All news – Page 7647
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P&W secures NASA engine deal
Guy Norris/LOSANGELES PRATT & WHITNEY has won a $27 million five-year engine-technology contract from the NASA Lewis Research Center as part of the agency's advanced subsonic-technology (AST) project. The AST project, which was launched in 1992, is designed to keep the US aerospace industry competitive by ...
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Italy powers ahead with its latest A109
AGUSTA HELICOPTERS has achieved Italian certification of the latest member of its A109 family, the Power, just one year after it was first revealed at the 1995 Paris air show. The first of six helicopters is due to be delivered to launch customer Omniflight in September. Agusta claims to have ...
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US NTSB pushes for Sukhoi checks
Checks on the flight controls of Sukhoi Su-29 and Su-31 aerobatic aircraft are being urged after the fatal crash of an Su-29 near New Orleans on 21 March was blamed on an incorrectly assembled elevator-control system. The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called on the US Federal Aviation ...
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Pentagon studies UAV shake-up schedule
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC SENIOR officials in the US Department of Defense are expected to decide soon how best to revamp management of its unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) programmes. Although maintaining the status quo is one option, Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, is expected to make changes in ...
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Small is beautiful
Swiss military-trainer specialist Pilatus is lookingto further penetrate the civil market. Julian Moxon/PARIS Oscar Schwenk, president of Switzerland's Pilatus Aircraft, renowned for developing a range of successful turboprop trainers, says: "We're small, but small is beautiful." Military trainers have always been Pilatus' speciality, but, with ever-tighter ...
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USAF places huge C-17 contracts
The US Air Force has signed for $16.2 billion in multi-year contracts for 80 McDonnell Douglas (MDC) C-17 Globemaster III military-transport aircraft, powered by Pratt & Whitney F117 turbofan engines. The C-17s and 350 F117s will be delivered over six or seven years. The USAF had previously committed ...
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US Navy plans commercial vertrep contract awards
THE US NAVY'S Military Sealift Command (MSC) is planning to award a series of contracts involving use of commercially operated helicopters for vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of its warships. The contract awards are designed to meet a projected shortfall of US Navy Boeing Helicopters CH-46 helicopters, which are now ...
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IAI plans maintenance operation in Turkey
ISRAEL AIRCRAFT Industries' MATA helicopter centre is discussing the establishment of a helicopter-maintenance operation in Turkey. The talks are understood to involve potential Turkish partners. Under the proposal, the Turkish army's US-built combat and transport helicopters would be maintained at the centre. "Dynamic" systems would be flown to ...
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Alarming statistics on UK industry's decline
THE UK AEROSPACE community's pleas for more Government support are backed by some alarming statistics on the industry's relative decline - and a pledge to rebuild. Since 1980, the UK share of world civil and military markets has slipped from 13% to just 9%. "We are absolutely determined ...
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KLM/Northwest link-up plans put on hold
Kevin O'Toole/AMSTERDAM KLM HAS PUT further development of its alliance with Northwest Airlines on hold until the bitter disagreement over shareholder rights is settled in the US courts. While stressing that the alliance, once "the envy of the airline industry", continues to operate well, KLM president ...
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IAR agrees with Eurocopter to build Ecureuil
IAR has signed an agreement with Eurocopter International for licensed production of the French Ecureuil light helicopter in Romania.The deal, due to come into force following approval from the respective Governments, covers airframe manufacture and final assembly of 80 single-engined AS350BA Ecureuils and twin-engined AS355N Ecureuil 2s. IAR ...
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Propulsion fault cuts Theseus first flight
The first flight of the Theseus unmanned aircraft, designed to support NASA's Mission to Planet Earth initiative, was cut short by propulsion problems after it lifted off from Rogers Dry Lake, California, on 24 May. "It was a propeller controller issue from what we can tell right now," ...
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NEC wins a massive ICO space contract
Tim Furniss/LONDON ICO GLOBAL Communications, the Inmarsat affiliate which plans to provide a global voice, data, facsimile and messaging mobile-satellite communications system from 2000 (Flight International, 4-10 October, 1995, P44), has awarded a $500 million contract to a consortium led by NEC of Japan to provide the ground-segment-systems ...
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Arcing cause of Tethered loss
THE ALENIA-BUILT Italian Tethered Satellite was lost in space during the STS75/Columbia Space Shuttle mission on 25 February, when its tether broke after suffering "arcing and burning", says an investigation team appointed by NASA (Flight International, 6-12 March). The arcing occurred because the tether was penetrated by either ...
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Lightweight dish will serve Asia
AN INNOVATIVE, lightweight, 12.25m-diameter dish antenna is to be flown on a Hughes HS-601 high-power communications satellite in 1998, to serve a mobile-telephone system for Asia Pacific Mobile Telecommunications (APMT), a consortium of four Chinese and two Singapore companies. The APMT satellite will provide 16,000 duplex circuits simultaneously. ...
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Brazil in French space link
Brazil has signed space-technology deals with French space agency CNES, Aerospatiale and Soci‚t‚ Europ‚enne de Propulsion (SEP), to build a small science satellite and Earth-observation cameras, and to develop launcher technologies for its $120 million-a-year space programme. The 80kg satellite, to study the space environment in low-Earth orbit, ...
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KLM renews growth effort in Europe with expanded fleet
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON KLM IS TO START A NEW wave of growth in its European operations, outlining plans for a $300 million short-haul fleet expansion and a new agreement with its pilots' union, which paves the way for greater use of wet-lease and codesharing with regional partners. ...
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FAA forced ValuJet cut in growth before crash
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC US FEDERAL AVIATION Administration concern over the effect on ValuJet's safety of its rapid expansion forced the carrier to rein back planned growth almost four months before the McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 crash in Florida on 11 May, documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act ...
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China plans 777 lease for US service
CHINA SOUTHERN Airlines is negotiating to lease three more Boeing 777-200IGWs (increased gross weight) from International Lease Finance to support its planned start-up passenger service to the USA. The Chinese carrier is understood to be discussing taking the three leased aircraft in 1997. The airline needs more long-range ...
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Engine-makers line up options for 747X
Guy Norris/LOS ANGLES GENERAL ELECTRIC and Pratt & Whitney expect to finalise by the end of the month their joint-venture plans for the new -500/600 growth versions of Boeing 747. The two manufacturers have "-quickly reached agreement on an engine configuration", but have yet to reach ...