All aerospace news – Page 1864
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Gemini in talks with Boeing for MD-11s
Gemini Air Cargo is talking to Boeing about a potential deal to acquire new MD-11 freighters, but is also examining possible secondhand aircraft acquisitions as it awaits a decision from the manufacturer on the tri-jet's production future. The Washington Dulles-based supplemental cargo carrier, which has just introduced its eighth ...
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China gears up for more Iridiums
China Great Wall Industry is to launch a further eight pairs of Motorola Iridium mobile communications satellites aboard Long March 2C/SD boosters. The move will allow Motorola to maintain a fleet of six in-orbit spares as replacements for operational craft in the 66-satellite operational system. The third launch of ...
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Boeing wins $1.4 billion Ellipso deal
Tim Furniss/LONDON Mobile Communications Holdings has awarded a $1.4 billion contract to Boeing to design, fabricate and launch satellites in the Ellipso system to provide worldwide fixed, mobile and airborne communications from elliptical orbit. Boeing will also provide the ground segment infrastructure for the 16-satellite system in two ...
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Neurolab returns to Kennedy after 16 day flight
Space Shuttle Columbia/ STS90 returned to the Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 2 May after a 15 day 21h international Spacelab research mission. The Neurolab was dedicated to research the activity of the brain in weightlessness and involved a menagerie of animals and reptiles, many of which died during ...
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Hair-raising missions
Tim Furniss/LONDON Some people might think it a rather weird way of making money out of space, but business is business. First, people's ashes were sent into orbit; now the Celestis company, based in Houston, Texas, is inviting people to send samples of their hair into the Universe. Celestis ...
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Brazilian work-out
Max Kingsley-Jones/ISLE OF MAN Julian Moxon/NANTES Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Embraer spent a long time bringing its 50-seat RJ-145 to the marketplace. It was almost a full eight years from the original EMB-145 programme launch in June 1989 to service entry with launch customer Continental Express in April 1997, with the ...
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Light flier
Peter Gray/SINGAPORE With so many other light helicopters on the market, it was going to be interesting to evaluate the five-seat EC120B Colibri, the new multipurpose machine from Eurocopter and its Chinese and Singaporean partners. The aim of my evaluation, which follows Flight International's technical description, was to see if ...
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ESDU fatigue data
ESDU has released a data item which describes the standard loading sequence for fatigue assessment of helicopter rotor systems. The Helix is intended for hinged rotor systems, while the Felix is destined for fixed (semi-rigid) systems. Source: Flight International
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Air Maroc first
Honeywell/Trimble has been awarded a supplementary type certificate for its HT9100 navigation management system for the Boeing 737 "classic" by the US Federal Aviation Administration. A Royal Air Maroc 737-200 was used for the certification of the system, which will allow such aircraft to operate using basic area navigation, allowing ...
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Eurocontrol alters B-RNAV date following poor compliance level
Emma Kelly/LONDON Eurocontrol has set a final deadline of 1 August, 1998, for operators in European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) airspace to meet basic area navigation (B-RNAV) requirements following a "very disappointing" level of compliance achieved for the 23 April deadline. Under the April schedule, the carriage of ...
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Hong Kong starts on move to Chek Lap Kok
The Airport Authority of Hong Kong is beginning the relocation from Kai Tak to the territory's new international gateway at Chek Lap Kok two months ahead of its scheduled opening on 6 July. The formal move to the new HK$70.7 billion ($9.1 billion) Hong Kong International Airport starts on ...
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Pilots fear global alliances may affect air safety in the future
Harry Hopkins/MONTREAL Global airline alliances could threaten safety in the future by eclipsing the control of national aviation authorities, the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations (IFALPA) agreed at its 23-28 April annual conference in Montreal, Canada. The implication is that the influence of operators' certificates could be ...
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Rolls-Royce standardises on hybrid RB211 after entry success
Rolls-Royce is to discontinue production of older versions of its RB211-524G/H engine after successful service entry of the first of its new hybrid versions, the RB211-524HT, last month. The hybrid engine upon which Rolls-Royce will "standardise" has the same core as the Trent 700, the company's powerplant for the ...
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Lufthansa fights for Frankfurt
Kevin O'Toole/FRANKFURT Lufthansa chairman Jürgen Weber has threatened to pursue the European Commission through the courts if competition commissioner Karel Van Miert goes ahead with demands for the surrender of slots at Frankfurt as the price for the airline's transatlantic alliance. Weber's warning follows reports coming out of Brussels suggesting ...
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Canada arranges a cheaper EH101 deal
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Canada has negotiated a lower price and better offsets for its purchase of 15 EH Industries AW520 Cormorant search and rescue (SAR) helicopters. The final contract is worth C$579 million ($404.8 million), down by over C$13 million from the maximum value announced when the Cormorant ...
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Moving up
Tim Furniss/LONDON A key marker in the development of the ILS International Launch Services Atlas III takes place this month when a prototype booster stage with a Russian-based RD-180 engine will be test fired at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. In early 1999 the Atlas III ...
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Refinements delay first flight of Century Jet
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Century Aerospace has pushed back first flight, certification and delivery of its single-turbofan Century Jet to incorporate cabin design changes and refinements which have been recommended by the company's customer advisory committee. The first flight of the Century Jet, initially planned for July 1999, has been ...
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NASA and FAA get going on post-AGATE goals
Dave Higdon/HOUSTON NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration have begun studying the next step in general aviation revitalisation, even before programmes to develop new aircraft and engine technologies have reached fruition. It already appears that infrastructure will be the focus of the next NASA/FAA effort after the ...
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Fractional plan for FBOs starts
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Burgeoning interest in fractional ownership has prompted a US company to launch a franchise programme offering fixed-base operators (FBOs) access to a standardised scheme that will be promoted nationally. Skyshare International has used its experience setting up a local shared-ownership programme in Little Rock, Arkansas, ...
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Lockheed Martin consolidates support business
Lockheed Martin is to consolidate its spare parts and logistic services business under its Aircraft &Logistics Centers unit based in Greenville, South Carolina. The move is part of the plan to grow the company's support business, which led to last year's consolidation of its aircraft maintenance and modification operations at ...