ST. LOUIS McDonnell Douglas has narrowed its concepts for a replacement to the F-16, AV-8B and F/A-18 to a two-family, five-configuration range of designs. The company's effort is thought to be representative of the broad directions the Joint Advanced Strike Technology program is taking.

WASHINGTON Contractors have begun working in earnest on design concepts for aircraft and related subsystems under contracts recently let by the Pentagon's Joint Advanced Strike Technology program office. At a kick-off meeting here last week, aerospace contractors met with JAST program officials to begin the next phase of the ambitious program to define a common family of affordable aircraft that can meet U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps requirements for follow-on tactical aircraft.

PARIS and SAGAMI-OHNO, JAPAN Germany will attempt to refly next year advanced ceramic materials tests lost when its Express satellite reentered the atmosphere out of control following a Japanese M-3S-2 booster malfunction Jan. 15. The accident is a setback for high-temperature aerospace materials research in both Germany and Japan.

NEW YORK Executive Jet Aviation, Inc.'s agreement to purchase up to 20 Gulfstream Aerospace 4-SPs reflects greater-than-expected demand for international service among its NetJets fractional ownership program customers and opens the way for the company to enter European and Latin American markets.

WASHINGTON McDonnell Douglas has completed assembly of the forward fuselage structure of the U.S. Navy's first F/A-18E/F strike fighter. It is to be mated with the center/aft fuselage being built by principal subcontractor Northrop Grumman in May after the electrical wiring and hydraulic tubing are installed.