Hamilton Sundstrand has won orders to supply integrated systems for Embraer's new ERJ-170/-190 family of regional aircraft. The company it will supply the auxiliary power unit, air management system, electric power/distribution system and actuation systems. The total contract value could be more than $1 billion over the life of the program.
AVIATION SALES FOR SALE? Talks between BFGoodrich and Aviation Sales Co. about the after-market giant acquiring the Miami, Fla.-based repair and overhaul provider and aircraft parts redistributor apparently were cut off by Aviation Sales, according to an industry observer. Aviation Sales' stock stood at more than $40 in mid-July, but dipped below $20 in September. The company wants to put any potential deal off until it improves its stock performance, the observer says.
Lockheed Martin over the next five years is scheduled to supply the U.S. Air Force with 18 more Global Postioning System satellites like the one set for launch Oct. 5 from Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., but that could change with an announcement expected this week. The service will report to contractors its long-range plan for modernizing its GPS constellation, and has been considering an option to accelerate its plans to upgrade and launch the navigation satellites (DAILY, Sept. 16).
U.S. and Russian space officials have slipped the long-awaited launch of the Zvezda Service Module again, yielding to technical "issues" with the critical Russian hardware after months of insisting it would go into orbit in November.
Titan Corp., San Diego, received multiple orders for AN/USSC Mini-DAMA ultra high frequency (UHF) satellite communication terminals, which provide two-way satellite encrypted voice and data communications, the company reported yesterday. Orders were placed by the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command on behalf of U.S. naval forces, as well as those of Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and the U.K. The combined value of the orders is about $8.5 million.
Lockheed Martin moved its Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) X-35A concept demonstrator aircraft from assembly tooling to the factory floor at the Skunk Works in Palmdale, Calif., Sept. 18, the company reported Friday. It said the move signals the completion of the major assembly of the structure, aircraft systems and avionics installations. Final assembly activities will include installation of control surfaces, actuated doors and landing gear. System checkouts have begun, and will be followed by engine installation and engine ground runs early next year.
UNITED SPACE ALLIANCE has taken over the job of assembling, refurbishing and testing Space Shuttle Solid Rocket Boosters from USBI, continuing the consolidation of all Shuttle processing contracts under the Boeing-Lockheed Martin joint venture. USA assumed the contract on Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal 2000, after USBI's contract to perform the work as a USA subcontractor expired the day before. The 830 USBI employees who had been fulfilling the contract will continue to work as USA employees, USA said Friday.
...SIZE COUNTS: The U.S will continue to intervene on behalf of human rights throughout the world, Boyd predicts, but will keep size in mind. "It is one thing to go after Serbia," he says. "It is another to go after China. Taking action against a major state is a substantively different act."
NO NDP: Members of the National Security Study Group (NSSG), an independent panel led by former Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, are urging President Clinton and Congress to do away with the National Defense Panel, which in the past has critiqued the Quadrennial Defense Review. "It is our view that a separate [NDP] would be a distraction from what we are doing," the group's executive director, retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles Boyd, tells members of the aerospace community at a Washington breakfast.
Aerospace industry mergers and acquisitions Selected mergers and acquisitions taking place recently in the aerospace industry are listed in the following table, prepared by The DAILY. COMPANY Rolls-Royce and Vickers DATE ANNOUNCED 9/20 CLOSING DATE -- VALUE OF DEAL $933m REPORTED REVENUE Rolls-Royce:1998 profit $505 m Vickers: 1998 profit $67.36m
The regional authorities of Toulouse decided last week to create a new 540-acre industrial development zone that will be designed to house aeronautical industries. The laying out of the state-owned grounds is scheduled to start in 2001. The timing of the operation indicates that the local political leaders are attempting to create a site that could be used by Airbus for the assembly of its giant A3XX aircraft project, which is expected to be launched at the end of 1999.
BEACH EROSION: Future astronauts on Mars probably won't have ancient coastlines to explore. High-resolution images from the Mars Global Surveyor appear to refute theories based on Viking images and more recent data from the Global Surveyor's laser altimeter that the northern regions of the planet were once inundated by liquid water. Probing an area near Olympus Mons that appeared to Viking to include a wave-worn cliff, researchers have found instead a gradual transition between rugged uplands and the smooth Amazonis plains.
