All news – Page 8071
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Saginaw ghost
A mystery from the past may have relevance for the present. David Learmount/LONDON When Capt. Harvey "Hoot" Gibson's aircraft, a Trans World Airlines Boeing 727-100, suddenly rolled out of control and dived 32,000ft (10,000m), Gibson had to pull more than 5g before recovering control at ...
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Daimler-Benz forms satellite-landing venture with Rockwell
DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace ( DASA) and Rockwell have formed a joint venture to develop and market satellite-based navigation and landing systems. Rockwell and DASA will each hold 50% of the venture, which is to be located in Ulm, Germany (Flight International, 25-31 January). The venture brings together Rockwell's Collins ...
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Eurocopter boss firm on cuts cost-cutting warning
Julian Moxon and Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS EUROCOPTER president Jean-Francois Bigay has warned that the Franco-German manufacturer will have to press on with cost-cutting measures in the face of a patchy market performance in 1994, when orders and deliveries fell again. The tally of new helicopter deliveries ...
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Hughes wins contracts for four communications satellites
Tim Furniss/LONDON HUGHES SPACE and Communications International has maintained its lead in the satellite-manufacturing market with contract awards to build three HS-601 and one HS-376 communications satellites for Luxembourg, Malaysia and Afro-Asian Satellite Communications (ASC). The deals bring orders for the three-axis HS-601 to 38 ...
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Inmarsat claims lead in global satphones
INMARSAT P COMPANY has received $1.4 billion in investment commitments to implement the building of a global hand-held satellite-telephone system. The investment figure, which has been promised by 35 countries, exceeds the $1 billion target and represents the total projected equity requirements for the project at this stage, ...
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Croatia's cocked hammer
Despite sanctions, Croatia has been able to build up its air force. Andrzej Jeziorski/ZAGREB Croatian air force Col. Mladen Vaselic clearly remembers the moment when he realised that he would soon be a deadly enemy of many of his former academy colleagues. It ...
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Piper expands 1995 output
PIPER AIRCRAFT has markedly increased its 1995 production plan from the 134 aircraft promised last September to a new figure of 173. That compares with 132 in 1994 and 99 in 1993. The Super Cub tail-dragger has been dropped for 1995 - 24 were built in 1994 - ...
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Raytheon lays claim to 1994 sales lead
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT is claiming pole position in business-aircraft sales for 1994, following the consolidation of Beech Aircraft and Raytheon Corporate Jets. The manufacturer says that it delivered 361 aircraft in 1994, including 133 business jets and turboprops, and ended the year with record ...
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Restructure approved
SHAREHOLDERS of Canada's Fleet Aerospace have approved a major financial restructuring. Toronto-based Fleet, which makes parts for Bell Helicopter Textron, de Havilland and McDonnell Douglas, was in danger of defaulting on debt payments due early this year. Aerospace contractors, concerned about the company's ability to survive long-term, have ...
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Litton works on GLS for Airbus
LITTON IS WORKING with Airbus Industrie to certificate by December a worldwide non-precision-approach (NPA) capability, using the global-positioning system (GPS), on the A300/A310 and A330/A340. The capability is based on integration of Litton Aero Products' LTN-2001 GPS receiver and LTN-101 Flagship laser inertial-navigation system (INS). Litton says ...
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Franco-German arms link confirmed
AFTER THREE years of discussions, the armaments alliance formed between Thomson-CSF and Daimler Benz Aerospace (DASA) has been formalised, with group sales for the first year expected to top Fr1.2 billion ($226 million). The merger represents another step in the deepening alliance between the French and German aerospace ...
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Bigger and better
Assembly of the MDC F-18E/F is meeting or exceeding its performance guarantees. Graham Warwick/ATLANTA When McDonnell Douglas (MDC) lifted the first F-18E forward-fuselage out of its assembly jig on 12 January, development of the US Navy fighter was on schedule and within budget and the aircraft was ...
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Grifo delays hit Pakistan and Singapore upgrades
Douglas Barrie/LONDON and Andrea Spinelli/GENOA PAKISTANI AND Singaporean air force combat-aircraft upgrade programmes centring on the Fiar Grifo multi-mode radar are experiencing technical difficulties, causing both projects to suffer delays. Singapore's avionics upgrade of its Northrop F-5E/F fighters has run into trouble, with systems integration ...
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France offers Mirages to Philippine air force
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE FRANCE HAS offered to sell an undisclosed number of surplus Dassault Mirage F.1 fighters to the Philippine air force as replacements for its badly depleted fleet of Northrop F-5A/Bs. The ex-French air force aircraft form part of a larger package of defence-equipment sales ...
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Maintenance errors cripple A320
AN EXCALIBUR AIRLINES Airbus Industrie A320 was left with four of its five starboard spoilers disabled following a right-outboard-flap change carried out by British Airways maintenance at London Gatwick Airport, says a recent report by the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch. The pilots departed Gatwick on 26 August ...
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Funding threat to France's FLA plans
FRENCH AIR FORCE chief Gen. Jean-Philippe Douin has warned that France may have to purchase the Lockheed C-130J and ditch the acquisition of the European Future Large Aircraft (FLA) unless his budget gets a major boost. Douin is concerned about whether the Government will have funding available ...
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X-31A crash: air data suspected
INVESTIGATIONS into the 19 January loss of a Rockwell-Daimler-Benz Aerospace X-31A enhanced fighter-manoeuvrability research aircraft are focusing on the air-data system, say sources close to the project. "There is a possibility that hardware operation of some of the systems may be involved [and] it cannot be excluded that ...
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Hughes/Raytheon in bid for US SAM project
HUGHES AND RAYTHEON have joined forces to bid for the US Army's Corps SAM surface-to-air missile programme, which is planned to be the basis of the Medium Extended Air Defence System (MEADS) to be developed co-operatively with France and Germany. The companies were among five manufacturers awarded ...
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US Army examines laser damage to helicopters
THE US ARMY IS TO test-fire laser and ballistic weapons against experimental composite-helicopter tail-booms in a combined test programme with Boeing aimed at improving helicopter battlefield-survivability. The directed-energy weapon tests will be conducted at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, using lasers representative of projected threats such as slewed-beam ...
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Martin says APALS order is near
MARTIN MARIETTA expects to announce a launch order in March for "significantly more than 100" Autonomous Precision Approach and Landing Systems (APALS) from an unnamed operator. The company is guaranteeing US certification of the radar-based APALS as equivalent to a Category III instrument-landing system (ILS) by the end ...