The FAA's Office of Inspector General said it is beginning a review of the agency's aircraft safety research and development program at the request of Congress. FAA spends about $45 million a year on the program, which includes safety research in areas such as advanced materials, fire safety and crashworthiness. About half the budget, $22 million, is devoted to aging aircraft.
Boeing Co. said that more than half of the 620 jetliners it delivered in 1999 were 737 models. The company delivered 320 737s - 278 Next-Generation models and 42 Classics. Ranking second in 1999 deliveries was the 777, with 83. One of the latest deliveries was Emirates second 777-300, on lease from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, Boeing said. Boeing confirmed orders from Air Berlin for six 737-800s and from Alaska for two 737-700s.
TRW Inc., lead contractor on the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Prime Integration Program, has given Thiokol Propulsion and Pratt&Whitney's Chemical Systems Div. the go-ahead for a two-year, low-rate initial production (LRIP) program on Minuteman solid-fuel missile motors. During the LRIP phase the Thiokol/P&W Solid Propulsion Joint Venture is scheduled to build 14 first-stage motors and 11 motors each for the missile's second and third stages, Thiokol said.
TECSTAR INC., a privately held California avionics company, has been picked to supply six solar panels to Fokker Space for the Atlantic Bird satellite Alenia Aerospazio is building for Eutelsat Telecommunications. The City of Industry-based company said it will supply its triple-junction "Cascade" solar cells for the European satellite. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The New York investment firm Clayton, Dubilier&Rice and Allianz Capital Partners have joined with a consortium of German commercial banks and other institutions to acquire Fairchild Aerospace for $1.2 billion. The transaction price includes $400 million in capital from the two investment firms and $800 million in debt financing through the other parties. The possibility of a deal has been discussed, with Fairchild saying it wanted to secure an investor to finance its long-term growth strategy (DAILY, Dec. 13, 1999).
The Pentagon is continuing to ramp up toward longer-term procurements but under predicted budget constraints, the challenge for new technology funding may continue. The Dept. of Defense is reversing a 13-year decline in procurement, but is taking a hard look at science and technology budgets and the need for research and development dollars.
Saying that certain classified reconnaissance data "is lost forever," Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre added a few details yesterday about the weekend Y2K problem with a satellite system (DAILY, Jan. 4).
EDO's proposed purchase of AIL Technologies (DAILY, Jan. 4) kicks off a growth-through-acquisition strategy for EDO, company executives told reporters and analysts in a conference call yesterday.
Lockheed Martin has abandoned its protest of the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) contract award to Boeing for a new generation of U.S. imaging reconnaissance satellites, a spokesman for the National Reconnaissance Office confirmed yesterday. Lockheed Martin, which built U.S. spy satellites for almost four decades, filed a formal protest with the congressional General Accounting Office after the NRO awarded the FIA contract to Boeing in September (DAILY, Sept. 7, 8, 27, 1999).
Lockheed Martin, Launching Systems, Baltimore, Md., is being awarded a $78,402,843 modification to previously awarded contract N00024-98-C-5363 for production of MK 41 vertical launching systems and ancillary hardware. Work will be performed in Baltimore, Md. (58%); Aberdeen, S.D. (37%); and Minneapolis, Minn. (5%), and is expected to be completed by June 2004. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Sea Systems Command, Arlington, Va., is the contracting activity.
United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt&Whitney Aircraft Group, West Palm Beach, Fla., has been awarded a $180 million contract modification for twelve F119 engines and associated preliminary field support for the F-22 Production Representative Test Vehicle (PRTV) program, the Pentagon announced. Contract completion date is April, 2002. According to the Pentagon, $58.3 million of the contract has been obligated at this time. The U.S. Air Force's Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, awarded the contract.
A Y2K rollover problem with a classified Dept. of Defense satellite-based intelligence system was fixed and the system was returned to full operational status Monday morning, the Pentagon reported. The system experienced some Y2K failures shortly after the rollover of Greenwich Mean Time, or 12 midnight Dec. 31, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre said Jan. 1, and "for a period of several hours, we were not able to process information from that system."
