Boeing acknowledged installation of defective fasteners on components of 737, 757 and 777 jetliners in service, as well as airliners now in production. After a supplier noticed a crack in one component and notified the company, Boeing contacted the fastener manufacturer, Cordant Technologies. Cordant supplied 950,000 defective fasteners to the entire supplier base, including Boeing. The only Boeing facility not affected is the Long Beach, Calif., plant which doesn't use the particular types of fastener.
A three-foot diameter Ku-band antenna on the Space Shuttle Atlantis was damaged Sunday when it struck a temporary bridge erected in the orbiter's payload while workers were stowing it. The edge of the graphite epoxy dish was damaged, and engineers were assessing whether it would have to be replaced or could be repaired in time for Atlantis' scheduled April 13 launch. The mishap thwarted plans to close the payload bay doors Monday. Instead, they will remain open until a work plan for the antenna repair or replacement is developed and executed, NASA said.
The U.S. should increase its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets in the Pacific, Adm. Dennis C. Blair, commander-in-chief, U.S. Pacific Command said yesterday. "I have said consistently that I think we are a little thin in our ISR assets in the Pacific," Blair told reporters at a press briefing, saying that U-2, Rivet Joint and EP-3 planes are stretched thin, especially "when there are a lot of things are going on in the world." Those low-density/high-demand aircraft are "something we need to up the numbers of," he added.
With no congressional objections to Finland's request for 242 Javelin anti-tank missile systems, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control hopes to sell more of the weapons overseas. Finland requested a government-to-government sale of the man-portable, fire-and-forget systems last month for an estimated $245 million, and Congress had thirty days to respond.
SPACEDEV INC. has entered an agreement with the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory to acquire a multi-band imaging camera for one of its planned commercial deep-space missions. The camera will be funded by the university in exchange for a ride on a SpaceDev probe, probably to a near-Earth asteroid. SpaceDev will receive exclusive rights to offer for sale data generated by the Arizona camera, which will be designed and built by Peter Smith, who has provided cameras for NASA space probes.
JACOBS ENGINEERING GROUP, Inc., of Pasadena, Calif., has settled a whistleblower lawsuit with the U.S. Justice Dept. alleging the engineering firm overcharged a number of U.S. government agencies, including NASA and the military services. Under the settlement, the company will pay $38 million to avoid the cost of further litigation, according to the NASA Inspector General's Office, which participated in the investigation.
The Clinton Administration, simply to appease Russia, has planned a national missile defense architecture that cannot defend against all threats, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said yesterday. The system now in the works won't be able to defend against certain missile trajectories from certain countries, Kyl said at a Washington conference hosted by the Lexington Institute, an independent think tank. Further, he said, the ground-based radar being developed for NMD will be extremely vulnerable to enemy attack.
Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said the Pentagon would have to request help from Congress on the C-17 program if the U.K. cancels its planned buy of 17 of the Boeing planes. Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said he has heard rumors that the U.K. may back out of the projected deal.
Because of a typographical error, an article in The DAILY of March 7 (page 355) incorrectly stated the lift capability to low Earth orbit of Beal Aerospace's planned BA-2 rocket. The rocket is designed to put 13,200 pounds in LEO, not 123,200 pounds.
AEROJET HAS TESTED its version of an air-breathing Rocket-Based Combined Cycle (RBCC) engine three times at a newly refurbished facility in Sacramento, Calif. The company said the three tests allowed engineers to optimize its "Strutjet" engine for air-augmented rocket mode in the slow-speed portion of flight, when high thrust levels are needed. Aerojet is under contract to Marshall Space Flight Center to continue development of its Strutjet RBCC through 2001. Previous tests of the company's technology were conducted at the GASL facility on Long Island, N.Y.
Engineers at NASA's Kennedy Space Center have started a development effort they hope will lead in 10 years to a prototype magnetic launch assist system capable of orbiting satellites, possibly in conjunction with rocket-based combined cycle (RBCC) propulsion.
