All articles by Dan Thisdell – Page 8
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News
Firefighters: 10 water-bombing amphibians
This week came the sad news that Bombardier has paused the CL-415 amphibious water-bomber programme pending further orders. In firefighting, true amphibians are an exclusive breed. Here are 10.
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News
NASA signs three CubeSat-dedicated start-ups
NASA has signed up three US-based launch start-ups to fly a series of CubeSat missions, due to fly in 2017 and 2018, to provide the agency with a dedicated route to orbit for the tiny satellites.
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Orbital ATK still looks like marriage made in heaven
Back in April 2014, when Orbital Sciences and ATK announced plans for an all-stock merger, the move looked like the proverbial marriage made in heaven – or at least a tie-up destined for the stars.
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NewsVirgin Galactic 'doubles' LauncherOne payload promise
Virgin Galactic is in talks to purchase a second carrier aircraft for its nascent small satellite air-launch service, to offer greater payload capacity than is possible from the custom-built, twin-fuselage WhiteKnightTwo (WK2), that will also serve its suborbital tourist flights.
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NewsSize matters: Ten biggest players in aerospace
Our annual Top 100 league table of the world's biggest aerospace companies, compiled as ever by the experts at PwC, documents another bumper year for the industry
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Top 100 aerospace companies
Our annual Top 100 analysis documents another boom year for aerospace, but the coming period may be more challenging
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Fast-track satcoms upgrade on ICE
Change is in the air over Europe, with a concerted attempt by Inmarsat and the European Space Agency to turn satellite communications into a wide-open field for quick and economic development of new applications and services.
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AnalysisANALYSIS: Buffett's $37bn move turns investor focus on aerospace
The blockbuster $37.2 billion takeover of components maker Precision Castparts by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway group has the aerospace and defence industries are on course for a record year of mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity - but even without that “extraordinarily unique” deal, 2015 is set to be a “banner ...
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NewsISS supply launch carries experimental ADS-B receiver to orbit
Most of Europe could hear the sound of held breath being released in Denmark today as Japan’s fifth HTV unmanned resupply vehicle launched successfully from Tanegashima aboard an H-IIB launcher for the International Space Station.
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NewsPlane paint: Top 10 Indian liveries
With Boeing forecasting demand for 1,740 new commercial aircraft in India over the next 20 years, we ask: what will they look like?
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NewsAriane 6 gets finance boost to 2016 design review
Europe’s bid to retain independent, cost-competitive access to space in a launch market disrupted by US start-up SpaceX has been given solid financial momentum with formal contracts to develop the heavyweight Ariane 6 and light Vega C rockets.
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NewsGKN's Fokker deal is electrifying
Tier-1 supplier GKN Aerospace has “strengthened its position” in its “classic” domains of wings and composite aerostructures with its €706 million ($775 million) takeover of Fokker Technologies – and bought its way into an electrical wiring capability that the company believes will prove hugely valuable as aircraft become increasingly electric.
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NewsRussia's new Angara 1.2 launcher available for booking from 2017
A Russian space programme dogged by recent launch failures and an impending budget cut got a boost this week, with the formal opening of flight sales for its new Angara 1.2 light- to medium-lift launch vehicle.
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NewsSpaceX disaster 'looks like structural failure'
SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets will be grounded until at least September, as the company continues to study the cause of its 29 June launch failure.
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NewsVIDEO: A400M in the Cruise phase
Tom Cruise likes to earn his money the hard way, by doing his own stunts – including this hanging-on-by-his-fingernails number for the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation.
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NewsPLUTO FLYBY: What wonders, what good value
‘Tis a long list of wonders, this week’s close encounter with Pluto.
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NewsElectric Channel crossing no mere publicity stunt
When Airbus’s e-Fan demonstrator made the first-ever battery-powered crossing of the English Channel, the flight made headlines but the exercise was far more than a barnstorming publicity stunt.
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NewsSolar Impulse grounded for repairs until spring 2016
Bad news turned worse for the Solar Impulse round-the-world flight attempt as estimates of the time needed to repair “irreversible” battery damage caused by overheating jumped from “two to three weeks” to “several months” – leaving the all-solar aircraft grounded in Hawaii until spring 2016.
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NewsSolar Impulse grounded in Hawaii for battery repairs
The Solar Impulse round-the-world flight on solar power only has been grounded in Hawaii – because its five-day/five-night flight from Japan overcooked its batteries.
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NewsElectric rivals duel over Channel crossing
Airbus this morning claimed a historic second, by crossing the English Channel with a “twin-engine electric plane taking off by its own power”. The company’s all-electric e-Fan demonstrator – which flew at the Paris air show in June – made the 40nm (74km) crossing from Lydd to Calais in about ...