Lockheed Martin Electronics&Missiles, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded $5,675,951 as part of a $12,700,000 firm-fixed-price/cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor engineering services/logistics engineering services on location and in support of the AH-64 Apache Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensor and Electro-Optic Bench programs. Work will be performed at Fort Campbell, Ky. (35%); Fort Hood, Texas (20%); Illesheim, Germany (30%), and Korea (15%), and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2000.
EDO Corp. plans an $87 million merger with AIL Technologies to create an integrated defense and aerospace technology company, the New York-based companies announced yesterday. The transaction includes the issuance of 6.6 million shares of EDO common stock, a cash payment of $13.1 million to AIL and the assumption of $35.2 million of AIL's debt. EDO anticipates that the transaction will be accretive to earnings this year, excluding merger-related and integration costs. Company officials expect to close the deal in the first half of 2000.
Raytheon Co., Electronic Systems, Bedford, Mass., is being awarded a $67,895,731 modification to cost-plus-award-fee contract DAAH01-99-C-0028, for FY2000 PATRIOT engineering services for the countries of Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Taiwan. Work will be performed in Burlington, Mass. (6%); Huntsville, Ala. (7%); Andover, Mass. (5%); Tewksbury, Mass. (65%); El Paso, Texas (1%); Bedford, Mass. (15%); and Orlando, Fla. (1%), and is expected to be completed by Jan 31, 2001. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group said it hit its 1999 production goal of 620 airliners. The final delivery, at mid-day on Dec. 29, set a record for commercial jet deliveries in a year, Boeing said. It attributed the milestone to improvements in its jetliner production process. The final jetliner, it said, was one of four 717s delivered from the company's facility at Long Beach, Calif. "All measures that Boeing uses to gauge its production health are at or below the ambitious targets set at the beginning of 1999," the company said.
UPS Aviation Technologies said it will develop and market a WAAS-certified GPS module that can guide aircraft to precise landings at most U.S. airports. The module, known as the GPS/WAAS "engine," will power a new line of UPS Aviation Technologies navigation products intended for airliners and high-end general aviation aircraft. The company also will market the engine to other avionics manufacturers.
Raytheon Co., doing business as Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $109,573,867 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1014 to exercise an option for the full rate production Lot 2 of the Joint Standoff Weapon AGM-154A for the U.S. Navy (414) and U.S. Air Force (74). Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by March 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
The FAA is encouraging industry to develop tests and inspection techniques to "identify or characterize" wiring flaws in aircraft that "may impair the safe and effective transmission of electrical power and signals." The agency said in a "broad agency announcement" reflecting concern over recent wiring problems in airliners that the techniques should be useful for either infrequent, comprehensive examinations or more frequent, focused inspections in an airline maintenance environment.
Raytheon Systems Co., McKinney, Texas, is being awarded a $48,519,996 modification to firm-fixed-price, multi-year contract DAAH01-99-C-0126, for Tube Launched Optically Tracked Wire-Guided (TOW) Improved Target Acquisition System (ITAS) full rate production multi-year FY2000 funding.
Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $93,248,252 modification to a previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1226 to provide additional funding for long lead hardware for 36 FY-2000 F/A-18E/F aircraft. Work will be performed in St. Louis, Mo. (60%) and Los Angeles, Calif. (40%), and is expected to be completed by September 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Boeing Co., Seattle, Wash., is being awarded a $10,568,000 increment of a $72,492,448 modification to cost-plus-fixed-fee/level-of-effort contract DASG60-91-C-0146, for the operation and maintenance of the Airborne Surveillance Testbed for FY2000; an addition of options to the contract for continued operation through FY2002. Work will be performed in Seattle, Wash., and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on June 7, 1999. The U.S.
Raytheon said its Fixed Base Precision Approach Radar has completed FAA flight certification and U.S. Army flight testing at Ft. Campbell, Ky. The tests included demonstration of radar coverage, accuracy, resolution, detection and tracking and met or exceed requirements for all three Campbell runways, the company said. The Army is procuring the radar to modernize its air traffic services. It replaces aging precision approach radars such as the AN/GPN-22.
The Dept. of Defense should exploit globalization but simultaneously take steps to mitigate security risks, according to a new report from the Defense Science Board.
