All aerospace news – Page 1968
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International Space Station faces service-module crisis
Tim Furniss/LONDON The International Space Station (ISS) Service Module being built by Russia is eight months behind schedule, meaning a delay in the launch of the first ISS crew until early 1999, NASA has confirmed (Flight International, 27 November-3 December). Russian Government funding for the project has ...
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Japan Air System takes its first Boeing 777
Japan Air System (JAS) took delivery of its first Pratt & Whitney PW4084-powered Boeing 777-200 on 4 December, from an order for seven aircraft. The JAS 777s, which are the first to be painted in the airline's new scheme, will also be the first operated on the Japanese domestic network ...
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Sabena overhauls
Sabena Technics has signed a maintenance contract with FedEx covering overhaul of all of the US freight carrier's Pratt & Whitney JT8D engines for its Boeing 727 fleet during the next six years. The contract follows two years of negotiations. Source: Flight International
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Alpi flies again
The RAI, Italy's civil-aviation authority, has removed the temporary grounding order placed on Alpi Eagles because of maintenance record irregularities (Flight International, 11-17 December, P11). The airline resumed operations on 10 December. Source: Flight International
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American and FedEx finalise DC-10/727 hushkit exchange
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES American Airlines has concluded a long-awaited deal with FedEx, which will see the US package carrier take over at least 14 of American's McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10s in exchange for supplying hushkits for up to 81 Boeing 727-200s. Some 30 of American's 727s ...
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Alpi Eagles grounded over maintenance irregularities
Alpi Eagles has been temporarily grounded by the RAI, Italy's civil-aviation authority, after irregularities were discovered in the regional carrier's maintenance records during a routine aircraft inspection. The RAIfound "informal" aircraft technical logs, where malfunctions were being recorded be- fore being entered into the official log book. The civil-aviation authority ...
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CFM56-7B passes final blade-out examination
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES A full blade-out test was successfully completed on CFM International's CFM56-7B turbofan at Villaroche, France, on 2 December, just six days before the unveiling of the first of the next-generation Boeing 737 series for which the engine is designed. The engine was ...
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Flight engineers call for world drive to improve flight safety
Andrezj Jeziorski/MUNICH The International Flight Engineers Organisation (IFEO) has highlighted six areas in which it considers that action must be taken to counter spiralling air-accident fatalities. At its 1996 general assembly in Munich, the organisation expressed "regret and dismay" at the increasing number of fatalities ...
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Finnair vacates hotel business
Finnair is flying away from its hotels and restaurants Finnair is selling control of its hotel and restaurant business as part of a broader restructuring of the group which has seen its airline profits virtually halved over the past six months. The bulk of the ...
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German Government turns up heat on Airbus restructuring
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH The German Government is linking the provision of further aeronautics-research funding to the restructuring of Airbus Industrie and the launch of the A3XX, putting further pressure on the Airbus partners to reach agreement on the establishment of a new commercial structure for the consortium. ...
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New Meyers develops four-seater
M300 flight-testing is scheduled to begin in early 1997 New Meyers Aircraft has begun development of a four-seat light aircraft, with certification flight-testing scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1997. The new M300 is planned to enter production alongside the company's two-seat SP20, an updated version of ...
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Airbus welcomes in Alenia
Julian Moxon/Paris Airbus Industrie and Italy's Alenia/Finmeccanica have agreed to form a company to lead European participation in the AirExpress AE-100 regional aircraft, to be built under a joint venture with China and Singapore. The Italian group is also being invited to "draw nearer" to Airbus through ...
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Inmarsat D provides two-way messaging for GPS receivers
Andrew Doyle/LONDON Hand-held global-positioning-system (GPS) receivers incorporating two-way short-messaging capabilities will be available to general-aviation pilots from the third quarter of 1997, according to international mobile satellite-communications provider Inmarsat. Technology is being developed to take advantage of the new Inmarsat D service, launched on 3 December. ...
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Fairchild Dornier may move 328 wing to HAL
Fairchild Dornier and Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) are in negotiation to move wing production for the 328 turboprop from Germany to India. The Indian company has also been earmarked to build the aircraft's fuselage shell, now fabricated by Daewoo in South Korea. In a separate move, ...
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TAAL stakes claim to corporate aircraft niche
Taneja Aerospace and Aviation (TAAL) has launched what is believed to be India's first fractional-ownership scheme aimed at the corporate-aviation market. The company, a subsidiary of engineering company Indian Seamless, has set up the Netair scheme based on three of its own P68s - built locally under licence ...
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NASA's XAF moves
NASA's Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility (AXAF), designed to be the world's most powerful X-ray observatory, is taking shape, with Eastman Kodak delivering the high-resolution mirror assembly. It has also delivered the optical-bench structure to spacecraft prime contractor TRW. The AXAF project is the third of NASA's Great Observatory series, after ...
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MSG solar panel problem 'will not hinder NASA's Mars goals'
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA says that the partially unfurled solar panel on the Mars Global Surveyor (MSG) spacecraft, launched on 7 November, will "-not significantly impair" the craft's ability to aerobrake into its orbit around the planet or "-affect its performance" during the cruise and science elements of ...
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Moon ice
The US Department of Defense said on 2 December that its Clementine research satellite, which went into orbit around the Moon in 1993, returned data which indicate the likelihood that ice "-makes up part of the Moon's surface layer near the south pole". The Pentagon has speculated that the water ...