All aerospace news – Page 1832

  • News

    Airbus stands by safety regulations

    1998-10-21T00:00:00Z

    Airbus has insisted that existing safety regulations are adequate for large aircraft such as the 480/660-seat A3XX now on the drawing board. Speaking at the Very Large Transport Aeroplane (VLTA) conference at Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, on 13-16 October, Wolfgang Didszuhn, vice-president for product integrity at Airbus, said: "There is ...

  • News

    European/US navigation systems tested together

    1998-10-21T00:00:00Z

    David Learmount/KEFLAVIK Tests using a US Federal Aviation Administration Boeing 727 have proved for the first time that European and US satellite navigation augmentation systems can work together. The 727 carried out successful Category I precision approaches to Keflavik Airport, Iceland, on 15 October using global positioning system ...

  • News

    Russia develops satellite link recorder system

    1998-10-21T00:00:00Z

    Paul Duffy/MOSCOW A Russian research institute has developed a system to download flight data recorder (FDR) information instantly via a communication satellite. The system, developed by the NTTs institute, has been tested on a Sukhoi Su-27, and is to be installed on two new Ilyushin Il-62Ms on order from ...

  • News

    Swearingen selects avionics for re-priced SJ30

    1998-10-21T00:00:00Z

     Sino Swearingen has selected an avionics suite for its twin-engined SJ30 business jet and has hiked the price by 20%, " based on the October 1998 US dollar". The seven-seat SJ30 will now be equipped with the Honeywell-Primus Epic control display system with flat-panel displays and IC-615 integrated avionics ...

  • News

    Ariane logs another success

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Arianespace launched Eutelsat's W2 and the Swedish Sirius 3communications satellites into geostationary transfer orbit aboard the Ariane 44L/V111 from Kourou at 22:51 GMT on 5 October. The W2 was built by Alcatel (formerly Aerospatiale's satellite division) and the Sirius by Hughes Space and Communications. The launch came just 19 days ...

  • News

    NASA sets November ISS date

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has set 20 November as the date for the International Space Station (ISS) project finally to get airborne. Six years later than planned when the project was initiated in 1984, Russia's Zarya control module will be the first section launched into space aboard a Proton booster. ...

  • News

    STEX is launched on third Taurus booster

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Orbital Sciences launched its third Taurus booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 3 October, carrying the $90 million National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) Space Technology Experiment (STEX) satellite. The STEX incorporates 29 new technologies, including a 5km-long Advanced Tether Experiment. The Lockheed Martin-built 6,985kg STEX is designed to explore new ...

  • News

    Russia and USA sign to commit to safety

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Russia and the USA have signed two agreements aimed at improving aviation safety relations between the two countries. The deals were signed last month by US State Secretary Madeleine Albright and her Russian counterpart, Yevgeni Primakov (who has subsequently become prime minister). The main part of the first ...

  • News

    IPTN wants overseas help for ailing N-250 turboprop project

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Indonesia's IPTN is approaching international aerospace manufacturers and banks simultaneously, seeking backing for the N-250 as government funding for the turboprop programme begins to dry up. The company has been forced to scrap plans to produce a fourth N-250 prototype, while assembly of the third (PA3) ...

  • News

    Marketplace

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    -India's Jet Airways has taken delivery of two Boeing 737-800s. The leased aircraft will replace one 737-400 and one 737-500. -Indian airline Bengal Air is adding two more British Aerospace 748-2Bs for a late October start. -Cargo airline Atlas Air has purchased Cargolux International's three Boeing 747-200 freighters, but will ...

  • News

    SIA closes in on Star status

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Singapore Airlines (SIA) is about to take a step closer to becoming a full member of the Star Alliance by concluding a bilateral partnership with SAS, as part of a wider move by the group's five members to consolidate coverage of the Asia-Pacific region. Founding Star airline SAS is ...

  • News

    'Intranet in the sky' is planned

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Two European airlines are leading the drive to link aircraft on the ground and in the air with the airline's "intranet" information technology systems. Lufthansa charter affiliate Condor and Swissair plan demonstrations of systems to allow Internet-style exchanges of information with aircraft using low-power datalinks ...

  • News

    Oriental opening

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The concept of business aviation in Asia has been for many years a bit of a misnomer. A combination of infrastructural shortcomings, official hostility and user ignorance conspired to constrain severely the development of the executive aircraft market. Despite recent economic difficulties, there are encouraging indications that this ...

  • News

    Space rescue

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON On 26 September, 92 days after being lost in deep space, the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) began sending back images of the sun again. The spacecraft's remarkable rescue owes much of its success to the initial location work completed by the large radio ...

  • News

    R-R plans joint European repair venture

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Rolls-Royce is in discussions with Swissair and Lufthansa to form a new tripartite engine repair and overhaul facility in Europe as plans to establish a similar joint venture with Singapore Airlines (SIA) have slowed in the face of Asia's economic crisis. The UK engine manufacturer is understood to ...

  • News

    Improving safety

    1998-10-14T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/MONTREAL Teams of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) inspectors will move out early next year to begin mandatory safety oversight audits, opening a new chapter in the history of the United Nations agency. The programme of "regular, mandatory, systematic and harmonised safety audits" in all 185 member states was ...

  • News

    Swing-by

    1998-10-07T12:11:00Z

    Japan's first Mars probe, Nozomi, has used the moon for the first of a series of gravity-assist swing-bys, as part of its flight campaign en route to the Red Planet. A second moon swing-by will be performed in December and another will be made in October 1999, using the earth ...

  • News

    Australia throws challenge to flailing Air Niugini

    1998-10-07T00:00:00Z

    Brisbane-based Flight West Airlines has expanded plans for new services between northern Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), further challenging embattled Air Niugini on one of its prime revenue earning routes. The Australian regional carrier now plans to add two direct flights weekly between Cairns and PNG's second city, Lae, ...

  • News

    Airports

    1998-10-07T00:00:00Z

    -Saudi Arabia's Presidency of Civil Aviation has invited bids from Saudi Arabian companies and Saudi Arabian foreign joint ventures for the operation and maintenance of 24 domestic airports. The tender covers all airports except Riyadh and Jeddah. -Lufthansa's supervisory board has cleared plans for the airline to take a stake ...

  • News

    FAA free flight programme to retain existing ground navaids

    1998-10-07T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC A new airspace system modernisation plan drawn up by the US Federal Aviation Administration will retain at least one-third of the existing ground-based navigation and landing aids beyond 2015. The plan, expected to be released within a month, also foresees the introduction of automatic dependent ...