NASA is gearing up to spend an $80 million congressional windfall on advanced reusable launch vehicle technologies that, taken together, could cut the cost of putting a pound of payload into low-Earth orbit to $100, with comparable increases in crew safety. The VA, HUD and independent agencies appropriations signed by President Clinton added $80 million to NASA's "Spaceliner 100" program, a collection of technology research efforts aimed at producing a "third-generation" reusable launch vehicle by about 2025.
Precision Castparts Corp. extended the expiration date of its tender offer for stock of Wyman-Gordon Co. until midnight EST, Nov. 30, the companies reported yesterday. They said that if the Federal Trade Commission formally approves the "Agreement Containing Consent Orders" before Nov. 15, the expiration date of the offer will be the date which is ten business days immediately following announcement of the approval.
The Global Positioning System is a supplemental navigation system because it cannot stand alone as can VOR/DME, ILS, MLS and some other ground-based systems can, former FAA Administrator Langhorne Bond told the Avionics 99 conference last week in Bellevue, Wash. GPS "can only be used when teamed with a dissimilar system for all phases of flight - en route, terminal maneuvering and precision approach," he said. "GPS, therefore, is a supplemental navigation system." GPS as a "sole means navigation is a dead issue," he said.
The Senate, passing one of the fiscal year 2000 appropriations bills yesterday, included a provision that makes a 1% across-the-board cut in the budgets of all U.S. government agencies. The Senate passed the measure as part of the Labor, HHS, Education Appropriations bill in a 49-48 vote. President Clinton said he will veto the bill. Republicans have pushed for the cut, claiming they have no other way to meet shortfalls in all the fiscal year 2000 appropriations bills.
ROCKWELL COLLINS Aviation Services and FLS Aerospace have joined forces to pursue nose-to-tail maintenance and support work in Scandinavia and northern Europe. The agreement includes Collins' in-flight entertainment systems and Collins and non-Collins avionics. FLSA currently supports 45 airline customers with over 400 aircraft and has facilities in Europe, Asia and the U.S.
Agreement is expected to be announced this week between Britain and Germany to go ahead with a joint program involving eventual procurement of 4,000 or more multi-role armored vehicles (MRAV) for an ultimate cost of around $4.95 billion.
Satellite operators are bracing for a reprise of last year's Leonid meteor storm, again expected to be the worst since 1966, when high-speed debris from the Comet Temple-Tuttle will threaten the 500 to 600 functioning satellites in orbit.
Boeing said it completed a major milestone last week when the government's Joint Strike Fighter Program Office conducted the final phase of its review of the design for the operational JSF and the company's progress in building two X-32 demonstrator aircraft.
Northrop Grumman said it delivered two more E-2C Hawkeye aircraft to the U.S. Navy in October, bringing to eight the number of Hawkeyes newly manufactured or modified for the Navy this year. One of the planes delivered last month was a new production E-2C Group II, the 183rd produced by the company. The second, Northrop Grumman said, was a fleet aircraft modified with the new Mission Computer Upgrade and Advanced Control Indicator Set workstations to be used in the Navy's Operational Evaluation next year.
THE SENATE AND HOUSE will soon go to work to resolve differences in their tax packages, which include a compromise on an R&D tax credit for high tech firms. The Senate last week passed a package that extends the existing R&D tax credit for 18 months. The House version, due to go to the House floor this week, calls for a five-year extension. Technology companies have been pushing to make the tax credit a permanent part of the tax code.
Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Co., Nashua, N.H., is being awarded a modification to cost-share contract DAAB07-95-C-D606 for contract-restruction for the Advanced Threat Infrared Countermeasure/Common Missile Warning System (ATIRCM/CMWS) engineering and manufacturing development program, as a result of cost growths and schedule slips on the program. The contract was first announced in 1995, and the estimated cumulative total is $171,783,577. An appropriation number and dollar value will be issued with each modification.
