The U.S. Dept. of Justice notified Lockheed Martin yesterday that it won't hinder the company's planned acquisition of 49% of Comsat, the U.S. signatory to Intelsat. DOJ's approval is the last hurdle Lockheed Martin needs to clear to complete the first phase of the merger, which is planned for this Saturday.
BRITISH AEROSPACE reported a before-tax profit for the first half of $580.5 million, up from $565.9 million. Earnings per share were up 2.1%. The order book was valued at $45.2 billion. Chairman Richard Evans said that sales growth in Airbus is anticipated to continue with rising production deliveries, and that sales in defense are "expected to be higher in the second half." Net cash on hand was $587 million and positive cash flow in the first half was $269 million.
Members of the Senate Appropriations VA, HUD and independent agencies subcommittee voted to fund NASA at the $13.6 billion level requested by the White House, after Senate Appropriations Chair Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) pulled budget allocation from the Labor, HHS and Education bill. Final Appropriations Committee action on the Senate bill is expected today, setting up a conference dispute with the House Appropriations Committee, which cut $900 million from NASA's fiscal 2000 accounts (DAILY, Aug. 3).
Boeing will move the headquarters of its Phantom Works from St. Louis to Seattle as part of a realignment of the research and development group, the company reported yesterday. The organization now will report directly to the office of the chairman. Phantom Works will maintain operations in St. Louis, Southern California and Seattle.
U.S. space assets at Cape Canaveral, Fla., apparently weathered Hurricane Floyd with minimal damage Tuesday night, as the big storm struck the East Coast spaceport a glancing blow that produced relatively benign winds and rains. Spokespersons for both NASA and the U.S. Air Force reported no major damage to space facilities yesterday, although the Air Force said it would take "a few days" to complete inspections of the four expendable rockets that rode out the hurricane on their launch pads.
The future looks promising for U.S. Air Force budgets and retention rates, according to Gen. Michael Ryan, chief of staff. "I am optimistic about the budget" and "have great expectations going into the next round," Ryan told an audience at the Air Force Association's annual convention in Washington on Tuesday. Congress has responded well to the service's requests for $5 billion to fix a range of problems, including dated equipment, aging aircraft and inadequate pay.
Northrop Grumman Corp., studying aircraft that could replace the current U.S. long-range bomber fleet, released renderings of several designs emphasizing the ability to operate at high speeds and altitudes. The company said its Integrated Systems and Aerostructures sector was selected to participate in a 12-month U.S. Air Force assessment of possible future aircraft because of its experience in building the B-2 bomber as well as expertise in such areas as integration, stealth technology and composites manufacturing.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Engineering&Sciences Co., Houston, will continue engineering support work at NASA's Johnson Space Center under a $38.55 million level-of-effort option for some 1.2 million hours of work the NASA center has exercised. Covered under a $1.5 billion 10-year contract that took effect on Jan. 1, 1994, the option applies to work at both JSC and Lockheed Martin's Houston facility. The work includes support to laboratories; design, development and operation of projects, payloads and flight hardware, and technical support for flight crew training.
The Federal Communications Commission late Tuesday approved Lockheed Martin's request for "authorized carrier" status, a green light for the company to proceed with its plan to buy 49% of Comsat.
General Electric and Pratt&Whitney have won conditional approval from the European Commission to develop a new engine for Airbus' proposed A3XX aircraft. The companies' Engine Alliance, formed in 1996 as a joint company, is designing a new family of powerplants for four-engine aircraft from both Airbus and Boeing. The EC approved the alliance for 15 years of operation from 1996, or until 2011. It said the two companies cannot market the engine for the alliance. The alliance received a U.S. go-ahead in 1996.
Lockheed Martin has absorbed its projected Joint Strike Fighter cost overrun of $100 million and done so while finalizing the design of the "first significantly unique propulsion system in 20 years," according to Frank J. Cappuccio, vice president of the program.
Engineers controlling NASA's new Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) have discovered a problem with one set of x-ray detectors in the space telescope's imaging spectrometer, but program managers said even in the worst case the impact on Chandra science will be minimal.
American Aircarriers Support Inc. (AASI) and BAX Global Inc.'s Supply Chain Management division have formed a marketing alliance to jointly promote an integrated Material Management Solution for aerospace customers, the companies reported. Under the arrangement, AASI will provide the parts and technical support and BAX will provide the logistics support. BAX will integrate the services.
The U.S. Air Force as early as the end of this week could announce a long-range plan to modernize its constellation of Global Positioning System satellites, which could include a significant acceleration of current upgrade and launch schedules. The debate on how to modernize the 26-satellite constellation has been underway for some time with a focus on improving military utility by bolstering signals and providing for better encryption to avoid jamming.
Stage 2 airliners should no longer be permitted to fly after 2002 under International Civil Aviation Organization noise rules, but the "hushkit solution and the rectification techniques have allowed these old aircraft to continue to fly," according to the European Commission. The EC, which wants to phase out hushkitted and re-engined aircraft, released the statement after a hearing last week by the House aviation subcommittee, at which U.S. interests expressed opposition to the EC's stance.
Anthony J. Navarra has been named president of Globalstar. Megan Fitzgerald has been promoted to senior vice president of space operations. Also included in the senior operating team are: Gerard Canavan, senior vice president of marketing; Gloria Everett, senior vice president of operations and Joel Schindall, senior vice president and chief engineer have been given expanded responsibilities.
Northrop Grumman had to change its plans for the future when the U.S. government turned down its attempt to merge with Lockheed Martin last year, but executives said yesterday that they learned a lot about their company while preparing for the merger, and that they have applied some of those lessons to lean manufacturing.
James W. Kennedy has been named head of the new Engineering Directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. John W. Kilpatrick, Jr., has been appointed deputy director and will join Kennedy in overseeing all NASA engineering projects and technical services at the center. Also newly appointed to the directorate at Marshall Space Flight Center: Earnest C. Smith, assistant to the director; Jack Bullman, manager of the Avionics Department;
Raytheon Co. has received a $79.7 million contract from Boeing Co. to begin production of the AN/APG-63(V)1 radar for the U.S. Air Force's F-15 fighter. The APG-63(V)1 is intended to replace the aging APG-63multi-mode fire control radar in F-15C/D jets.
Louis Dollive has been named vice president and director of engineering for the Avionics Division. Dollive succeeds Alan Kaufman, who retired after 42 years of service to ITT.
