European Union transport ministers, meeting informally during the weekend in Dortmund, "maintained the idea that the hushkit ban will be adopted on 29 April," a spokesman for the EU Council of Ministers said yesterday in Brussels. A German government spokesman confirmed yesterday in Luxembourg, where the EU's foreign ministers were meeting, that "there will be a ban. We will stick to the EU's decisions on noise standards."
Boeing said it has signed an agreement granting exclusive marketing and distribution rights for surplus commercial airplane parts to The Ages Group, a Volvo Aero company. Ages, which distributes aircraft parts and leases engines, will use its existing 150-person sales staff to market and distribute the surplus parts. The companies will share the net revenue, but the revenue-sharing formula was not disclosed.
Growth in the aircraft segment, headed by strong business jet sales, helped Textron Inc. set first quarter records for sales and operating earnings, the company reported. Textron earned $145 million from continuing operations in the first three months of 1999, as sales jumped 22% to a record $2.75 billion. A year ago, the company earned $99 million on sales of $2.25 billion. Operating earnings of $277 million, up from $237 million a year ago, were also a record.
Dassault Aviation executives are comfortable with their company's position in the global aerospace industry, as Falcon Jet rides the businessjet boom and the military segment prepares to begin production deliveries of the Rafale and looks further into the future of fighter aircraft.
BFGoodrich said Friday that commitments from two private, Middle East-based operators to re-engine their Boeing 727-200 airliners to Super 27 configuration brings commitments for private operators to 18 aircraft. "With these modifications, an operator can achieve the same performance and range capabilities of a new business jet at a fraction of the cost," said Robert Korn, business development manager. The program involved installing new nacelles and new engines. To date 53 Super 27s have been sold.
CUBIC DEFENSE SYSTEMS INC., San Diego, has won a $1.2 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to provide depot repair and data service for the Joint STARS data link. The company said the contract represents the third of five possible options that could bring the total value of the contract to the company to $22.3 million over five years.
Rep. William O. Lipinski (Ill.), ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee, has charged that Airbus Industrie "relies on substantial government support" to take business away from Boeing, which "does not enjoy the same protectionist treatment." "This is not right," Lipinski said in a House floor speech last Wednesday. "We should not sit idly by as Boeing continues to lose out" because it does not" have the same protectionist treatment.
Raytheon executives say business opportunities from the conflict in Kosovo weren't reflected in the company's first quarter, but that about $700 million of the Pentagon's supplemental request to pay for operations there will be for munitions, and that the company could get about $400 million for Tomahawks and another $40 million for decoys. Executives say the revenue stream will probably run over a period of 30 months beginning in the second half of the year. The company also expects a win of the U.K.'s ASTOR competition would contribute to 1999 sales figures.
Thursday night's scheduled launch of a Delta III rocket carrying the Orion 3 satellite was aborted at the expected liftoff time of 10:05 p.m. EDT, Boeing reported. The launch team made four attempts during the launch window from 9:02 to 10:11 p.m. A procedural problem caused the first delay, while the ground software system indicated potential problems during the second and third attempts. Both were later determined to be unfounded. On the fourth attempt, a software command to ignite the main engine was not issued to the Delta III.
Pentagon leaders are expected to soon decide whether to add aircraft to the air campaign over Yugoslavia. Under consideration are an additional 24 Apache helicopters and 300 other aircraft. The Joint Staff has been reviewing where such aircraft would be based and the support and force protection they would require. "My guess is we're getting into the final chapters of that process," says DOD spokesman Ken Bacon. If based at Aviano, Italy, the aircraft would require less support personnel because support is already there, Bacon says.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES converted options for six 737-700s into orders. The aircraft are to be delivered in 2000. Greg Crum, director of flight operations, said Southwest is seeing about a 7% fuel savings with its next generation 737s. Maintenance checks are also faster, he said.
The U.S. Navy has developed a new theater air defense warplanning command and control module that it says revolutionizes warplanning by putting near real time information directly into the hands of theater commanders in the form of a single picture. The Area Air Defense Commander (AADC) module displays assets in icons that can be understood with only a minimum of training. It also provides options and data on every friendly and enemy system in the theater.
