All news – Page 6851
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Wexford adds to Embraer orderbook with letter for 40 ERJ-135s
Wexford Aviation has signed a letter of intent for 40 Embraer RJ-135 37-seat regional jets, worth $500 million. The agreement is similar to an earlier deal for 20 firm orders, with 20 options, for Embraer RJ-145 50-seat regional jets, worth $700 million. Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm Wexford plans to ...
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Workshop
-Pemco Aeroplex has been awarded a maintenance contract by Mesa Airlines to carry out line maintenance, technical support and transit checks in support of Mesa's Bombardier Canadair Regional Jets in operation through Birmingham International Airport, Alabama. -AeroCorp has signed a contract with Continental Airlines to undertake heavy scheduled maintenance of ...
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US airline profits are 'best ever'
The major US airlines ended 1997 with their strongest profits on record, but the celebrations were accompanied by the promise of more turbulence ahead, with the fall-out from Asian economic crisis and the prospect of a renewed round of consolidation closer to home following the Continental/Northwest Airlines tie-up. With only ...
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US giants digest their mergers
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON After five years of breakneck consolidation, positions are firming up at the top of the US aerospace league, but attention now turns to digesting the latest, and probably last, series of mergers and acquisitions. With the 1997 round of annual financial results, Boeing reclaims its position at the ...
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Boeing ponders Chinook cockpit avionics choice
Boeing Helicopters intends to select an avionics subcontractor for the $3 billion Chinook Improved Cargo Helicopter (ICH) programme in the next few weeks, following a bidders' conference early in January. Company sources say that Boeing wants to have identified its avionics provider before the requirements document and engineering and ...
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EF2000 is refuelled in flight for first time
The Eurofighter EF2000 test team has carried out its first in-flight refuelling trial, with Development Aircraft 2 being flown on an air-to-air refuelling sortie with a Royal Air Force BAC VC10 K3. Refuelling was carried out from both the VC10 fuselage and wingtip stations. The EF2000 also achieved Mach 2 ...
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IPTN battles to stay in RAAF light-transport competition
Peter La Franchi/CANBERRA Indonesian manufacturer IPTN has embarked on a desperate political campaign in an attempt to keep its CN-235-330 Phoenix in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) competition for a tactical transport. Indonesian science and technology minister Bacharuddin Habibie wrote to the Australian defence minister, Ian McLachlan, ...
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Russian air force chief overhauls merger plan
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW Plans to merge the Russian air force with the country's air-defence forces are being overhauled by Col Gen Anatyoly Kornukov, the recently appointed commander-in-chief. Kornukov inherited the restructuring proposals from his predecessor, Col Gen Piotr Deinekin. While Kornukov, a former senior air-defence forces commander, is pushing ahead ...
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US Navy launches study to look into P-3 replacement aircraft
The US Navy has launched studies into a replacement for its Lockheed P-3 maritime-patrol aircraft. Industry was briefed in late January on plans to field a Multi-Mission Maritime Aircraft (MMMA) by 2015, to replace the Navy's land-based P-3s, electronic-intelligence EP-3Es, submarine-communications Boeing E-6s and tanker/transport Lockheed Martin C-130s. The ...
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Dassault for F-5
Northrop Grumman has picked Dassault Electronique as a preferred electronic-warfare supplier for proposed Northrop F-5 upgrades. The French company's EWS-A radar-warning receiver will form part of any baseline upgrade which is offered by Northrop Grumman. Source: Flight International
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Tanker savings
The US General Accounting Office claims that the Department of Defense could save as much as $209 million annually in Lockheed Martin C-130 and Boeing KC-135 costs - yet meet all mobility requirements - by requiring the US Air Force to re-organise the aircraft into larger-sized squadrons and wings. The ...
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Australia could issue Air 87 RFP by May
The Australian Army plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) by May for Phase II of its Air 87 programme to replace six Bell UH-1H Iroquois and 43 Bell 206 Kiowas with a common type. Manufacturers will have "three to four" months to respond. Speaking at a Shephard ...
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France reconsiders multi-year Rafale purchase to aid exports
Julian Moxon/PARIS The French Government is reconsidering approving a multi-year procurement of the Dassault Rafale multi-role fighter in its 1998 defence budget, to bolster the programme's ailing credibility in the export market. Defence minister Alain Richard told the French senate in December that the 1998 defence budget had "no ...
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US Navy eyes unmanned aircraft for utility role
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A vertical take-off and landing support unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) is being pushed as an alternative to a crewed design for the US Navy's future carrier-borne utility aircraft. The USN's Common Support Aircraft (CSA) programme is intended to determine a successor to Northrop Grumman E-2C Hawkeye ...
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USA makes last-ditch ASTOR effort
Douglas Barrie/LONDON A high-level US delegation visited the UK in early January in an eleventh-hour attempt to persuade the Government to procure a variant of the Northrop Grumman Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) to meet its Airborne Stand-Off Radar (ASTOR ) requirement. The delegation, say US sources, ...
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Grob favoured for RAF trainer
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON A battle between the Royal Air Force and the UK's Department of Trade and Industry over the choice of a basic trainer aircraft to replace the RAF's fleet of Scottish Aviation Bulldog T1s has been resolved in favour of the military. The stand-off between the two sides ...
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Marking territory
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS It was clearly strategic planning and global thinking, rather than short-term opportunism in the volatile pilot-training market, which recently impelled British Aerospace to boost its investment in Australian-based pilot-training schools. The training needs of the Asia-Pacific region, despite the recent economic downturn, are considerable, and Australian schools are ...
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The impossible target
David Learmount/LONDON Training to be a commercial pilot under the new joint European rules is going to be harder, the training industry warns. With the first of the new courses about to start, this is not exactly what aspiring fliers were hoping, or even expecting, to hear. Under the new ...
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Norway's masterpiece
Ian Sheppard/OSLO With environmental issues more pertinent than ever, it will not be a moment too soon for Oslo's population when its Fornebu Airport closes on 8 October. Operations will be switched overnight to Gardermoen, Norway's new NKr21 billion ($2.8 billion) flagship airport, 47km (29 miles) north of the capital. ...
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Cockpit inadequacies
David Learmount/LONDON Those who argue that there is a degradation of basic flying skills in line pilots ascribe it to many things, the favourite being flightdeck automation. Parc Aviation consultant Capt Russell Kane, a former Aer Lingus captain, says that there is evidence that giving undue importance to cockpit ...