BOMBARDIER'S 70-passenger CRJ700 made its first flight last week, marking the start of the flight test program. Service entry is planned for the first quarter of 2001.
Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $23,539,581 firm-fixed-price contract to procure 439 Harpoon Shipboard Command Launch Control Systems ordnance alteration kits, training course development, technical manuals/publications, integrated logistics support, spares, and depot support for the governments of Turkey (175); Greece (66); Taiwan (50); Egypt (48); the United Kingdom (46); United Arab Emirates (24); Netherlands (15); Germany (9); and Bahrain (6). Work will be performed in St. Charles, Mo. (52%); Baltimore, Md. (17%); San Diego, Calif.
The U.S. Air Force is adding GPS guidance to thousands of GBU-15 glide weapons and will field the first operational units within a month, according to Frank Robbins, head of the AF's precision strike weapons program at Eglin AFB, Fla. The GBU-15, originally manufactured by a Rockwell unit now owned by Boeing, promises to add to the standoff range and firepower of the Boeing F-15E, the only U.S. fighter qualified to carry the weapon. The launch-and-
General Electric Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, is being awarded a $12,183,084 firm-fixed-price contract to provide for 153 low pressure turbine nozzles applicable to the F110 engines on the F-14 and F-16 aircraft. Approximately 16 percent of this effort supports U.S. Navy requirements, and approximately five percent supports foreign military sales to Turkey. There was one firm solicited and one proposal received. Expected contract completion date is Sept. 30, 2000. Solicitation issue date was May 29, 1998.
Israel has delayed its fighter decision, and has set no definite timetable to make the choice, according to reports out of Jerusalem yesterday. Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak is said to have asked that the decision be delayed because he wants to have a hand in the selection. A Boeing spokesman said his company had received no official notice from the Israeli government about a delay. Boeing just added an additional $500 million in industrial cooperation projects to its offer of F-15s (DAILY, June 1).
Kistler Aerospace Corp. has arranged for as much as $272 million in new financing, although $180 million of that amount is contingent on the reusable space launch startup securing other monies. A significant proportion of the new money - $50 million to $100 million - is being supplied by Taiwanese investors and is linked to a possible deal down the road to form a joint venture involving Taiwan's low-cost Rocsat satellite.
Astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery had moved at least 1,800 pounds of equipment and supplies to the vacant International Space Station by the time they went to sleep yesterday, following a picture perfect docking and grueling spacewalk on the Station hull over the holiday weekend.
Airbus Industrie yesterday confirmed reports in Europe that an unidentified customer has ordered 57 of its A320 family aircraft. Airbus said that while the delivery order and numbers are expected out tomorrow, the buyer has requested not to be identified. Before the latest order - for 30 A318s, 15 A319s, two A320s and 10 A321s - Airbus had sold 93 aircraft this year. There was speculation the buyer will be announced at the June 13-20 Paris Air Show.
From Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on May 24, 1999; Printed Issue Date: May 26, 1999; PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SERVICES; CLASSCOD: A-Research and Development; OFFADD: NASA/Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, OH 44135 ... SOL RFO3- 120948; DUE 071299; POC Glen M. Williams, Contracting Officer, Phone (216) 433-2885, Fax (216) 433-2480, Email [email protected]
FLIGHT TRIALS are underway to test the Airbus Corporate Jetliner's extra cargo-hold fuel tanks and operations at cruise altitude of 41,000 feet. The trials began with a five hour and 55 minute flight May 31, during which normal functioning of the extra six tanks was verified. Airbus said that typical cruise speed during the flight was Mach 0.8. The test aircraft was powered by IAE V2500 engines.
AlliedSignal Inc., AlliedSignal Engines, Phoenix, Ariz., is being awarded a $15,119,251 modification to firm-fixed-price letter contract DAAH23-98-C-0028, for 70 T55-L-712 engine conversions to the T55-GA-714A configuration. Work will be performed in Greer, S.C. (80%), and Phoenix, Ariz. (20%), and is expected to be completed by April 30, 2000. Of the total contract funds, $6,503,748 will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. This is a sole source contract initiated on Dec. 30, 1997. The U.S.
Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is being awarded a $9,946,797 modification to cost-plus-fixed-fee contract F33657-98-C-2015 to provide for development and trial verification installation of a modification kit to incorporate the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System and the Link 16 datalink into the F-16 aircraft. This effort supports foreign military sales to Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway. Expected contract completion date is October 2003. Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity.
Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on May 21, 1999; Printed Issue Date: May 26, 1999; PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SERVICES CLASSCOD: A-Research and Development; OFFADD: Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command, 4301 Pacific Highway, San Diego, CA 92110-3127 ... SOL N00039-99-R-XXX3; DUE 061199; POC CDR Rich Mendez (619)537-0487
Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have allowed an artificial intelligence package on the Deep Space 1 probe to complete a test of its ability to manage the spacecraft, after determining a computer bug that forced a halt to the test would not pose an unacceptable risk if the experiment continued.
Russian space officials will decide today whether they will continue efforts to keep the aging Mir orbital station going or bring it down in a controlled deorbit. According to the Itar-Tass news agency, Russian Space Agency officials plan a meeting to discuss whether there is a realistic prospect of finding private backers to keep Mir going, and if there isn't to deorbit it next year after leaving it unpiloted for about six months beginning in August.
TRANSAVIA AIRLINES ordered four Boeing 737-800s with options for 12 more. Two are to be delivered in 2000 and two in 2002, joining eight previously ordered 737-800s and replacing the oldest 737-300s in the carrier's fleet.
NASA has decided to go ahead and move a Boeing-built Inertial Upper Stage to the Vertical Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center for mating with the Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF) to support a launch on the Space Shuttle Columbia as early as July 22. The move, taken Friday, comes even though an Air Force team hasn't finished investigating the failure of a Titan IVB/IUS stack to place a Defense Support Program early warning satellite in the proper orbit last month (DAILY, April 12, 13).
NASA Inspector General Roberta Gross warns agency senior staff against the "appearance" of impropriety in contractor hiring, after receiving "several allegations regarding NASA officials unduly or improperly influencing the selection of contractor personnel," according to minutes of a senior staff meeting May 24. "Due to downsizing and retirement incentives, more former NASA civil service personnel are seeking employment as contractors," the minutes state.
An article in a British weekly magazine has again made some in the Royal Air Force unhappy with a finding that the crash of a Chinook HC.2 helicopter in June 1994 was due to "gross negligence" on the part of the two pilots. They were killed, as were 25 Northern Ireland intelligence officers on board. The original RAF Board of Enquiry found that the crash, during a flight from Northern Ireland across the Irish Sea into cloud-covered high ground on the Mull of Kintyre, resulted from the breaking of basic safety rules by the two highly-experienced pilots.
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems on Friday delivered the first of 21 F-16 fighters purchased by Egypt. The plane was delivered one month ahead of schedule. The remaining F-16C Block 40 aircraft are slated to roll off the production line at the rate of two per month through May 2000. Egypt plans to establish an additional squadron at a base already operating F-16s, according to the company. The first plane will stay in Fort Worth for about a year to support training of Egyptian Air Force maintenance technicians.
Iridium LLC will get another waiver of the milestones set by its lenders on an $800 million Senior Secured Credit Facility as it struggles to accommodate slower than expected sales and revenue growth from its 66- satellite low-Earth orbit communications network, the company reported Friday. The 30-day waiver will give Iridium time to evaluate options to restructure its debt and "get a consensus among its investors and creditors on a plan to restructure the capitalization of the company," according to a company statement.
The Space-Based Infrared System Low (SBIRS Low) program could be accelerated if some management changes were made, says Hans Mark, the Pentagon's director of defense research and engineering. Mark, in a letter to new Ballistic Missile Defense Organization Director Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish on theater missile defense program status, asks for a review of SBIRS Low and High. One management step, Mark says, "would be to short-circuit the bizarre requirements process that is now in place.
Senate and House appropriators intend to get to final work on their fiscal year 2000 spending packages soon after Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess on June 7. The Senate appropriators had hoped to move their bill to the floor before Congress left, but a longer than anticipated debate on the defense authorization bill prevented that from happening. The Senate Appropriations Committee skimmed $3.1 billion from defense to plug shortfall holes in other parts of the federal budget - a move their House counterparts are expected to reject.