LOCKHEED MARTIN said it will pay $1.2 billion for the Comsat shares accepted during the tender offer. About 47.3 million shares were tendered and not withdrawn before completion of the offer, and Lockheed Martin accepted for payment about 26 million shares at a price of $45.50 per share. Completion of the deal still depends upon enactment of federal legislation necessary to remove existing restrictions on ownership of Comsat voting stock. Legislation addressing the ownership cap already has passed in the Senate, but has not been introduced in the House.
STILL OPTIMISTIC: Lockheed Martin still expects completion of the United Arab Emirates F-16 deal by the end of the year. "Time has different parameter space in some countries, [the UAE] happens to be one," Chairman and CEO Vance Coffman says during a telephone press conference. The primary government-to-government issues have been resolved, he says, leaving contractual agreements to be completed. "We're moving down the path and continue to be optimistic."
SATELLITE MARKET: Growth in the satellite industry should outpace terrestrial links within the overall communications market over the next few years, and should reach $182 billion a year by 2008, according to an industry analyst with Banc of America Securities. J. Armand Musey tells an investment conference sponsored by his firm that satellites will rise from 2.3% of the communications market today to about 6% over the next decade.
U.S. Marine Corps AH-1 Super Cobra and UH-1 Huey helicopters have a history of working with unmanned aerial vehicles, but when the helicopters are remanufactured and upgraded they will be able to receive imagery directly from the Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) UAV system being procured by the sea services.
...PROCUREMENT STRATEGY: The U.S. Army plans to make life cycle cost part of contractor performance parameters. It wants its suppliers to deliver maintenance guarantees equal to most of today's automobiles, says Gust. "In the future, suppliers will build and maintain equipment at a set price," he explains. "It will be the way to keep from going through a recompete." Driving a truck 100,000 miles without changing the spark plugs saves money that would otherwise be spent on manpower and infrastructure to service 30,000 mile spark plugs.
Brazil's Embraer said yesterday it is ready to launch a new family of regional aircraft announced earlier this year, and will also introduce a 44-seat ERJ 140 turbofan that will be the first of its kind in the industry. The ERJ 140 will enter operation in March 2001. Embraer currently has no launch customer for the 140.
White Electronic Designs Corp., Phoenix, is working under an initial contract totaling $3.7 million to supply more than 1,500 memory products in 29 systems for the NATO Eurofighter Typhoon project. White said yesterday that the two-year order, for the initial production run of 148 jets, makes it the current majority supplier of electronic components to the Eurofighter project.
A U.S. State Dept. disaster relief expert sees a future for aircraft developed under NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) program as low-speed, long duration platforms for remote sensing and telecommunications relays in the aftermath of natural disasters and other catastrophes.
Kellstrom Industries Inc. signed an agreement to become the worldwide sales organization for Barber-Colman's newly manufactured C-130 airframe components, as well as for a new technology Environmental Control System (ECS) upgrade designed to improve the performance and reliability of the Hercules, Kellstrom reported yesterday.
Lockheed Martin Skunk Works engineers looking for a place to launch the proposed VentureStar commercial reusable launch vehicle have found the elevation of the site will have a significant impact on the vehicle's lift capacity, giving spaceports in the high Western deserts an advantage for missions to the International Space Station and higher orbital inclinations.
Confusion between English and metric units of measurement apparently led to loss of NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter last week, when the $125 million spacecraft flew too far into the Martian atmosphere on its orbital insertion maneuver and broke up, preliminary failure review findings indicate.
Woodward Governor Co. will supply the main flow body for General Electric's F404-GE-102 engine, the powerplant of South Korea's KTX-2 light fighter/attack aircraft. Woodward Governor, or Rockford, Ill., said yesterday that its Aircraft Engine Systems unit will do the work. "We are very excited about the prospects of the KTX-2 engine program, as it is a key future military program and the second straight selection of Woodward by one of our key customers," said Phil Turner, vice president and general manager of Aircraft Engine Systems.
