May 2010 Archives

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user sunshine band. His photo depicts a RAF TriStar turning outbound from the RAF Waddington airshow in July 2009 as it did a flypast as part of a passenger flight from RAF Brize Norton.

 credit: Rex Features/NASA/Jim Grossmann

NASA's space shuttle Atlantis returned to the Kennedy Space Center for the final time yesterday (26 May).

Watch it touch down and the parachute being deployed from news channel Russia Today:

  

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user xnir. His photo depicts an Isralei Air Force Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter in an Israel Air Force Flight Academy course graduation and air show/demonstration.

This week's Image of the Week (featured on page 3 of Flight International), is taken by AirSpace user PalmsRick. His photo depicts a US Airways aircraft overflying Oklahoma City, OK. Ricky was taking photos in his backyard of the moon when he saw the jet approach.

To enter delayed service from late this year, Australia's new tanker/transports are equipped with an EADS advanced boom refuelling system and a Cobham 905E hose and drogue pod under each wing. Certification work should conclude around mid-year. Continue reading about the A330 MRTT here...

Northrop Grumman has announced plans to later this year fly a Bell 407 helicopter modified with the autonomous control systems from its MQ-8B Fire Scout unmanned air vehicle.
The initial goal for the so-called Fire-X concept is to demonstrate unmanned cargo resupply capability to the US Navy, which intends to launch a two-year demonstration programme in 2011. Continue reading...

Indonesian Aerospace has kicked off a three-year programme to develop a new 19-seat turboprop aircraft aimed at small domestic charter operators demanding a "rugged, reliable and affordable" aircraft to service the archipelago nation of 17,000 islands.

IAe aerostructures director Andi Alisjahbana says the high-wing IAe N219 will have a list price of $3.5 million and feature three-abreast seating in one of the largest passenger cabins in its class. Continue reading...

Boeing used the show to reveal two concepts for a stealthy, tailless, supercruising strike fighter to replace the US Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornets after 2025.

Both twin-engine concepts, which feature optionally piloted cockpits, resemble a modern-day replacement for the ill-fated A-12 Avenger. The carrier-based stealth bomber project was cancelled in 1991 amid cost overruns and technical problems. Continue reading...

Airbus reports it has successfully conducted the first torpedo launch from one of its C295 Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA).

Airbus says the launch is a significant entry for it into the market of Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) aircraft, currently dominated by veteran aircraft such as the P-3 Orion and the Atlantique.

In other C-295 news, the Chilean navy has received the first of its three C-295s. And Poland will deploy its C-295s to Afghanistan.

The Chilean navy has received its first of three Airbus Military C-295 maritime patrol aircraft, launching a "renovation" of its fixed-wing reconnaissance fleet.

Delivered on 30 April, the new aircraft adds to a Chilean naval aviation force already consisting of Lockheed P-3ACHs, Piaggio P-111s and Airbus Military C-212s. Continue reading...

(Photos: Airbus Military)

The Flightglobal team is in Geneva at EBACE 2010, Europe's largest business aviation show. Whether you're there too or not you can catch up with all the latest news, videos, and photos in one place: our interactive daily magazine.

Here's the cover from day one. Acropolis chief David Crawshaw talks about (in a video) his company's long-range ACJ ambitions.

The whole daily magazine is here and completely free.

To follow the news (articles, photos, even Tweets) throughout the day, visit our special EBACE 2010 page.

In May 2005 the European Union began funding its €26 million ($35.2 million) Environmentally Friendly High Speed Aircraft, or HISAC, project that had the same ultimate goal - to discover how to create a business jet that could halve transatlantic flight times and be environmentally friendly.

After five years of work, the final HISAC report found that the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft-led Russian team had produced a design that met the environmental objectives. For HISAC three teams evolved classes of concepts that examined different aspects of the technical challenges facing a supersonic business jet. Team C was led by Sukhoi, working with the Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute and Central Institute of Aviation Motors (CIAM), and the others were Dassault's team A and Alenia Aeronautica's B. Continue reading...

Here's the general layout of the low sonic-boom HISAC:

Zimbabwean Vukile Dumani has been named Airbus UK's Filton apprentice of the year. He completed his higher engineering studies in September and is now a specialist engineer in non-destructive testing.

What does your job in non-destructive testing involve?

I use NDT techniques to look for defects in aluminium, carbonfibre and other materials like steel. We apply ultrasonics and eddy currents into materials, as these are reflected by defects. Another technique is to look for changes in a magnetic field caused by cracks or delamination in carbonfibre. The layers of carbonfibre are more complex than aluminium, so we are developing new techniques that could be used on Airbus aircraft.

Can you describe a typical working day?

There is no such thing as a typical day. One day I could be working upside down inspecting an A400M wing in Seville, and the next I could be writing a procedure for inspecting the landing gear attachments on an A320. Each task presents a new challenge. Sometimes we have to conduct inspections for airlines - for example if an aircraft has had a hard landing - and this could be anywhere in the world. Continue reading...

AVX Aircraft is targeting helicopter and non-helicopter prime contractors to sell the Fort Worth, Texas-based start-up's coaxial rotor and dual ducted fan concept for the US Army, AVX founder Troy Gaffey confirms.

Gaffey, a retired chief engineer of Bell Helicopter, is seeking partners to launch the project in advance of a potential competition to replace the US Army's Bell OH-58D Kiowa Warrior.

AVX's concept (see graphic below) is based on modifying the current aircraft with a coaxial rotor for lift and two ducted fans mounted on a shortened tail boom for thrust and yaw control.

The flight controls would be modified by adding a control device to the collective that would allow the pilot to transfer as much as 70% of engine power from the rotor to the ducted fans in forward flight, Gaffey says. The new device is currently a twist grip, but that could change as the design evolves, he adds. Continue reading...