All news – Page 6380
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Marching towards orbit
Thirty years after putting its first satellite into orbit, China will test fly the vehicle that will perform its maiden manned flight Tim Furniss/LONDON The People's Republic of China may celebrate its 50th anniversary this month with the launch of an unpiloted orbital test flight of a manned launcher, 30 ...
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European low cost carriers fold as competition hots up
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Increasing competition between Europe's low fare airlines has forced two more independent carriers to cease operations. One-year-old Norwegian scheduled airline Color Air has been shut down by its parent company after failing to show signs of turning around its mounting losses, while the UK's ...
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Swissair crash: IFE system installation prompts FAA ban
The in-flight entertainment network (IFEN) system in the crashed Swissair flight 111 Boeing MD-11 was installed without consideration for the aircraft's electrical system design concept, an extensive examination by the US Federal Aviation Administration has revealed. Following the study, the FAA has issued an airworthiness directive (AD) designed "to prevent ...
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Embraer ties up risk sharing agreements
Julian Moxon/PARIS Embraer has concluded agreements with risk sharing partners for the ERJ-170 and ERJ-190 regional jets, in addition to those with General Electric and Honeywell that cover engines and avionics, respectively. The company has also held an advisory board meeting with 20 airlines and risk sharing partners to ...
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Northrop leads Lockheed Martin queue
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Northrop Grumman is the leading candidate to acquire some of the eight non-core businesses that Lockheed Martin plans to sell as part of a major restructuring intended to improve its financial and operational performance. Analysts expect Northrop Grumman to lead US bidders for the businesses, ...
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Metric mix-up led to Mars Orbiter loss
Confusion over the use of imperial and metric units caused the loss of the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft in late September. The NASA spacecraft was lost just minutes after its orbital insertion engine was fired to place it in orbit around the planet. The failure on 23 ...
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Global Hawk downed by rogue abort signal
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESNorthrop Grumman says the crash on 29 March of a Ryan Aeronautical RQ-4A Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle (UAV) was caused by an abort signal from another remotely operated vehicle which was being tested more than 250km (140nm) away. The signal accidentally triggered the Ryan UAV's flight termination ...
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Balkan pull-out
Knafaim-Arkia, the holding company of Israeli airline Arkia, is to sell its 75% holding in Balkan Bulgarian just three months after agreeing the deal with the Bulgarian Government. The decision to sell to an Israeli company sparked Arab government protests. Arkia says the deal was abandoned because incorporating data from ...
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Finmeccanica gets cash boost
Andy Nativi/GENOA The Italian Government is to provide state-owned holding company Finmeccanica with a massive cash boost. It comes ahead of an expected agreement with British Aerospace over the future of its jointly owned Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS) operation in the wake of the UK company's acquisition of GEC ...
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Saab/BAe support investor's swoop for Walter
AndrewDoyle/MUNICH US investor Robert Fessler and Ryanair founder Tony Ryan are in final negotiations with the Czech Government to buy 94% of the troubled aero engine builder Walter. A deal is expected to be signed with a Czech company set up by the two men. The bid is ...
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DHL completes British Airways 757 deal
Max Kingsley Jones/LONDON DHL has concluded its long- running negotiations with Boeing and British Airways for the acquisition of a massive fleet of converted Boeing 757 freighters, and will take the first of 44 aircraft in mid-2001. An announcement was expected on 5 October. Discussions between DHL, BA ...
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Korean merger goes ahead without a plan
The long-awaited merger of three South Korean aerospace companies has finally gone ahead, with no approved business plan. The union of Daewoo Heavy Industries (DHI), Hyundai Space and Aircraft and Samsung Aerospace into Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) was formalised on 1 October. The companies agreed last September to ...
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Service suspension
Air services between the Philippines and Taiwan were suspended indefinitely on 1 October, after a breakdown in talks between the two governments. The Philippines has been trying to revise downwards an agreement that allows carriers from each country to provide 9,600 seats a week on the route. Source: Flight International
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Outflanked
Bombardier has blinked in the increasingly hostile battle for dominance of the regional aircraft market in the 21st century. For the first time since the Canadian company revolutionised regional air transport with the original 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet in 1992, it has lost the initiative and is in danger of ...
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Shape up
Boeing is re-writing the rule book on contractor-supplier relationships and, in doing so, is threatening to start a tidal wave of far-reaching changes that could affect the aerospace industry at large. The US manufacturer dropped the rock into the supplier pool late last month when it announced radical revisions in ...
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Beriev completes first airframe for Chinese early warning radar
Russia's Beriev has completed modification of an A-50 (converted Ilyushin Il-76) to be used as the platform for an Elta Phalcon airborne early warning (AEW) system for China. According to Russian sources, the aircraft has already been flight tested. It is due to be delivered to Israel this month, ...
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MiG-29UBT on track for first flight next year
MAPO and Sokol plan to fly the first upgraded MiG-29UBT twin-seat fighter in mid-2000. Vasily Pankov, Sokol plant general director, says a MiG-29UBtrainer will be handed over by the Russian air force to the manufacturing plant to be modified to UBT standard. This will allow the aircraft to carry ...
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South Americans seek US funding for UH-1 Hueys
The US Government is considering a major expansion in the number of modernised Bell UH-1H Huey II helicopters supplied to Latin American countries for anti-drug missions. Five South American nations are seeking $135 million of US assistance in fiscal year 2000 to rebuild more than 60 UH-1Hs. The helicopters ...
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Brazil reconsiders F-5 radar
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Brazil is re-evaluating the Alenia Fiar Grifo F radar as an alternative to the Elta EL/MH 2032 system for its planned avionics upgrade of the NorthropF-5E/F fighter, while Elbit continues to struggle to finalise an integration contract. The Brazilian air force's F-5BR programme office confirms that ...
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Russians perform better in Chechnya
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW The performance of the Russian air force during operations against separatist rebels in Chechnya is better than its previous campaigns in Afghanistan during the 1980s and over the disputed enclave in 1994-6, says air force commander-in-chief Col Gen Anatoly Kornukov. While satisfied with the air force's ...