Week in review (12/31 to 1/6)

Last week I touched on some of the news from 2017 that was important to the Gulf Coast aerospace corridor, so it makes sense to look ahead this time by filling you in on upcoming issues of our bimonthly aerospace newsletter. It's something from the future where I have some control.

We plan to have six issues during 2018, assuming we get enough underwriters to back our research. We provide the newsletter free to readers, but that’s only possible through the support of underwriters who want our unique aerospace/aviation coverage to continue.

Our next issue in February will have a four-page cover story focusing on Alabama's aerospace footprint. If you are a regular reader, you know we had cover stories about Louisiana's and Mississippi's aerospace activities in the October and December issues, respectively. Our April issue will focus on Florida.

Because 2018 is an off-year for our biennial Gulf Coast Aerospace Corridor book, we will turn our June newsletter into something of a highly condensed update of the book published in 2017. We’ll have an eight-page overview on the major aerospace activities in our region, which should come in handy for folks from our region who attend the July 16-22 Farnborough Air Show.

We're also in the early stages of planning an issue in October that will focus on educational opportunities in the aerospace and aviation fields. Of course, in addition to those planned stories there will be articles prompted by breaking aerospace news events in the region.

Contact me if you're interested in being among the subscribers who have the newsletter PDF delivered via email. You can see all our past issues at our archive.

Now for your rather short week in review:

Bases

The Navy Blue Angels are now in El Centro, Calif., for winter training. They left Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., Wednesday. The team will perform in El Centro March 10, then return to Pensacola after that to begin the regular show season. Naval Air Station El Centro is between San Diego and Yuma, Ariz. (Post)

-- An associate of mine, who also happens to maintain our shipbuilding/maritime news feed, pointed out a story from the Northwest Florida Daily News. It said some 400 gallons of Jet-A fuel spilled early Friday at Eglin Building 92 after a switch box froze. That activated fuel pumps, overfilling an underground storage tank. Absorbents were put in place to soak up the spill.

Contract

The Boeing Co. Defense, Space and Security, St. Louis, Mo., was awarded a $193.6 million modification to a previously awarded contract for Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) Increment 1 Lots 12-14 production. This modification provides for the purchase of an additional quantity of 6,000 SDB 1 all-up-rounds being produced under the basic contract. Work will be performed in St. Louis and is expected to be completed by Dec. 30, 2020. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is the contracting activity.