All aerospace news – Page 1815
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Getting a head start
Guy Norris/SEATTLE Looking like a huge airborne spaniel with its ears outstretched, Boeing's 757 flying testbed (FTB) is destined to become a distinctive sight across US skies this year. The FTB was the first 757 to be built, and has been extensively modified internally and externally to test the ...
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Martian gliders
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA hopes to deploy a fleet of small gliders to explore parts of Mars that other spacecraft cannot reachSwooping through Mars' own grand canyon, the Valles Marineris, would be the ultimate hang-gliding trip. The first aircraft to make that tantalising journey could be the $40 million Mars ...
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Eurocopter boosts its sales in USA
Eurocopter's US arm has announced a clutch of helicopter sales to North American air medical operators and law enforcement agencies. Corporate Jets, which operates 36 emergency medical service (EMS) bases across the USA, has taken delivery of its first EC135. Five more will be delivered over the next five ...
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PW4000 operators face surge inspection
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Operators of more than 560 Pratt & Whitney PW4000-powered Airbus A300/ A310s, Boeing 747s, 767s and MD-11s are starting inspections for potential surge problems. The problems are restricted only to 2.37m (94in)-diameter fan versions of the PW4000. The move follows a suspected double surge event ...
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SEC clears PAL to resume 737 payments
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has approved the resumption of payments by debt-ridden Philippine Airlines (PAL) on four leased Boeing 737-300s. Monthly payments of $220,000 for each aircraft will restart to Airplanes Finance, GE Capital Aviation Services and the GPA Group. The go-ahead staves off ...
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SAA chief receives death threat following corruption clean-up
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN Dave Birch/LONDON Efforts by South African Airways' recently appointed chief executive Coleman Andrews to wipe out corruption in the airline could lead to a violent backlash. Meanwhile, SAA has dismissed concerns that corruption within its maintenance division is affecting safety. Andrews and his cargo manager ...
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Bombardier and Embraer subsidies 'were illegal'
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) is poised to rule that rival regional aircraft manufacturers Bombardier of Canada and Embraer of Brazil both benefited from illegal subsidy payments, according to Canadian newspaper reports. If the ruling is confirmed, it could ultimately benefit Bombardier, since it received smaller subsidies and would ...
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CHC takes 25% stake in Norway's HSG
Canada's CHC Helicopter has acquired a 25% stake in Norwegian operator Helicopter Services Group (HSG). Stavanger-based HSG is the parent company of North Sea operators Helikopter Service and Bond Helicopters, Australia's Lloyd Helicopter Service and South Africa's Court Air Holdings. It also owns stakes in Germany's Wiking Helikopter Services ...
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Alleged rule bending stymies BA plans to start Italian airline
Chris Jasper/LONDON Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Secret British Airways plans to establish a franchised airline in Italy have been hit by allegations that Australian regional carrier National Jet Systems (NJS), which had aimed to launch the service, has been trying to circumvent European regulations to gain an air operators certificate ...
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Lockheed Martin sees red hot future for laser manufacturing
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin has begun making prototype parts using a laser direct manufacturing process that it believes could eventually be used to produce complete wing and fuselage structures as single pieces. Under Project Lightspeed, the company has set up a research facility on the factory floor at ...
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News in Brief
Special operations Honeywell has won a $3.2 million US Army contract for 55 shipsets of Primus 700 colour weather radars to equip Boeing MH-47 and Sikorsky MH-60 special operations helicopters. Power generation AlliedSignal is to supply the power generation and distribution system for Bell/ Agusta ...
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Black Hawks to get SAR upgrade
US Army Aviation and Missile Command is to upgrade and modify Sikorsky UH-60L Black Hawk utility helicopters to a search and rescue (SAR) configuration for the Army National Guard. Sikorsky has been awarded a contract to integrate new mission equipment and flight test a modified SAR version of the ...
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On the offensive
Guy Norris/LONG BEACH Boeing's campaign to secure the future of the 717 is going into overdrive Boeing's efforts to establish the 717-200 in the marketplace were boosted on 24 February with the first flight of the premier production example, P-1, at its Long Beach division in California. Even ...
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Partners in production
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Eurofighter production is getting under way with the help of advanced manufacturing technologies Four separate final assembly lines in four different countries, while politically expedient, is not the most efficient means of producing 620 Eurofighters for Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. But the partner companies ...
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NASA may make emergency flight to fix Hubble
An emergency servicing mission may be flown to the Hubble Space Telescope in October because the telescope's gyro system could be on the brink of total failure. The third of its six gyros has now failed and NASA is considering whether to replace them earlier than the third servicing ...
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Ariane launches the UK's military Skynet 4E with Arabsat 3A
The UK's Skynet 4E military communications satellite and the Arabsat 3A satellite were launched on board Ariane V116/44L from Kourou, French Guyana, on 26 February. Matra Marconi Space built the Skynet 4E, and the first of the new generation Arabsat 3A communications spacecraft was built by Aerospatiale's satellite division, ...
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LTS101 Upgraded
AlliedSignal is offering to improve the LTS101 engines powering Eurocopter helicopters. Upgrades will provide AS350D operators with 6% more power and BK117 customers with improved reliability and 20% more single-engine power. Source: Flight International
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Sikorsky Signs With FSI
Sikorsky has signed an agreement with FlightSafety International (FSI) for helicopter pilot and maintenance training. FSI will establish a site at Palm Beach Airport, Florida, and build Level D simulators for the commercial S-76, S-92 and S-70 international version of the UH-60 Black Hawk. Source: Flight International
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FAA settles on leasing plan for ATC update
Paul Lewis /WASHINGTON DC The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is planning to lease new communications, navigation, surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) equipment from industry to finally modernise its oceanic control centres. "We've looked for and settled on a new solution," says Nancy Graham, FAA's oceanic and offshore acting integrator product ...
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Garvey: USA must look at GPS cost
US Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey says an independent risk assessment which said the global position system (GPS) can be the sole means for navigation services, was "a very good first step regarding specific technical questions." The report was compiled by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. She ...