All news – Page 6649
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Comanche tests to speed up
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DCBoeing and Sikorsky plan to accelerate RAH-66 Comanche helicopter flight and system testing in a move to reduce development risk. This coincides with the US Congress signalling its intent to pay much closer scrutiny to the helicopter programme. Key members of the House Appropriations Committee defence panel warn ...
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UK sends out for UAV assessment bids
Stewart Penney/LONDON The UK Ministry of Defence is inviting a dozen companies to bid for the assessment phase of its Sender unmanned air vehicle (UAV) requirement. At the same time, the MoD and US Army have agreed a letter of intent (LoI) to explore opportunities for Tactical UAV (TUAV) co-operation. ...
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USAF opens Australian early warning post
The US Air Force has commissioned a new satellite ground station in Australia for the Defence Support Program (DSP) early warning satellite network,. Its Nurrungar station, in the Woomera Prohibited Area, closed on 12 October. The new station, a fully automated relay facility, is side by side with the ...
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USN terminates supersonic target
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC A $100 million competition to procure a Supersonic Sea-Skimming Target (SSST) has been scrapped, forcing the US Navy to come up with a new scheme to replace its dwindling supply of targets. In the interim, the USN may acquire additional Russian-built MA-31s targets. USN programme ...
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Merger forms world's third-largest aerospace company
Chris Jasper/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Aerospatiale Matra and DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) are to merge in a move that will create the world's third-largest aerospace company. The merger seems likely to accelerate the transformation of Airbus Industrie into a single corporate entity. The deal raises questions about ...
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BAe and Italians ponder options
Chris Jasper/LONDON Andy Nativi/ROME The establishment of EADS creates an aerospace giant that bears a striking resemblance to the European Aerospace and Defence Company envisaged since December 1997 - with the significant absence of British Aerospace. The UK giant rejected Dasa as a suitor and pursued consolidation along national lines ...
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Fine looks to replace DC-8s
Paul Lewis/MIAMI Recently merged cargo carriers Fine Air and Arrow Air are looking to acquire freighters to replace their McDonnell Douglas DC-8-50s. The newly amalgamated company intends to acquire eight freighters by the middle of next year to replace an equal number of Fine Air's DC-8-50Fs. Both companies ...
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BA snubs 717 and stays with Airbus for short-haul fleet strategy revamp
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON British Airways' decision to order more Airbus narrowbodies rather than the Boeing 717 for its 100-seat needs is part of a major short-haul fleet strategy revamp. According to sources within the carrier, the three-year-plan, which comes as part of the airline's strategy of reducing capacity and ...
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Air Botswana fleet is wrecked
Linden Birns/CAPE TOWN Air Botswana has wet-leased aircraft from South Africa's SA Express to reinstate services after almost all its aircraft were destroyed in a bizarre pilot suicide crash last week. An enraged pilot, recently grounded for medical reasons by the small southern African airline, apparently vented his ...
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Liberate ATC operations, urges CANSO
David Learmount/LONDON All air traffic control services must be liberated from direct governmental control, says the Geneva-based Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), which represents the world's 20 autonomous air traffic services (ATS) providers. CANSO believes the alternative is that the world's air navigation services will die through ...
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American Eagle starts phasing out Saabs
American Eagle Airlines has begun to phase out its massive Saab 340 fleet, with the entry into service of the new Embraer ERJ-135 and gradual transition to a predominantly turbofan-powered operation by 2005. The AMR-owned regional carrier has put the first nine of its 115 Swedish twin-turboprops on the ...
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EU nears hushkit row compromise with US
The European Union is prepared to compromise in its row with the USA over hushkitted aircraft - but only if Washington commits to "key dates" for the introduction of even more stringent noise rules than planned. The EU is under pressure to push back the May 2000 deadline by ...
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Airbus wins more business in USA
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The Airbus A318 has received another major sales boost. America West, Frontier Airlines and Air China are to announce orders for 33 aircraft days after British Airways concluded its deal for up to 24 of the new jets. Boeing chairman Phil Condit has publicly conceded ...
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Marketplace
Polar Air Cargo has introduced two additional Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7Q-powered 747-200 freighters and retired one of its older747-100s. Cathay Pacific has ordered two additional Rolls-Royce RB211-524H-powered Boeing 747-400 freighters, for delivery in September 2000 and August 2001. The Hong Kong-based carrier has also concluded its lease deal with Air ...
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At the crossroads
Europe's aerospace industry has finally reached the crossroads it has been heading toward since Lockheed Martin gave notice in the early 1990s that a seismic shift in company ownership was about to shake the old order of doing business. The merger of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace and Aerospatiale Matra, coming in ...
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Supersonic tonic
For years, the assumption in civil air transport circles has been that the only way that the airlines would ever get a second-generation supersonic transport to replace the BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde would be for the industry to come up with a larger, more economical, longer-range and (crucially) much more environmentally friendly ...
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Noble targets taxi market with Farnborough F1
Richard Noble, the man behind the successful ThrustSSC supersonic jet powered world land speed record attempt in 1997, has launched a project to build a five-seater single turboprop, the Farnborough F1. He hopes to market the aircraft to companies interested in creating networks of air taxis, allowing business travellers to ...
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Airports
Caracas Maiquetia Airport is undergoing the first phase of a $100 million upgrade project, dubbed "Maiquetia 2000". This will see the airport's main passenger terminal reconstructed within a two-level departure/arrival layout, due to open in 2001. The airport's runway is also undergoing major repairs. Work has begun at Knoxville's McGhee ...
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Revamped AVICs aim to update regional turboprop programmes
Andrzej Jeziorski/BEIJING The recently formed aerospace groups China Aviation Industry I (AVIC I) and China Aviation Industry II (AVIC II) are each developing upgraded versions of their dated turboprop transports to boost civil sales. AVIC I manufacturing plant Xian Aircraft (XAC) is developing the latest improvement to its ...
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Maiden flight for first 767-400ER
The first Boeing 767-400ER completed its maiden flight on 9 October, under the command of test pilots Buzz Nelson, 767 programme chief pilot, and John Cashman, flightcrew operations director. The 5h 5min flight, which began from Boeing's Everett, Washington, plant and was concluded at the manufacturer's test airfield, Boeing Field, ...