All news – Page 7138
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Sabena is rocked by record losses
Sabena president Paul Reutlinger has revealed the heaviest losses in the Belgian airline's history and admits that its performance remains under review by main shareholder Swissair. The group's total net loss climbed to BFr8.8 billion ($248 million) in 1996, although close to half of the figure came from ...
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France spells out the details of Thomson-CSF's flotation
The French Government has published the timetable and conditions for the privatisation of defence-electronics giant Thomson-CSF, including a surprise ban on Aerospatiale from joining the bidding. Under the timetable, all candidates must present initial propositions for their interest in Thomson by 28 March, with the deadline for depositing ...
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Bad Promises
A EUROPEAN UNION guarantee seems to be a bit like Sam Goldwyn's famed verbal contract - not worth the paper it's written on. Certainly, that seems to be the case with the guarantees that the EU gave operators of Chapter 2 aircraft in 1992 that they could continue to operate ...
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US Army plans for critical ASAT test
THE US ARMY and prime contractor Boeing North American plan to test in April a critical component of a weapon which has been designed to knock out low-altitude surveillance and communications satellites. The kinetic-kill vehicle (KKV), the key subsystem of the anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon, will use electro-optical (EO) ...
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US watchdog wants to delay production of F-18E/F
THE US GENERAL Accounting Office (GAO) is urging US defence chief William Cohen to postpone the low-rate initial production (LRIP) decision on the McDonnell Douglas F-18E/F programme until Congressionally ordered studies on the multi-billion-dollar weapons programme are completed in the next several months. The Defense Acquisition Board (DAB) ...
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BAe/Westland study AEW needs-
British Aerospace is proposing an aircraft wingtip-mounted synthetic-aperture radar to meet the Royal Navy's Future Organic Airborne-Early-Warning (FOAEW) requirement, while GKNWestland is looking at a compound-lift variant of the Westland/Agusta EH101 Merlin as an AEW platform for the RN's proposed future carrier. BAe has carried out windtunnel tests ...
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Dasa and Elbit team in bid to win Greek Phantom upgrade
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) has submitted a revised bid for the Greek air force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom upgrade, which it says is now "-based on a close co-operation with [Israeli manufacturer] Elbit". Dasa is competing with Rockwell for the contract. Neither of the initial proposals met the air ...
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Italy lines up order for C-130Js
The Italian Air Force is finalising an order for 18 Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules IItransport aircraft, following final political approval of the proposed L2,000 billion ($1.2 billion) deal. The move, say defence sources, comes as Italy considers buying an additional four airborne early-warning (AEW) variants of the C-130J, ...
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Italian purchase
The US Department of Defense plans to sell to Italy 233 AIM-120B advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, plus spare parts and other equipment, worth about $116 million. The weapons, manufactured by Hughes and Raytheon, will be used to arm Italian navy McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harriers. Source: Flight ...
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Overweight Outrider TUAV finally flies
The Alliant Techsystems Outrider Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle (TUAV) was flown for the first time on 7 March, five months behind schedule. The prototype has also suffered from significant weight growth which has substantially reduced its endurance. Successful testing of the Outrider was carried out at the municipal ...
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Romanian air force plans to purchase early-warning aircraft
The Romanian defence ministry plans to acquire an airborne early-warning (AEW) aircraft as part of a purchase of additional Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules for its air force. The Romanian air force has recently taken delivery of four ex-US Air Force C-130B transports, and the ministry says that it ...
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The Americas
The 1997 Flight International World Airline Directory lists airlines involved in scheduled services or those which offer significant charter services. Our selection criterion has been to list operators with one or more aircraft with more than 19 seats. Where justified by significance of service or national-carrier status, airlines operating aircraft ...
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First payload
The Galaxy 11 will be operated by Hughes Communications, the world's largest private commercial-satellite operator, with 20 spacecraft owned, leased or operated on behalf of US and international video and television and mobile-communications customers. The HS-702 spacecraft bus (illustrated left) was introduced in 1994 to offer almost twice ...
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Rocketplane aims for 'smallsat' boom
PIONEER ROCKETPLANE is planning to fly its Pathfinder transatmospheric launch vehicle in three years time, to be available for initial deployment of the proposed Teledesic constellation of some 840 small communications satellites. Denver, Colorado-based Pioneer is seeking $6 million in funding for detail design of the Pathfinder and will need ...
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February satellite launch log
No Date Spacecraft Type Launcher(*) Country(*) Launch site(*) ...
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Solar array deal
McDonnell Douglas and three Israeli organisations will work together on a $5.3 million project to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of an advanced solar- power plant . Source: Flight International
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NASA plans to retire Pioneer 10 shortly
The legendary NASA Pioneer 10 has passed its 25th year in space and is now 9.76 billion kilometres from Earth. The satellite will be retired on 31 March. The TRW-built Pioneer made the first fly-by of Jupiter in 1973, and was also the first man-made object to leave ...
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Alcatel asks for US SkyBridge approval
Alcatel Espace has applied to the US Federal Communications Commission to launch and operate a 64-satellite, low-Earth orbit (LEO) constellation to provide high-speed, broadband, interactive services to business and private users worldwide, at a data rate of up to 60 million bits/s. The $3.5 billion system, called the ...
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The big question
Given the highly public differences between Airbus Industrie and Boeing over the existence, or otherwise, of a multi-billion-dollar market for a new large airliner, you could be forgiven for thinking that a yawning gulf exists between long-term forecasts from the two manufacturers. In fact, this is not so. ...
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New Zealand matches Australia with SH-2
The New Zealand Government has fallen in line with Australia and named the Kaman SH-2G Super Seasprite as its preferred choice of naval helicopter over the rival GKN Westland Super Lynx. Under a deal still to be finalised, the Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) plans to order four ...