Flexjet, a Dallas-based fractional ownership program from Bombardier Aerospace, will expand into the European market, Flexjet reported. In the first phase, already underway, current North American Flexjet owners are flying Learjet and Challenger aircraft within Europe. The second phase will feature the creation of a Flexjet European sales and support organization which will offer a fractional jet ownership program.
First production naval version of Dassault's Rafale fighter flew for the first time yesterday at the company's Merignac facility. Philippe Deleume, chief test pilot at Dassault's Bordeaux plant, was at the controls of the Rafale M1. France is ordering 294 Rafales, 60 of which will be Rafale Ms for the French navy. The Rafale M1 is the first in a series that will comprise the 12F squadron for the carrier Charles de Gaulle by mid-2001. The Rafales will be assigned to air defense missions, as will the Super Etendard and the Hawkeye.
Groen Brothers Aviation Inc. of Salt Lake City sold its first GBA Gyroplane dealership to a Phoenix-based organization, the company reported yesterday. The agreement includes cash deposits on 28 Hawk 4 Gyroplanes, which have a unit price of $295,000. GBA Gyroplanes of Phoenix will be based at Chandler Airport, southeast of Phoenix. Dealers will handle sales, service, and training.
AllliedSignal Inc., Olathe, Kan., has started initial shipments of the new Airsat 1 airborne satellite communications system, which uses the Iridium low-Earth-orbit satellite constellation. Airsat 1 has a suggested retail price is $29,500, the company said in a statement. Usage rates, it added, vary from $3.50 per minute for in- country calls to a maximum of $7 for international calls.
Failure of Congress to fund the $17 million FAA fiscal 2000 request for the Global Positioning System aeronautical band is "potentially serious" in that it could deny civil users, including airlines, the modernized service the satellites provide, an FAA spokesman said. The money would fund the addition of two civil frequencies to the GPS.
AAI Corp. has won a $19 million contract for six On-Board Training (OBT) systems and two land-based Software Support Centers to be used in upgrading the Royal Australian Navy's six guided missile frigates. AAI's Defense Systems unit, Hunt Valley, Md., received the contact from ADI Ltd., an Australian defense systems and engineering company, which is the prime contractor for the frigate upgrade project.
The Greek government signed a final contract for Ericsson's airborne early warning radar system, Erieye, valued at more than $475 million, Ericsson reported. Greece originally chose Erieye last December. The contract for four systems has deliveries scheduled to begin in 2002 and includes an option for two more. The systems will be carried by Brazilian EMB-145 aircraft and will be used to monitor airspace and the Greek islands. All are integrated with the prevailing management and communication systems used by NATO.
Raytheon Systems Company, Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a ceiling priced $414,000,000 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-99-D-1016 for the remanufacture of up to 624 Tomahawk Missiles to the Block III configuration. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (53%); Salt Lake City, Utah (18%); Akron, Ohio (11%); Walled Lake, Mich. (7%); Cedar Rapids, Iowa (4%); Camden, Ark. (4%); and Minneapolis, Minn. (3%), and is expected to be completed in October 2002. Contract funds would not have expired at the end of the current fiscal year.
Commercial satellite companies won a victory last Thursday with the inclusion of new provisions in Senate bill S 376, also called the ORBIT bill. The legislation, which mandates the privatization of Intelsat by January 1, 2002, also enables the sale of the U.S. Intelsat signatory, Comsat.
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center has picked 13 technologies ranging from composite liquid oxygen tanks to hydrogen peroxide-based propulsion for a $16 million effort to demonstrate cost-saving in reusable launch vehicles (RLVs).
Primex Technologies Inc., St. Petersburg, Fla., acquired the actuator business of Versatron Corp., a subsidiary of Canada's Wescam Inc., for $8.5 million, subject to certain post closing adjustments, Primex reported Friday. The actuator business' principal segments include precision guided munitions and high-power density actuators. The main customers are U.S. Dept. of Defense prime contractors. The business, with operations in Healdsburg, Calif., expects 1999 sales of $5 million.
