Boeing Co., Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded a $63,800,000 cost-plus-award-fee modification to the National Missile Defense-Lead System Integrator contract. The award is for expanded and enhanced test capability and the impact of a two-month shift in the original contract award. Work will be performed in Anaheim, Ca., and Huntsville, Ala., and is expected to be completed September 29, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract modification.
Crew members aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour mapped all but 80,000 square miles of the dry land between 60 degrees North latitude and 57 degrees South, carefully husbanding their fuel to collect 99.98% of the data they set out to capture on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. Endeavour was set to land last night, but doubtful weather at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., made a wave-off to Edwards AFB, Calif., a possibility. For an update on the landing, see www.aviationnow.com.
A Boeing spokesman said some activities related to the first flight of the company's X-32 Joint Strike Fighter "have been compromised" as a result of the strike of technical workers and engineers. Both the X-32A conventional takeoff and landing and the X-32B short takeoff and vertical landing JSF concept demonstrators are affected, the spokesman told The DAILY, but he said it is "too early to determine whether it will result in a delay to the first flight."
Rohr Inc., Riverside, Calif., is being awarded a $20,149,514 (maximum) firm-fixed-price-supply-requirements contract to provide for up to 240 Vertical Stabilizer Forward Boxes applicable to the F-15 aircraft. Funds will be obligated as individual delivery orders are issued. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is Dec. 31, 2003. Solicitation issue date was Oct. 5, 1999. Negotiation completion date was Dec. 28, 1999. Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., is the contracting activity (F09603-00-D-0063).
The Pentagon is scrutinizing several key areas of the Bell Boeing V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft's performance in operational evaluation, according to a top Dept. of Defense official. Further testing of downwash effect is required and will be done in the current phase of testing, Philip Coyle, director of operational test and evaluation for the Department of Defense, wrote in his annual report to Congress, released last week.
Lockheed Martin said the Pratt&Whitney JSF119-611 engine for its naval X-35B Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration aircraft exceeded vertical lift operational thrust requirements in tests of the aircraft's short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) propulsion system. Tests took place last month at Pratt&Whitney's C-12 test facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., using the FX662 STOVL test engine.
The U.S. Navy may need more ships to fulfill its missions, but shipbuilding will have to be stepped up in any case just to maintain the current plan of a 305-ship fleet, according to Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Jay Johnson. "The budget that we have before Congress has eight ships in it." Johnson said in response to a question from The DAILY at a conference here. "We need a sustained build rate of 8-10 ships a year just to recapitalize essentially a 300-ship Navy, which is rock bottom."
Pratt&Whitney and France's Snecma Moteurs, announcing plans to collaborate, are hoping to speed up the timetable and rein in costs for the development of a new upper stage rocket engine. "I believe this type of partnership is the best approach to meet the expectations of a very demanding but relatively narrow marketplace," said Jean-Paul Herteman, executive VP of Snecma's rocket engine division.
DSR Sensor Systems Inc., Torrance, Calif., is being awarded a $25,032,763 firm fixed price contract, DAAB07-00-0-J805, for Horizontal Technology Integration, Second Generation Forward Looking Infared (HTL 2nd Generation FLIR) production solution. Work will be performed Torrance, Calif., and Palm Beach, Fla., and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on September 16, 1999. The U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command, Ft.
BFGoodrich Company's board of directors approved a corporate plan to repurchase as much as $300 million in common stock, or up to 10% of the 110.2 million outstanding common shares. The company said the repurchases, either in private or public market transactions, will be funded from operating cash flows and short-borrowings and will be accretive to earnings per share.
Steve Mogford has been appointed as one of two chief operating officers and will be responsible for the management of the Programs Organization and the worldwide Customer Support activity. Peter Gershon has been appointed chief executive of the new Office of Goverment Commerce.
SBIRS AND BMDO: Ballistic Missile Defense Organization officials are concerned that delays in the Air Force's Space-Based Infrared System High program could affect national and theater missile defense programs. Factors in BMDO's concern are reports that the SBIRS High ground segment is suffering from software problems and the Air Force's decision last year to delay the program from 2002 to 2004.
Hansel E. Tookes has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Raytheon Aircraft Company (RAC). Concurrently, Arther E. Wegner, formerly chairman and CEO,has been named chairman of RAC. He plans to retire before the end of the year. John W. Kapples has been elected vice president and secretary by the board of directors.
JAPANESE SPACE: This month's failure of the solid-fuel M-5 rocket could give ammunition to reformers who want to unify Japan's divided space program. The M-5 was built by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), which is controlled by Japan's Ministry of Education. Word of its failure came as the Cabinet-level Space Activities commission was investigating the failure last November of a liquid-fueled H-2 rocket, developed by the National Space Development Agency (NASDA).
Robert E. Edwards has been appointed chief operating officer of U.S. Operations and will also be responsible for the operations of Recoil in Australia and Marson Corporation. He succeeds Lee Dack, who is retiring from the COO position he has held since Fairchild Fasteners acquired Kaynar Technologies, Inc. in 1999. Robert Marchetti, presently senior vice president of World Wide Sales and Marketing, will also assume responsibility for Fairchild Fasteners Direct organizations located in Aichach, Germany, Chatsworth, Calif., and Paris, France.
H. M. (Herm) Reininga, vice president of Operations, Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has been elected chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association's Technical Operations Council. He succeeds William F. Balhaus, vice president, Science and Engineering, Lockheed Martin Corporation in Bethesda, Md. David R. Reilly, vice president, Engineering, General Dynamics Corporation in Bloomington, Minn. was elected vice chairman.
Moshe Pniel, science project manager of Japan's Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on board NASA's Terra Earth-observing spacecraft, has been named manager of scatterometer projects at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. Gary A. Shelton has been appointed director of the Airborne Science Program at the Dryden Flight Research Center in Edwards, Calif. He replaces Gary Krier, who became Dryden's chief engineer.
Andrew K. Ellis will join the Government Relations office in Washington, D.C. as vice president, Aircraft&Missiles Programs. Avr (Avi) Barber has been named country director for Boeing in Israel. He will be responsible for working with Israeli defense, aviation and other government officials, as well as maintaining relationships with Israel's aerospace industry.
SOLAR SALE: NASA has picked Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) to formulate space missions under its new "Living with a Star" solar science program. Fresh off a big hit with its Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft (DAILY, Feb. 15), APL was picked sole-source to oversee technology development, conduct trade studies, set requirements and support the development phase, including awarding subcontracts for spacecraft and other hardware. Administrator Daniel S.
Eugene P. Conese, Jr., president of the Integrated Systems Aerostructures Sector of Northrop Grumman, has been named to the board of directors. Ralph D. Crosby, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Aero Capital LLC, a private investment and holding company, has also been named to the board.
NASA managers have decided to split the Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station so the two modules already in orbit can be serviced before the long-awaited Russian Service Module is orbited this summer.
Romanian industry and investment groups are paying only an initial 60 billion lei ($3.2 million) over a three-year period for a virtually complete share in the formerly government-owned Aerostar SA at Bacau. In a contract signed Feb. 11, the State Ownership Fund retained only a single "golden share" from its original 69.99% holding, giving it veto rights in matters affecting the company's defense production capabilities.
