BMW Rolls-Royce GmbH (BRR) and Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp. (AMECO) of Beijing signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) for close cooperation in the repair and overhaul of the BR715 engine. The BR715 is the sole powerplant for the Boeing 717-200. AMECO, a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa, is an airframe, engine and component repair and overhaul facility.
Boeing Co. has connected electrical power to its X-32A Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstrator, moving it closer to flight testing next year. In the milestone at the company's final assembly and systems installation at Palmdale, Calif., the cockpit interior lighting, multifunction displays, several display panels and heaters all were powered by an external source for the first time. Electrical checkouts are underway on a daily basis, Boeing said.
AUDITION: The vehicle that replaces NASA's Space Shuttle in the coming century may wind up looking a lot like NASA's Space Shuttle, and not the lifting body/linear aerospike X-33 taking shape in the California desert. The Space Shuttle Development Conference at Ames Research Center last week is a two-day advertisement for the winged spaceplane's unique capabilities, laid on by Shuttle ops prime contractor United Space Alliance with the blessing of Administrator Dan Goldin.
The House Appropriations Committee on Friday worked to wrap up work on the fiscal year 2000 NASA budget, cutting $1.3 billion from the White House request and killing a number of programs. The bill provides $12.3 billion, a figure NASA Administration Dan Goldin and other space agency officials have warned would force layoffs and seriously set back many programs. Appropriators had not finished work on the bill by late Friday afternoon, but planned to move it to the House floor this week.
SAFETY FIRST: Downplayed in all the hoopla about upgrading the Shuttle is the cost. Elric McHenry, in charge of Shuttle development at Johnson Space Center, ranks cost a distant third as justification for the limited upgrade program JSC wants (see story page 164). A non-toxic system to move the Shuttle around in orbit - eliminating the costly maintenance associated with the present hypergolic system - wouldn't be cost effective unless it could be fielded for about $975 million, and engineers working on the new system say they aren't there yet.
ALLEGHENY TELEDYNE said Stefan C. Riesenfeld has joined the company as an executive VP and chief financial officer of the Aerospace and Electronics segment. Riesenfeld, 51, was most recently chief financial officer of ICL plc, a $4 billion information systems company based in London. Before joining ICL, Riesenfeld was vice president and corporate treasurer of Unisys Corp.
THAAD TEST: The intercept test of the Theater High Altitude Area defense (THAAD) missile may take place as early as this morning. Officials had been concerned that high altitude winds at White Sands Missile Range N.M., might carry intercept debris off the range, but the Pentagon said Friday that the winds "appear to be favorable and may permit...flight test 11" to go ahead today. The test was initially slipped from the week of July 5 because of a program review; high winds then forced a skip of the next date, July 28.
DANIEL BURNHAM, president and chief executive officer of Raytheon, also became chairman of the board on Aug. 1, succeeding Dennis Picard, who retired after a 44 years at Raytheon. Burnham, 52, joined Raytheon in July 1998 as president and chief operating officer and became CEO in December. Previously, he was vice chairman of AlliedSignal Inc. and a member of its board. Picard, 66, joined Raytheon in 1955, and has served as president and a member of the board since August 1989. He was named chairman and CEO in March 1991. Picard will continue as a member of the board.
NASA's Space Shuttle program has tentatively identified more than $500 million in high-payoff upgrades to enhance crew safety, and probably will need a like amount to replace avionics and other hardware expected to become obsolete in the next five years.
TRW Inc. signed a $6.2 million cooperative agreement with the U.S. Air Force's Materiel Research Laboratory to develop major affordability and producibility enhancements for space systems production. Under the 43-month Flexible Space Vehicle Production Line agreement, TRW will focus on developing manufacturing technology aimed at reducing costs and cycle time in spacecraft electronics, structures and manufacturing operations.
Bell Helicopter Textron will puts its BA 609 tiltrotor training and delivery center at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Tex., the company reported Friday. Bell bought a three-story office building and the surrounding acreage at Alliance, part of a $300 million capital improvement program for Bell facilities in the Forth Worth area.