Defense and aerospace companies around the world either announced or completed mergers and acquisitions worth nearly $60 billion in the first half of 1999, four times the $15 billion total for all of 1998, Defense Mergers&Acquisitions reported yesterday. The previous record for a full year was set in 1997 at $49 billion.
Two Israeli aerospace companies, Elbit Systems and Elop Electro- Optics Industries, have agreed in principle to merge. Elron Electronic Industries Ltd., Elbit's parent company, reported the agreement yesterday, and said Elop shareholders will receive Elbit shares representing 32.5% of the company.
GEC Marconi Avionics, Limited, Airport Works Rochester, Kent MEI XX England, is being awarded a $7,299,970 modification to a previously awarded contract (N00019-96-C-0105) to exercise and option for 34 digital flight control systems for installation onto the F-14 aircraft. Work will be performed in Rochester, England, and is expected to be completed by July 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
Ellipso Inc. has secured financial backing from Arianespace as part of a launch deal for its Ellipso telecommunications constellation. Gerald Helman, Ellipso's vice president for international and governmental affairs, described the investment as "very substantial," though he declined to specify the amount.
NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORP., the Japanese telecommunications giant, said it will take an equity stake in Japan Satellite Systems Inc. and sell its two communications satellites to JSAT.
Setting aside some U.S. government space launch business for entrepreneurial startup launch service providers is one option under consideration on Capitol Hill to help the struggling industry secure financing. The objective is to give private-sector development of new launch vehicles a boost by assuring a specific market in advance. With such a guaranteed market, launch industry supporters hope, the entrepreneurs will be able to raise the funds they need to build their vehicles on their own.
TRW, Inc., of San Bernardino, California, is being awarded a $17,883,108 cost-plus fixed-fee contract modification for systems engineering&integration support to develop the 2003 Theater Ballistic Missile Defense Family of Systems (FoS) System Requirements Document, the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) Interoperability Program Plan, and associated FoS documents and activities. This effort will support development of the detailed documentation of the baseline system for the TMD FoS.
Kazakhstan yesterday banned space launches from Russia's rented Baikonur Cosmodrome on its territory, pending the outcome of an investigation of Monday's Proton launch failure that showered the central Asian former Soviet republic with space junk. The Kazakh foreign ministry sent a diplomatic note banning the launches after a Raduga-1 military communications satellite failed to reach orbit and parts of its big Proton launch vehicle crashed into populated regions of Kazakhstan, according to Russia's Itar-Tass news agency.
The U.S. Navy on July 1 conducted the first production qualification round flight of the Standard Missile-2 Block IV at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., in a theater ballistic missile defense test. The SM-2 Block IV was launched from the Desert Ship Mk. 41 vertical launching system at 10:16 a.m. local time and intercepted a subsonic BQM-34 target, the Navy reported.
GTE Government Systems Corp., Communications Systems Division, Taunton, Mass., is being awarded a $5,122,993 modification to firm-fixed-price contract DAAB07-94-C-N853 to exercise options for common hardware/software items for the Army Tactical Command and Control System computers and associated peripherals for battlefield commanders. Work will be performed in Taunton, Mass., and is expected to be completed by April 10, 2005. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Spar Aerospace Ltd. said it has settled a lawsuit over a communications satellite that was launched in 1995 and lost some capacity. The Canadian company said the settlement would make it more appealing to potential buyers. The plaintiff, AGF Reassurances, initially sought $135 million, but Spar said yesterday it will pay $15 million. It also said it won't be reimbursed by its underwriters. AGF had to pay satellite services reseller American Mobile Satellite about $66 million. It also sued Spar.
The U.S. Air Force-led development program for the Joint Air-to- Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM) plans to complete its first guided flight on Aug. 12 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. The flight test, from a U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter, will be the second attempt at guided, unpowered flight of the next-generation cruise missile, built by Lockheed Martin Missile Systems. During the first attempt, in April, stray voltage from the missile's battery activated the safety mode, preventing the wings and tail from deploying.
