All news – Page 6634
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Guam crash: crew blamed
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has blamed the flight crew for the crash of a Korean Air Boeing 747-300 in Guam, in which 229 of the 254 people on board were killed. But the board says actions by Korean Air, the Korean Civil Aviation ...
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A330s or 767s on menu as Hainan Airlines plans international flights
Andrew Doyle/MUNICHHainan Airlines is seeking approval from the Chinese Government to launch international flights to points in Asia, Australia and Europe. The Chinese short-haul airline also plans to open discussions with Airbus and Boeing on acquiring a fleet of widebodies. "We expect approval in principle from the Civil Aviation Administration ...
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HKIA upgrades weather alerts
Improved weather detection systems at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) are being examined in the wake of the China Airlines Boeing MD-11 crash at the airport in August. The Hong Kong Observatory is studying 162 windshear reports from pilots landing at HKIA since it opened in mid-1998, most of ...
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Rockwell Collins heads for I²S first
Rockwell Collins and Lufthansa affiliate Condor expect to receive German certification of the Integrated Information System (I2S) by mid-November. Certification, which follows a successful test flight on a Condor A320 in September, will pave the way for the launch of a year-long operational trial of the advanced information management system ...
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SpaceDev wins spacecraft deal
SpaceDev, the commercial space exploration and development company, has been selected by the Space Sciences Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley to design, build and operate a micro-spacecraft. The vehicle will conduct a one-year astronomy mission in low earth orbit. The spacecraft, the Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma ...
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ILS contract boost for Astrotech
Spacehab subsidiary, Astrotech, has been awarded a six-year extension to its payload processing contract by International Launch Services (ILS). Astrotech will support Atlas fleet launches, including the new Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle, at Cape Canaveral, Florida and at Vandenberg AFB in California. The inaugural ILS launch from ...
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Beagle 2 to face ESA
The UK's Open University-led Beagle 2 Mars lander project goes before the European Space Agency's (ESA) Science Programme Committee on 10 November. It is bidding to take a piggyback ride aboard the ESA Mars Express orbiter in 2003. The 60kg (130lb) Beagle 2 is not yet fully funded but ...
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Ball completes Bird
Ball Aerospace has completed the building of the spacecraft bus for the QuickBird 1 high resolution commercial remote sensing satellite. It is scheduled for launch from Plesetsk next year. The spacecraft is based on Ball's Commercial Platform 2000 bus which was first used for the QuickScat project. Source: Flight International
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ISS suffers further delays
Tim Furniss/LONDON The International Space Station (ISS) project has been dealt a new blow with the delay of the next Space Shuttle assembly mission, STS101 Atlantis. NASA has moved it from February next year to no earlier than 16 March. This comes after the Russian Proton launch failure ...
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Intelsat deadline
Intelsat's target date for completing privatisation is April 2001, following formal ratification of its member countries. The satellite communications organisation intends an initial public offering within a year after. It will continue to provide a global service rather than fragmenting into national entities. Source: Flight International
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Task force
Mitsubishi Electric has entered the world league in full-scale satellite manufacturing and testing with the completion of a new six-floor, 23m (75ft)-high, 2,483m² (26,700ft²) plant at Kamakura. Incorporating full-scale design, manufacturing and testing facilities under one roof, it includes a space vacuum chamber. Source: Flight International
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External payload
Lockheed Martin has confirmed a new configuration of its proposed VentureStar single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle (Flight International, 13-19 October). The craft will carry an external payload bay up to 19m (60ft) long and 10m wide to provide greater fuel efficiency and greater mission flexibility. With the external payload bay removed, ...
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Fire in Proton second stage caused engine failure
The failure of the Proton booster on 27 October was caused by "fire in the turbopump of the second stage", says the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Engine No 1 on the booster's second stage failed, followed by the shutdown of the other three engines, at 222s into the ...
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SSTL tests electric Resistojet in orbit
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has test-fired the first electric resistojet orbit control thruster to be used in space by a Western European country. It took place aboard the SSTL UoSAT 12 satellite. A resistojet is a form of electric propulsion where a fluid, such as water or ...
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Lockheed Martin considers major closures to cut costs
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DCLockheed Martin is considering major aircraft and spacecraft plant closures in a move to improve its poor financial performance. Falling earnings have already led to the departure of two top executives and the launch of a divestment programme. Consolidation of the aircraft factories at Fort Worth, Texas, and ...
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Dutch downfall
Dutch charter operator Air Holland has gone into voluntary administration after failing to sell the airline to Schreiner Aviation . UK low-cost carrier easyJet is considering buying Air Holland's three Boeing 737-300s, along with four 757-200s, as part of a strategy to create a hub at Amsterdam. Source: Flight International
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Rolls-Royce cuts
Rolls-Royce is to reduce the workforce of its large commercial engines business by around 10%, or 400 people, by the end of March. The company says it hopes to achieve the job losses at its Derby plant through voluntary redundancies and natural wastage. Source: Flight International
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ARINC moves into airline passenger cabins with BT link
Communications specialist ARINC, better known for its cockpit services, is expanding its activities into the passenger cabin through an alliance with UK telecommunication giant BT. Under the deal, ARINC will be the preferred distributor of BT's aeronautical services in the USA. BT provides telephone, facsimile and in-flight entertainment (IFE) ...
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Tenzing aims for e-mail flight trials next year
Internet service provider Tenzing plans to launch flight trials of its in-flight e-mail/Internet services by next September. The Redmond, Washington-based company demonstrated its FlightConnect e-mail service for the first time at the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) show last month. It has signed up an airline for flight trials, says ...
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Swissair hangs up satphones
Swissair is removing the satellite communications (satcom)-based in-seat telephones installed on its narrowbody Airbus fleet due reliability problems and a lack of passenger demand. The in-seat phones will be removed from January, but one bulkhead-installed phone will remain on each aircraft, says Don McLaren, Swissair in-flight entertainment and communication ...