All news – Page 6420
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Air France keen on Korean Air links
Air France has revealed that Korean Air (KAL) could be a founder member of the global alliance it plans to launch with Delta Air Lines this year - despite the two Western carriers' recent safety-related suspensions of codeshares with the Asian airline. The French flag carrier's chief executive Jean ...
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Airbus backs down from Boeing battle
Airbus Industrie has backed away from a full-blooded confrontation with Boeing over support for A340-300s being traded to its US rival by Singapore Airlines (SIA) in exchange for 777s. The consortium is also dismissing a claim from Boeing that it has undertaken similar aircraft buy-back deals. In the Airbus ...
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USAF targets new pod
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The US Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC) has drawn up an operational requirement for an advanced targeting pod and will shortly be seeking industry proposals as a result of lessons learned during the Kosovo conflict. "We're looking to field the system in a 2003 timeframe, ...
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Hummingbird tested
Frontier Systems has flight tested avionics and software for its A160 Hummingbird vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding development of the 48h endurance, 5,500km (3,000nm) range A160 (Flight International, 21-27 July). The key Hummingbird technologies were flown in ...
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F-16s to be given new smart-bomb rack
M Technologies, DRS Technologies and EDO have been awarded a $26 million five-year production contract by the US Air Force to produce a new bomb rack that will double the amount of munitions USAF Lockheed Martin F-16s can carry. The contract calls for the production of 378 BRU-57 smart-bomb ...
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Delayed KTX-2 passes preliminary design review
The Samsung/Lockheed Martin KTX-2 trainer/light combat aircraft project has slipped six months. But it continues to progress with the completion of the preliminary design review, clearing the way for the start of detailed design and fabrication. KTX-2 formal drawings release will start in September, allowing sheet metal fabrication to commence. ...
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US Taiwan E-2T Hawkeye sale strains relations with Beijing
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The USA has sold $550 million-worth of airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, spare parts and equipment to Taiwan, aggravating the already strained relations between Washington and Beijing. The US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on 30 July that it is proposing a $400 million deal for ...
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DERA presents Racal with a radar lifeline
Stewart Penney/LONDON Racal Defence Electronics' work with the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA)to define a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology demonstrator for fast jet low level reconnaissance missions has handed the UK company a lifeline that will allow it to continue developing SAR technology. This is despite its ...
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THAAD makes a hit
Project officials on the Lockheed Martin Theater High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile programme are preparing for the next anti-ballistic missile test, set for late next month. They hope to maintain the momentum generated by two back-to-back THAAD test successes. The missile scored its second success on 2 August. ...
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All change at NATO
UK defence secretary George Robertson is to become NATO secretary-general, succeeding Javier Solana, who is joining the European Union. The US Clinton Administration is proposing US Air Force Gen Joe Ralston as the next NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Source: Flight International
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US Army rethinks Apache refit
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The US Army has cancelled an engineering and cost study contract to retrofit the Boeing AH64A/D Apache with a new second generation forward looking infrared (FLIR), but says it is committed to upgrading the attack helicopter with a new system by 2004. The study contract ...
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Software glitches delay Hawkeye 2000 computer
Software problems will delay the production of a new mission computer for the US Navy's Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye 2000 until at least March 2003, a year later than planned. In May, Northrop Grumman won a $1.3 billion five-year production contract for 22 Hawkeye 2000s - 21 for the ...
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UK starts ATC work
Preliminary work on the most seriously delayed of the UK National Air Traffic Services' (NATS) major projects, the New Scottish Centre, has begun. "Preferred bidder" Sky Solutions, the Lockheed Martin-led consortium, has been cleared to go ahead with "project definition", to be complete by mid-September. The NSC will be operational ...
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Designer error
According to industry folklore, aircraft design was the product of engineers who cared passionately that their creations worked well, but did not give undue thought to those who would operate and maintain them. New equipment which brought operational advantage in some form tended to be accepted, not only for ...
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Malpensa malcontents seek EC U-turn
Andy Nativi/GENOA Nine airlines unhappy with a European Commission (EC) ruling forcing them to move all flights from Milan Linate Airport to the new Malpensa site are refusing to drop their complaint, and will lobby for a U-turn from incoming EC transport commissioner Loyola de Palacio. The carriers ...
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IFE revenues soar
The world in-flight entertainment (IFE) market generated revenues totalling $1.52 billion last year, a 19.8% increase on 1997 figures, says a report from analyst Frost & Sullivan. The report lists as major IFE revenue drivers increased airline profitability, fractional ownership programmes for business jets, high-price complete cabin interactive IFE ...
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Resignation puts a damper on Russian merger
Paul Duffy/MOSCOW The anticipated merger of Russian carriers Vnukovo Airlines and Sibir is in doubt following the resignation of Vladislav Filiov as general director at Vnukovo. The Sibir chief executive had been running both carriers in what was expected to be the prelude to a tie-up. Filiov spent six ...
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Cyprus record
Cyprus Airways group chairman Takis Kyriakides has described last year as a "record" after revealing pre-tax profits of C£10 million ($18 million), compared with a C£3.2 million loss in 1997. The flag carrier itself showed a C£5.3 million pre-tax gain. Source: Flight International
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Renaissance revives Silvaire
Dave Higdon/OSHKOSH Renaissance Aircraft expects to resurrect production in October of the classic Luscombe 8F Silvaire light aircraft. Maryland-based Renaissance will use international suppliers to keep the base price of the all-metal taildragger at $69,500, president John Deardon said during the Experimental Aircraft Association convention at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, ...
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June approval for Rans two-seater
After four years of development and test flying, the S-7C Courier is back on track at Kansas-based Rans, with certification of the $55,000 two-seat sportplane expected next June. The S-7 was designed more than a decade ago as a high-wing, tandem-seat, tailwheel kitplane. Rans has evolved the design for ...