FAYAIR, the flight department of Harrods' owner Al Fayed, has become the first U.K. customer for the Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ). The aircraft is scheduled for delivery next May, when it will be ready for cabin outfitting. Airbus has commitments for 14 of the aircraft, essentially an A319 with extra fuel tanks that give intercontinental range.
Raytheon has awarded Primex Aerospace, a subsidiary of Primex Technologies, a $3.8 million sole source contract for production of the weapon dispenser for the AGM-154A/BLU-97 and AGM-154B/BLU-108 versions of the Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW), Primex announced. The companies also signed a memorandum of agreement for follow-on orders over the next three years to bring the contract value to $41.2 million.
The U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Special Operations Command will begin next month to hash out the size, shape and capability of the Joint Transport Rotorcraft (JTR) and plan to finish the Operational Requirements Document (ORD) by 2003.
Globalstar has arranged a $500 million credit facility for the build-out of the Globalstar system, the company reported yesterday. The facility will be fully funded by Bank of America NT&SA. The credit facility is guaranteed by two Loral Space&Communications subsidiaries, which will pledge certain assets to support the transaction. Loral will receive consideration for its support in the form of equity warrants. The transaction is expected to close in July, subject to certain conditions.
Tecstar Inc. and Thomson-CSF Services Industrie entered into a joint venture for satellite and avionics products, the companies reported. The new Tecstar France will be headquartered in Toulouse, France, and will support all technical, industrial and commercial activities related to space solar panels and manufacturing, and electronic systems and equipment for avionics and professional environments. The joint venture is the first step of common cooperation between the companies, Tecstar said.
The Taichung County Government and the Taiwan Development&Trust Corp. are preparing to sign an agreement to develop a 272-acre site in central Taiwan as an aerospace industrial park. Sources say the agreement to set up the Taichung Aerospace Industrial Park (TAIP) will be signed before the end of June.
European scientists have used the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) satellite to develop an image of surface activity on the far side of the sun by backtracking ultraviolet emissions into the other side of the solar system.
Raytheon has been chosen as preferred supplier of Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) systems for the Matra British Aerospace Rapier air defense system. Rapier is a successor IFF program underway to modernize U.K. land, sea and air platforms with advanced Mark VII/ Mode S compatible IFF systems. The contract to be awarded in early 2000 could bring Raytheon's total IFF contracts to $43 million.
THE FAA ORDERED operators of Boeing 727s to install sleeving over in-tank fuel boost pump wires to help prevent chafing and possible fuel tank explosion. The order follows up previous airworthiness directives issued last month requiring inspections of the pumps. An AD issued May 21 was prompted by reports of "severe wear" of the wiring and arc-through of the surrounding conduit on two high-time 727s.
U.S. officials are toning down their attempt to sell European allies on the Joint Precision Approach Landing System (JPALS) now being developed by Raytheon for the U.S. Air Force Electronic Systems Center. In 1997, when the Pentagon announced plans to pursue a joint, GPS-based landing system for its aircraft, officials said they wanted to add European countries as partners in the program.
The thousands of air traffic controllers hired in 1981-1992 following the 1981 strike by the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), when 11,350 were fired by President Reagan, will retire in just as short a period, and the government is underestimating the number that will be needed to replace them, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA).
The Pentagon should scale back new fighter programs to buy more B-2 bombers and other systems that proved their worth in the air war against Yugoslavia, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) said yesterday. The B-2's "brilliant" performance in the 78-day Operation Allied Force demonstrated the need for more of the Northrop Grumman planes or another alternative to meet long range bomber requirements, Lieberman, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said at a breakfast with reporters in Washington.
Orbcomm LP, Dulles, Va., signed a service distribution agreement with European Datacomm (EDC) Holding N.V. to deliver satellite communication services to 60 countries and territories in and around sub-Saharan Africa, Orbcomm reported yesterday.
Lucas Aerospace has purchased French flight systems supplier SAMM, a subsidiary of the PSA Peugeot Citroen group. Lucas said the move escalates it "into the number one market position in the supply of flight control actuation." The acquisition is part of a Lucas strategy to "double ... turnover and improve ... global ranking from a top five player to top three player in a consolidating market."
Arianespace Inc., the U.S. arm of Europe's space launch services consortium, has launched a campaign of its own against new State Dept. arms export regulations that threaten to hamper the flow of U.S.-built satellites to the European space launch center near Kourou, French Guiana.
The Joint Warrior Interoperability Demonstration (JWID) 1999 exercise will conduct interoperability trials with Combined Communications-Electronics Board and NATO national military networks, according to directions from Gen. Hugh Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The Canadian government will make $154 million in risk-sharing contributions toward Pratt&Whitney Canada's research programs over the next six years, P&WC reported yesterday. The contributions, made through Industry Canada's Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) program, are repayable through engine sales.
A Russian-Ukrainian consortium created to market the Antonov An-70 propfan airlifter says production costs could be trimmed by as much as 41.6% if Western manufacturers participate in the program. German officials have provided the only Western interest to date, however, saying the An-70 will be less expensive than Europe's proposed future large aircraft (FLA).
The U.S. Navy has settled on a plan to reduce to $16 million a $38 million fiscal year 2000 funding shortfall on its Navy Area Wide theater missile defense program while maintaining an initial fielding date of 2003. The Navy's Surface Warfare Div., which had a choice of five options, selected an option to proceed with the Area Wide program.
Participants in the U.S. Army's Roving Sands theater missile defense exercise in New Mexico this week will test the capability of the Space Based Infrared System High (SBIRS High) in a battlefield environment. While the actual SBIRS High system won't be available for a few more years, the Army's Space and Missile Defense Command's Battle Lab Division has devised an experiment called "No Horizons" to give the capability to players at Roving Sands.
NASA and its international partners continue to slip and juggle the on-orbit assembly schedule for the International Space Station to accommodate technical and political realities on the ground, with the long-awaited Russian Service Module still the pacing item for the remainder of the work.
Lockheed Martin Vought Systems and Germany's Diehl Stiftung&Co. have established a joint venture company, Euro Rocket System GmbH, to provide Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) launchers, munitions and upgrades primarily to European customers. "I think what it does is expand our capability to enter markets in Europe and provide our customers extended goods and services," Jon Schreyach, manager of international business development at Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, said in a telephone interview with The DAILY.
Britain's Smiths Industries Aerospace is to supply a new integrated cockpit display system for GKN Westland's Super Lynx 300 helicopter. The agreement between the two companies, signed last week at the Paris Air Show, also covers its application to future developments of other types of aircraft. The new display is to be readied in time for installation aboard the Lynx 300s, to be supplied to South Africa and also offered to Malaysia.
Boeing Phantom Works and Earth Search Sciences Inc. (ESSI), a McCall, Idaho-based remote sensing company, will conduct experiments next week with an ESSI hyperspectral imager mounted on a Helio Courier aircraft supplied by Boeing to produce one-meter images that may prove valuable in environmental monitoring, ESSI said.
