BMW Rolls-Royce is spending $5 million to expand its turbofan engine production facility at Dahlewitz, said Chairman Klaus Nittinger. With entry of the Gulfstream V in April 1997 and shipments starting this year for Bombardier's Global Express and the Boeing 717, the company said it wants to allow for further growth. This year also will see the start of assembly work on a maritime version of the BR710 engine for the Nimrod MRA4 reconnaissance aircraft built for the British Air Force.
U.S. Air Force controllers have boosted the third Milstar satellite into a higher orbit to burn off all of its remaining fuel, switched off its systems and drained remaining power from its batteries after the service declared the spacecraft a total loss.
Comair, planning to become the first U.S. regional airline to operate an all-jet fleet in 2001, will intensify its analysis of 30- to 40-seat jet aircraft by comparing the Fairchild Aerospace 328 and 428 jets and the Embraer ERJ-135. Fairchild visited Comair in Cincinnati last week with its 328JET aircraft, and on May 27 Embraer will bring its ERJ135 to Cincinnati. Comair will test the 428 in the near future. The aircraft are being evaluated on flight maintenance and ground handling standards, and flight tests are being conducted on each.
UPS will provide new financial and management resources to its II Morrow subsidiary and change its name to UPS Aviation Technologies. Tom Weidemeyer, UPS Airlines president, told the Aircraft Electronics Association Wednesday in Atlanta that UPS Aviation Technologies is "primed for rapid growth."
The House yesterday passed the fiscal year 2000 spending bill for intelligence activities, boosting the Pentagon's budget request for satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and surveillance platform programs. The bill, passed by a voice vote, reportedly is slightly higher than last year's $26.7 billion budget. The topline remains classified.
Increased operational tempo, tight budgets and complacency have prevented the U.S. Army from giving its pilots adequate experience in the cockpit, according to the Director of the Army Safety Center, Brig. Gen. Charles "Mike" Burke.
Boeing will begin job cuts and facility consolidations at its St. Louis plant that will see between 6,500 and 7,000 jobs cut by mid-2001, the company reported yesterday. The moves were triggered by the recent decision by the Greek government to buy Lockheed Martin F-16s and Dassault Mirage fighters instead of Boeing's F-15 (DAILY, May 3). Boeing chief Phil Condit had said that while F-15 production was assured through 2000, the company would have to slow production if no new orders were received during the second quarter (DAILY, April 16).
FLIGHT SAFETY SERVICES won a $225 million contract to provide one C-5 weapons system trainer to the U.S. Air Force. The contract includes operation and maintenance on the C-5 aircrew training system.
Northrop Grumman Corp. said the U.S. Navy has exercised an option to buy 14 production AN/SLX-1 torpedo defense systems. The option is part of a $12 million contract the company received in 1994. The first SLX-1 systems - Multi-Sensor Torpedo Recognition and Alertment Processors (MSTRAPs) - were delivered in 1995.
Apache Longbow helicopter pilots are slated to fly with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in Yuma, Ariz., next March, controlling a Hunter UAV and receiving data from the UAV on demand. To date all cooperative trials between the Longbow and Hunter have been done in simulation or through static tests. In 1997 two Hunters, configured with laser designators made by Israel Aircraft Industries, lased targets for Raytheon Hellfire missiles.
Michael Henshaw, president of Lockheed Martin Missiles&Space, will become president and chief operating officer of the company's Energy&Environmental Sector, Lockheed Martin reported. Henshaw will be succeeded at Missiles&Space by Albert Smith, the current president of Aerospace Electronics System (AES) and of Sanders.
Computer Sciences Corp. signed a 10-year, $1.2 billion contract to manage global information technology for Pratt&Whitney. CSC, announcing the deal yesterday, said it will support P&W's operations in more than 130 countries.
