Proliferating inventory-management programs at AAR Corp.--an opportunistic response to the aviation industry's desire to save costs through outsourcing--are fueling strong revenue and earnings growth.
Thiokol Corp. earnings from commercial businesses are expected to increase substantially in the next few years, reaching 65% or more, up from 43% currently.
Senior Pentagon officials are eying the possibility of dropping Lockheed Martin as prime contractor for the Thaad anti-missile interceptor or adding a second contractor if the troubled program continues to fail tests.
The recent surge in the value of U.S. airline equities notwithstanding, the stock-price performances of both the aerospac e/defense group and carriers are lagging well behind the increase in the Standard&Poor's 500 Industrials Index thus far in 1997.
It's not often that a growing, highly profitable company is punished by the market as severely as Atlas Air Inc. was last week., but the Golden, Colo.-based cargo carrier was mauled mercilessly.
The U.S. Air Force is scheduled this month to begin a second round of flight tests of a low-cost, ``smart'' submunition that can distinguish between different targets and then shape its warhead to inflict maximum damage.
Large-cap U.S. aerospace/defense stocks are spring-loaded, and they are likely to remain that way at least through the first quarter, according to some Wall Street analysts.
The launch of an advanced version of the KH-11 imaging reconnaissance satellite on a Titan 4 from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Dec. 20, completes a new three-spacecraft constellation that uses an uprated model of the optical spacecraft operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).
The Russian Duma, fuming about START 2's cost and NATO expansion, seeks to delay the disarmament treaty Russia's ratification of the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty is embroiled in a legislative uproar, threatening the bulwark of U.S./Russian nuclear disarmament.
The outcome of the latest round in the Joint Strike Fighter competition pits a somewhat traditional, conservative approach against a more revolutionary one. The latter's potentially higher payoff may play better with skeptical lawmakers. But it will put to the test the Pentagon's ambitious strategy to infuse commercial practices into military aircraft design and development.
In an about-face, France's Snecma is preparing to acquire Societe Europeenne de Propulsion (SEP), abandoning its plan to sell its stake in noncore affiliates and subsidiaries such as SEP, Messier-Bugatti and Hispano-Suiza.
Following in Rockwell International's footsteps, Texas Instruments Inc. has decided the time has come to offload its defense business--despite its earlier insistence that the operating unit was a valued part of the company's long-range business strategy.
Some Wall Street analysts are advising FlightSafety International Inc. stockholders to avoid hastily tendering their shares to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. at the price it is offering to acquire FSI (see p. 31).
Photograph: The RAH-66 Comanche is set to fly again in November when test pilots will begin retracting the landing gear to push the helicopter toward its top speed of 170 kt. As the RAH-66 Comanche program prepares for its third round of prototype flights, U.S. Army and Boeing/Sikorsky officials revealed that tests of the design show dramatic increases in the scout/reconnaissance helicopter's projected low-observability compared to current first-line rotary-wing aircraft.
The Rockwell/Hughes/E-Systems team competing for the Air Force airborne laser (ABL) program plans to flight test a 1/4-scale beam director nose cone around the end of October, just before the mid-November selection of one team for further work.
Killer-scout tactics developed by Air National Guard pilots are tailored to the capabilities of today's laser-guided bombs, which have become the ``weapons of choice'' for tactical missions since the gulf war.
The U.K. is seeking bids for a new, long-range electro-optical reconnaissance pod system for Tornado and Eurofighter 2000 aircraft, part of a comprehensive program to upgrade its surveillance capabilities.
Next month, Spar Aerospace Ltd. will report a dismal third-quarter performance, which is expected to bring the Canadian company's losses through Sept. 30 to an estimated $17-18 million.
Honeywell Inc., in Wall Street parlance, is a hot stock--it has nearly doubled in price in the last 18 months. While impressive, some analysts believe there are a lot more gains to come.
Securities analysts expect sales of Bombardier Inc.'s new Global Express business jet, unveiled last week in Toronto (see p. 65), to contribute substantially to the Canadian company's revenue and earnings growth, starting in 1998.
If Russia's combat training problems are not resolved in the near future, the air force will be gripped by a deep crisis which will hit fighter aviation first, according to some senior generals.
