AEROSPACE

Dutch to Order U.S. Helicopters: The Netherlands said it will order 30 attack helicopters from McDonnell Douglas Corp., valued at about $900 million, rather than from a European rival. The plunge in the dollar’s value against the guilder, which shadows the German mark on currency markets, allowed the Dutch to make big savings by choosing the U.S. firm. Two helicopters had been in contention for the order: the McDonnell-built Apache AH-64D and the Tigre (Tiger) made by Eurocopter, a joint venture between Daimler-Benz’s aerospace unit, DASA, and France’s state-owned Aerospatiale.