Michael M. Sera was appointed general manager of the Special Products Group. Prior to his appointment, Sera held the positions of field sales engineer, RF product marketing manager, and wireless marketing manager for Philips Semiconductors, Sunnyvale, Calif. and RF/Wireless Product Line Driver, Philips Japan, Ltd.
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE said the U.S. Air Force has selected it to supply the wheel and brake system for its Block 40/42 F-16 fighters. A new contract covers more than 400 of the planes, the company said. Deliveries will begin in 1996. BFGoodrich said the system can handle high speed taxi stops and aborted takeoffs on runways as short as 4,500 feet.
Clayton M. Jones, previously senior vice president, government operations and international, was appointed vice president and general manager of the Collins Air Transport Division, headquarted in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
William "Bert" Hornback has joined the company as director of Electro- Optical (EO) Systems. Hornback has over twenty-five years experience in electronics and EO, gained while working for Northrop Grumman Corp. Hughes- Santa Barbara Research Center and Rockwell International. John J. Stuart, Jr., presently chief financial officer, has been named executive vice president.
Col. Michael P. Wiedemer has assumed command of the Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center, Arnold AFB, Tenn. He was system program director for the NAVSTAR Global Positioning System, Los Angeles AFB, Calif.
Sharon Keillor has been named executive vice president and director, CTA Commercial Systems. Keillor comes to CTA from Digital Equipment Corp., where she mostly recently served as vice president for engineering infrastructure in the Software Business Group.
NASA abruptly canceled its competition for a Space Shuttle operations prime contractor yesterday, announcing that a joint venture of the two largest present Shuttle contractors will get the job instead. United Space Alliance, a 50-50 joint venture formed by Rockwell International and Lockheed Martin last summer (DAILY, Aug. 3, page 171A), was picked for a non-com-petitive contract because "there was no other company that could possibly meet our safety, manifest and schedule requirements," Administrator Daniel S. Goldin said in a press release.
The National Labor Relations Board has issued a formal complaint against some of Boeing's bargaining tactics with the striking Machinists union, and set a hearing on unfair labor practices for Dec. 19. The NLRB general counsel's office in Washington also said it has "under active consideration" a request from its regional director for a federal court injunction to compel Boeing to bargain in good faith.
Barbara G. Sullivan, who most recently served as vice president of marketing for CommNet Cellular Inc., Englewood, Colo., has been appointed vice president of marketing.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics is working on a new Atlas variant intended both to cut costs for the "sweet spot" in the near-term commercial launch market and to form the basis for a family of Atlas-derived boosters that might fit the Pentagon's Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) concept as its requirements are clarified.
Dr. Sam B. Williams, chairman and chief executive officer, was awarded the 1995 National Medal of Technology by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce. He was one of eight individuals and companies recognized as economic trail blazers. He was recognized "as a gifted inventor, tenacious entrepreneur, risk-taker and engineering genius...[whose] leadership and vision [revitalized] the U.S. general aviation business jet and trainer jet aircraft industry."
DERLAN AEROSPACE CANADA, Milton, Ontario, has received contracts totaling $5.7 million from Boeing Defense&Space Group's Helicopters Div. Derlan said it will supply a variety of spare parts for the Boeing CH-46 helicopter. Deliveries will begin in March 1996 and run through December 1996.
T. Christopher Fitzsimmons was appointed president of Commercial&Government Systems. Donald L. Light, who most recently served as manager and image acquisition specialist for the National Mapping Program of the U.S. Geological Survey, in Reston, Va., was named senior engineer mapping and remote sensing for Commercial and Government Systems Division.
DCX CORP., Franktown, Colo., has begun supplying ground support cable assemblies for the F-16 under a $1 million letter contract from Olin Aerospace Corp. The work will be performed for the Redmond, Wash., division of Olin, and DCX anticipates follow-on contracts equaling the initial order. DCX president Jeane M. Anderson attributed the new business to "the downsizing of the defense industry, which has caused prime contractors to outsource projects.
Lockheed Martin is consolidating its aircraft modification and maintenance operation in Ontario, Calif., with its famed Skunk Works, eliminating 140 overhead and administrative jobs in a bid to become more competitive, the company said yesterday. Effective immediately, Lockheed Martin Aircraft Services Co., or LMAS, becomes a division of the Palmdale, Calif.-based Skunk Works, under Aircraft Services VP Art Schuetz, who will report to Skunk Works President Jack Gordon.
TRANSAVIA AIRLINES of The Netherlands has ordered eight 737-800 twinjet airliners for $288 million, Boeing Co. reported. Transavia also took options on an additional 12 737-800s. The first plane is to be delivered in 1998.
Top level U.S. Air Force officials and contractor representatives met Nov. 6 at Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth, Tex., facility to review progress of the F-22 fighter program. The regularly scheduled, semi-annual meeting included discussions of technical, schedule, and financial performance of the fighter, Lockheed Martin said. F-22 Program Director Maj. Gen. Robert Raggio addressed transitioning the F-22 from engineering and manufacturing development to production, it said.
TITAN CORP., San Diego, got $5.2 million on Oct. 31 from the U.S. Navy's The Naval Command, Control and Ocean Surveillance Center RDT&E Div., San Diego, for engineering support services, specifically C3I test and evaluation and independent verification and validation, in support of the Joint Maritime Command Information System (JMCIS). If all options are exercised, the value of the contract will be $13.6 million.
SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORP., San Diego, was awarded two contracts totaling $26.8 million to support the Royal Saudi Naval Forces command, control and communications program. Both contract were awarded on Oct. 30 by the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, N.H. The first contract, for $12.3 million, is for the RNSF C3 operations and maintenance program. If all options are exercised, its value would be $74.4 million. The second contract, for $14.5 million, is for the RNSF C3 upgrade program.
PRC INC., McLean, Va., won a $14.7 million contract Nov. 3 from the U.S. Navy's Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command for software development, engineering and maintenance services and program management support services for the Joint Maritime Command Information Systems (JMCIS) and Command Systems and Communication Support Systems programs. The Dept. of Defense said the contract includes four one-year options which, if exercised, will bring the cumulative value to $77.1 million.
The $12.2 billion fiscal 1996 foreign operations conference report, which includes $3.2 billion in Foreign Military Financing, is caught up in a dispute over an abortion provision similar to that which has tied up the defense appropriations bill and the national security authorization conference. The House has approved the foreign operations conference report but insisted on language which would ban U.S. funding for organizations that directly or indirectly perform abortions.
A Titan IV lifted the second Milstar U.S. military communications satellite to its geosynchronous transfer orbit early yesterday, and initial reports gave the $1 billion satellite a clean bill of health. The launch from Cape Canaveral Air Station was an all-Lockheed Martin affair. The newly merged aerospace giant built the Titan IV, its Centaur upper stage and the satellite itself, and integrated the stack before launch.
CANADA'S RADARSAT was working well after its launch on a Delta II rocket, according to early reports. Liftoff came at 9:22 a.m. EST Saturday from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., and the satellite was placed in a circular polar orbit at 430 nautical miles altitude. It will map sea ice in both the Arctic and Antarctic and produce radar images for commercial use (DAILY, Sept. 12, page 390).
BALL AEROSPACE&TECHNOLOGIES CORP., Broomfield, Colo., will improve and expand capabilities of the U.S. Air Force's Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT) Exploitation Directorate of the National Air Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The company will carry out its work under a $49 million contract, which follows a previous MASINT support contract for $24 million that began in September 1990.
