All news – Page 7815
-
News
The first assembly missions
Flight 1A/R Nov 1997 Russia Russian Functional Energy Block (FGB) launched on the Proton, to provide propulsion, guidance, communications, 3.2kW electrical power and thermal control. One front-docking system, with forward and lower ports, and one rear docking system. Flight 2A Dec 1997 USA STS88/Endeavour ...
-
News
An inside story
Swiss fixed-base operator Jet Aviation has carved a niche in the customised-interior market. Julian Moxon/BASLE YOU ARE THE OWNER of a corporate jet, and you want the ultimate in airborne opulence. Perhaps, if you are also the owner of a golf course, you would like a game ...
-
News
Messier-Dowty plans to lower cost of landing gear for Airbus
Andrew Doyle/LONDON MESSIER-DOWTY AIMS to slash the cost of manufacturing Airbus landing gears by 20-40%, while increasing commonality of parts across the product range and reducing the cost of ownership for airlines, says Geoff Smith, managing director of the Anglo-French joint-venture. According to Smith, a ...
-
News
China's Long March to have Asiasat test
Tim Furniss/LONDON CHINA'S COMMERCIAL-satellite-launcher business goes on trial on 28 November, with the launch of a Long March 2E booster from Xichang, carrying the Asiasat 2 communications satellite. The 2E has suffered two catastrophic failures in five launches, in 1992 and 1995, and a third loss will ...
-
News
Indian Space Research starts evaluation work on Oceansat
THE INDIAN SPACE Research Organisation plans to operate an oceanographic-monitoring satellite, the Oceansat, and is developing instruments for the spacecraft, which will be evaluated on missions to be performed by future Indian remote-sensing (IRS) satellites. The IRS-P3, to be launched on the third Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) ...
-
News
Spacelab workers demonstrate Alpha work
Astronaut mission specialist Catherine Coleman (left) and payload specialist Fred Leslie work inside the Spacelab US Micro-gravity Laboratory 2 during the 16-day STS73/Columbia mission, as a demonstration of a typical shift aboard the Alpha International Space Station. Construction of the Alpha will begin in November 1997. The Columbia's next mission, ...
-
News
GE American applies for Star licence
GE AMERICAN Communications has filed an application to the US Federal Communications Commission to launch and operate a nine-satellite, worldwide, high-power, Kaband satellite system, called GE Star. The company aims to provide a broad array of high-data-rate digital-communications services. Other US companies which are proposing competing geostationary-orbiting systems ...
-
News
Briton for Mir
NASA astronaut Michael Foale, the UK-born veteran of three Shuttle flights, will replace Scott Parazinsky for the STS84 mission in May 1997. He will be delivered to the Russian Mir 1 space station for a planned 143-day stay. John Blaha will now fly the ST79 mission in August 1996 and ...
-
News
Air-traffic-controller strikes blamed for European delays
Julian Moxon/PARIS STRIKES BY AIR-TRAFFIC controllers and the shortage of airport and airspace capacity are being blamed for a serious increase in departure delays in Europe during the July-September period. The Association of European Airlines (AEA) describes as "appalling" the figures for the three months, in ...
-
News
Munich on defensive as Asian airlines pull out
INDONESIAN CARRIER Garuda and Japan Airlines (JAL) have withdrawn from services to Munich Airport, leaving the airport management company, Flughafen Munchen (FMG), defending its growth record. According to the airport authorities, JAL pulled out over a question of traffic rights, while Garuda's decision was part of an overall ...
-
News
BFGoodrich develops standby indicator
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE has introduced a flat-panel standby attitude-indicator. The GH-3000 combines a colour liquid-crystal display with a solid-state inertial sensor in a 3ATI-size unit interchangeable with existing electromechanical standby instruments. The US companies Avionics Systems division says the $22,500 GH-3000 offers high reliability, with a design mean time ...
-
News
Onboard testing
Pacific Avionics has developed a range of PCMCIA interface cards suitable for ARINC-429 databus communications, allowing a portable personal computer to be used for onboard testing of avionics systems. Source: Flight International
-
News
Room for expansion at Air Seychelles
AIR SEYCHELLES has unveiled plans for new routes and aircraft, to enable the airline to grow with the development of tourist traffic - which has the scope to double to at least around 250,000 people a year. Executive chairman Freddie Karkaria says that he is considering opportunities to ...
-
News
Turkish order maintains Douglas recovery
Turkish charter operator Onur Air has ordered five McDonnell Douglas MD-88s and taken options on five more, continuing the fourth quarter turn-around in the fortunes of Douglas Aircraft. Up to the end of September, Douglas had taken orders for just 11 twinjets during the whole of 1995. The ...
-
News
Valujet will open up more hubs
VALUJET, THE low-fare US airline entrant which is competing head-to-head with USAir in the eastern USA, is creating additional hub operations at Boston, Massachusetts, and Orlando, Florida. The profitable low-cost operator, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, successfully expanded its operations in 1994 at Washington's Dulles International. The Boston build-up ...
-
News
Zeppelin prototype enters final assembly
Zeppelin Luftschiff-technik has begun final assembly of its New Technology (NT) airship prototype - the first rigid airship the company has produced since the Second World War. The 68m-long prototype, LZ N07, is scheduled for completion in July 1996, in time for an "official" first flight in early ...
-
News
Competitors wait for Pentagon move on tactical air vehicle
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON, DC THE FATE OF the US Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (TUAV) programme is to be decided on 22 November by Paul Kaminiski, the US Department of Defense's acquisition chief. If he approves a formal request for proposals for an advanced- concept technology-demonstration project, ...
-
News
Lower minima and TCAS for HGS-fitted 737s
BOEING 737-300s FITTED with Flight Dynamics head-up guidance systems (HGS) have been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration for take-off operations in visibility conditions as low as 90m (300ft) runway visual range (RVR). Operators of HGS-equipped 737-300s were cleared to perform landing operations with RVRs of 210m ...
-
News
UAE missile decision hinges on UK choice
THE UNITED ARAB Emirates (UAE), is unlikely to decide on a long-range stand off weapon, until the outcome of a similar UK procurement programme for a conventional stand off missile. The UAE had been expected to fund development of a long-range derivative of the GEC Marconi family of ...
-
News
India looks abroad for AEW
THE FUTURE OF INDIA'S long-running airborne-early-warning (AEW) aircraft programme has been thrown into doubt, with the defence ministry looking at off-the-shelf alternatives. India has test flown an aerodynamic AEW test-bed, mounting a German-produced rotodome shell on a Hawker Siddeley HS.748, but the successful development and integration of ...