AlliedSignal Inc. will make a new Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) that is designed primarily for private planes and other general aviation aircraft. The new EGPWS will weigh about 1.5 pounds and be about the size of a paperback novel, AlliedSignal said. It will require minimal inputs to make installation as easy as possible. A built-in GPS will be offered as an option.
The forecast for the U.S. economy looks stronger midway through 1999, and economists have upgraded their projected growth to 3.1%, according to economists from the U.S. Dept. of Commerce and Standard&Poor's. The overall economy is going strong despite the fact that the U.S. is "getting hammered" in the trade balance, and those numbers will get worse in 1999 and 2000, the economists said Tuesday during a mid-year update to the U.S. Industry&Trade outlook '99, in Washington.
Cubic Defense Systems won a contract for its Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Systems (MILES 2000) from the Kuwait Land Forces, the first sale of the system in the Middle East and the first through the foreign military sales program, Cubic reported. The San Diego company will provide the Kuwait Land Forces with 400 M-16 manworn kits and associated support hardware. The equipment will be delivered through the U.S. Army. Details of the contract were not disclosed.
Derlan Inc. said it has made the first shipment of external fuel tanks for the German military's CH-53 helicopters to Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH. The tanks are part of a contract for 21 shipsets, or 42 tanks. Derlan, of Santa, Ana, Calif., said deliveries are slated to be completed by the end of the year. "We are pleased that we could put our expertise in manufacturing filament-wound composite fuel tanks to service for one of our principal European allies," said Gordon Dierks, Derlan's senior vice president.
Rockwell Collins will outfit U.S. Army CH-47 and UH-60 helicopters with Nap-of-the-Earth (NOE) communications system under a contract worth more than $15 million announced this week. Under the deal the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based maker of electronic controls and communications gear will supply 506 Collins ARC-220 units for installation in the Chinooks and Blackhawks, plus 100 Collins VRC-100 ground/vehicular communications systems. Deliveries will start next month and run through August 2000, the company said.
Lockheed Martin removed the combined forward and center fuselage for its X-35 Joint Strike Fighter from its tooling fixture and began preparation for mate and integration with the wing carry-through and aft fuselage components. The operations were completed ahead of schedule on May 8, the company said.
Most U.S. satellites on orbit are ready to handle the programming bug that threatens computer systems worldwide when the calendar clicks over to the year 2000, but older Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers in private hands on the ground could start causing their users problems as early as August, experts told lawmakers in Washington yesterday.
A group of former U.S. military leaders has urged Defense Secretary William Cohen and congressional defense committees to beef up plans for buys of Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft. "The present production goal of 13 Joint STARS is not enough to support prosecution of two nearly simultaneous major theater wars in the absence of similar capabilities provided by allies," the former military leaders said in a letter to Cohen.
Space ministers of the 14 European Space Agency nations and Canada yesterday approved a 2.103 billion-euro budget (about $2.254 billion) through 2002 that includes major funding for Ariane 5 upgrades, the proposed Galileo navigation satellite constellation and advanced satellite telecommunications systems. Meeting in Brussels, the ministers also launched a 593 million-euro (about $635 million) "Living Planet" program of Earth science research, but they delayed funding the second stage of the proposed Vega small space launch vehicle until October.
Loral Space&Communications Ltd. lost $50.1 million in its 1999 first quarter on sales of $414.9 million. In the first three months of 1998, it lost $27 million on sales of $362.3 million. The company said the increased loss was due to a series of development cost investments and a doubling of depreciation and amortization due to the inclusion of Orion, acquired in late March 1998 and not included in the 1998 first quarter results.
House and Senate appropriations conferees yesterday reached agreement on an emergency supplemental bill to cover the cost of operations in Yugoslavia, almost doubling the Administration's request to $11.5 billion. The conferees increased the White House $5.9 billion request, but their bill is also a drop from the $12.9 billion proposed by the House. Under the agreement, the total funding provided for defense is $10.8 billion and another $678 million for non-defense refuge assistance.
