All aerospace news – Page 1753
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Airbus hunts MAS with A320 offer
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is being offered an attractive financial package deal by Airbus Industrie to roll over its narrowbody fleet and replace it with new A320 family aircraft. The move comes as Airbus seeks to bolster an earlier A340-500/600 proposal and undermine support for the yet-to-be launched ...
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Troubleshooting team probes 737-400 wiring
A team from Boeing, the US Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board has been inspecting the wiring on 737-400s. The checks were ordered after an Alaska Airlines aircraft was forced to return to Portland, Oregon, when chafed wires triggered false low fuel pressure readings. As Flight ...
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Study reveals steady safety improvement
David Learmount/LONDON Airline safety is improving more quickly than traditional statistics indicate, says a study by Airclaims in association with the European Union. The annual number of aircraft totally destroyed in airline accidents has been steady since 1970, despite a 350% expansion of the world fleet and an increase ...
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BA tests wireless gatelink at Heathrow
British Airways plans to launch a six-month trial of wireless gatelink communication technology at London Heathrow Airport, starting in March or April. Initially, a Boeing 747-400 will be equipped with a gatelink antenna, radio modem unit and an airborne server in a project also involving SITA, Rockwell Collins and Penny ...
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Avionics upgrade for Challenger 604
Bombardier Challenger 604 business aircraft will feature upgraded Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 avionics from early 2001. The upgraded avionics will be installed as standard on new Challenger 604s and are retrofittable for aircraft in service. The standard upgrades include automatic display of take-off and approach and landing speeds, ...
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Sikorsky completion
Sikorsky has reversed an earlier decision to close its West Palm Beach development flight test centre. The company will continue flight testing the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 and Sikorsky S-92 helicopter in Florida, but is seeking a new location for its S-76 completion centre. Source: Flight International
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Flexible gearbox rig will cut testing costs
GKN Westland Aerospace Transmissions has opened a flexible transmission test rig (FTTR) for testing the gearboxes and engine transmissions of helicopters. The £9 million ($14.6 million) facility at Yeovil features a closed-loop regenerative system capable of simulating output loads of 5,600kW (7,500hp). Gearboxes are mounted on a pallet system ...
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JEA ready to take over CityJet
Chris Jasper/LONDON UK cargo and wet-lease specialist Air Foyle is planning to pull out of Irish carrier CityJet, with regional operator Jersey European Airways (JEA) favourite to step into the breach. Air Foyle took control of CityJet earlier this year, but industry sources say the Dublin-based airline "has proved to ...
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Satcom approval
Universal Avionics Systems has won US Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certification for the Thrane and Thrane Aero-I and Aero-M satcom telephone systems. Aero-I provides a three-channel system, two for voice, fax or modem data, using Inmarsat's spot beam coverage, and a third for packet data, using the Inmarsat global ...
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Tu-134 re-engining offered
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW A Tupolev-led consortium is proposing a cost-effective re-engining and refurbishment programme for the Tupolev Tu-134 twinjet, dubbed the "Tu-134M", to improve performance, efficiency and environmental compliance. Interavia, formed by a group of Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian companies, hopes to secure contracts to refurbish around half the ...
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Seating giant B/E faces bumpy ride
Chris Jasper/LONDON Aircraft interiors specialist B/E Aerospace has issued a profits warning for its current fiscal year and the next after experiencing major difficulties in its seating products group, the largest single element of B/E's business. Florida-based B/E, the world's largest manufacturer of aircraft seats, blames production problems ...
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China conducts further tests in preparation for manned flight
Tim Furniss/LONDON China conducted the first unmanned test of its Shenzhou spacecraft on 20 November. The launch from Jiuquan was also the first to use the Long March 2F (LM2F) booster. China is planning further unmanned test flights of the Shenzhou before launching with a two-man crew on board. The ...
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Cluster II enters testing
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Dornier Satellitensysteme (DSS)has completed the fourth and final satellite for the European Space Agency's (ESA)c300 million ($309 million) Cluster II mission and handed the spacecraft over to Munich-based Industrieanlagen Betriebsgesellschaftfor testing. The satellites are to be orbited in pairs by Russian Soyuz boosters next June and ...
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Hubble service trip delayed for repairs
NASA has delayed the launch of STS103 Discovery on the Hubble Servicing Mission 3A to 9 December. The delay is to allow time for repairs to be made to minor damage on cables between the orbiter and the external tank. During preparations for orbiter Endeavour's mission in January, NASA ...
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NASA awaits Mars attempt
NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) is due to touch down on the Red Planet's south pole on 3 December. NASA is anxious for a successful landing after the failure of the sister ship - the Mars Climate Orbiter - on 23 September. The 1.06m (3ft 6in) tall, 580kg (1,270lb) ...
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Battery lost
The International Space Station's (ISS) Russian Zarya control module is operating on two-thirds of normal battery power after battery number two, one of five, failed to discharge. Battery number one, which failed earlier, is due to be replaced by the STS101 Atlantis crew in March. A second battery change could ...
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Starsem completes sixth Globalstar satellite launch
Starsem launched another four Globalstar mobile communications satellites on a Soyuz Ikar booster from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, on 22 November. There are 48 Globalstar satellites in space and a final launch of four by a Delta II in January will complete the constellation, with four in-orbit spares available. Replacements will ...
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Mergers
SAirGroup ground-handling company Swissport International has acquired Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus' London Heathrow passenger and ramp handling business, offered for sale in April. The move follows Swissport's acquisition of DynAir of the USA and equity investment in Serlipsa of Peru and Miascor of the Philippines. Delta Air Lines and ...
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Police aviation sold
Bombardier has sold UK helicopter operator and distributor, Police Aviation Services (PAS) to RDM, the Dutch industrial group which acquired Boeing's civil helicopter activities earlier this year. The sale, which comes less than two years after PAS' acquisition by the Canadian company, is set for completion on 3 December. The ...
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British Airways launches corporate rescue plan
Chris Jasper/LONDON British Airways has launched a corporate plan with the aim of tackling problem areas, including low yields at London Gatwick Airport, loss-making airline subsidiaries and domestic operation and poor aircraft usage. The plan is part of a bid to secure the massive profit improvements BA financial controller ...