All news – Page 7329
-
News
RAF extends Tornado upgrade plans
Douglas Barrie/LONDON THE ROYAL AIR FORCE has specified a further series of upgrades for its Panavia Tornado GR1 fleet, to be undertaken at the same time as the mid-life upgrade (MLU) programme, which takes the aircraft to GR4 standard. The additional work covers software and hardware upgrades, ...
-
News
Former EBA team sets up long-haul charter
BELGIAN entrepreneur Victor Hasson, who established Euro- Belgian Airlines (EBA) as one of Europe's first low-cost carriers, is preparing to launch a new charter business based on the McDonnell Douglas MD-11. Details of the new operation will be revealed shortly, but Hasson is understood to be considering a ...
-
News
Australia and South Africa reach agreement on capacity boosts
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS AUSTRALIA HAS AGREED to several capacity increases on international routes, which will enable carriers to step up the number of services operated. South Africa and Australia have lifted capacity restrictions and approved codeshare arrangements between the two countries. This will enable a fourth ...
-
News
Another Chinese launch fails
Tim Furniss/LONDON CHINA GREAT WALL Industry (CGWIC) failed to place the Hughes HS-376 ChinaSat 7 communications satellite into the correct geostationary-transfer orbit (GTO) after launch aboard a Long March 3 from Xichang on 18 August. China Telecommunications Broadcast Satellite's 24-transponder spacecraft was stranded in orbit, ...
-
News
Korean Air plunges into losses in first-half
KOREAN AIR (KAL) plummeted into losses over the first half of the year, largely as a result of massive foreign-exchange losses from the steady rise of the US dollar so far this year. The South Korean national carrier made a net loss of 254 billion won ($309 million) ...
-
News
STAe is back in the black
SINGAPORE Technologies Aerospace (STAe) managed to show a modest profit for the first half of the year, boosted by strong growth from its restructured maintenance businesses. The group ended the half year with a profit of just under S$7 million ($5 million), turning round a loss of $47 ...
-
News
Fourth Japanese H2 sends the Adeos into polar orbit
JAPAN'S ADVANCED Earth-observing satellite, the Adeos, and an amateur radio satellite, were successfully launched into 800km circular polar orbits by the fourth H2 booster from Tanegashima on 17 August. The 3,500kg Adeos, has a suite of five national and two NASA instruments, and one French instrument. It is ...
-
News
Russia sends back-up crew
THE SOYUZ TM24 was launched on a Soyuz U booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on 17 August, carrying a crew of three people to the Mir 1 space station. The crew consists of the first French woman in space, Claudie Andre Deshays, flying the 16-day, $13 million, Cassiopiae ...
-
News
Ireland launches scheduled services
IRELAND AIRWAYS STARTED OPERATIONS on 16 August, using a 24-seat Shorts 330, on scheduled services between Dublin and Donegal. A Dublin-Sligo service, using a soon-to-be-acquired 44-seat Fokker F27, may be added in October. Ireland Airways, was formed by Dublin-based charter company EI-Air Exports, which aims to create Ireland's third major ...
-
News
Israel/Turkey deals put at risk
DEFENCE CONTRACTS between Israel and Turkey, potentially worth up to $1 billion, are being jeopardised by the recent election of a Muslim Government in Turkey and its rapprochement with Iran. A recent planned visit of David Ivry, director-general of the Israeli defence ministry to Turkey, was postponed ...
-
News
Passenger/baggage matching system planned
MICRON Communications has signed a co-operative research-and-development agreement with the US Federal Aviation Administration to develop a prototype positive passenger-baggage matching system. The objective is for the system to recognise automatically when baggage has been placed on an aircraft without the associated passenger, says Boise, Idaho-based Micron. ...
-
News
Space landing
Menasco is to supply the nose and main landing gear for the Lockheed Martin X-33 reusable-launch-vehicle technology-demonstrator and the planned VentureStar operational single-stage-to-orbit launcher. The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company will deliver two shipsets of demonstrator gear to system-integrator AlliedSignal in 1998. The first flight of the X-33 is due in ...
-
News
Relative safety
Europe is joining the USA in pressing less-powerful nations to put aviation safety at the top of their national-budget priorities. David Learmount/LONDON THE EUROPEAN UNION decision to join the USA in invoking its own aviation-safety assessment rules will raise the pressure for the less- powerful nations of ...
-
News
MDC wraps up new Longbow deal
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE US ARMY and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) have followed up on their December 1995 initial AH-64 Ap-ache modification contract by signing a five-year, $1.9 billion agreement. The new deal covers the remanufacture of a total of 232 AH-64D Longbow Apache attack helicopters. MDC ...
-
News
Pratt & Whitney proposes to introduce F100-229A improvements
PRATT & WHITNEY hopes to win approval from the US Air Force by the end of this year to flight-qualify the F100-229A, a radically improved version of the -229. The US engine builder says that the $40 million qualification effort would allow a large-scale retrofit programme of McDonnell Douglas F-15Es ...
-
News
MDHS reveals MD600N design change
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES McDONNELL DOUGLAS Helicopter Systems (MDHS) has begun flight testing a series of modifications to the MD600N eight-seat civil helicopter following the crash of a prototype earlier this year. The changes are aimed at increasing the clearance between the main rotor blades and ...
-
News
Seoul Air calls a halt to turboprop operations as BAe reclaims aircraft
SEOUL AIR International has ceased its turboprop-aircraft operations amid serious financial difficulties, and most of its aircraft have been returned to lessor British Aerospace. The South Korean airline acquired two ATPs and one Jetstream 41 in early 1995, directly from Jetstream Aircraft. Two used Jetstream 31s were also ...
-
News
GE prepares Snecma invitation to A340-600 engine project
Julian Moxon/PARIS GENERAL ELECTRIC Aircraft Engines says that Snecma will "-definitely be invited" to join development of a power plant for the Airbus A340-600, if Airbus Industrie accepts the US company's proposal to supply an engine for the aircraft. Under a six-month exclusivity deal signed ...
-
News
NASA advances GA engine design
NASA PLANS TO AWARD contracts in October under its general-aviation propulsion (GAP) programme to develop power plant technology for next-generation light aircraft. The GAP programme aims to reduce the price of "intermittent combustion" (IC) engines by half and small turbine engines by a factor of ten. The ...
-
News
Dunlop aims brake-by-wire at airliners
Andrew Doyle/LONDON DUNLOP AVIATION is targeting large civil airliners as the next application for its dual-redundant "brake-by-wire" (BBW) and anti-skid technology, which the company has developed for combat aircraft. The latest version of UK-based Dunlop's BBW landing-gear control system, combined with carbon/carbon composite brakes, has ...