All news – Page 6374
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Groen Hawk 4 gyro makes maiden flight
Groen Brothers Aviation (GBA) flew the first production Hawk 4 gyroplane for the first time on 29 September at the company's Buckeye, Arizona, operations base, following a 13-year development programme. Three Hawk prototypes have been flown. Certification and first deliveries are to start in the second quarter of 2001, ...
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Kaman clinches sale for external-seat K-MAX
Kaman Aerospace has clinched its first order for a K-MAX helicopter equipped with its external passenger seat. The sale to an unnamed European customer comes around three years after development the "Class A" seat began. The detachable metal seat, developed solely for the external lift helicopter, is designed to ...
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FAA programme outlines general aviation safety goals
General aviation in the USA has been given a target for safety improvement under the Federal Aviation Administration's Safer Skies programme, which until now has concentrated on commercial air transport safety. A 20% reduction in the fatal GA accident rate by 2007 has been deemed a feasible "safety metric", ...
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New Piper ponders jet move
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC New Piper Aircraft, buoyed by increasing piston and turboprop sales, continues to explore a venture into the jet-powered aircraft market. The move will be contingent on a future public stock offering. Vero Beach, Florida-based New Piper estimates the cost of developing a jet-powered light aircraft ...
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Personal VTOL maker ties up NASA deal
A previously unknown company in Santa Clara, California, has signed a three-year agreement with NASA to help develop its single-passenger "personal" vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft. Millennium Jet completed the first test flight of its SoloTrek Exo-Skeletor Flying Vehicle in April. The machine has been under development secretly ...
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WAAS appeal
The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has called on the US Federal Aviation Administration to "move forward aggressively" to implement its Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) satellite navigation system. "It is time for the FAA to eliminate the paralysis of analysis," says AOPA. WAAS is due to go ...
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Cessna tests reveal flaws
Developmental flight tests of Cessna's Citation Encore light business jet have revealed the need for alterations to the twin-engined aircraft. These will delay certification and first deliveries until the second and fourth quarters of next year. Wichita, Kansas-based Cessna will add 36cm (14in) wing tip extensions to shorten take-off distances, ...
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Mooney aims to deliver more powerful Ovation
Mooney Aircraft plans to offer a more powerful variant of the four-seat Ovation. The manufacturer is working with McCauley Propeller on a new propeller design for the aircraft with "fewer blades". Mooney president Chris Dopp says: "The new McCauley model is an adaptation of a four-blade design used on ...
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Samsung gets more SB427 orders from Chinese companies
South Korea's Samsung Aerospace has racked up five new Chinese orders for the Samsung Bell SB427 helicopter during the Aviation Expo China show in Beijing. The new orders bring total Chinese sales of the helicopter to six, while the worldwide orderbook stands at "about 90" aircraft, says Samsung. ...
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Squabble over Iberia resolved
Spanish flag carrier Iberia is to be privatised on 22 November following the resolution of a dispute between prospective shareholder British Airways and another investor over how much voting control should be granted to the UK major. Although BA is due to take a 9% stake in Iberia, with ...
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Airbus closes on Libya deal
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Airbus Industrie is set to clinch a major aircraft order from Libyan Arab Airlines (LAA) as the carrier prepares to relaunch its international network after the lifting of United Nations sanctions on Libya. The Libyan flag carrier has signed a letter of intent (LOI) with European ...
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Smooth change for ATC channel
Eurocontrol says the introduction of the new 8.33kHz radio communications channel spacing on 7 October went "better than expected", with worries about a temporary increase in delays not being borne out. The scheme reduces channel spacing from the original 25kHz, creating new frequencies and enabling the provision of additional ...
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USAF must revamp F-22 plans for $1 billion reprieve
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The US Air Force will be required to restructure its Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 development as the result of an agreed $1 billion reprieve. This leaves the programme largely intact for now, but subject to closer future Congressional scrutiny. Congressional negotiators have reached a consensus that preserves about ...
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India near to Russian AEW lease
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOWRussia and India are close to signing a deal for the lease of Beriev/MNIP A-50 airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft. The two are also near to concluding contracts for licence production of Sukhoi Su-30MK twin-seat multifunction fighters and equipment to update and equip a Russian aircraft carrier sold to ...
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EC tells tiltrotor bidders to merge
Julian Moxon/PARIS The European Commission's (EC) research directorate has rejected the two proposals for tiltrotor wing concepts under its Fifth Framework aeronautics research programme, demanding that Eurocopter and Agusta submissions are merged. Eurocopter, leading a European consortium, had proposed its Eurotilt concept, while Agusta, leading a group which included ...
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Rockwell wins
Rockwell Collins has been selected over Honeywell to supply a new digital flight control system (DFCS), with Category IIIb automatic landing capability, for the Boeing Next Generation 737 family. Boeing's long-awaited move brings the aircraft into line with the Airbus A320 family, which already has full Cat IIIb automatic landing ...
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Crisis needed
Air traffic control delay in Europe's skies is costing the air transport industry far more than it pays through Eurocontrol into the coffers of national ATC providers. The latter see themselves as accountable for safety, but they are not accountable for the cost, efficiency or quality of service they provide. ...
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Bombardier to enhance Learjet 31A
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier is to improve the Learjet 31A, with deliveries starting early next year, in a bid to increase its share of the light business jet market. The enhancements, being announced at the National Business Aviation Association show in Atlanta, are to increase aircraft value and improve flexibility, ...
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Business jet boom will continue to 2010
AlliedSignal Aerospace forecasts that deliveries of business jets will peak next year, but will remain at or near record levels before climbing again towards the end of the next decade. The company projects deliveries of 6,800 aircraft, worth nearly $89 billion, between 2000 and 2010, in a market survey released ...
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Cabin standards hinge on new authority
Emma Kelly/SALT LAKE CITY The boards of the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) and ARINC are expected to consider by the end of this month a proposal for the formation of a new body to develop cabin standards. The new standardisation authority, the International Airlines Cabin Committee, should be established ...