All news – Page 7966
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Tunnel vision?
Are Europe's airlines underestimating the impact of high-speed rail services? Andrew Chuter/LONDON If the old maxim that the customer is always right still has meaning, then the airlines that ply the world's busiest air route between London and Paris have a fight on their hands. ...
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Transatlantic tussle
The US defence industry will be putting on a show of strength at Le Bourget Douglas Barrie/London Against the dark background of an aggressive US military marketing push, the debut of the Eurofighter 2000 combat aircraft at Le Bourget still hangs in the balance. The decision is ...
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Rotary rumble
Military machines may dominate at Le Bourget, with the imminent UK attack-helicopter decision occupying the thoughts of many Kieran Daly and Douglas Barrie/london The battle for the Netherlands is over - the battle for England is about to begin. Well, not quite - the battle for the ...
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Columbus in dock
ESA's future as an important influence on the world of space flight could be in jeopardy. Tim Furniss/LONDON The European Space Agency's (ESA) Columbus space-station programme is over 11 years old, but no flight hardware has yet been built. The political and bureaucratic wranglings among ...
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Debuts and decisions
The chief element of missile weaponry is surprise, and there may be a few at Le Bourget. Douglas Barrie/LONDON Python Four and Super-Darter are likely to be the names most spoken about by those visitors who are interested in missiles at the Paris air show this year. ...
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Asian aspirations
Japan is anxious to expand its interests in civil aviation. Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Honest communications and mutual respect, are cited by one major airframe manufacturer, as fundamental policies when negotiating international collaborative ventures. There is, unfortunately, little evidence of either in the long running and increasingly convoluted negotiations ...
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Bite of the underdog
Airbus Industrie, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas will be competing in some vital sales contests in the near future Kieran Daly/LONDON The next few months will see the outcomes of some of the most significant aircraft sales contests in the history of the aviation business. Purchase decisions to ...
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Record Run
Cessna is claiming two speed records for the Citation X business jet after its 11 May "bicoastal" run. The aircraft was flown from Teterboro, New Jersey, to Van Nuys, California, in 4h 49min, an average true-airspeed of 448kt (694km/h); and from Van Nuys to White Plains, New York, in 4h ...
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Exhausting issues
Aviation is coming under fresh attack from environmental lobbyists. Andrzej Jeziorski/Berlin There was an air of apologetic embarrassment about environmentalist Karl Schallabock as he gave his presentation on air transport and the environment at the Berlin Climate Summit in March. The audience at ...
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Worth its stripes
The Eurocopter Tiger has been designed with versatility as a key asset. Julian Moxon/PARIS The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 meant that, almost overnight, instant obsolescence rather than Russian armed might became the threat to Western weapons systems. No longer, for example, will anti-tank helicopters ...
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USAF renews GPS approach tests
THE US AIR FORCE IS to conduct precision-approach tests using the global-positioning system (GPS). A Lockheed C-130 will be used to conduct 75 GPS-guided approaches at Hurlburt Field AFB, Florida, in June. For the trials, the C-130 has been equipped with a GPS landing-system supplied by Interstate Electronics ...
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F-22 starts to take shape at Boeing
CONSTRUCTION OF the first composite wing skin for the Lockheed/Boeing F-22 fighter has begun at Boeing, marking the start of major-component manufacturing at the Seattle-based Defense and Space Group. Boeing is charged with 32.5% of the F-22 work, with primary responsibility for the wing, aft fuselage, radar, 757 ...
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X-31 crash pilot 'badly briefed'
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH FAILURE TO TELL the pilot of critical changes to the aircraft led to the loss of a Rockwell/Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) X-31 in a crash on 19 January, say sources close to the project. Test pilot Karl Lang, is believed to have been insufficiently ...
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UK and USA study Starstreak project integration
THE UK AND US defence ministries are discussing a joint programme to integrate the Shorts Starstreak high-velocity missile on to their respective attack helicopters. The Starstreak is included as a "mandatory option" in the UK's attack-helicopter procurement requirement. Shorts and Lockheed Martin formally agreed on 25 May to ...
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Business partners
Corporate-aviation customers will be of intense interest to the avionics suppliers at Paris. Graham Warwick/Atlanta While public attention will be captured by the Paris debuts of the latest commercial airliners and military aircraft, including the Boeing 777, Northrop Grumman B-2 and Bell Boeing V-22, the avionics ...
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Power play
Civil-engine discussion at Le Bourget will be overshadowed by the big-twin power struggle. Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Big engines, mergers and the first hints of new orders will dominate the chalet gossip at Paris this year. The top end of the power battle will be represented ...
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Back onparade
Exhibitors are returning to the air show scene after years of cost cutting. Forbes Mutch/LONDON It has been an up-hill struggle for air shows in recent years, with recession-hit manufacturers demonstrating a reluctance to exhibit in the numbers and opulent style familiar during the 1980s. Air-show exhibitors ...
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Society of Japanese Aerospace companies
A total of 13 Japanese companies are exhibiting at this year's Paris air show, as part of the Society of Japanese Aerospace Companies (SJAC). Among the more interesting exhibits is an Optical Blade Vibration Monitoring (OPT-V) system, produced by Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI). It uses laser probes to measure turbofan-engine ...
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Ultra Electronics3 F1
Ultra Electronics is developing a hub-integrated propeller ice-protection system, which eliminates the high-maintenance power slip ring used in conventional systems. The HIPPS generates and switches power between the blades at the hub, reducing weight and aircraft-generator power requirements. The HIIPS is suitable for four- or six-blade propellers. Ultra will have ...
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Table-top training
Low-cost competition is set to shake up the simulation market. Graham Warwick/Atlanta Consolidation has left the flight-simulation industry smaller, but possibly stronger, as the market shows signs of beginning to recover. The airline recession and defence-budget cuts have made customers more cost-conscious, however, and low-cost ...