All aerospace news – Page 1763
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NASA reschedules Shuttle launches
NASA has given tentative launch dates for the next three Space Shuttle missions as wiring inspections and repairs on orbiters Discovery and Endeavour near completion and similar work begins on Atlantis. The STS103 Discovery, the Hubble Space Telescope-Servicing 3A mission, will be launched on 2 December. The Shuttle ...
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Stevens nears Orenda C90 certificate
Stevens Aviation plans to begin the last phase of flight tests of a Raytheon KingAir C90, re-engined with Orenda liquid-cooled V8 piston engines "within the next couple of weeks". The delayed flight test effort involves two C90s. It should lead to a US Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certificate ...
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Workshop
Australian regional Kendell Airlines has selected GE Engine Services to maintain and service the General Electric CF34-3Bs which power its new Canadair Regional Jet fleet. The deal is valued at around $40 million. KLM and its subsidiary, Martinair, have signed a contract with Boeing covering the exchange, overhaul and repair ...
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Globalstar tally increases as ICO changes business plan
Tim Furniss/LONDON Starsem launched another Soyuz-Ikar booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 18 October, carrying four more Globalstar satellites into orbit, bringing the total to 44. Starsem, the Aerospatiale Matra, Arianespace, Russian Space Agency and Samara Space Centre company, plans another launch next month, carrying another four ...
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Arianespace puts Orion 2 into orbit
Arianespace launched a 44LP booster from Kourou, French Guiana, on 19 October on mission V122, carrying the Orion 2 digital TV satellite for Loral Orion. It was the 48th consecutive Ariane 4 launch success and the third Ariane 4 launch in 45 days. The V123 mission, set for 13 November, ...
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Mexico LongRangers
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has ordered 24 Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters for use in anti-drug missions. The $35 million deal calls for the first four machines to be delivered by December and the remaining 20 by next September. The new 206s, assembled at Bell's base in Montreal, Canada, will be ...
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ISS mission support site opens
Boeing support personnel for the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle have begun moving into a $3 million, engineering/mission support room (EMSR). Similar to NASA's mission control complex at Houston, the EMSR was opened at the company's Huntington Beach site in California on 18 October. It replaces ...
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Marconi secures 737 HUD approval from FAA
American Airlines is set to receive its first Boeing 737-800 equipped with a Marconi HUD 2020 Visual Guidance System (VGS) this month, following US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the head-up display (HUD). The aircraft is the first of at least 103 737-800s due to be fitted with the VGS, ...
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Boeing set to launch cockpit upgrades for 'classic' airliners
Andrew Doyle/BRUSSELS Boeing plans to launch major cockpit upgrade programmes for the 737 Classic, MD-80 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 as airlines begin to address the problem of how to comply with future air navigation requirements. The initiative is being driven by industry moves to establish a "free flight" regime in ...
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TWA and Delta expand hub feed
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Trans World Airlines is to launch a regional jet operation as part of an expansion of its feeder service. Another US carrier, Delta Air Lines, has moved to further strengthen its Connection network by acquiring partner airline Comair. TWA plans to have eight 50-seat regional ...
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Out on a wing
NASA is set to turn an experimental project into full-scale scientific and commercial work Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESAs shopping expeditions go, visiting NASA's display of Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project aircraft on 13 October has to rank as one of the strangest. On show, under the appropriate banner ...
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Silence please
As stringent Stage IV noise limits loom, US aerospace engineers are studying how far noise reduction is technologically and economically possible Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESWhile the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) moves relentlessly towards an undefined Stage IV noise limit for airliner operations in the 21st century, the industry is hard ...
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SIA gets set to join Star Alliance
Jens Flottau/TOKYO Singapore Airlines (SIA) is to join the Star Alliance by the start of the second quarter of next year after an on-off saga in which the Asian giant seemed to distance itself from the group after clashing with Star member Air New Zealand over ownership of Ansett Australia. ...
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Levitation kick-start could cut costs
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and PRT Advanced Maglev System have built a track to test whether a rocket-powered spacecraft could be given a low-cost, high speed kick-start into the atmosphere before the craft's engines are ignited. The 15m (50ft)-long development is an electrically powered advanced linear induction motor-powered magnetic ...
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NASA denies Mars Polar science loss
Tim Furniss/LONDON The Mars Polar Lander (MPL) will not lose its science-gathering capability as a result of the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter on 23 September, says NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The MPL is set to land on the edge of the Martian south pole on 6 December. ...
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Saab 2000 hits hangar
A two-year-old SAS Commuter Saab 2000 ploughed into a hangar at Stockholm Arlanda Airport on 8 October while being taxied by two mechanics. The Saab-owned aircraft came to rest halfway through the hangar door, suffering extensive damage to its nose, wing leading edge and engine nacelles, and may be beyond ...
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Falcon 50 engine retrofit firms up
AlliedSignal has signed an agreement with Dassault covering the retrofit of TFE731-40 turbofans to Falcon 50s, as Garrett Aviation Services nears completion of the first re-engining at its Springfield, Illinois site. The -40s replace the original TFE731-3 engines, and produce 24% more cruise thrust, as well as a reducing ...
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AlliedSignal launches new safety avionics
AlliedSignal has unveiled a line of safety avionics for business and general aviation aircraft. The Integrated Hazard Avoidance Systems (IHAS) combine position, weather, traffic and terrain information on a multi-function display. "We are bringing air transport safety technologies to business and general aviation-perhaps the market segment that needs it the ...
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BA snubs 717 and stays with Airbus for short-haul fleet strategy revamp
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON British Airways' decision to order more Airbus narrowbodies rather than the Boeing 717 for its 100-seat needs is part of a major short-haul fleet strategy revamp. According to sources within the carrier, the three-year-plan, which comes as part of the airline's strategy of reducing capacity and ...
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Liberate ATC operations, urges CANSO
David Learmount/LONDON All air traffic control services must be liberated from direct governmental control, says the Geneva-based Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), which represents the world's 20 autonomous air traffic services (ATS) providers. CANSO believes the alternative is that the world's air navigation services will die through ...