All news – Page 7467
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Japan plans its first space-docking experiment
Japan will become the third space nation, after the USA and Russia, to conduct a rendezvous and docking in space. The Engineering Test Satellite, ETS7, to be launched with the US/Japanese Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite by a national H2 booster in the middle of 1997, will consist ...
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Chinese astronauts
Chinese pilots Wu Tse and Li Tsinlung have begun training at the Russian Cosmonaut Training Centre and will return to China to prepare for a national manned space flight in 1999 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation of the People's Republic of China. Source: Flight International
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Russian programme in crisis
Russia may have to abandon its manned space programme this year because of a severe shortage of funds, Yuri Koptev, director-general of the Russian Space Agency has warned the Government. It has been planned that the country's Mir 1 space station will be the base for several international ...
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NASA completes X-33 initial design review
NASA and Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works have completed the final preliminary-design review (PDR) for the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle technology-demonstration programme. This PDR was for the operations and ground segment at Edwards AFB, California, where construction of a 10Ha (25 acre) launch area will begin in October. The ...
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Why was this aircraft allowed to land at Heathrow?
Sir - On 8 December, 1996, I was awaiting clearance at Heathrow when a Fokker 50 (with a known undercarriage problem) approached runway 09R (Flight International, 18-31 December, 1996, P10). The expected happened, and the left main gear collapsed. What I would like to know is: why was ...
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Toyota is cleared to produce piston aero-engine
TOYOTA HAS RECEIVED US Federal Aviation Administration production certification for a piston aero-engine developed jointly with Hamilton Standard. The 270kW (360hp) FV2400-2TC is a twin-turbocharged Vee-8 based on Toyota's Lexus car engine and equipped with a Hamilton Standard full-authority digital engine-control (Flight International, 24-30 April, 1996). US type-certification ...
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New Year's resolution
ONE OF THE FEW people to emerge smiling from the Franco-German summit in Nuremberg on 9 December was Siegfried Sobotta, co-president of Eurocopter and chairman and chief executive of Eurocopter Deutscheland (ECD). During the summit, Germany gave no firm commitment to the joint Helios 2/Horus satellite programme; the ...
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MiG-AT poised for service
The Russian air force will place an order for ten VPK MAPOMiG-AT advanced jet trainers within the next 12 months, according to Russian press reports. If confirmed, the move is the clearest indication yet that the MiG-ATis emerging as the air force's preferred jet trainer over the rival Yakovlev Yak-130. ...
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Czechs offered F-18 parts deal
McDONNELL Douglas (MDC) has offered to place production of parts for its F-18 in the Czech Republic, if the central-European nation selects the aircraft as its new fighter. F-18 parts would be produced by Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody, under an offset agreement, accompanying the sale or lease of F-18s ...
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Flying down to Rio
BRAZIL'S REGIONAL AIRLINES, simulated by deregulation and an anti-inflation plan which has boosted the economy, have enjoyed staggering growth in the last two years, with some doubling their revenues. They have also taken advantage of a loophole in legislation to compete, at least indirectly, with Varig, VASP and Transbrasil, which, ...
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German air force sends F-4F Phantoms to Holloman
The German air force is to send ten McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantoms to Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico, on 14 January, in a move towards upgrading its US-based F-4 training squadron. The F-4Fs will replace F-4Es now used by the service for training at the base. A ...
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Outside control
There is nothing new in the perception of inadequacy in African and Third-World air-traffic control (ATC) - merely in the articulation of that perception. The major international bodies (the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have long known not only about the problems, but ...
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South Korea calls off Samsung's proposed rescue of Fokker
The South Korean Government is understood to have given formal notice that the Samsung Aerospace bid to rescue Fokker has been abandoned. Administrators of the bankrupt Netherlands aircraft manufacturer announced at the end of 1996 that Samsung's latest rescue plan had run out of time following the announcement ...
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Air 21 ceases services
US start-up Air 21, based in Fresno, California, has ceased all scheduled services through to 15 January, and is due to file for bankruptcy. The airline's chairman, Mark Morro, had stepped down in December as discussions (which subsequently failed) were being held with Pacific Southwest Airlines on a possible take-over. ...
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Chinese develop new navigation pod
China is developing a low-altitude navigation pod to provide strike aircraft with all-weather terrain following and target-identification capability. The 200kg Blue-Sky pod is being developed by the China Leihua Electronic Technology Institute (CLETRI), and is believed to have been test-flown already. The pod is fitted with radar and ...
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FAA flights begin on C-130J
US FEDERAL AVIATION Administration flight-testing of the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules 2 has begun in anticipation of civil certification in May. The company is developing the C-130J as a private venture and will use civil certification, rather than military qualification, as proof of the aircraft's airworthiness. Certification testing began in ...
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UKMoD enters MALD talks
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is "involved in discussions" with Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Systems and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) over potential participation in the Miniature Air-Launched Decoy (MALD) programme. The MALD is a small, jet-powered unmanned air vehicle, which will be launched as ...
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B-2 clearance
The Northrop Grumman B-2 stealth bomber has been cleared for use in the conventional-bomber role. The clearance follows completion of bombing tests in which the aircraft successfully destroyed targets using the global-positioning-system (GPS)-aided targeting system and GPS-Aided Munitions (GAM). Source: Flight International
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Raytheon upgrades
Raytheon Electronic Systems has received US Army contracts totalling $379 million to upgrade Hawk and Patriot air-defence missile systems for Egypt, Germany, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Taiwan. Source: Flight International
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Rising star
Despite annual sales of around $20 million and a rating as one of the fastest-growing space companies in the USA, Spectrum Astro's success had gone relatively unnoticed until NASA awarded it the contract to develop the first craft in the space agency's New Millennium programme. Spectrum Astro, of ...