All news – Page 6867
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USN picks UAVs for VTOL demonstration
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Navy will test three entirely different unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) designs in its forthcoming vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) demonstration, which the contractors hope will lead to the deployment of an operational system. In late 1997, the UAV Joint Project Office chose Bell Helicopter, Bombardier and Science ...
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Muscling to the market lead
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC AAR has just announced its third acquisition in less than nine months, a convincing illustration of what vision and financial muscle can achieve in the fragmented business of airline aftermarket support. In December, the company reported a 33% increase in second-quarter sales, after a jump of 26% ...
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Going private
Tim Furniss/LONDON Thirty-seven years ago, a US Lockheed U-2 spy plane was shot down for flying over the former Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where the Space Age began with the launch of the Sputnik 1 on 4 October, 1957. Now the Cosmodrome is going private and very public. ...
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Canada approves Hawker 800XP
Raytheon's Hawker 800XP business jet has been certificated in Canada and the first Canadian-registered aircraft has entered service with IPL Energy of Calgary, Alberta. Source: Flight International
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Cessna is nearer to Citation Excel US certification
Cessna expects basic US type-certification of the Citation Excel business jet later this month. Although approval has slipped by four months against the original schedule, the company intends to begin customer deliveries in April, as planned. The first production Excel has been flown. The Excel essentially combines the wing ...
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Alberta gets cash for FanJet
Canadian company Mill City Gold Mining has agreed to advance Alberta Aerospace (AAC) the C$5 million ($3.5 million) required to complete certification of the Phoenix FanJet single-turbofan trainer. Calgary-based AAC is working to certificate the two-seat FanJet, which is based on the Promavia Jet Squalus military trainer, by mid-1998. ...
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Raytheon teams with Jaguar to market special-edition King Air
Graham Warwick/DETROIT Raytheon and luxury-car manufacturer Jaguar have signed a marketing agreement under which the company is to produce a special edition of its Beech King Air twin-turboprop. The US manufacturer plans to produce a dozen Jaguar Special Edition King Air C90Bs in 1998. The first four have ...
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Jet Aviation installs winglets on G II's
Jet Aviation has been appointed by Aviation Partners of Seattle, Washington, to sell and install its winglet performance-enhancement system on the Gulfstream II. The West Palm Beach, Florida-based company has already fitted eight sets of winglets on other corporate aircraft. It has also been awarded a supplementary type ...
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Rotorway in UK
Arizona-based kit-built-helicopter producer RotorWay has appointed Southern Helicopters, of Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, as UK sales representative. There are 25 RotorWay owners in the UK. Source: Flight International
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Cessna misses its target for first-year production of piston singles
Cessna fell well short of the 1,000 aircraft planned for the first full year since it resumed piston-single production. The company says that it delivered "300-350" aircraft in 1997, and blames unforeseen difficulties in restarting production at an all-new plant in Independence, Kansas. The year-end total is below the ...
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GEC heads for American win
GEC-Marconi Avionics appears to be heading for a surprise last-minute victory in a crucial battle to supply American Airlines with head-up-display (HUD) systems. A contract was on the verge of being signed with Flight Dynamics in late December when GEC- Marconi, which was thought to be out of the ...
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Airbus and Boeing take course for record production figures
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Airbus and Boeing are on course for record production levels in 1998, with the two manufacturers gearing up for a combined output of 785 aircraft. If achieved, production would improve on the peak of the last boom in 1991, when, along with McDonnell Douglas, the ...
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First Athena 2 sends Lunar Prospector to Moon
Tim Furniss/CAPE CANAVERAL NASA's Lunar Prospector was launched on its five-day mission to the Moon by the first Lockheed Martin Athena 2 booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 6 January. The Lunar Prospector, also built by Lockheed Martin, will be used to conduct an intensive one-year survey of the Moon ...
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MD-95 re-emerges as Boeing 717
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing has finally committed to the future development of the 100-seat MD-95, renaming the twinjet as the 717, to bring it within the expanded Boeing airliner family. The "birth" of the 717 follows an extended phase of the post-merger strategy review of McDonnell Douglas (MDC) products, during ...
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JCAB drops plans to order Saabs
The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) has scrapped plans to order further Saab 2000 flight-inspection aircraft in response to the Swedish manufacturer's recent announcement that it is to halt civil-turboprop production. Japan is scheduled to take delivery of the first two Saab 2000s already on order at the end ...
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Forced landing in Iran
All 104 passengers and nine crew of an Iran Air Fokker 100 are safe following a night emergency landing on flat ground about 10km (5nm) from the pilot's planned diversion airport at Isfahan, Iran. Loss-adjuster Airclaims confirms that the aircraft was in landing configuration and that the gear was destroyed. ...
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France Takes SCALP
The French Government has awarded a Fr6 billion ($1 billion) contract to Matra BAe Dynamics for 500 Scalp EG conventionally armed cruise missiles. The order follows the October 1997 purchase of 100 runway-denial variants of the weapon, and the UK order in February 1997 for the British version, the Storm ...
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FAA orders 737 checks after wrecked tail find
Precautionary checks on certain Boeing 737-300s, -400s and -500s have been ordered by the US Federal Aviation Administration following the discovery of tailplane wreckage from the crashed Silk Air 737-300. Fasteners are missing from sections of the horizontal stabiliser, and bolts from elevator attachments. The accident occurred on 19 ...
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Boeing firms up the flightdeck design of stretched 767-400
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing has completed the firm design configuration of the stretched 767-400ER, revealing an upgraded flightdeck and a new-look cabin based on the 777 interior design. The bulk of the design was fixed by September 1997, but airline pressure drove Boeing to conduct trade studies on the additional ...
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Boeing and Elbit join to rescue Polish Huzar project
In a deal brokered in Warsaw in the first week of January, the rival bidders for Poland's $600 million PZL-Swidnik Huzar helicopter, Boeing and Elbit, have agreed to participate jointly in the programme, a move aimed at breeching a political impasse. Sources in Israel and Poland confirm that Elbit ...