All aerospace news – Page 1742
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US majors feel the squeeze, but profit from the sale of assets
Chris Jasper/LONDON On first sight, recently published financial figures for the USA's major airlines appear to point to a successful year in 1999. Most of the top 10 reported healthy net profits and exhibited increases in passengers boarded and group turnover. All this indicates that the air transport market they ...
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Hope X engine tests completed as Japan freezes funding
US company Aerojet has completed verification testing of the Orbital Manoeuvring Engine (OME) intended to power the Japanese HOPE-X orbiter. Aerojet has been developing the OME under contract from Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI), the vehicle's propulsion system contractor. The testing was completed shortly after the Japanese National Space Development ...
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BA steps up the class war
Chris Jasper/LONDON British Airways has launched a radical overhaul of its premium cabins, introducing aft-facing and flat-bed seats in business class and a new "upper economy" product. The move is aimed at increasing the proportion of business travellers on BA's long haul services, and cements its strategy of targeting high-yield ...
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777X crew rest plans advance
Boeing is working with an advisory group of 14 airlines towards the final configuration for upper-lobe crew-rest areas for its planned ultra-long range 777-200X/300X family. An advanced flightcrew rest area in the forward upper lobe has been finalised, which will free four first or business class seats, or provide extra ...
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New delay for Endeavour flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON New attempts to launch Space Shuttle Endeavour STS99 on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) have been further delayed to at least 11 February because of launch-related commitments at adjoining Cape Canaveral. A possible STS99 launch on 9 February has been ...
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SpaceDev/Boeing link for exploration
SpaceDev and Boeing have agreed a teaming arrangement to investigate opportunities of "mutual strategic interest" in commercial deep-space exploration and exploitation. They will use as the basis for the study a variety of small low-cost missions formulated by SpaceDev, the world's first commercial space exploration company. The two firms ...
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SeaStar pictures US winter storm
The extent of the intense winter storm that struck much of the eastern USA recently can be seen in this image, which was captured by NASA's sea viewing wide field-of-view sensor (SeaWifs) on board the Orbital Sciences SeaStar satellite. The SeaWifs was built by Hughes. Source: Flight International
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Inflatable heatshield tests set for Fregat
Tim Furniss/LONDON A Soyuz booster is scheduled to test the new Fregat upper stage for Franco-Russian venture Starsem. The test will be carried out after its launch on 9 February. The mission will also test new inflatable re-entry technology heatshields developed by Lavochkin and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace. The Fregat will ...
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Minotaur is multiple success
The US Air Force Orbital Suborbital programme was inaugurated on 27 January when the Minotaur booster was launched for the first time, from Vandenberg AFB's commercial launch pad, operated by Spaceport International. The Minotaur carried the Jawsat multipayload adaptor holding the USAF Falconsat; the Arizona University Asusat; the Stanford University ...
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Mir makes Progress with docking success
A Soyuz booster was launched from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 1 February, carrying a Progress M tanker that docked with the Mir space station on 3 February. The tanker will raise the Mir's orbit to 400km. The Russian Government has approved a proposed 750 million rouble ($26.2 million) programme to ...
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Schweizer denial
Schweizer Aircraft, the pioneering family-held US light helicopter manufacturer, is not for sale, says president Paul Schweizer. His denial follows the mysterious distribution of a prospectus which indicates that the Elmira, New York-based concern seeks a buyer. Source: Flight International
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Cleaning up the act
The increasing risk to spacecraft from debris is causing concern in the space industry Tim Furniss/LONDON Space debris is a perennial problem. About 8,700 man-made objects larger than tennis balls - of which only about 700 are operational satellites - can be tracked in Earth orbit. Of these, ...
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CarterCopter rebuilds for new flight tests
CarterCopter, the Texas-based maker of a proof-of-concept hybrid autogyro and fixed-wing aircraft, is rebuilding and modifying the prototype after it crash-landed on its twelfth flight. The innovative gyroplane, designed by company president Jay Carter, is designed to take off and land vertically and fly at low speeds like a ...
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Eurocopter delays EC145 sales effort
Eurocopter has put back commercial sales of its EC145 medium-twin utility helicopter for around 12 months, until the production backlog, totalling 40 machines for the French security forces, has been cleared. Advertising and promotion of the Turboméca Arriel 2E1-powered machine has also been delayed temporarily. Eurocopter president Siegfried Sobotta ...
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Fractional ownership to be a click away
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON TransJet.com, an Internet-based business aircraft and helicopter fractional ownership venture believed to be the first of its kind, will start operations on 15 February in the USA. The operation, owned by 3wVentures.com, a California-based Internet funding subsidiary of venture capitalist Web Capital of Florida, plans to launch ...
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US distributor first to order Socata TB GT
Julian Moxon/TARBES Socata has launched its TB Generation Two (TB GT) range of light aircraft with a major US order for 79 aircraft. The deal, signed with recently appointed West Coast distributor New Avex, includes up to 10 TBM700 single-engined turboprops. The Aerospatiale Matra general aviation subsidiary has also ...
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American eyes aircraft for Asia
American Airlines is looking at its aircraft acquisition options to extend the range of its fleet to open planned new non-stop routes from Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth to Asia. The US carrier has applied to the US Department of Transport to operate to Beijing and Shanghai under a revised ...
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Airbus slips delivery plan for A3XX
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Airbus Industrie is targeting October 2005 for first production delivery of the A3XX-100 if it can muster sufficient market support by mid-year for the consortium's supervisory board to commit to a simultaneous launch offer of passenger and cargo variants of the ultra-large aircraft. The October ...
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Air France/Delta to raid rival groups
Emma Kelly/PARIS and ATLANTA Air France and Delta Air Lines are identifying members of competing alliances to join their unnamed airline grouping, which they aim to unveil in the second quarter. The partners are tight-lipped on potential alliance members following disappointment over their public courting of British Midland ...
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FAA issues MD-11 inspection ADs
The US Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to issue eight additional airworthiness directives (ADs) calling on the inspection of Boeing MD-11 electrical system wiring. The move follows the 1998 crash of a Swissair MD-11 near Halifax, Nova Scotia. An electrical fire is suspected. The FAA says that the ADs ...