July 1, 1996

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HEADLINE NEWS

Boeing Poised to Offer Stretched 747 Versions

SEATTLE Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus Industrie are all busy reviewing plans for new wide-body models just as the market for commercial aircraft heats up. Airbus is expected to decide soon on a 310380-seat stretch version of the 74340 (see p. 45) while McDonnell Douglas ponders an MD-XX for up to 375passengers (see p. 43).

By PAUL PROCTOR

HEADLINE NEWS

Russian A3XX Role Likely

Moscow Russia is expected to accept Airbus Industrie’s pending offer of a strategic partnership in developing the A3XX 550-600-seat civil transport. Anatoly Bratukhin, who is responsible for the civil-military aviation sector in Russia’s Ministry of the Defense Industry, expects his government to approve the Airbus offer and send an official acceptance in coming weeks to Airbus headquarters in Toulouse.

HEADLINE NEWS

Shuttle, Mir Building Station Science Foundation

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER International crews on both the U.S. shuttle and Russian Mir station this week are heading toward new records in space, while obtaining significantly different data that will be combined to build a stronger science foundation for the joint station under development.

By CRAIG COVAULT

HEADLINE NEWS

NASA Dodges Station Schedule Pitfalls

WASHINGTON NASA and Boeing are moving to head off a potential delay in the first major U.S. element of the international space station, but Russia’s commitment to deliver its hardware on time continues to appear far from iron-clad. Boeing, the lead U.S. station contractor, has begun building 16 struts that could be placed inside the station’s two connector nodes to redistribute stress away from areas that failed to meet pressure test goals.

By JOSEPH C. ANSELMO

HEADLINE NEWS

NRO Orbiting Spacecraft Studies Tether Survivability

WASHINGTON The agency that procures U.S. intelligence satellites is studying an orbiting tethered satellite system designed to complement a tether experiment flown on the space shuttle earlier this year. The National Reconnaissance Office’s (NRO) acknowledgment of its leading role in development of the Tether Physics and Survivability (TiPS) spacecraft is the first time in the agency’s 3 5-year history that it has publicly revealed an ongoing space deployment.

By JOSEPH C. ANSELMO

HEADLINE NEWS

Titan, Delta and Atlas to Pace Busy July Launch Schedule

CAPE CANAVERAL U.S. Air Force, Navy and contractor teams here are preparing to launch Titan 4, Delta 2 and Atlas 2 expendable booster missions this month, all carrying military payloads. The three flights to be launched between July 1-25 involve booster and satellite hardware worth about $2 billion.

By CRAIG COVAULT

HEADLINE NEWS

Massive French Mergers Imminent

PARIS Massive consolidations of French aerospace are expected within days, as the Aerospatiale-Dassault Aviation merger nears completion and Lagardere and Alcatel Alsthom weigh rival bids to acquire state-owned Thomson defense-electronics group.

By PIERRE SPARACO

HEADLINE NEWS

Few Agreements On New Pentagon Cuts

Washington Congress has passed an amendment to form a National Defense Panel of nine experts to monitor the Pentagon’s reassessment of itself early next year. Some senior military officials believe the panel’s oversight offers one of the few chances for an objective assessment of how financial cuts can be made across service lines—through eliminating redundancies— to rationalize an already stressed defense budget.

By David A. Fulghum

HEADLINE NEWS

NTSB Probes F/A-18 Crash

Washington The FAA will investigate whether McDonnell Douglas was operating an F/A-18C without appropriate certification when the aircraft crashed June 19, killing the civilian test pilot, Jeffrey J. Crutchfield. An FAA official with the Great Lakes Region said the airplane apparently was not properly registered with the FAA and did not display a civil registration number in accordance with agency regulations.

HEADLINE NEWS

Presidential Panel Backs R&D Relief

WASHINGTON A U.S. Presidential advisory board is backing the defense lobby’s controversial push for the elimination of research and development recoupment charges. Such charges recover part of U.S. taxpayers’ original investment in weapons systems when they are sold overseas.

By PAUL MANN

June 241996

July 81996

July 1, 1996

July 1, 1996