All news – Page 6395

  • News

    Marconi kits out Aero L-159 with Brimstone

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Marconi Electronic Systems has carried out fit tests of its Brimstone anti-armour weapon, TIALD targeting pod and Apollo radar jammer on the Aero Vodochody light-attack L-159. The UK company, to be merged with British Aerospace this month, is competing for an expected Czech requirement to equip some of the 72 ...

  • News

    Malaysia eyes Su-27s and Mi-17s

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Stewart Penney/LONDON Malaysia is considering a purchase of Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker fighters and Mil Mi-17 transport helicopters. This follows a visit by Malaysian prime minister Mathatir Mohammad to Russia. Meanwhile, the Royal Malaysian Navy has signed a $100 million deal for six GKN Westland Super Lynx naval helicopters. ...

  • News

    MiG-21-93 hits target with Vympel missile

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW A prototype MAPO/Sokol MiG-21-93 upgrade has shot down an aerial target with a beyond-visual-range Vympel RVV-AE missile (R-77/AA-12 Adder). The active radar-guided RVV-AE and Phazotron Kopyo (Spear) lightweight multimode radar are key elements of the MiG-21-93 upgrade being developed for Indian air force aircraft. A subsonic target ...

  • News

    T-6As await NFTC go-ahead

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Raytheon Aircraft has yet to receive a licence to export the 24 T-6A turboprop trainers ordered for the Bombardier-run NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme. The US company still hopes to begin deliveries before year-end. The US Government is concerned about ownership of the aircraft and what will ...

  • News

    BA shake-up claims victims

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Chris Jasper/LONDON British Airways' sweeping executive reshuffle has removed at least two senior figures from the carrier's upper management. It has effectively elevated or demoted others as its old horizontally oriented structure is replaced by a vertically oriented model through which the airline says it hopes to "sharpen its ...

  • News

    Air force project hits Aero profit

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/PRAGUE Aero Vodochody remained firmly in the red last year, but claims to be on course to make a net profit in 2001 as it gears up to begin delivering light attack L-159s to the Czech air force. The Czech aircraft manufacturer lost CKr2.2 billion ($64 million) last ...

  • News

    Air France closes on new allies

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Chris Jasper/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France is moving closer to enlisting new airline allies to launch a global grouping alongside Delta Air Lines. Austrian Airlines is thought to be close to defecting from the Swissair-led Qualiflyer alliance and British Midland (BM) is being targeted as part of the recruitment offensive. ...

  • News

    Aerolineas ready for October merger

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Aerolineas Argentinas is to merge with Austral Lineas Aereas by 1 October, the final move in preparing the pair's parent company Interinvest for sale. The merged airline will operate under Aerolineas' code, with a new livery to be unveiled in December. Following a review conducted by international consultancy Arthur ...

  • News

    Australasian profits herald return to financial health

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Paul Phelan/CAIRNS The Australasian airline market has confirmed its return to comparatively good health, with the region's three majors - Qantas, Air New Zealand (ANZ) and Ansett Australia - all reporting major improvements in performance for the financial year ended 30 June. The three are all confident of further ...

  • News

    Ontario court sets Air Canada Onex date

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Ontario's Superior Court has timetabled a hearing for 22 September on the Onex investment group's planned hostile take-over of Air Canada. Onex, which aims to merge Air Canada with troubled Canadian Airlines, will ask the courts to force the flag carrier to hold a shareholders' vote on its bid ...

  • News

    El Al gets widebody purchase go-ahead

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Chase Manhattan bank has backed a plan for the financing of a new widebody purchase by El Al, concluding that the Israeli flag carrier's market projections are sound. The US bank was contracted to assess the funding scheme last month and reports that El Al made relatively conservative cashflow ...

  • News

    Kiwi and Community slide as Pan Am perks up

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Kiwi International Airlines has moved closer to extinction, with bankruptcy trustee Charles Stanziale requesting US court permission to liquidate the few remaining assets of the carrier. Chapter 7 liquidation is expected to be approved this month. Newark, New Jersey-based Kiwi ceased operating on 24 March and ...

  • News

    Cash crisis halts AB

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    UK independent AB Airlines, which went into administration on 30 July, has ceased scheduled services after its administrator decided its negative cashflow was "too serious" to allow it to continue operations. AB offered flights from London Gatwick to Nice, France, and Shannon, Ireland. The airline says its wet-lease and ...

  • News

    Trainer role for baby Bell

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DCThe US Marine Corps is drafting a mission needs statement for a military trainer variant of the BA609 civil tiltrotor, in the first formal step towards an expected joint programme with the US Air Force. Following the USMC needs statement, the next step will be the drafting of ...

  • News

    Sikorsky widens Shares offer

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Sikorsky plans to extend its Sikorsky Shares fractional ownership programme to California and Florida next year and to Europe in 2001, as the concept of helicopter sharing gains acceptance. "We hope to have sold our first S-76C+ by the end of the year and to have three ...

  • News

    Kelly wins NASA deal

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Reusable space transportation systems company Kelly Space and Technology has been awarded a $2.1 million contract by NASA to continue studying the development of space transportation through to 2030. Under the second phase of the programme, California-based Kelly will develop alternatives to meet NASA's future spaceflight requirements from 2000 ...

  • News

    NASA reveals close-up images of moons

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    NASA has released images of the earth's moon (above) and Io - the volcanic moon of Jupiter (below). The moon image was taken during the close flyby of the earth-moon system last month by the Cassini spacecraft en route to Saturn, proving the quality of the craft's imaging system in ...

  • News

    Russia restarts Baikonur Proton services with launch of Yamals

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON Russia launched two Yamal communications satellites on a Proton K booster from Baikonur on 6 September, marking the first launch of a Proton booster since launches from Baikonur were banned by Kazakhstan after the Proton M failure on 5 July. The launch was also the first by ...

  • News

    ESA ponders Vega's future after France withdraws

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Europe's controversial $300 million Vega small-satellite launcher project has been hit by the withdrawal of France from the international partnership established to build the vehicle. France has been considering its involvement in the programme for some time and resisted further investment (Flight International, 7-13 July). Its decision leaves Italy ...

  • News

    US delays could keep Mir station in orbit

    1999-09-15T00:00:00Z

    Russia's Energia company has suggested that, if funding can be found, a new crew could inhabit the Mir space station for six months next year, rather than the short visit planned to prepare the station for de-orbiting. The Russian move is in response to US delays to the International ...