The mid-air collision of a German Luftwaffe Tu-154 transport and a U.S. Air Force C-141 airlifter near Namibia last year was caused by a discrepancy between the Tu-154's planned and actual flight path, USAF Col. William H.C. Schell, vice commander of the 375th airlift wing, Scott AFB, Ill., has concluded. Schell said in a report released yesterday that the flight path planned and flown by the German jet did not comply with International Civil Aviation Organization rules, leading to the Sept. 13, 1997, crash that killed a total of 33 people.
AlliedSignal Electronics&Avionics Systems won a contract worth more than $10 million to supply British Airways with enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), the company announced. BA is the first airline outside the U.S. to announce a fleet-wide retrofit with the new system. More than 200 BA jetliners will get EGPWS.
The House yesterday directed President Clinton to expeditiously procure and provide three UH-60L Black Hawk helicopters to the Colombian National Police to help combat drugs. The fiscal 1998 foreign operations appropriations act funded $36 million for three of the Sikorsky helicopters, as well as maintenance and training. If the president determines that three isn't enough, the resolution said, he should tell Congress "the appropriate number" so additional amounts can be authorized.
U.S. NAVY S-3 crashed yesterday off the coast of California. All four crew members survived with minor injuries. The ASW plane belonged to VS-41 and was flying a routine training mission from its home station at NAS North Island, Calif., a Navy spokesman said. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Increasing age of U.S. Marine Corps systems and the slow pace of recapitalization threatens several systems with block obsolescence, Lee Dixson, director of the Resources Div. at Headquarters USMC, said yesterday. Without modernization, "we'll have a serious block obsolescence problem on our hands," Dixson told the Navy League's annual "Sea, Air, Space" symposium in Washington. He added, however, that the fiscal 1999 budget request shows an upturn in modernization which helps defend against the block obsolescence problem.
Boeing won a $26.5 million contract from the U.S. Air Force's Electronic Systems Center to install electronic support measures (ESM) on the French Air Force's four E-3 AWACS aircraft. Boeing said the award, under a Foreign Military Sales agreement, follows a $32 million contract it received in January 1997 for production of the ESM hardware.
Intelsat's Assembly of Parties has give final approval to creation of a new commercial spinoff company with six of the consortium's satellites, naming the new company New Skies Satellites S.V., the consortium announced yesterday. Meeting in Salvador, Brazil, the Parties' unanimous approval marked what Intelsat Director General and CEO Irv Goldstein called "the first step in the ultimate and full commercialization of Intelsat."
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Boeing will join Daicel Chemical Industries, Japan's leading maker of aircraft ejection seats, in developing an ejection seat for new fighter aircraft. Under an agreement reached between the governments of Japan and the U.S. on Friday, the two nations will split the estimated $46 million cost of the program to develop a new ejection seat before 2001.
Vice President Al Gore yesterday announced agreement to provide a second civil frequency free of charge to the international aviation community. However, providers of the civil signals can be expected to pay. The Defense Dept. will not be expected to pick up the expense for civil users, sources said. The second frequency has been recommended by a number of expert safety panels, mostly recently the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, which Gore chaired.
Plans to set up a "NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts" are moving forward, with a workshop scheduled in May to define the "grand challenges" for the coming half-century that the institute will try to meet with "revolutionary" aerospace concepts. Although the institute will be operated by the Washington-based Universities Space Research Assn. (USRA), private industry will be encouraged to participate alongside academic researchers who will use institute grants to explore advanced concepts that could help NASA carry out its space and aeronautics missions.
Noel Forgeard will take over April 1 as managing director of Airbus Industrie, replacing Jean Pierson, who will retire after 13 years in the post, an Airbus spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. Forgeard, 51, was formerly chief executive of Matra High Technology and Matra BAe Dynamics, its joint venture with British Aerospace. He becomes the first head of Airbus to come from the private sector. Aerospatiale had been the source of Airbus leaders. Forgeard also will manage the A3XX airliner and the 100-seater Asian Express to be built with China.
Japan's manufacturers recorded sales of $7.236 billion in aerospace products during 1997, an 8% increase over 1996 sales. The figure includes $5.889 billion from production and $1.345 billion from overhaul. Decreasing defense production and increasing civil production are reflected in the 1997 figures. Since the late 1950s, defense demand has accounted for about 75% of the total, but has now dropped to 62.7%, 8% less than 1996. Budget cuts and the end of the F-2 fighter and OH-1 helicopter development programs contributed to the decline.
