ATLAS AIR said it has exercised two of its options to purchase Boeing 747-400 freighters in the year 2000. Atlas said this brings its total orders to 12 aircraft, four of which will go into service this year, joining five delivered in 1998.
The U.S. Navy is using "Big Crow," an NKC-135 aircraft, to conduct aerial jamming of GPS signals along the East Coast during a joint exercise with NATO this week. The Defense Dept. is calling the exercise a "navigation warfare demonstration" to attempt to establish a "baseline on interference issues" (DAILY, Feb. 22).
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor will begin its primary mapping mission within the next two weeks, following the Feb. 19 firing of its main engine to fine tune its path around Mars into a nearly circular, Sun-synchronous orbit, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory reported.
INTERNATIONAL LEASE FINANCE CORP. said pretax income for 1998 rose by 6.9% to $562.3 million from $526.2 million, while revenues rose by 4.5% to $2.05 billion from $2 billion.
Moody's Investors Service, following United Technologies' move to acquire Sundstrand Aerospace for $4.3 billion (DAILY, Feb. 23), confirmed the debt ratings of UTC and placed Sundstrand's under review for possible upgrade. Moody's said confirmation of UTC's ratings reflects the potential operating synergies of the combined entity, the funding of half of the transaction price through equity, and the outlook for strong cash flows.
House Armed Services research and development chairman Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.), citing a closed session warning from Deputy Defense Secretary John J. Hamre that "we're in a cyber war right now," said yesterday that he was considering a "flexibility fund" that would enable the services to get funding more rapidly to protect information superiority.
An industry consortium led by Raytheon Systems Co. signed a cost-sharing agreement on Feb. 12 with the Pentagon's Joint Tactical Radio System program office. The Defense Dept. will contribute approximately $1.5 million to define the architecture for JTRS. The baseline definition and management plan are due by May 7. The industry consortium includes Raytheon, ITT Aerospace, GEC-Marconi Hazeltine, Rooftop Communications, Rockwell Collins, University of Southern California and Purdue University.
U.S. and British aircraft have expended more than 100 missiles and bombs in the northern no-fly zone of Iraq since the end of Operation Desert Fox in late December, according to U.S. European Command which is overseeing enforcement of the zone. U.S. Central Command enforces the southern no-fly zone.
A House subcommittee, in a periodic report on government resolution of Year 2000 computer problems, gave the U.S. Dept. of Transportation and the FAA an F, down from a D last November. An FAA spokesman, however, said the agency remains on target to meet its June 30 deadline for Year 2000 compliance.
Launch of the ARGOS satellite for the U.S. Air Force, as well as the Orsted satellite for Denmark and the SUNSAT micro-satellite for South Africa, finally came yesterday at Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The launch was originally planned for early January, but a series of technical and weather problems repeatedly delayed the mission. A Boeing Delta II rocket launched the three satellites at 2:29 a.m. PST
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is recommending that the FAA require disassembly of over 10,000 jet engines used on nearly one-third of the U.S. commercial airliner fleet. The cost could approach $5 billion, according to one industry consultant. FAA said it is studying the recommendation and noted that, while it has 90 days to consider it, it has accepted over 80% of the board's recommendations.
Aero Systems Engineering (ASE), St. Paul, Minn., ended 1998 with its sixth consecutive profitable quarter and rebounded from a 1997 loss, $401,000, to net income of $665,000 for the year. Sales for the quarter were down from the year-earlier period, $7.65 million vs. $8.56 million, but increased 9% for the year, to $27.2 million.
A Federal Court judge issued a ten-day Temporary Restraining Order Friday that keeps unions striking RMI Titanium, Niles, Ohio, from mass picketing, committing acts of violence or interfering with the conduct of business, RTI International Metals reported. The National Labor Relations Board filed a petition in U.S. District Court Friday seeking an injunction against United Steelworkers of America Locals 2155 and 2155-7 in connection with their ongoing strike against RMI.
Integral Systems Inc., Lanham, Md., has won a contract of more than $3 million to support GOES operations of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The company said yesterday that the Replacement Product Monitor (RPM) contract, which should be completed in 18 months, calls for monitoring the quality of the weather images from the primary remote sensing instruments of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites.
Britain's force of V/STOL Harrier fighters, previously operated independently by the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy, will now operate from two adjacent midland air bases under unified command when Joint Force 2000 Headquarters is formed on April 1, 2000, under Strike Command at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
SDRC of Cincinnati, a provider of product development software, said that Turkey's Tusas Aerospace Industries (TAI) has placed new orders worth about $2 million for SDRC's Metaphase Enterprise product data management software and related services.
GENERAL ELECTRIC AIRCRAFT Engines, Lynn, Mass., won a $318.7 million contract from U.S. Naval Air Systems Command to definitize the low rate initial production for 66 F414-GE-400 engines and related modules, devices and engineering services for the F/A-18E/F aircraft.
Curtiss-Wright Corp. has acquired a 53,000-square-foot building in North Carolina which it said will become the new home for part of its commercial aircraft component overhaul and repair operations. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the company said operations at Gastonia are expected to start as early as the end of April. The overhaul and repair operations, currently housed in the same facility as C-W's original equipment manufacturing business in Shelby, N.C., will now be shifted to the new building in Gastonia, N.C., which is nearby.
Americans have a "special relationship" with the U.K. and expect it to "speak out loudly in our defense when the EU proposes anti-American legislation," John Douglass, president of the Washington-based Aerospace Industries Association, said yesterday in London. Douglass, speaking to the Society of British Aerospace Companies, said that "If you do not, the disappointment will be palatable on our side, and it will be a factor in the political reaction to future U.S.-U.K. joint endeavors."
February 16, 1999 Lockheed Martin Command and Control Systems Colorado Springs, Colo., is being awarded a $6,195,120 face value increase to a firm fixed-price contract to provide commercial, off-the-shelf software in support of the Theater Battle Management Core Systems Version 1.0 fielding. This effort is scheduled to be completed by September 30. Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., is the contracting activity (F19628-95-C-0143, P00207).
When the Clinton Administration sent its $10.1 billion fiscal year 2000 FAA budget to Congress this month, it included a little-noticed request that Congress commit to $1.9 billion in advance appropriations, largely for air traffic control modernization in fiscal years 2001-2007. The advance appropriations request, spelling out Administration intentions for the six fiscal years, in effect asked Congress to fence off funds in the requested amounts, a step House and Senate Appropriations committees have been reluctant to take in the past.
Orbital Sciences Corp. shipped the first X-34 vehicle from its assembly and integration facility in Dulles, Va., to NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center in California, Orbital reported yesterday.
