TRW Inc. will split into two businesses - TRW Aerospace and Information Systems, and TRW Automotive - as part of the integration of LucasVarity, the company reported yesterday. "Establishing these two principal sectors will allow us to focus TRW's increased size and resources more sharply on the customers, competitors and technologies in each of the two business areas," Joseph Gorman, TRW chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "It also will enable us to manage infrastructure costs more effectively."
Boeing and its National Missile Defense Lead System Integrator (LSI) teammates will have to meet a "challenging" schedule to get off the NMD program's first hit-to-kill flight test this summer, according to the NMD joint program manager, and the odds against them being able to achieve an accelerated NMD deployment by 2003 appear very long as well.
House and Senate appropriators are finalizing details of their proposed changes to double the White House's $6 billion emergency supplemental request covering the cost of air operations over Yugoslavia. The final supplemental bill is projected to fall closer to $12 billion, with slight differences between the Senate and House versions.
LOCKHEED MARTIN named Robert S. Rearden Jr. as the F-22 Raptor program vice president and general manager. Rearden, who joined the F-22 team in October 1998 as deputy general manager, replaces Tom Burbage, who is now president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems.
Boeing is preparing a Delta III rocket for another attempt to launch the Orion 3 telecommunications satellite. The launch is tentatively scheduled for May 4 at Cape Canaveral Air Station, Fla., though it could go as early as May 2 if another previously scheduled launch goes well, Boeing said yesterday.
NEW, HIGHLY SWEPT TIPS were temporarily bolted to the wings of the first 767-400ER to verify installation procedures and ensure that the hardware meets engineering specifications, Boeing said.
Mission controllers failed to acquire telemetry signals from the Ikonos 1 remote sensing satellite following its launch yesterday from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., leaving its status unclear. The satellite, which is owned by Space Imaging, Inc. of Denver, and which is insured, is intended to provide one-meter-resolution imagery that can be used for natural disaster assessments, mapping, mineral exploration and agricultural monitoring.
A revised plan to implement the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) will focus on developing the full system as soon as possible while meeting short-term requirements for controller displays at a small number of facilities, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said yesterday.
A Russian Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft crashed near the port of Novorossiysk on April 22, killing both crewmen. The crewmen, Lt.-Col. Anatoliy Kovalenko and Maj. Andrey Malkerov, apparently chose not to eject, diverting the plane away from a major oil depot at the port and hitting a mountain. Cause of the crash has not yet been determined. The jet, based at Marinovka airfield near Volgograd, had been participating in exercises with the Black Sea Fleet.
The Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to expand its work on sensor technologies that are able to detect underground facilities for production of weapons of mass destruction, DARPA Director Frank Fernandez told the Senate Armed Services Committee's panel on emerging threats.
NASA has postponed mating the Chandra X-ray Observatory to its Inertial Upper Stage (IUS), forcing a postponement of the planned July 9 launch. No new date has been set. "Chandra is the world's most powerful x-ray telescope and a vital international scientific resource," said Chandra Program Manager Fred Wojtalik in a NASA announcement. "While we will do all we can to launch Chandra as soon as appropriate, we are going to take all the time that is necessary to ensure that when we do launch Chandra it will successfully perform its important mission."
GRC INTERNATIONAL AND ECLYPSE INTERNATIONAL are jointly developing an electrical system test program called Automated System Quality Assurance (ASQA) that they said could help provide advanced notice of aircraft wiring degradation. The companies said ASQA will provide wiring configuration management, electrical test planning, electrical testing and data capture, and post-test analysis to help identify potential wiring problems, spanning the life of an aircraft from initial design to retirement.
Moody's Investors Service downgraded the long-term rating of Hughes Electronics Corp. and confirmed the company's short-term rating, and also confirmed the ratings for PanAmSat Corp., an 81%-owned subsidiary of Hughes.
Airbus Industrie is considering several derivatives of the basic A3XX-100 after it introduces the 550-seat airliner to the market, an executive of the consortium said yesterday. Jack Schofield, chairman, Airbus Industrie of North America, said derivatives being eyed by the consortium include the A3XX-200 with 656 seats and a range of 7,650 nautical miles; the A3XX-50 with 480 seats and a range of 7,650 n.m.; and combi and freighter variants.
Russia expects to get a new early warning radar in Belarus in 2000. The radar, of the new Volga type and sited near Baranovichi, should replace decomissioned Daryal-UM and double the capability of the Dnestr-M radar in Skrunda, Latvia. The most modern Daryal-UM was destroyed in May of 1995, while the elder Dnestr-M was decommissioned in August of 1998.
Twenty-one retired naval flag officers sent a letter to Capitol Hill pushing for the Administration's request for 36 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and approval for multi-year procurement. The officers, who all live in the San Diego area, sent their letter to House Armed Services procurement subcommittee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.).
CURTISS-WRIGHT CORP. said Martin Benante has been elected president and chief operating officer. David Lasky, who has been serving as chairman, president and chief executive officer, will remain chairman and CEO. Benante, 46, joined CW in 1978, and was most recently vice president for corporation in charge of the Flow Control Products&Services business.
U.S. Air Force leaders think Congress will fund initial production of the Lockheed Martin F-22 without adding milestones for the program to meet. "The F-22 is quickly becoming a major success story," said acting AF Secretary F. Whitten Peters. "We think we will get below the cost caps put on this program by Congress. We know it is essential to get below those cost caps." Peters spoke yesterday at Andrews AFB, Md., where the F-22 avionics test bed, a highly modified Boeing 757, is flying this week.
Until last week there seemed little question that Congress would promptly renew the insurance coverage that the government extends to American launch vehicles for third-party liability. Now political maneuvering may hamper passage of such a measure this session. If that happens, U.S. launch companies could be forced to pay extra insurance costs of as much as $500,000 to $750,000 per launch.
From Commerce Business Daily: Posted in CBDNet on April 23, 1999 [Printed Issue Date: April 27, 1999] PART: U.S. GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS; SUBPART: SERVICES; CLASSCOD: A-Research and Development; OFFADD: NASA/Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 144, Industry Assistance Office, Hampton, VA 23681-0001; SOL 1-168-CAB.1789; DUE 051099; POC Nancy S. Hornung, Contract Specialist, Phone (757)864-4423, Fax (757)864-6131, Email [email protected] - Kimberly D. Duncan, Contracting Officer, Phone (757) 864-3566, Fax (757) 864-8863, Email [email protected]
A BOEING BUSINESS JETS 737 equipped with a PATS Inc. auxiliary fuel system flew for 13 hours, 51 minutes, traveling 6,252 nautical miles at an average speed of 451 knots. PATS has a contract with Boeing to engineer, build, install and certify the auxiliary fuel systems on the BBJ.
