All aerospace news – Page 1735
-
News
Japan's BK117 C-2 prototype flies at Gifu
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has successfully flown the first Japanese-built prototype BK117 C-2 medium-twin-turbine helicopter at its Gifu plant. First flight was on 15 March, for about 1h, says Masato Furusawa, KHI's senior manager of helicopter project engineering. The prototype hovered and demonstrated forward, reverse and sideways flight and ...
-
News
Ariane 5 makes first dual-satellite launch
Ariane 505 flight V128 was launched from Kourou on 21 March, carrying the Asiastar and Insat 3B. It was the first commercial dual-satellite deployment mission by the heavylift booster and its second commercial flight. Ariane 505 carried a 4,835kg (10,650lb) payload to a 560 x 35,785km (350 x 22,225 ...
-
News
NASA replaces Shuttle main engine
NASA is to replace a Space Shuttle main engine on the orbiter Atlantis, being prepared for its STS101 mission to the fledgling International Space Station in mid-April. After finding a defective part inside a metal seal on an engines being prepared for Discovery's mission to the Hubble Space Telescope last ...
-
News
New EMS HQ
The UK's Kent Air Ambulance Trust is to transfer from its temporary headquarters at Rochester Airport to a purpose-built site at nearby Marsden, less than 10 years after the service began. According to the Trust, the new site is the UK's first fully integrated helicopter emergency medical services (EMS) air ...
-
News
Dump compensation
Boeing has offered to reimburse NASA for the loss of two spare oxygen and nitrogen tanks, valued at $750,000, built for use aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The 1.5 x 1.5m tanks (5 x 5ft) were left outside an ISS component assembly building in wooden crates and were accidentally ...
-
News
Aviation industry unites on frequency protection issue
Emma Kelly/LONDON The aviation industry has developed a unanimous position on the protection of its radio frequencies, says John White, director of the Infrastructure Support Group at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The decision precedes May's International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). IATA and the International Civil ...
-
News
Nav Canada aims for North Atlantic ADS datalink trials
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Nav Canada hopes to begin full operational trials with automatic dependence surveillance (ADS) over the North Atlantic in early May, followed by controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), with the upgrade of its Gander Automated Air Traffic Control System. "We are targeting being operational on 7 May. ...
-
News
777-200ER takes polar route to Asia
American Airlines has flown a Boeing 777-200ER twinjet over the North Pole from North America to Asia for the first time, demonstrating wider applications for the new route and strengthening its bid for services to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The American flight from Chicago to Hong Kong was ...
-
News
Slow service take-up hits Globalstar/Iridium
Loral Space and Communications is considering selling all or part of its 45% stake in the Globalstar worldwide mobile-communications satellite system following slower than expected sales of the telephone service. Meanwhile, Iridium prime investor Motorola has notified customers of its worldwide satellite mobile-telephone and paging services that it will ...
-
News
NASA reacts to study criticisms
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has promised swift action following criticism in three separate reports of the space agency's Space Shuttle and "faster, better, cheaper" spacecraft programmes. The Space Shuttle Assessment Team has criticised NASA for cutting staff at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), saying that it has eroded safety - ...
-
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
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 ...