EGYPTAIR ORDERED ordered three 777-200s, valued at $400 million, for delivery beginning in 1997, Boeing said yesterday. Boeing said it now has 16 customers and 167 announced orders for the aircraft with options on another 99.
A Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle crashed yesterday at 11:25 a.m. EDT on state-owned land near Ft. Huachuca, Ariz., marking the third Hunter mishap this month, according to military officials. The cause of the crash during a training mission hadn't been determined late yesterday. The Hunter crashed about three miles northwest of Rugge-Hamilton runway, and a fire was reported at the site. Officials hadn't determined whether the drone itself was ablaze or it was a brush fire, and would not speculate on whether the drone was recoverable.
SIMULA INC., Phoenix, said yesterday it has received awards totaling more than $3.7 million from McDonnell Douglas Aerospace to produce newly designed centerline seats for the C-17 airlifter. Deliveries are slated to begin in May 1996 and run through April 1998.
The Royal Netherlands Air Force has released a request for information for a reconnaissance pod for its F-16s that could answer the U.S. Air Force's questions about manned tactical reconnaissance, an industry official said.
Twenty Predator Tier II unmanned aerial vehicles seem to be "the right number to look at" for initial operations of the U.S. Air Force's new 11th Reconnaissance Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev., according to squadron commander Lt. Col. Steve Hampton. Air Combat Command has looked at fielding 10, 20 and 50 of the beefed- up General Atomics Gnat-750 drones at the squadron, whose flying and maintenance operations will be run out of the Indian Springs Auxiliary Field near Nellis.
THE NETWORK CONNECTION INC., Atlanta, will supply equipment for the U.S. Air Force's Project Speckled Trout, a Boeing C-135C transport and special mission test aircraft. TNCi said it will supply video server equipment, component end stations and software development to the USAF's 412th Squadron, operator of the C-135C and a primary environment for the flight test of new technologies.
GEN. GORDON R. SULLIVAN (USA-ret.), former chief of staff of the U.S. Army, has been elected to the board of directors of Rubbermaid Inc., increasing the size of the board from 11 to 12 members, the company said yesterday. Sullivan, 57, also serves on the boards of General Dynamics Corp. and Shell Oil Corp.
Although the U.S. Air Force reported data describing everything from the number of flights to the number of cargoes and even number of refuelings during last month's evaluation of the C-17 airlifter, initial results in the crucial areas of Reliability, Maintainability and Availability are only beginning to emerge.
The UAV Joint Project Office accepted its fifth Hunter Joint Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle on Aug. 17, raising the number of in-service air vehicles to 42, according to Hunter manufacturer TRW/IAI. The system will be a testbed to assess changes and will be used to fly a variety of payloads, including a laser designator.
Westinghouse Norden's Project Gray Wolf could give operators the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capability they want and pay first dividends when the U.S. Navy considers upgrades to the fleet of P-3 aircraft even though testing is done on an S-3B, a Navy official says.
Completion of the left- and right-hand engine nacelles for the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft was marked yesterday by Bell and Boeing, which are building Ospreys under a U.S.Navy engineering and manufacturing development contract. They said the nacelles will be mated to a Bell-manufactured V-22 wing in October. First flight of the No. 7 V-22 is slated for late 1996. Each nacelle will house an Allison T406 engine and various gear boxes. As the work on No. 7 proceeded, construction of No. 8 began as an upper wing skin assembly was loaded into its fixture.
U.S. Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command will release a draft RFP on the design, development, integration, and testing of the NATO Improved Link Eleven (NILE) System Network Controller (SNC) software, and the NILE Reference System (NRS). SPAWAR said in an Aug. 22 Commerce Business Daily notice that the draft is aimed at prompting comments and questions that will be considered before formulation and release of a final RFP.
Alliant Techsystems has won a $6.5 million U.S. Navy contract for production of 25mm PGU-32/U multipurpose ammunition used on the Mk. 38 Naval Weapon System for shipboard defense and in the GAU-12 gun aboard the Harrier aircraft.
The U.S. Air Force wants to set up an information warfare squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C., by Oct. 1, according to defense sources. The AF hopes to announce more details of the new squadron-the second to be established under new Air Combat Command chief Gen.Joseph Ralston since he took the reins in June-in the next week or two. The hold-up is declassifying information about the unit.
The Defense Dept. has recommended TRW vice president Art Money to succeed the late Clark Fiester as assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, industry and Pentagon sources said yesterday. The letter of nomination for Money, VP-group business development for TRW's Avionics and Surveillance Group, is being considered by the White House.
NASA has decided to stay with Orbital Science Corp.'s Pegasus XL air- launched booster for most of its small scientific payloads after a review of alternate launchers failed to turn up a satisfactory substitute, and Orbital indicated it can recover by this fall from the most recent Pegasus XL launch failure, a top NASA official said yesterday.
E-SYSTEMS' Transportation Management Solutions (TMS), Linthicum, Md., has won a $2.7 million contract to supply an automatic vehicle location and communications system to Detroit's Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART). E-Systems said yesterday that TMS will design, build, test and install an automatic vehicle location system in 111 paratransit buses, 25 line haul buses, and 15 support vehicles.
Information exploitation will be one of the first areas that McDonnell Douglas will focus on as it begins to merge its technology development units into a single organization, according to the new unit's manager. "How we operate in the information age environment-that's our first priority," Dave Swain, VP/general manager of the new Advanced Systems and Technology-Phantom Works, told The DAILY.
AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS yesterday received the first Lockheed L- 1011-200 TriStar to be converted from passenger to freighter use. The plane was flown from Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge, England, where conversion and flight testing were conducted, to AIA facilities in Ypsilanti, Mich. The aircraft will be able to carry up to 125,000 pounds of cargo on routes up to 5,300 miles. The plane is the first of three bought by AIA last fall for conversion to the cargo role.
Structural Dynamics Research Corp., Milford, Ohio, said that it and Hewlett-Packard Co. have begun the second and final phase of work on a Ground Vibration Test (GVT) system at McDonnell Douglas facilities. The GVT will be used to help certify the airworthiness of the F/A-18E/F strike fighter. SDRC and Hewlett-Packard have received a total of about $1 million for the work.
READINESS EXERCISE "Intrinsic Action" began yesterday with arrival in Kuwait of three U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command airlifters. Two C-141s and one C-5 flew soldiers and equipment from McGuire AFB, N.J., and Fort Hood, Tex. Two additional flights were slated through the night, with eight planes to arrive Wednesday.
General Electric's Engine Services overhaul and support unit won a $380 million contract to support all the new CFM International CFM56-7 turbofans being bought by Southwest Airlines over the next 10 years, GE reported yesterday. The service contract-a flat-rate cost per flying-hour deal-marks a major win for GE, not only because of the contract's size and duration, but because of the market penetration.
With last week's move to buy shipbuilder Bath Iron Works, General Dynamics is setting the stage for 1996 to be its first growth year since 1989, JSA Research President Paul Nisbet told clients.