The company is in discussions with NASA to help on the Crew Return Vehicle for the International Space Station, according to Bruno Revellin-Falcoz, Dassault Aviation's executive vice president. He also says the company has approached the European Space Agency about a reusable launch vehicle, offering help from Dassault aerodynamics experts. "Unfortunately," he says, "it's not a large amount of turnover for Dassault but for the engineers and experts it will be a challenge."
RAYTHEON CO. has won a $17.8 million U.S. Air Force contract to convert two U.S. Navy LC-130R ski-equipped aircraft to the Air Force LC-130H configuration. The planes will support the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Antarctic scientific research programs.
The FAA has issued four emergency airworthiness directives aimed at preventing possible wiring-related smoke and fires in MD-11 aircraft. The first order involves the aft main avionics rack on certain MD-11s. The second AD was prompted by an incident in which sparks and smoke came out of the center accessory compartment during a function test due to a wire bundle that had chafed against a support bracket.
Sorties being flown by NATO planes against targets in Yugoslavia are more effective and "very different" from those flown against Iraqi targets in the 1991 Gulf war, a Pentagon official said. Maj. Gen. Charles F. Wald, vice director for strategic plans and policy for the Joint Staff, said precision munitions are being used more extensively today, and bring significant additional firepower to the battlefield.
NASA is participating in National Security Space Architect (NSSA) studies into how U.S. government agencies can pool their resources for next-generation space communications, working with the Defense Dept. and U.S. Intelligence Community to find common platforms for space data relay and launch and early orbit and anomaly (LEO&A) operations.
ARIANESPACE has scheduled the first commercial launch of its new Ariane 5 rocket for early July. The big booster will carry Telkom-1 for Indonesia's PTT, and the AsiaStar direct radio satellite for WorldSpace, a replacement for Eutelsat W4 (DAILY, April 19).
The House Armed Services Committee is pushing back its plan to mark up its version of the fiscal year 2000 defense budget, an action that was slated for this week. HASC Chairman Floyd Spence (R-S.C.) advised his colleagues to await the outcome of congressional action on the White House's $6 billion supplemental request for operations in Yugoslavia and Southwest Asia. Some GOP lawmakers have proposed increasing the request to as much as $15 billion to add dollars for other procurement and readiness needs.
Serge Dassault says he was informed that Chile will reopen its fighter competition sometime this year. The French company is offering the Mirage 2000-5, which is competing against Saab's JAS 39 Gripen, Lockheed Martin's F-16 and Boeing's F/A-18.
Boeing Sikorsky said the Comanche helicopter flight test team completed a record number of operations in March at its West Palm Beach, Fla., facility. It said 20 operations were carried out - seven flights by the No. 1 prototype, the first flight of the No. 2 prototype, and 12 instrumented ground runs divided about equally between the two prototypes. By month's end, the No. 1 helicopter, which flew for the first time on Jan. 4, 1996, had logged 137 flight hours in 122 flights. Most recently, No. 1 has been evaluating a new main rotor pylon design.
Rolls-Royce officially opened its 41 million pound sterling aero engine turbine blade manufacturing center in Derby, England, yesterday. The factory was built in six months. The facility features paperless electronic manufacturing instructions, record keeping systems and component tracking and will run 24 hours a day, making components 144 hours per week.
Fiscal 1999 sales at Wayne, Pa.-based components-specialist Triumph Group came in 21% ahead of last year's pace, and profits swelled 38% to a record $33.1 million, the company reports. President and CEO Richard C. Ill credits "the continuing strength in demand for our repair and overhaul and [original equipment manufacturer] manufacturing services, the ability of our companies to manage their business, and the success of our acquisition program" for the sales and earnings gains.
NASA engineers are studying whether a software upgrade could give the Mars lander set for launch in 2001 a better chance of touching down in one piece on its retro-rockets by avoiding rocks and other obstacles in its path, and whether more elaborate "terminal hazard avoidance" systems are needed for the landers set for launch in 2003 and 2005.
