EGYPT has asked the U.S. for approval to buy two Gulfstream IV-SP executive jet transport aircraft for about $180 million, the Pentagon said yesterday. The planes, powered by Rolls-Royce engines, would be used to augment and enhance Egypt's airlift capability, including the movement of its top leaders, according to the Pentagon. The prime contractor will be Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. of Savannah, Ga. The deal also includes support equipment, spare and repair parts, personnel training and training equipment. Congress must approve the sale.
The first software segment of integrated battle management hardware and software for the Airborne Laser (ABL) system has been demonstrated by a team of the U.S. Air Force, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and TRW. Called "Event 16," the demonstration was the final step in completion of "Build 1A," the first of six battle management segment software builds, according to Boeing. It said Build 1A includes the basic software structural design and operating system upon which all remaining software to be developed will be based.
The FAA is meeting its goals for both wide and local area navigation systems, but this doesn't mean it's in a hurry to phase out current navigation aids, according to Administrator Jane Garvey.
NASA's new Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP), drafted with input from the major industry players in reusable launch vehicle development, sets up a five-year competition between clean-sheet RLV designs and vehicles derived from the Space Shuttle, which will continue to fly if the competition ends in a draw.
NORWAY has asked to buy 30 F-16 Block 60 or Block 50+ aircraft for about $2.6 billion, the U.S. Dept. of Defense said yesterday. The Lockheed Martin jets would replace Norwegian F-16s that have been lost to attrition or that have exceeded their service lives. Either the Pratt&Whitney F100-PW-229A engine or the General Electric F110-GE-129 EFE engine would power the planes. They would also be configured with either the APG-68(V)XN, APG-68(V)XM or Agile Beam Radar with electronically scanned antenna.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works has a billion-dollar leg up in NASA's new Integrated Space Transportation Plan (ISTP), but only if it can overcome significant technical hurdles to get a good start on building its two-vehicle VentureStar reusable launch vehicle (RLV) fleet within the five-year schedule set in the new plan.
Reflectone of Tampa, Fla., has won a contract to build an E-2C Hawkeye Operational Flight Trainer for the French Navy. Reflectone, a British Aerospace company, said the contract was awarded by the U.S. Navy, which will buy the simulator for France under a foreign military sales contract. The OFT, which will simulate the operational and performance characteristics of the aircraft, will feature a wide field-of-view visual system incorporating a high fidelity French/European visual database.
Triumph Group Inc. announced a realignment of its aviation segment into four units. Richard C. Ill, president and CEO of the Wayne, Pa., aircraft component specialist, said the moves were made "to better focus and integrate the marketing of our total capabilities to the aviation market while taking advantage of the opportunity to reduce overlapping costs."
Top Senate and House appropriators blasted Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Henry Shelton for comments he made to the Senate Armed Services Committee this week on the danger posed to U.S. national security by an across-the-board cut in the fiscal year 2000 defense budget.
An Aerojet satellite sensor has completed a pre-ship review, clearing its way for launch aboard the European meteorological satellite METOP-1 in June 2003. Aerojet said the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU-A) sensor passed the review at the company's Azusa, Calif., facility. The review was conducted by officials from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and Europe's EUMETSAT agency. The sensor's microwave radiometer provides temperature profiles to an altitude of 43 kilometers. The first AMSU instrument was launched on the NOAA-15 satellite on May 13, 1998.
NASA stepped up testing of the linear aerospike engine that will power the X-33 reusable launch vehicle prototype late Wednesday, running the inside-out rocket for five seconds at 80% thrust at Stennis Space Center, Miss. Meanwhile, engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center, Ala., are preparing another test of the X-33's composite liquid hydrogen tank to see if leaks in the tank have been repaired. Gene Austin, X-33 program manager, said Wednesday the tank test could come as early as tomorrow.
The Republic of Korea has delivered the Korean Multipurpose Satellite (KOMPSAT) to Vandenberg, AFB, Calif., TRW reported. The satellite, built by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), with support from TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, Calif., is scheduled for launch later this year. Launch preparations are underway and include an integrated system test. KOMPSAT will then be fueled and mated to a Taurus rocket before transportation to the launch pad, where final preparations will take place.
Precision Castparts Corp. and Wyman-Gordon Co. said they have submitted an "Agreement Containing Consent Orders" to the Federal Trade Commission that would require the divestiture of Wyman's large cast parts operations in Groton, Conn., and its titanium castings operations in Albany, Ore. The FTC has said it would recommend that PCC's cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of Wyman be permitted to proceed if the companies agreed to sell certain Wyman castings operations (DAILY, Sept. 10).
A ban on launches at Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan will postpone an International Launch Services (ILS) mission scheduled for Sunday, but NASA remains unsure of any possible impact on the launch of Russia's Zvezda module for the International Space Station, scheduled for January.
The FAA, spurred by the crash of TWA Flight 800 three years ago, said yesterday that it plans a sweeping action to ban ignition sources from the fuel tanks of previously certificated aircraft. The plan, which would affect more than 6,000 aircraft in the U.S. fleet and cost $170 million to implement over a ten-year period, would also require mandatory maintenance instructions for the fuel systems on newly designed planes, and design reviews and maintenance for existing aircraft.
SIKORSKY S-92 helicopter has made its first flight with General Electric CT7-8 engines. GE said the powerplants "performed flawlessly" during the 1.4 hour flight. The first S-92 prototype has been flying with CT7-6D engines.
The U.K.'s Defense Aviation Repair Agency (DARA) has won a contract from Boeing Co. to inspect and repair CH-47 Chinook helicopter transmissions in Europe, Boeing reported. DARA will be responsible for the tear-down, inspection, repair, re-assembly and testing of the transmissions.
Big transatlantic aerospace mergers aren't in the cards soon, according to Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre. He told government officials and industrialists from Europe and the U.S. at a Pentagon dinner Monday night that it is probably premature to assume the time is right for such link-ups.
Pentagon Spokesman Ken Bacon, responding to questions about a published report saying U.S. Air Force officials are thinking about pulling out of the Joint Strike Fighter program to save funding for the F-22 fighter, said it is important to proceed with the effort. The New York Times, quoting anonymous senior Air Force official, reported Oct. 23 that the service would bail out of the JSF program to preserve the F-22. It also reported that such a move would anger the Navy and Marine Corps, which are counting on the JSF.
An intercept test of the Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missile defense system, scheduled for yesterday in New Mexico, has been slipped two weeks because it would have been too dark at the time of launch for proper monitoring of the test. The Pentagon's Ballistic Missile Defense Organization and the U.S. Army said that moving the test to a date after Oct. 31, following the transition to daylight savings time, will solve the problem. The test is now slated to take place in about two weeks. Two intercepts have already been conducted.
Boeing delivered an updated F-22 avionics software package that includes the final two integrated avionics sensors - electronic warfare and communication, navigation and identification - to its 757 Flying Test Bed (FTB) ahead of schedule, the company reported. The delivery completes the Defense Acquisition Board's 1999 requirements for the program.
The NASA-industry team conducting studies of future space transportation vehicles have concluded that a new-design reusable launch vehicle (RLV) and a Space Shuttle-derived option could compete by 2005, NASA Chief Engineer Daniel Mulville told lawmakers yesterday.
CLARIFICATION: An article in The DAILY of Oct. 19 incorrectly stated Spectrolab is looking for a new third-layer solar cell material with a higher bandgap than germanium to capture more energy from the blue end of the solar spectrum. The company is trying to capture more energy from the red end of the spectrum.
