FIRST COMMERCIAL LAUNCH of the Ariane 5 rocket has been set for Dec. 10 from the Guiana Space Center near Kourou, the Arianespace consortium announced yesterday. The big space launch vehicle will carry the European Space Agency's X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) observatory. Although six commercial communications satellites have been qualified to fly on the Ariane 5, none will be ready for a December launch (DAILY, Sept. 21). Arianespace said it plans as many as six commercial launches with the Ariane 5 next year.
NASA and Honeywell will conduct briefings and in-flight demonstrations of Airborne Information for Lateral Spacing (AILS) and Closely Spaced Parallel Approach technology Nov. 8-10 at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. FAA and industry members of the Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) government-industry partnership also will participate. NASA will provide a 757 aircraft and Honeywell will provide a Gulfstream IV.
Speaking candidly before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday, a senior U.S. Air Force general blasted NATO's handling of target planning during Operation Allied Force, particularly France's unwillingness to hit critical targets harder in the early days of the conflict.
The first operational EGBU-15 glide bomb has been delivered to the U.S. Air Force, according to Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz. The weapon, an enhancement of the TV- and IR-guided GBU-15, uses Global Positioning System guidance to give it all-weather attack capability. The launch-and-forget weapon locks onto its target after separation from the Boeing F-15E, the only U.S. fighter qualified to carry it. Raytheon said an unspecified number of the munitions was delivered to the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, where units have been trained to use them.
An experimental airship one-eighth the size of a planned 853-foot-long cargo-carrying airship flew for the first time Oct. 18 at Brand, Germany, 35 miles south of Berlin. CargoLifter AG, which is developing the concept, said the 105-foot-long experimental airship flew for about 16 minutes with test pilot Mats Backlin at the controls. The airship, filled with non-flammable helium, made several circuits of the field before returning to its mooring mast.
NASA's close call when Hurricane Floyd struck Kennedy Space Center a glancing blow last month highlighted a potentially expensive problem facing the Space Shuttle program - the need to upgrade Shuttle ground infrastructure that dates from the Apollo program or earlier, space agency and contractor officials told Congress yesterday.
United Technologies Corp. is buying a controlling interest in jet engine support specialist Cade Industries Inc. for $129 million in cash and assumed debt. UTC said yesterday it will fold its new acquisition into Pratt&Whitney Engine Services.
Spacecraft controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory postponed a trajectory correction burn on the Mars Polar Lander yesterday to allow a team reviewing the loss of the lander's sister probe more time to gather information. Controllers rescheduled the burn for Oct. 30, JPL said. By then the findings of a failure review board probing the Sept. 23 loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter should be "pretty clear," according to a NASA spokesperson.
The U.S. military service chiefs told the House Armed Services Committee they expect to deal with unfunded requirements in the next five-year defense budget plan. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael E. Ryan said his service's unfunded requirements remain in the $2.5 billion range over the future year defense plan (FYDP).
ALLEGRO AIRLINES of Mexico is purchasing two more Super 27 re-engining kits, which will bring Allegro's Super 27 fleet to four aircraft, BFGoodrich said. It said the order brings the Super 27 re-engining program order book to 62 aircraft operated by 22 customers. The program involves installing new nacelles from BFGoodrich Aerostructures and new engines from Pratt&Whitney. The project increases range up to 1,000 nautical miles, provides 10% more fuel burn and raises payload by up to 10,000 pounds.
General Dynamics, which completed two major acquisitions during the third quarter, earned $184 million on sales of $2.22 billion in that period, the company reported. In the third quarter a year ago, GD earned $159 million on sales of $1.8 billion.
ATLANTIC COAST AIRLINES HOLDING has ordered three more CFJ200 regional jets valued at $65 million, bringing its commitments to 66 firm orders including 26 placed this year. The company has taken delivery of 21 of the 50-seat CRJs from Bombardier.
America West yesterday placed firm orders for 15 Airbus A318s and 12 A320s and placed options and purchase rights on 50 A320 family aircraft. The aircraft will be delivered beginning next August. W.A. Franke, America West Holdings chairman, said the aircraft were "very competitively priced." He said the A318s will permit America West to replace its 737-200s "early in the next decade and continue our strategy of more frequent service to key business markets." The A320s will be powered by IAE V2500 engines, the A318s by PW6000 engines.
The FAA is "assessing the impact" of budget cuts in the Wide Area Augmentation System program by congressional appropriations conferees, an agency spokeswoman said. Once the assessment is complete, she said, the FAA "will determine its plan of action." Funds would be restored once requested documents are provided.
PRESIDENT CLINTON yesterday signed the $99 billion VA, HUD and Independent Agencies appropriation for fiscal 2000, which included $13.7 billion for NASA. The U.S. space agency won back almost $1 billion in the Senate that had been cut from its budget by the House, and got a rider attached in conference committee that gives it limited authority to waive costs and reapply profits as a way to promote commercial use of the International Space Station (DAILY, Oct. 15, 18).
ICO Global Communications has won enough additional financial support from its strategic investors to meet its immediate cash needs and begin working its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Textron Inc. reported earnings of $146 million on sales of $2.7 billion in its third quarter, compared to earnings of $142 million, which included $34 million from discontinued operations, on sales of $2.4 billion in the 1998 third quarter.
MICROSEMI CORP., Santa Ana, Calif., has entered into a $15 million, two-year agreement with Lockheed Martin to supply semiconductor products. Microsemi recently completed successive two-year agreements with Lockheed Martin that have grown from some $8 million during the 1995-1997 period.
Northrop Grumman yesterday reported earnings of $128 million in its 1999 third quarter on sales of $2.1 billion. Earnings improved 10% from the 1998 third quarter, when the company posted a profit of $116 million, while sales slipped a bit from last year's $2.2 billion.
Textron Systems' laser radar (ladar) can detect, track and image targets at ranges from 20 to 1,000 kilometers, and could thus provide essential intelligence for future battlefields, the company said yesterday. Now, it said, sponsorship by one of the military services is needed. Tests during the past two years were run to demonstrate the feasibility and utility of transferring coherent, high power, infrared transciever technology to the tactical battlefield for missile defense and other countermeasures missions, Textron Systems said.
France's Aerospatiale Matra, British Aerospace and Italy's Finmeccanica signed an agreement to establish a joint venture in missiles and missile systems combining their current activities in the field and creating a company that is a prime contractor or main partner in every European missile program, the companies reported yesterday.
Boeing joined the Matra-BAe Dynamics team pursuing the United Kingdom's Beyond Visual Range Air-to-Air Missile (BVRAAM) program, Boeing reported yesterday. The team, called Meteor, is competing with Raytheon Co. for a $1.5 billion-plus contract to supply missiles for the 230 Eurofighters ordered by the U.K.
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES and the U.S. are close to agreement on a deal in which the UAE would get 80 Lockheed Martin F-16s for $80 million, according to U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen.
