All news – Page 7126
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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 ...
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Going with the flow
Tim Furniss/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER With six International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions scheduled for 1999, and 18 more due to take place between 2000 and 2002, NASA's Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is soon going to be a hive of activity. The Photovoltaic Module ...
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AOPA criticises FAA wing-spar mandate
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) says that a proposed wing-spar airworthiness directive (AD) affecting 8,300 Aeronca and American Champion aircraft is unnecessary. The private pilots' group seeks exemptions for all non-aerobatic, lower-gross-weight aircraft such as the original Aeronca Champ and Chief and derivative aircraft such as the ...
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BFGoodrich delivers two more private 'Super 27s'
Two further Boeing 727-200s, modified to "Super 27" configuration, have been delivered to private customers by BFGoodrich Aerospace's Aerostructures group (formerly Rohr) in California. The Super 27 upgrade allows the 727 to meet Stage 3 noise requirements and involves replacing the two outboard engines with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217Cs ...
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Bombardier creates more room for Global Express maintenance
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier has embarked on an expansion of its service centres to accommodate the Global Express long-range business jet, deliveries of which begin in the second half of 1998. The first Bombardier Aviation Services site to be upgraded is at Tucson, Arizona, where work has begun on ...
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NetJets Europe takes Citation VIIs
Netjets Europe has taken delivery of two Citation VII medium-sized, twin-engined business jets, which will form part of the company's fractional-ownership fleet. Netjets Europe, a joint venture between Air Luxor of Portugal, US Executive Jet Aviation and Switzerland's Zimex Aviation, says that shares in the Citation VIIs are "sold ...
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Alaska FBO improved
Signature Flight Support has revealed plans to expand its newly acquired fixed-base operation at Alaska's Anchorage Airport, which will be used exclusively for transient corporate aircraft, to meet operator concerns over the availability of overnight hangar space. The existing heated hangar can accommodate aircraft as large as the Boeing 737. ...
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PZL-Swidnik upgrades SW-4 prototype with flight-control system
Polish helicopter manufacturer PZL-Swidnik is fitting a hydraulic flight-control system from French manufacturer SAMM to its third SW-4 light-helicopter prototype. The four/five-seat helicopter, powered by a single 335kW (450shp) Allison 250-C20R/2 turboshaft has undergone 70h of flight testing since it was first flown on 26 October, 1996, and is ...
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Cessna singles owners must replace silencers
Owners of more than 300 Cessna 172R Skyhawks delivered since shipments restarted in January 1997 have been ordered to replace the exhaust silencers. The US Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive (AD) on 13 January mandating replacement of the silencers, made by Aeroquip, because of leaking welds. The ...
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Turbine-helicopter deliveries increase
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Deliveries of turbine-powered helicopters increased in 1997, buoyed by sales of new light single- and twin-engined aircraft. Bell shipped no fewer than 140 of its new single-turbine Model 407s in 1997, while Eurocopter delivered 28 of its new EC135 light twins. Bell led deliveries in 1997, shipping ...
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Airbus urges AE31X speed-up to compete with Boeing 717
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Airbus Industrie and its Chinese and Singapore partners are discussing speeding up development of the proposed smaller AE316 member of the planned AE31X family of regional aircraft, in response to Boeing's relaunch of the former MD-95 twinjet as the 717-200. It is understood that Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) ...
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British Airways is ready to Go with no-frills contender
British Airways is to launch its London Stansted based "no-frills" division under the name Go. The launch is set for early in the second quarter of 1998. Go's chief executive Barbara Cassani denies that the new airline's remit is to eliminate new low-cost entrants such as easyJet, but warns that ...
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US Air Force places Capricorn in orbit
The US Air Force has launched a prototype of a new-generation National Reconnaissance Office satellite data-system (SDS) spacecraft, called the Capricorn, on 29 January, aboard an ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2A booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SDS spacecraft, which are operated in highly elliptical, 38,400 x 320km, orbits, ...
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Engine change delays Stationair deliveries
Cessna has announced nearly a year-long delay in initial customer deliveries of its 206 Stationair and Turbo Stationair six-seat utility aircraft, following its decision to replace the Textron Lycoming IO- and TIO-580 engines with IO- and TIO-540 variants because of reliability and service life issues. The setback came to ...