The U.S. Air Force is building the support structure to permit the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber to operate from bases around the world. The last part of the preparation, according to an AF spokesman, is buying maintenance shelters in which the bombers' low observable material can be repaired while the planes are away from the U.S.
The UAW and Rolls-Royce reached a tentative agreement on a new contract covering 2,200 production and skilled trade workers at Rolls-Royce facilities in Indianapolis and Evansville, Ind., the UAW reported Thursday. A ratification vote is set for Aug. 5, and if ratified, the five-year agreement will take effect Feb. 26, 2000 and run through Feb. 25, 2005. Details are being withheld pending the informational meetings and ratification vote.
The U.S. Senate approved a resolution that would have the U.S. push the International Civil Aviation Organization to rule whether the European Union ban on hushkitted and re-engineered aircraft complies with international standards.
The July 5 failure of a Proton rocket shortly after launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazhakstan was caused by a fire in the No. 3 engine of the rocket second stage, according to Anatoli Kiselev, director general of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center.
Pentagon budget officials have approved a $52 million plus-up for the U.S. Army RAH-66 Comanche program in the budget proposal for fiscal year 2001, according to Brig. Gen. Joseph Bergantz, the service's program manager. Bergantz told The DAILY that the additional money, in conjunction with a possible $56 million increase pending in the FY 2000 budget, will accelerate development of the Mission Equipment Package (MEP) and allow Air Vehicle 2 to fly a full flight schedule beginning this October.
Seven Q Seven Inc. (SQS) in San Antonio, Tex., has taken delivery of what Pratt&Whitney calls "the first new commercial JT8D-219 engine," which was due to begin flight tests at press time after being installed in the number one position SQS's 707 testbed. The JT8D variant is rated at 21,000 lbst. Later this year, the other TF33 engines will be replaced with JT8D-219s.
The defense budgets of key NATO members may shrink in coming years to make room for deficit reduction and domestic spending, according to the General Accounting Office. Key U.S. Dept. of Defense leaders have urged the NATO nations to step up defense spending in order to buy precision weapons. The U.S. provided the lion's share of precision weapons and all-weather capability used during Operation Allied Force and is urging its NATO allies to build their own arsenals of smart weapons.
A team led by Boeing and the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is set to complete the initial design review of the U.S. Air Force's Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicle this fall. "We have already frozen the outer mold lines of the demonstrator," AF Lt. Col. Michael Leahy, DARPA program manager, said in an interview with The DAILY. "We want to have a very high degree of legacy between [the demonstrator and] what we saw as the operational vision for the air vehicle."
NASA has won White House approval to push legislation that would give it authority to enter "commercial contracts" for services on the Space Shuttle, and to keep any money it earns as a result. Dan Tam, assistant to the administrator for commercialization, told a conference at Ames Research Center here on Space Shuttle development that the bill would amend the Commercial Space Act of 1998 to allow NASA to enter a wide range of commercial ventures with private industry.
AlliedSignal Inc. has obtained the first two Technical Standard Order approvals from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration for new Airborne Collision Avoidance Systems (ACAS II), the company reported yesterday. TSO approval authorizes the company to make the product and clears the way for individual certifications in specific aircraft models.
Rotary Rocket Co.'s Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle demonstrator made its first flight July 23, the company reported yesterday. The ATV, a precursor of a reusable space launch vehicle that would use a rotor to land after re-entry, performed three takeoff and landing maneuvers at Mojave, Calif., in the rotor mode, demonstrating the crew's ability to control the vehicle in the touchdown phase of the landing approach, RRC said.
Following a successful introduction on the Bombardier Global Express business jet, Lucas Aerospace is confident that its ground-breaking variable frequency power system will find a place in other jet transport programs, from retrofits to future new designs. Working variable frequency, or VF, into new programs is the most likely path. But Lucas says the possiblity exists for retrofitting existing aircraft, particularly smaller ones.
