF crews on pre-induction extended trials, training and demonstrations, to monitor the activities of insurgent tribal forces in the disputed areas.
BAE Systems and Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC) inked a new memorandum of understanding to expand the scope of their information technology (IT) relationship. Information technology "is a critical enabling tool for the integration of BAE Systems, and extending our partnership with CSC offers improved access to the resources of a global IT company and means that a larger part of our business will now benefit from the partnership," said Stephen Henwood, IT director for BAE.
SOCIETE EUROPEENNE DES SATELLITES, the Luxembourg-based direct-to-home broadcast satellite operator, has entered an agreement with Luxembourg's national telecom operator to use six 72 MHz transponders on the upcoming Eurobird satellite. P&TLuxembourg, a founding member of Eutelsat, holds the transponders on the new satellite, which will be positioned at 28.5 degrees East longitude after its scheduled launch next February.
SPACEHAB INC. has hired Xceed Inc., a New York e-business consultancy, to develop the "e-learning" component of its space-based S*T*A*R*S education program, which allows students to design and teleoperate experiments on the U.S. Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (Dec. 1, 1999). Under its contract with Spacehab, Xceed will develop an Internet-based "environment" that will allow students to participate in space experiments with "broad use of multimedia technology," Spacehab said.
ORBCOMM GLOBAL L.P. has reached a preliminary distribution and service agreement with Dynasty Components Inc. (DCI), under which DCI will provide wireless personal messaging services over the Orbcomm network in the U.S. and Canada. The Kanata, Ontario, e-business infrastructure company will also service customers using the Orbcomm GSC 100 handheld satellite communicator introduced by Magellan Corp., a subsidiary of Orbcomm parent Orbital Sciences Corp.
Boeing is likely to have some sort of teaming arrangement with Lockheed Martin for the Joint Strike Fighter contract, instead of the current winner- take-all approach, a Boeing executive said yesterday. "I believe it is more than likely that a winner-take-all is not going to be the end scenario -- that's not how we will conclude this phase of the program," said Frank Statkus, Boeing vice president and general manager for the JSF program.
ULTRASTRIP SYSTEMS INC. of Stuart, Fla., has applied robotic technology developed by NASA and Carnegie Mellon University to develop a paint removal system for the ship maintenance industry that captures paint bits instead of letting them pollute nearby waterways, as is a danger with conventional sandblasting. The "M2000" system is attached to a hull magnetically and navigates along it robotically, removing paint with high-pressure jets and filtering out the flakes.
The U.S. Navy has awarded a $40 million contract to Northrop Grumman's Integrated Systems and Aerostructures (ISA) sector for engineering and manufacturing development of the service's Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS).
BFGoodrich, in an apparent about-face, has decided to close its landing gear facility in Euless, Tex. Last January, the company appealed to union workers at the plant to begin negotiations over consolidation plans that would allow it to remain open, despite the decline in demand for landing gear (DAILY, Jan. 18). After months of talks with union representatives, BFGoodrich has decided to implement its contingency plan -- shutting the plant. The Euless facility will cease operations shortly after Oct. 1 to coincide with the end of the current union contract.
SEA LAUNCH, the international launch services venture home-ported in Long Beach, Calif., will move its partnership headquarters to Long Beach as well, shutting down its offices in the Cayman Islands. Wilbur Trafton said the move, agreed to by the Boeing-led venture's partners in Ukraine, Russia and Norway, would enhance efficiency as Sea Launch markets and provides Zenit launches from a converted deep sea oil rig that shuttles between Long Beach and an equatorial launch position in the Pacific.
Airbus Industrie will increase production to 375-385 aircraft per year but won't go higher than that in an attempt to help dampen the cyclical peaks and valleys of the airline business, said John Leahy, senior VP of the consortium. "We will not chase the peaks in the market," Leahy told Aviation Week Group editors in Washington. Production will reach the 375-385 level, "and there it will stop," he said. Airbus hopes to make 350 deliveries this year.
The first Boeing C-40A airlifter flew for the first time April 14. Boeing said the plane, the newest member of the Next-Generation 737 family, took off from Renton Municipal Airport in Renton, Wash., and landed at Boeing Field after a flight of 2 hours and 15 minutes. The aircraft will remain at Boeing Field for the next five months for flight testing, upgrades and further checkout. The U.S. Naval Reserve is the first customer for the aircraft, and will use it to replace its fleet of C-9 airlifters.
The crew of the MV-22 that crashed April 8 in Arizona was using forward looking infrared (FLIR), not forward looking infrared radar, as reported in The DAILY of April 11 (page 49).
FLIR Systems Inc. issued audited fiscal 1999 results and restatements for fiscal 1998, as well as the first three quarters of 1999. The Portland, Ore., company was forced to revise its financial statements due to several accounting problems, including improper consolidation of subsidiary data, erroneous inventory valuation, insufficient accruals of commission expense and misrepresentation of certain subsidiary costs.