The U.S. Army has grounded its fleet of 907 Bell UH-1 "Huey" helicopters because of excessive engine vibrations. It plans to identify the ones that aren't experiencing vibrations and can be returned to flight status. The vibration causes the failure of the N2 spur gear on the Allied Signal T53-L-13 engine. Last year, the Army said, the problem prompted a restriction of Huey operations. A team was formed in November 1997 to address the problem, and a safety of flight message was released.
The Boeing Company, Huntsville, Ala., is being awarded a $5,451,231 firm- fixed-price contract for modernizing the Avenger system by procuring a development effort to design and prove-out a Slew-To-Cue (STC) Modification Kit" for the AVENGER Fire Units. Development is followed by production options of up to approximately 1,100 kits for upgrading the existing fleet.
General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lynn, Mass., is being awarded an $8,036,499 ceiling priced basic ordering agreement for 2,300 turbine nozzle segments used on the F-404 engines on the F/A-18 aircraft. Work will be performed in Lynn, Mass., and is expected to be completed by December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. This contract was not competitively procured. The Naval Inventory Control Point, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (F34601-97-G-0002)(Order GEG5).
The six-satellite commercial spinoff from the Intelsat consortium passed another hurdle Friday when the Intelsat Meeting of Signatories endorsed its creation. The Signatories unanimously endorsed creation of Intelsat New Company (INC), setting the stage for final approval by the 22nd Assembly of Parties this week. The Parties will meet in Salvador, Brazil, as did the Signatories.
Telesat Canada has ordered a 15-kilowatt HS 702 telecommunications satellite from Hughes Space and Communications International, pushing Hughes' satellite orders in the first quarter of 1998 above $1 billion, the company said Friday. Named Anik F1, the new Canadian platform will carry 84 transponders to geostationary orbit at 107.3 degrees West longitude, where it will provide general telecommunications services to North and South America. The satellite is to be delivered in the first quarter of 2000.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., executed a $335 million contract with a group of Middle East investors to buy 12 Gulfstream IV-SP business jets, the company announced yesterday. The planes will be used to expand the Gulfstream Shares fractional ownership concept to the Middle East. Sales of Gulfstream Shares will begin immediately, with the first aircraft under the program scheduled to enter service in early 1999. Deliveries will continue through 2003.
While the four partners of Airbus Industrie broadly agree on the kind of future Airbus they want to form, there are specific problems on the way it will be put together, a British Aerospace official said yesterday. "The basic problems are about the structures of the companies," Michael Bell, project director for British Aerospace PLC European Consolidation, said at the ComDef conference in Washington. The big problem with the Airbus restructure is the fact that the French companies are state-owned, Bell said.
Bell-Boeing Joint Program Office, Patuxent River, Md., is being awarded a $418,741,241 modification to previously awarded contract N00019-96-C-0054 to exercise as option for the manufacture and delivery of five MV-22 low- rate-initial-production aircraft. Work will be performed in Ridley Park, Pa. (50%), and Ft. Worth, Texas (50%), and is expected to be completed in November 2000. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., is the contracting activity.
McDonnell Douglas Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Boeing Company, St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $36,868,773 cost-plus-award- fee/incentive-fee contract for the engineering and manufacturing development including design, development, test and integration of the Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) into the F/A-18 aircraft weapons system. Work will be performed in El Segundo, Calif. (57%), and St. Louis, Miss. (43%), and is expected to be completed by September 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year.
Contrary to claims by the General Accounting Office that the first low-rate initial production contract in the F-22 program will be awarded prematurely, the heart of the new fighter's flight envelope will have been proven by December when the contract is to be let, Brig. Gen. Bruce Carlson, director for AF Global Power programs, said yesterday. He said in an interview that the F-22 will have logged 200 flight test hours by LRIP which, and that data will have been gathered on such critical points on aerodynamic performance, supercruise and refueling.
Iridium LLC is only 10 satellites short of its planned 66-satellite constellation of low Earth orbit communications platforms following the launch early yesterday of five more satellites aboard a Boeing Delta II rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. Liftoff came at 1:02 a.m. EST after the flight was delayed from Friday by upper-level winds over the launch area. The five satellites aboard joined 51 already launched, including two launch just last week aboard a Chinese Long March vehicle (DAILY, March 26).
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., Savannah, Ga., is being awarded a $32,772,610 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract to provide for one C-37A aircraft and associated training and data. The work is expected to be completed December 1999. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. Aeronautical Systems Center, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is the contracting activity (F33657-96/C-0037, P00007).
