Suzy Byrnes has been promoted to the new position of national sales manager for Resource Markets&Distribution. Frederick A. Churchill has been named vice president of sales.
Ground controllers have activated the backup ocean altimeter on the U.S.-French TOPEX/Poseidon spacecraft, and early indications are it is working well enough to continue the data set started when the ocean topography mission was launched in the summer of 1992. A team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using data from the "side-B" instrument as a testbed for techniques it will use to cross-calibrate TOPEX/Poseidon with its successor spacecraft, JASON-1, when it is launched in May 2000.
Boeing has won a contract from the U.S. Navy to perform work on the Modification/Installation Program for the P-3 and S-3 aircraft. Under the five-year contact with a $50 million threshold, Boeing Aerospace Support will build and install modification kits designed by the Navy, the company said yesterday. Work will be done at the Boeing Shreveport (La.) Aircraft Modification Center and by Boeing field teams at Navy locations. There are about 220 P-3-type and 110 S-3-type aircraft in the U.S. Navy and Naval Reserve inventories.
Carl Moffitt has been named general manager of the Flight Systems Division. He takes over for Claus Beneker, who will become vice president and chief technical officer of Parker Hannifin Corp. Yonezo Toda has been appointed general manager of the aerospace operation in Yokohama, Japan.
ABOARD THE USS TRUMAN - The F/A-18F Super Hornet completed its first night carrier landing aboard this ship Monday night during sea trials that have been underway off the coast of Florida since March 3 and are expected to conclude March 16.
Jack A. Shaw, chairman and chief executive officer of Hughes Network Systems (HNS), has been named executive vice president of Hughes Electronics. Eddy W. Hartenstein, president of DIRECTV, Inc. has been named a corporate senior vice president of Hughes Electronics. Pradman P. Kaul, president and chief operating officer of HNS has also been named a corporate senior vice president.
D. Michael Steuert has been appointed senior vice president and chief financial officer. Edward A. Rollin has been appointed vice president, Internal Operations for the Information Systems Group.
ROTARY ROCKET CO. has rolled out its Roton Atmospheric Test Vehicle (ATV) at company facilities in Mojave, Calif. Built to carry out low-altitude tests of its rotor-blade landing system, which is designed to slow the single-stage space launcher after it reenters the atmosphere, the ATV will carry a crew of two as a backup to its automatic systems for flights powered by tip-rockets in the four-blade rotor system. Once the tests are completed, the company plans to build two Prototype Test Vehicles (PTVs) for orbital tests next year.
Richard J. Foley has been elected vice president and corporate director of contracts. Richard A. Goglia has been elected vice president and treasurer. Hugo B. Poza has been appointed vice president and general manager of the Strategic Systems Division of Raytheon Systems Co. in Falls Church, Va. He had been vice president, aerospace electronics for Lockheed Martin's Electronics Sector.
Elbit Systems Ltd. reported 26% higher earnings of $27.8 million in 1998, as sales climbed 11% to $414.7 million. The Israeli company's backlog reached $701 million at the end of 1998, up from $670 million at the end of 1997. About 70% of the current backlog comes from outside Israel, down from 83% at the end of 1997.
David L. Mathisen has joined the company as vice president and general manager of its Transportation Management Systems (TMS) Division (formerly known as Orbital's Intelligent Transportation Systems Division). Pierre J. Thuot, U.S. Navy Capt. (ret.) and 10-year NASA Astronaut corps veteran, has joined the Space Systems Group as vice president, administration.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense launched Project Vitesse, a joint project with the aerospace and defense industry designed to examine how virtual prototyping might support the procurement of the Future Aircraft Carrier (FAC), the MOD reported.
Singapore agreed to buy eight AH-64D Apache helicopters for its air force through a foreign military sales contract with the U.S. Army, Boeing reported. Singapore will be the fourth nation to buy the Apache. The order raises total AH-64D orders to 337, including 232 for the U.S. Army, 67 for the U.K. and 30 for the Netherlands.
NASA declared its Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (WIRE) a total scientific loss yesterday after determining that its entire supply of the solid hydrogen used to cool the spacecraft instrument had boiled away, even as controllers were regaining control of the spacecraft after the escaping hydrogen sent it into a spin.
Rolls-Royce plc said its pre-tax profits climbed 18% to a record 325 million pounds ($522.2 million) in 1998, as sales climbed 10% to 4.33 billion pounds (6.96 billion). Rolls' order book grew 30% to a record 10.4 billion pounds ($16.71 billion), with another 2.2 billion pounds ($3.53 billion) announced but not included. Strong orders from Europe and the Americas led to the Asia-Pacific share of orders dropping to 13%.
NASA'S X-38 subscale prototype of a crew rescue vehicle for the International Space Station completed its second drop test in a month Friday. The 80%-scale prototype used aerodynamic controls to guide its lifting-body fuselage during about 12 seconds of free flight after it was dropped from NASA's B-52 flight research vehicle, then glided to a landing at Edwards AFB, Calif., on a guided parafoil system originally developed by the U.S. Army. A 10-minute drop test last month was confined to the parafoil controls (DAILY, Feb. 9).
EG&G Inc. will acquire Perkin-Elmer's Analytical Instruments Div. (AID) for $425 million, a move the company characterized as another step in its drive for growth in commercial technology markets. Both companies' boards of directors approved the deal, which was expected to close in the second quarter. Gregory Summe, president and chief executive officer of EG&G, said yesterday that the "action will greatly accelerate our efforts to focus on high growth electronics, aerospace and life sciences businesses."
