All news – Page 6860
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JAL shareholder calls for senior management resignations
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The biggest single shareholder in Japan Airlines (JAL) has called for top management resignations following the airline's drop in profit and turnover in recent years. Eitaro Itoyama who owns about 4% of the airline, has demanded that the company's board of directors and president Isao Kaneko ...
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Baltic buy-out
Scandinavian Airlines Systems has purchased the 8.02% holding in Air Baltic held by Baltic International USA. SAS already holds a 28.5% share in the Latvian -based carrier. Some 51% of the airline continues to be held by the Latvian government. The airline operates Avro RJ70s and Saab 340s to destinations ...
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Belt and braces
Achieving a satisfactory level of safety used to be considered straight-forward: build good aeroplanes, train good pilots, respect an aircraft's limitations in the face of the elements, and take off, trusting that nothing beyond the capabilities of the aircraft/pilot team will occur. Key words in the traditional approach included "belt ...
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USAF moves towards 'electric' aircraft
The US Air Force is planning to flight test a power-by-wire controlled aircraft following the successful test of advanced electrically powered actuators on NASA Dryden's Systems Research Aircraft (SRA) Boeing F-18. The tests were part of the electrically powered actuation design (EPAD) programme, a jointly funded development effort conducted ...
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BAe begins Hawk fuselage rebuild contract
British Aerospace has secured a £100 million ($166 million) deal from the UK Ministry of Defence to supply replacement forward, centre and rear fuselage sections for the RAF's Hawk trainers.The 80-aircraft Fatigue Life Extension programme was begun after the RAF found a high level of structural fatigue in the trainer. ...
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US fighters tangle with Iraqi
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The first air-to-air engagements between US and Iraqi fighters since 1992 were inconclusive after all six missiles fired at MiG-25 interceptors in the no-fly zone over Iraq missed their targets in two incidents on 5 January. The US Department of Defense said it would not ...
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Japan considers tanker buy
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The Japanese Defence Agency (JDA) is considering an Y80 billion ($710 million) purchase of four Boeing 767 or similar tanker aircraft, despite a decision to speed up planned procurement spending cuts. The JDA says no firm decision has been made on buying tankers. Money is expected ...
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F-22 production
The US Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin/Boeing and Pratt & Whitney contracts to build the first two production F-22 Raptor fighters. Lockheed Martin/Boeing has received a total of $504 million to build the two so-called Production Representative Test Vehicles to be used for operational flight testing. Nearly $190 million ...
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Ka-60 makes first flight
The Kamov Ka-60 Kasatka multirole utility helicopter made its first flight from Kamov's Lyubertsy works on 24 December, 1998. The helicopter, which has a design payload of 2,500kg, was built to a requirement from the Russian army for a light utility design capable of training, medevac, paradrop and supply roles. ...
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Predator UAV prowls through comms testing
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC General Atomics has demonstrated the ability of the Predator unmanned air vehicle (UAV) to communicate directly to air traffic control centres over a voice-radio relay link through a digital line of sight datalink. The trial is part of an effort to enable UAVs to fly in ...
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RAF considers SAR radar pod for Tornado and Eurofighter
Howard Gethin/LONDON The Royal Air Force is considering the possibility of giving its Eurofighter EF2000 and Panavia Tornado fleets a new all-weather day and night penetrating reconnaissance role early in the next century. The UK Defence Research Agency (DERA) has been tasked with conducting a technology demonstrator programme ...
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Israel clears Silver Arrow unmanned air vehicle for export
Israel has released for export the Silver Arrow-developed Hermes series of long-endurance unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). The systems have previously been classified. Silver Arrow UAVs are operated by the Israeli Defence Forces in long-range intelligence missions complementing data gathered by the Offeq-3 spy satellite. The firm is considered to be ...
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ST Aero selected to join Brazilian F-5 upgrade team
Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) is to participate as a consortium partner in the F-5 upgrade programme for the Brazilian air force. The upgrade is led by Elbit Systems, and also includes Embraer, a radar manufacturer and an electronics warfare systems supplier. The consortium has recently entered final contract ...
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Pakistan plans to push ahead with Chinese Super 7 fighter
Paul Lewis/ISLAMABAD Pakistan is preparing to push ahead with full scale joint development with China of the Chengdu FC-1/Super 7 fighter as the US Government agrees to refund payments made on 28 embargoed Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs. The two countries are negotiating a detailed working agreement following the signing ...
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Thai radar
The Royal Thai Air Force has declared its first Northrop Grumman FPS-130X long range three-dimensional radar site operational. It is the first export customer for the system, which has a joint air defence and air traffic control role. Two FPS-130Xs will be delivered as part of a$180 million upgrade of ...
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Boeing takes wraps off Wedgetail contender
Boeing has unveiled its Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) based contender for Australia's Project Wedgetail airborne early warning requirement. The competition is also being contested by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The BBJ (combining the fuselage of the 737-700 and the wing of the 737-800), with a mock-up of the 7m-long Northrop ...
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Merlin breaks the spell
Richard Scott/RNAS CULDROSE It has been a long time coming. The process of introducing the Merlin HM Mk1 shipborne helicopter to UK Royal Navy service finally began on 1 December, 1998, with the commissioning of 700M Naval Air Squadron (NAS) at RNAS Culdrose in south-west England. In its role as ...
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Niche accidents
David Learmount/LONDON Despite a worldwide campaign to reduce it, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) increased in 1998 for the second year running, both among jet and non-jet flights, confirming the reversal of a previously favourable trend. There were five jet CFIT accidents and eight involving propeller-driven commercial aircraft. This ...
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Dynamic explorers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three small NASA spacecraft will explore the earth's dynamic systems early in the new millennium. One of the satellites, called Volcanic Ash Mission (Volcam), will demonstrate the operational and scientific applications of monitoring volcanic clouds and small atmospheric particles, known as aerosols, from a geostationary orbit. Volcanic clouds ...
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Bond Helicopters sells Rotortech arm
Bond Helicopters has sold the composite and structural repair arm of its Rotortech engineering subsidiary to manpower and aircraft maintenance provider IAP, to concentrate on its offshore and onshore helicopter business. "We have split the company in two. We have moved the component repair and overhaul business from the ...