All news – Page 6495
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Italian army A129 update is given go-ahead
Andrea Nativi/GENOAItaly's Parliament has approved an army plan to upgrade its Agusta A129 Mangusta anti-tank helicopter fleet to widen its combat role. Italian army aviation (AVES) has 45 Mangustas delivered and another 15 to be delivered with the improved avionics and sensor package, 20mm nose-mounted cannon and five-bladed main rotor ...
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BA to cut European short-haul routes
Chris Jasper/LONDON British Airways is planning to axe 25% of its short-haul routes within Europe as part of a radical approach to a growing crisis centring on declining yields. The UK flag carrier saw pre-tax profits plunge more than 61% to £225 million ($360 million) for its financial year ...
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Quad TiltRotor under study
Graham Warwick/MONTREAL Bell Boeing is studying a four-proprotor tiltrotor aircraft as a potential replacement for both heavylift helicopters and tactical transports. The initial concept for the Quad TiltRotor (QTR) is to use the wing, nacelles, engines and proprotors from the Bell Boeing V-22, mating them to a modified ...
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Boeing joins EH101 team for Canadian bid
Boeing has joined the EH Industries-led team planning to offer the EH101 for the Canadian Forces' Maritime Helicopter Programme (MHP). Boeing will supply the maritime patrol mission system for the Cormorant version of the EH101 that will be offered to meet the 35-aircraft Sikorsky Sea King replacement requirement. The ...
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THAAD test delayed as Hera malfunctions
A critical test of the US Army Lockheed Martin Theater High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) was aborted on 25 May after the Hera target missile malfunctioned because of an attitude control problem before the hit-to-kill missile was launched from the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. The test has not ...
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Orion upgrade
Raytheon has flown the first Royal Australian Air Force Lockheed Martin P-3C to be upgraded to AP-3C Sea Sentinel standard with new navigation, communication, radar and acoustic systems. The aircraft will complete three months of acceptance flights at Raytheon System's Greenville, Texas, plant before delivery to RAAF Edinburgh for operational ...
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NATO directors split decision on ground surveillance needs
Stewart Penney/LONDON The NATO Conference of National Armaments Directors (CNAD) has agreed on a twin-track approach to satisfying the Alliance's air-to-ground surveillance (AGS) requirement. A US-led group, including Canada, Denmark and Norway, will move ahead with a two-year project definition phase for a system based on the Northrop Grumman/Raytheon ...
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Airbus develops cargo lifter
Airbus is developing a novel on-board cargo lifter for its A300-600ST Beluga outsize-freighter as part of its proposal to meet the Royal Air Force Short Term Strategic Airlifter (STSA) requirement. The cargo lifter allows freight to be loaded and unloaded without the need for ground support equipment, says Airbus director ...
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Boeing and Elbit sign MoU to link on Polish helicopter bid
Boeing and Elbit Systems have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-operate on upgrading Polish air force PZL-Swidnik Sokol helicopters. Last year, the two Western companies argued over the controversial decision by the Polish Government to award the Israeli company prime contractorship on a deal to upgrade the ...
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Marconi wins laser demonstrator deal for RAF's DIRCM
Marconi Electronic Systems has won a £2 million ($3.2 million) technology demonstrator contract to develop a laser for Northrop Grumman's AAQ-24(V) Nemesis Directional Infrared Countermeasures (DIRCM), being fielded by UK forces. Last month, Marconi delivered a mid-infrared wavelength, single-band, solid-state laser to the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency ...
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Israel supports launcher plan
The Israeli Ministry of Defence is supporting efforts to develop a satellite launcher based on a design of Dov Raviv, who was responsible for the development of the Arrow missile. The Israeli Government is not contributing funding to the programme, so Raviv is seeking private investment to start the ...
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Mir August mission likely to be scrapped
The Russian Energia company, which manages Soyuz and Mir missions, looks likely to cancel the Mir mission planned for August, because of funding difficulties. The move comes as Russian President Boris Yeltsin has instructed his space officials to concentrate on the International Space Station (ISS) rather than the Mir. ...
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Detroit Airport pictured by UK satellite
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology has been buoyed by the success of its first Minisatellite, the UoSat 12, launched aboard a Dnepr booster from Baikonur on 21 April. The spacecraft's latest success has been the return of spectacular 10m resolution panchromatic and 32m multispectral images from low earth orbit, including ...
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Lunar impact
NASA is considering targeting its Lunar Prospector at a specific site on the moon before it makes a natural descent, so that it can investigate the existence of water ice. The controlled crash into the Mawson crater at the moon's south pole in July/August will be observed by telescopes, focusing ...
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Taiwan investors get go-ahead to board K-1 reusable vehicle
Andrzej Jeziorski /SINGAPORE The Taiwanese Ministry of Finance has given several Taiwanese banks the green light to invest in the Kistler Aerospace K-1 reusable launch vehicle. The ministry is understood to support the plan primarily because of commitments made by Kistler to offer parts supply contracts to Taiwanese ...
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VentureStar fails to attract private interest
Lockheed Martin has failed to attract private investment for its proposed VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) re-usable launch vehicle. The company says it will need government funding or loan guarantees to allow development. Without this, the project will not go forward, says Peter Teets, Lockheed Martin president and chief executive, who ...
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S Korea's KAISAT-4 will carry Australian payload
South Korea's KAISAT-4 microsatellite, scheduled for launch in 2002, will carry an Australian-developed communications package. This is part of a new two-nation agreement intended to explore common payload applications for remote sensing and space-based rural area communications. The payload is a derivative of a combined UHF, S band and ...
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Provisional date set for Ariane 5 flight
The much delayed first fully commercial launch of the Ariane 5 will take place on 8 July at the earliest, according to Arianespace. Ariane 504 will carry the Asiastar and Telkom satellites for WorldSpace and Indonesia, respectively. Ariane 504 was delayed from late last year by the failure of ...
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UPS boosts II Morrow
United Parcel Service (UPS) has committed new financial and management resources to its II Morrow subsidiary and changed the name of the Salem, Oregon-based company to UPS Aviation Technologies. The former II Morrow's Apollo brand avionics line has been expanded to a full-product system that includes new navigations/communications, a ...
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Mergers
Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG) has acquired Elsinore Airport Services, which provides ground handling at 23 sites in the USA and the Caribbean. ASIG has ground-handling and fuelling operations in 56 cities in North America and Europe. UK engineering group McKechnie is to acquire US aerospace parts company Walker Sky ...