All aerospace news – Page 1731
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News
Proton success is boost for Russians
Russia scored a morale-boosting second consecutive launch on 12 March from the Baikonur Cosmodrome of the four-stage Proton booster, with its DM upper stage, after suffering two failures last year. The launch carried an Express A communications satellite, which was injected into a parking orbit of 226 x 195km ...
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Sea Launch fails with first ICO
Tim Furniss/LONDON The third firing of the international Sea Launch booster failed on 13 March, with the loss of the first ICO Global Communications satellite. The lift-off, from the Odyssey platform in the mid-Pacific, 2,240km (1,390 miles) south-east of Hawaii, was the second commercial launch by the Boeing-led ...
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Magnetosphere deal for UK company
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has won a $120,000, 100-day, Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS) study contract to investigate the range of suitable concepts for a five-spacecraft mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere. Planned for launch in 2005, the five-spacecraft MMS fleet will involve formation flying and two lunar ...
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First Terra satellite images released
NASA has released the first images from an array of instruments aboard its Earth Observing Systems flagship, Terra, which has reached its final 705km (440 miles) polar orbit following its launch on 18 December. They include the Mississippi Delta (shown above). The image was obtained by the polar-orbiting satellite's Moderate ...
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People
Gareth Kirkwood, managing director (MD) of British Airways subsidiary Brymon Airways, has been appointed MD of British Airways World Cargo. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems sector has appointed four new vice-presidents (VPs): Donald Wilhelm - airspace management systems, George Perkins - space systems, James Armitage - engineering, Baltimore operations ...
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Smiths identifies purchases as way ahead for expansion
Chris Jasper/LONDON Smiths Industries says limited opportunities for mergers in the avionics sector mean the growth of its aerospace business is likely to be achieved by expanding its burgeoning control systems interests through more bolt-on acquisitions funded by a £750 million ($1.2 billion) war chest. The UK company says ...
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Frequency wars
At last, the aviation industry has woken up to the fact that it no longer has a birthright to all of the radio frequencies it had assumed belonged to it forever. Radio frequencies are valuable commodities, especially to mobile satellite service (MSS) companies, keen to expand their services and profits ...
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Airbus begins A3XX proposal process
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Julian Moxon/PARIS Chris Jasper/LONDON Airbus Industrie has begun submitting proposals to airlines it regards as key potential customers for the A3XX as it bids to rack up sufficient commitments for the 480-660 seat family to be launched later this year. Unofficial agreement has been reached on assembly ...
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French aerostructures pressed to consolidate
The French aerostructures industry showed strong growth last year as Airbus Industrie, its key customer, continued to improve market share. But the sector is under increasing pressure to consolidate as the airframer targets efficiency improvements ahead of the A3XX launch. Hurel-Dubois co-operates with Latécoère and Socata on Airbus components and, ...
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Mergers
Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications expects to complete its merger with Comsat early in the third quarter, after the US Congress approved satellite communications reform legislation that clears the way for the privatisation of the Intelsat and Inmarsat satellite networks. The legislation allows US customers to bypass Comsat, which controls access ...
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FANS-A datalink tested on A340-300
Airbus Industrie's A340-300 testbed has demonstrated datalink communications between pilot and air traffic controllers as part of round-the-world trials of Airbus' FANS-A (future air navigation system) avionics (Flight International, 8-14 September, 1999). The aircraft features an air traffic services unit manufactured by Aerospatiale Matra Aerospace Airbus, Smiths Industries' digital ...
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Aeronavali looks beyond MDC and targets 767s and ATRs for conversion
Andy Nativi/GENOA Aeronavali is expanding its freighter conversion business beyond the McDonnell Douglas (MDC) DC-10, with plans to add the Boeing 767 widebody and ATR turboprop to its portfolio. The company, a division of Italian aerospace giant Alenia Aerospazio/Finmeccanica, had long-term links with MDC and holds exclusive original equipment ...
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Rockwell venture makes News
Emma Kelly/LONDON Rockwell Collins has formed a joint venture with media giant News Corporation in the latest stage of the avionics manufacturer's continuing move towards providing equipment and services for the passenger cabin. The partners' In Flight Network (IFN) joint venture is designed to provide airline passengers with the latest ...
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People
John Ferrie is to head Smiths Industries Aerospace, succeeding Norman Barber who is retiring. Ferrie joins the UK company as executive director on 10 April and takes over aerospace responsibilities from 31 July. He was previously executive vice-president (VP) business operations for Rolls-Royce. Newly formed Lockheed Martin Aeronautics has completed ...
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Russian airline passenger numbers continue to slip
Russia's 323 airlines carried 21.46 million passengers last year, says the Federal Service of Air Transport - a 3.9% drop compared with the previous year, and the tenth successive fall since 1990's high of 90.7 million passengers (for Russia alone). Passenger load factors rose by an average 3.5 points, ...
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Frequency protection
An industry-wide group comprising airlines, airports, pilots, air traffic controllers and regulatory bodies has formed a coalition and finalised an industry position designed to protect aviation's essential radio frequencies, in preparation for the International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference in May. Meeting in London on 9-10 March, industry associations, including ...
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In the dark
Kawasaki is puzzled by Eurocopter's reluctance to promote the BK117/EC145 Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) plans to lift the veil on its BK117C-2/EC145 helicopter programme, developed jointly with Eurocopter, at Tokyo Aerospace 2000 (TA2000). It faces an unusual problem, however, in its Franco-German partner's reluctance to ...
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Aiming high
Hopes for the future of Japan's troubled space programme rest with a simplified and cut-price version of its H-2 launcher Andrzej Jeziorski/TOKYO The 20th century closed on a low point for Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA). Two failures of its expensive H-2 expendable launch vehicle not only ...
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Enaer targets South America for Eaglet
Enaer is trying to interest South American government agencies in Argentina, Chile and Columbia in its new two-seat side-by-side Eaglet light utility aircraft. The Mexican police had shown interest in the composite aircraft for observation work. The company delivered the first new prototype airframe to its Dutch joint venture ...
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Ayling bails out as British Airways slump takes its toll
Emma Kelly/LONDON British Airways chairman Lord Marshall took over the running of the airline on 10 March with the resignation of chief executive Bob Ayling. Marshall will take on the role of chief executive while a successor is sought. Ayling leaves BA after four years as chief executive and ...