All aerospace news – Page 1732
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American expands DVD programme
American Airlines has extended the use of personal digital versatile/video disk (DVD) players on its flights and will introduce the new in-flight entertainment (IFE) technology to additional services in July. American became the first carrier to offer passengers individual DVD players on regular scheduled services last September (Flight International, 22-28 ...
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JAL to entertain with Total system
Japan Airlines (JAL) has put into passenger service its first Boeing 747-400 equipped with the Rockwell Collins Total Entertainment System (TES). It will have to wait until the third quarter of the year to activate audio-and video-on-demand (A/VOD) services, however. The aircraft, which has the TES fitted to every ...
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Television to go live on JetBlue
JetBlue Airways will launch Sextant In-Flight Systems/Harris' LiveTV service on its first two Airbus A320s this month. The New York Kennedy-based airline will be the first carrier to introduce the joint venture's live broadcast satellite service and the first to offer live broadcast television service across its fleet. The ...
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Bluetooth potential
Bluetooth wireless technology has been identified as having potential applications for in-flight entertainment. Bluetooth comprises a small transceiver allowing two-way communications between similarly equipped devices within a 10m (33ft) range. IFE applications could include wireless headsets, handsets and telephone devices, with possibilities including linking a passenger's notebook computer to a ...
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SAS closes on interactive IFE
Emma Kelly/LONDON Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) is to decide before the end of this month on the interactive in-flight entertainment (IFE) system for its new Airbus A330-300s and A340-300s. IFE manager Hermine Wachmeister says SAS has completed its evaluations of the final two candidates - Matsushita's new System 3000 ...
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Beal booster progresses with test firing of BA-810 engine
Tim Furniss/LONDON Beal Aerospace has conducted a test firing of its 810,000lb-thrust (3,605kN), hydrogen-peroxide JET-A kerosene BA-810 engine at McGregor, Texas, as part of the development programme for its BA-2 heavy-lift launch vehicle. The three-stage BA-810-powered BA-2 is due to fly in 2002. Beal says the BA-810 is ...
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ESA selects flexi-mission candidates
The European Space Agency's (ESA) science advisers have proposed six new space science missions to be considered for ESA's "flexi-mission" series, due to be launched between 2005 and 2009. The flexi-missions were introduced in 1997 to allow two missions to be funded for the price of one former medium-class ...
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Soyuz TM cosmonauts to bring Mir out of mothballs
Tim Furniss/LONDON The launch of a Soyuz TM spacecraft from Baikonur, with the first cosmonaut crew to man the Mir space station since it was mothballed last year, will take place on 3 April. The pressurised environment on the Mir has been checked automatically and the launch given the ...
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Maintenance purchase
Pratt & Whitney has purchased Braathens ASA's engine maintenance facility at Stavenger, Norway, giving P&W Engine Services its first presence in Europe. Source: Flight International
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First Canadian EH101
The first Cormorant search and rescue variant of the EH Industries EH101 helicopter for the Canadian Forces has flown at Agusta's Vergiate factory. Canada has ordered 15 Cormorants to replace ageing Boeing Labradors. Source: Flight International
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NEAR monitors asteroid rotation
The NASA Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft has entered a lower, 200km (125 miles), orbit around the asteroid Eros after two orbit correction manoeuvres.Next month NASA hopes to conduct a third short engine burn, moving the spacecraft into a 100km orbit. By May, the NEAR will be moved as ...
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Cargo conversion market grows with US-Israeli tie-up
Cargo Conversions, a San Francisco-based Boeing 747 conversion specialist, has teamed with Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) to market 747-100/200 freighter conversions, using a TRW-built kit and a supplemental type certificate (STC) held by the Israeli company. "We will take kits from TRW, built in accordance with the IAI design, ...
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Asian industry positions for freighter conversion boom
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Aerospace companies in Singapore and Taiwan are manoeuvring to claim a greater share of an expected boom in narrow and widebody airliner freighter conversions over the next few years. In Taiwan, Boeing has signed a conversion agreement with Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, Air Asia, China Airlines (CAL) and ...
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Boeing unwraps avionics upgrade technique
Boeing has demonstrated a low-cost avionics upgrade technique that allows existing software to run unmodified on new commercial processors. The technique involves a computer program which "wraps" around the legacy software and allows it to operate with new commercial software and hardware. Boeing's demonstrations involved the C-17 Globemaster ...
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Mars landings
NASA has cancelled the planned Mars landing mission set for launch in 2001. Instead, a replacement for the Mars Climate Orbiter, which was lost in September, will lift off. A replacement Mars Polar Lander (MPL) will be launched in 2002 instead, aiming for the same site as the MPL 1, ...
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Air-launched booster under study by USA
Boeing is studying the feasibility of developing an air-launched booster capable of launching military and commercial payloads on demand. The AirLaunch booster is being designed by Boeing and Thiokol Propulsion as a possible launch system for the USAir Force's planned Space Manoeuvre Vehicle (SMV), a reusable, unmanned spaceplane. ...
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Midland determined on long haul
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON British Midland (BM) is adamant that it will begin long-haul services next year, but is tight lipped about its contingency plans should it not receive clearance for transatlantic flights. The airline had expected to be in a position to detail its plans for transatlantic flights from London Heathrow ...
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Second Fregat test precedes commercial debut
Starsem plans to launch the second Soyuz Fregat booster from Baikonur on 19 March to place two dummy satellites into a simulated orbit, using the Fregat upper stage. The mission will pave the way for two commercial launches in June and July, designed to place two pairs of Cluster ...
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Power problem delays IMAGE
Concern about the condition of DC-to-DC power converters on the Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration (IMAGE) satellite has delayed the 15 March launch of the spacecraft aboard a Boeing Delta II from Vandenberg AFB, California. Launch preparations for the $153 million Lockheed Martin-built satellite have been halted after an ...
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NASA details ISS price list
Tim Furniss/LONDON Users of the US share of International Space Station resources will be charged a standard price of $20.8 million a year, according to a preliminary price structure released by NASA. The charge is quoted for use of each of two typical "bundles" of equipment, excluding transportation ...