The Pentagon announced the possible sale of items needed to convert the TPS-43F air surveillance radar to the TPS-57 configuration to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECRO) in the United States. Northrop Grumman would be the prime contractor. The sale is estimated at $96 million. The conversion will provide enhanced air defense capabilities, modernizing a radar characterized as "unsupportable" due to obsolescence.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Tex., is being awarded a $148,805,022 option to a firm-fixed-price contract, F42620-97-D-0010-P00017, to provide for post-production sustainment support engineering services through February 2001 for the F-16 aircraft. This effort includes support for Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, Bahrain, Greece, Indonesia, Korea, Portugal, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Venezuela. Expected contract completion date is Feb. 28, 2001. Solicitation issue date was July 22, 1999. Negotiation completion date was Feb.
Marconi Integrated Systems Inc., San Diego, Calif., was awarded on March 1, 2000, a $10,000,000 (estimated) time-and-materials contract to provide for repair of 575 Avionics Intermediate Shop and Improved Avionics Intermediate Shop components in support of the F-16 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. This effort includes foreign military sales to Egypt. There were two firms solicited and two proposals received. Expected contract completion date is February 2002. Solicitation issue date was March 16, 1999.
Light Helicopter Turbine Engine Co., a partnership between Allison Engine/Rolls Royce-Indianapolis, and Allied Signal/Honeywell-Phoenix, Indianapolis, Ind., was awarded a $12,025,366 modification to cost-plus-fixed-fee contract DAAJ09-92-C-0453, on Feb. 25, 2000. The requirement is for the efforts required that will lead to the Pre-Production Qualification Program for the T800 engine in support of the Comanche Airframe Program.
NASA has scheduled a flight test in June of ultra-high-temperature ceramic materials that may one day enable reusable space launch vehicles with sharp leading edges for greater fuel efficiency on ascent and more flight profile flexibility after reentry. Michael Phipps, Future-X experiments project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center, told The DAILY that plans call for the NASA experiment to piggyback on a U.S. Air Force Minuteman III qualification shot from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., to Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands.
Lockheed Martin's long-awaited contract from the United Arab Emirates for 80 F-16 fighters, signed Sunday in Abu Dhabi, will help sustain the company's Fort Worth, Tex., production line until the Joint Strike Fighter comes on line in about 2007. The $6.4 billion deal, announced in 1998 but delayed because of concerns about exporting some of the Block 60 jet's technology, also strengthens Lockheed Martin's hand in other fighter competitions around the world.
Boeing Co., maintaining it has negotiated in good faith and has simply reached an impasse talks with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), made what it called its "third and final offer" to the union's striking technical workers and engineers. The company wants to impose the pay raise provisions of its last offer, although it won't force other aspects of the offer, such as reducing life insurance benefits or changing health insurance benefits.
Northrop Grumman Corp., Melbourne, Fla., is being awarded a $35,866,147 modification to a fixed-price-incentive contract, F19628-00-C-0023, to provide for advanced procurement in support of one Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is December 2000. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom AFB, Mass., is the contracting activity.
The Pentagon needs a comprehensive plan for future directed energy (DE) programs, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told senators yesterday. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Technology Jacques Gansler will soon review a new study on consolidating all of DOD's DE efforts, Hamre told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on defense.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn., is being awarded a $12,700,000 modification to firm-fixed-price, multi-year contract DAAJ09-97-C-0005, for Advance Procurement/Termination liability funding for the UH-60L Black Hawk helicopter, to be procured in FY 2001. Work will be performed in Stratford, Conn., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30, 2003. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Oct. 17, 1995. The U.S.
Litton Industries, Inc. posted fiscal 2000 second quarter results in line with revised expectations. Last month, Litton warned the investment community second quarter earnings would be adversely impacted by a $34 million provision for cost overruns in two development programs in the Guidance and Control Systems (GACS) segment (DAILY Feb. 10).
Boeing received the Pratt&Whitney JSF119-614 engine for the X-32 conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version of its Joint Strike Fighter yesterday, Pratt&Whitney Military Engines reported. The engine for Lockheed Martin's JSF X-35 CTOL version, the JSF119-611, was delivered last December, but "in a different configuration and on a comparable schedule," a spokesman for Pratt&Whitney, West Palm Beach, Fla., told The DAILY.
ITT Industries' Voxware voice recognition system will be used in the Boeing Joint Strike Fighter, Boeing announced. It said the system will allow pilots to avoid certain manual tasks so they can better focus on the actual flight environment. "Voice-recognition technology will enhance the pilot's aircraft management capabilities," said Stan Kasprzyk, Boeing JSF cockpit manager.
