All aerospace news – Page 1773
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Turbofan time
The entrée of the 30/40-seat jet offers the opportunity to focus on modernising the lower end of the regional aircraft fleet Paul Lewis/Washington DC The recent introduction of the new Embraer RJ-135 (above) and Fairchild Aerospace 328JET has heralded the entry into service of a completely new class of ...
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Step by step
A year after ICAO's global CVS/ATM gathering, progress towards the ultimate goal of global implementation is slowly being made Emma Kelly/LONDON In May last year, more than 800 International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) states and aviation decision makers met in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to discuss communications, navigation and surveillance/air ...
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Wishful thinking
DVD, e-mail and Internet access are among the next big things for in-flight services Emma Kelly/LONDONThe in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry's wish list just keeps on growing. No sooner have airlines and IFE system and service suppliers implemented a new capability to entertain, than they are eyeing up the next service ...
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Shuttle schedule switched
NASA has switched the launches of the STS100 Endeavour Shuttle Radar Topography and the STS103 Discovery Hubble servicing missions while inspection and repair work continues on the orbiter's electrical wiring (Flight International, 8-14 September). The tentative launch date for STS103 is 28 October, while STS101 is targeted for a ...
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French air force takes first Cougar CSAR
Eurocopter has delivered the first Cougar Mk2 combat search and rescue helicopter to the French air force. Service entry is planned in around 18 months. The air force requires up to 14 machines, but the latest defence budget provides funding for only four. The remaining three have yet to ...
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Airbus' A3XX economics target 'unachievable', says Boeing
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Boeing has dismissed Airbus Industrie's 15-20% cost saving target for the A3XX over the 747-400 as unachievable. The European consortium claims to be ahead of the targets, as its US rival focuses on cheaper 747-based growth derivatives rather than an all-new design to meet its ...
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DC-9 age leads to calls for checks
Old Age is catching up with the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 fleet as the US Federal Aviation Administration issues directives on two electrical modifications and a revision on the safe life of structural components. Reporting incidents in which short-circuiting has caused "severe smoke and burn damage which could result in ...
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Workshop
Norwegian low cost airline Color Air has signed a five-year engine support contract for its three Boeing 737-300s with Shannon Engine Support in Ireland. The deal for work on the CFM56s will be extended to cover five aircraft when the airline increases its fleet size next April. GE Engine Services ...
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AirTran pins hopes of return to profit on introduction of 717
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES AirTran Airways is poised to introduce the first of up to 100 117-seat Boeing 717s to support its efforts to become profitable this year for the first time since 1995, says chairman and chief executive Joe Leonard. The arrival of the 717 "will be ...
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Greek minister killed in Falcon 900 flight incident
Greece's deputy foreign minister and five others were killed when the Greek Government-owned Dassault Falcon 900B presidential jet suffered an unexplained flight incident on descent into Bucharest, Romania on 14 September. The Falcon 900 (SX-ECH) descended rapidly from 15,000ft (4,600m) to 2,000ft, where the crew recovered control. Although ...
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Zeppelin heads for airship approval
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Zeppelin's new-technology airship flight test programme has passed the halfway mark with over 300 flying hours chalked up. The milestone comes 60 years after the German company halted development of its original family of rigid machines following the loss in May 1937 of the Zeppelin Hindenburg after a ...
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Volga-Dnepr ponders new strategies
Chris Jasper/SHANNONOutsize cargo specialist Volga-Dnepr plans to launch scheduled freight services as part of a major expansion of its operations. The Russian carrier, which offers cargo charters with its Antonov An-124-100 freighters marketed through the UK's HeavyLift Cargo Airlines, may take four Ilyushin Il-96Ts freighters to launch the service, but ...
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Four form joint union
Cabin crew unions from the Netherlands and Italy have formed a new joint organisation in the wake of the KLM/Alitalia strategic alliance. The Wings Cabin Crew Union (WCCU) ties together VNC of the Netherlands and Italy's SULTA, ANPAV and UGL, with the Dutch union claiming the four represent the ...
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SAA's Sun Air bid is rejected
Pretoria has vetoed South African Airways' (SAA) planned take-over and closure of Sun Air after refusing to write off R20 million ($3.3 million) owed by the defunct regional. The UK's Virgin Atlantic Airways is touted as a possible alternative investor. The South African Government says the proposed sale of ...
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Airbus roll-out
Germany's Lufthansa Technik has rolled-out the first of two Airbus A319CJs for the Italian Air Force in its full livery. The Frankfurt-based maintenance and completion centre, which took delivery of the aircraft on 24 August, will outfit the cabin for January delivery. The second aircraft is due for delivery in ...
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'Free' launch for Australia's FedSat
Australia's experimental FedSat micro-satellite will be launched free of charge by the Japanese National Space Development Agency (NASDA) in return for access to scientific data. The satellite will be carried as a piggyback payload aboard an H-IIA rocket launch planned for the last quarter of next year, with a ...
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Beal booster may fly late next year
Beal Aerospace, the privately funded company that is developing the Beal satellite launcher, could test fly a version of the booster from Cape Canaveral late next year or in early 2001. The all-liquid-fuelled three-stage BA-2 model will be as large as the Titan 4B, the USA's most powerful unmanned ...
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Fregat qualification
Starsem, the Arianespace/Aerospatiale/Russian Space Agency/Samara consortium which markets the Soyuz booster for commercial launchers, has completed qualification of the Fregat upper stage for the vehicle. Added to the Soyuz, the Fregat will improve the booster's low and medium earth orbit capability and enable it to complete planetary-type missions. The Soyuz-Fregat ...
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Joining the jet age
Turbofan power is giving the 328 regional airliner a new lease of life Andrew Doyle/OBERPFAFFENHOFENIt is an unconventional way of bringing a regional jet to the marketplace. Fairchild Aerospace has created a capable 30-seat aircraft by re-engining the Dornier 328 turboprop with turbofans. First deliveries of the 328JET were made ...
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Unmanned alternatives
II(AC) Sqn pilots see unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) as a viable alternative to the manned aircraft for certain missions, particularly suppression of enemy air defences, and because of the political pressure to avoid casualties. A flight commander says the difficulty with UCAVs "is the physical pushing of the button. ...