AIL Systems, Inc., Deer Park, N.Y., is being awarded a $52,269,162 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-C-1331 to exercise an option for the production of 135 universal exciter upgrades (UEU) for the EA-6B aircraft. The UEU determines the jamming waveform and frequency of the EA-6B ALQ-99 tactical jamming system. Work will be performed in Deer Park, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by August 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. today will celebrate its program to convert 322 nuclear-armed Air Launched Cruise Missiles (ALCMs) to the Conventional Air Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) configuration. The event will take place at the Boeing plant at Lambert Field in St. Louis. The conversions, under a contract to the U.S. Air Force, are made at its plant in St. Charles, Mo. So far, Boeing has converted about half a dozen of the missiles. They have been used in Operations Desert Storm, Desert Strike, Desert Fox and Allied Force.
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co., Mesa, Ariz., is being awarded a delivery order amount of $6,392,000 as part of firm-fixed-price contract DAAH23-98-G-0049, for the purchase of Tactical Engagement Simulation System (TESS) Phase IV for the Longbow Apache Helicopter. Work will be performed in Mesa, Ariz., and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on April 5, 1999. The U.S.
The Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is exercising an option on a previously awarded $33,116,930 firm-fixed-price contract, F33657-95-C-0057-P00050, to provide for the following in support of upgrade of the avionics system on the T-38C aircraft: 27 upgrade kits, installation/integration of 12 kits, 2 operational flight trainers, 12 avionics system warranties, 6 mission planning systems, and associated data. Expected contract completion date is September 2000. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
Kaman Industrial Technologies Corp. said it has sold its Kaman Aircraft Products Div. (KAPD) to Wesco Aircraft Hardware Corp, of Valencia, Calif. Terms of the sale were not announced.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace's decision to avoid buying U.S.-made components for its satellites may be hard to put into practice, according to one analyst. A DASA spokesman said last week that new U.S. export regulations don't allow the company to "proceed as we used to." Among items that would be affected are capacitors, resistors, memory chips and gyroscopes (DAILY, Nov. 1).
NTSB CHAIRMAN Jim Hall is heading the investigation into the crash early Sunday of an EgyptAir 767 that killed all 217 aboard. Flight 990 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean 33 minutes after takeoff from Kennedy airport.
Orders for large commercial geostationary communications satellite launches are rebounding after a slack year, but the market looks flat for the foreseeable future, the head of Europe's Arianespace consortium said.
Intelsat's Assembly of Parties has agreed to an April 2001 deadline for taking the international telecommunications satellite organization private, provided it is done in a way that preserves the "lifeline" connections to countries that have no other telecommunications links to the rest of the world. Representatives from 83 of the 143 Intelsat member governments reached consensus on the privatization schedule last week at their annual meeting, which was held in Penang, Malaysia. No formal vote was taken, according to an Intelsat spokesperson.
Cellular-telephone pioneer Craig McCaw is behind a $1.2 billion bailout plan that could bring ICO Global Communications out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and leave him in control of the London-based Inmarsat spinoff.
Lockheed Martin Federal Systems, Owego, N.Y., won a $29 million production contract from the U.S. Navy for the first 13 common cockpit kits to be installed on CH-60S vertical replenishment helicopters. Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will deliver the first common cockpits this month, with the first production CH-60S delivery to the Navy slated for the first quarter of 2000.
Raytheon Systems Company, Kirkwood, N.Y., is being awarded a $30,428,000 fixed-price-incentive-fee, cost-plus-award-fee, firm-fixed-price contract for the development of an aviation combined arms tactical trainer - aviation reconfigurable manned simulator. This system will permit Army aviation units to conduct collective task training on a real-time, computerized battlefield in a combined arms scenario. Work will be performed in Binghamton, N.Y., and is expected to be completed by April 2002. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Boeing North America, Information and Communications Systems, Anaheim, Calif., is being awarded an $82,859,082 cost-plus-award-fee contract for the development of the long term mine reconnaissance system and related data and engineering services. It will provide the means for surveying potential mine fields in support of proposed amphibious operations, battle group operations, and safe ship transit around mined waters. Work will be performed in Anaheim, Calif., and is expected to be completed by September 2004.
