All aerospace news – Page 1884
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Insurers threaten to withdraw cover unless airlines tackle computer bug
Aviation insurers have challenged airlines to prove that their fleet avionics are free of the "millennium bug" which threatens to disrupt computer software, or lose their cover for any incidents which result from it. The issue, says a major Lloyds insurance-market underwriter, is what may happen to embedded computer ...
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Regional brinkmanship
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Brazil and Canada have been brought to the brink of a trade war by a dispute between Bombardier and Embraer over alleged Government subsidies for regional-jet development and sales. Now, representatives of the two countries have until the end of February to resolve the dispute, which threatens ...
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Early Bird remote sensor is lost four days after launch
US company EarthWatch has conceded that its first commercial remote-sensing satellite, the Early Bird, has been lost. The spacecraft, built by CTA, now part of Orbital Sciences, was launched into a 470km polar orbit by a Start 1 booster from the Svobodny Cosmodrome in far-east Russia on 24 December. ...
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Spacecraft explores Earth
This image of the Earth's South Pole and part of South America was taken at a distance of about 640km by NASA's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft. The photograph demonstrates the craft's charged-coupled device imager, which was used when the vehicle was flying past the planet at a ...
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Work halts on manned missions
Tim Furniss/LONDON Work at NASA on advanced planning for potential manned Moon and Mars missions has been stopped. Budget difficulties and anticipated future budget restraint have made it obvious to the agency that nearer-term goals must take priority. NASA centres, including the Advanced Projects office at Houston, Texas, ...
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Israel's Shavit booster suffers a second failure
The Failure of the Shavit booster on 22 January, with the loss of the Ofeq 4 spy satellite, was the second of five Israeli launches which has failed to put a satellite into orbit. The three-stage booster, based on the two-stage Jericho 2 missile, was first flown in 1988 ...
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Robin runs smoothly
Julian Moxon/DIJON Drive out of Dijon on the N71 and, after a few kilometres of winding road, you come to a place called Darois, where you may have to stop, or at least slow down, while an aeroplane is taxied across the road from where it was built to where ...
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Do not pass 'go'
So British Airways' no-frills start-up is "Go"; but will it - and what sort of response will it attract from powerful European competitors like Lufthansa? Even more important, from where will the passengers come to make these no-frills airlines work? The justification for an existing airline to launch a ...
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DOT spotlights fare changes
The US Department of Transportation began publishing its domestic airline fares consumer report in response to an increasing number of inquiries about ticket prices. The first report, for the third quarter of 1996, was released in June last year and the latest report is based on data for the second ...
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Islands apart
A grand plan for Air Jamaica to be the focus of closer cooperation in the Caribbean region has failed to materialise, and instead would-be partners like BWIA continue to pursue their own separate strategies. Karen Walker reports. According to a joke that circulates in the Caribbean, St Peter allows newly ...
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No more red China blues?
Tom Ballantyne China's airlines are getting their first taste of capitalism as the country's carriers drastically slash their air fares and liberalisation hits the region. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has given its 27 CAAC-approved airlines the go-ahead to cut prices by up to 40 per cent ...
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Carriers free private parts
Doug Cameron Belgium-based City Bird's rocky initial public offering suggests that the recent spate of successful IPOs by European airlines may be over. Last year, low-cost European airline stocks benefited from a surge in interest from US investors who moved heavily into Ryanair and Virgin Express. However, the ...
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Higher US fares are hitting home
As US domestic fares continue to rise, more business travellers are making concessions in order to obtain lower fares, or are switching to low-cost carriers. Report by Karen Walker. The New Year had barely been rung in when both American Express and the US Department of Transportation confirmed what most ...
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Mexican gulf breaks down
Karen Walker Mexico's chief regional airlines mean to work closer together with the possible aim of becoming a single operation while retaining individual names, shunning concerns about monopolistic behaviour among Mexican airlines. Mexico's major airlines, Aeromexico and Mexicana, and the regionals Aerocaribe, Aerocozumel and Aerolitoral, are affiliates of ...
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Taiwan demob
Taiwan's parliament has passed a law allowing police to board aircraft to break up demonstrations by travellers. Airline customers in Taiwan regularly stage cabin protests on both domestic and international flights when they are delayed, demanding free tickets or cash compensation for the inconvenience. Source: Airline Business
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Cheap thrills with no frills
Lois Jones Low-cost startups are beginning to looking extremely vulnerable as more majors launch low-cost subsidiaries, ignoring the argument that the independent players should instead be left to satisfy the demand for low fares in underserved markets. By Lois Jones. To your corners, please. To the left of the ring ...
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US hubs need to be consolidated
Karen Walker Driven as they are by the shareholder, the major US carriers will no doubt sit up and take notice of a new report from a Wall Street analyst that assesses their growth potential, and therefore investment worth, based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their hubs. ...
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Ranger UAV simulated
Switzerland's Oerlikon Contraves is developing a mission simulator for the Israel Aircraft Industries Ranger unmanned air-vehicle (UAV) ordered by the Swiss armed forces. The device, representing the ground-control station, is due to be delivered in 1999. Source: Flight International
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Hampton graduates
The first students have completed the two-year aviation-maintenance degree course developed jointly by Hughes Training, now a unit of Raytheon Systems, and the Aero-science Center of Virginia's Hampton University to give hands-on training in large-aircraft maintenance. Source: Flight International
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Glenn confirmed
The flight of 77-year-old John Glenn - the USA's first man in orbit in February 1962 - as a payload specialist aboard the Space Shuttle STS95/Discovery in October, has been confirmed by NASA. The STS95 will also feature a reflight of the Spartan free-flying satellite, which was lost, then retrieved, ...