All articles by Dan Thisdell – Page 12
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News
Airbus works to get troubled A400M back on track
Airbus is heralding mixed fortunes for its troubled A400M military transport programme, with expected deliveries in 2015 of 16 units – double 2014’s total – coming on the back of a €551 million ($620 million) fourth-quarter charge for delays and action needed to ramp-up production.
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Eyes on the ground as Sentinel heads for launch
With the imminent shipping of its Sentinel 2-A satellite from Germany to its launch site in Kourou, French Guiana, the European Space Agency is readying the next step in an ambitious plan to orbit a highly sophisticated constellation of Earth observation satellites for mapping and to monitor features ranging from ...
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News
Extended service: top 10 long-range business jets
The news this week that Pratt & Whitney Canada has received certification for the engines that will power Gulfstream’s new G500 and G600 business jets has naturally turned attention to the long-range, large-cabin market sector those two aircraft will be contesting.
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News
BAE sees modest growth in "challenging but stabilising" environment
In an economic environment it describes as “challenging but stabilising”, BAE Systems is eyeing rising sales in 2015, led in aviation by its role as UK lead in the Eurofighter Typhoon consortium and its position on the Lockheed Martin F-53 programme.
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Spanish team reaches UAV autonomy milestone
A bid to make Spain’s Andalusia region a leading aerospace technology power has reached a noteworthy milestone, with the flight of a 45kg unmanned aircraft to 20km beyond visual range, in segregated airspace.
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News
New era for Dornier 328 with Sierra Nevada acquisition
A new chapter in the history of the Dornier 328Jet and turboprop opened last week, with the acquisition for an undisclosed sum by Sierra Nevada (SNC) of type certificate holder 328 Support Services.
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News
Flights cancelled: Top 12 recent airline collapses
With the 6 February announcement that Polish regional carrier EuroLOT would stop flying from the beginning of April, airline casualties are back in the news.
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News
ESA opens 2015 book with triumphant re-entry vehicle test
A European Space Agency plan to master hypersonic re-entry got a boost on 11 February with the successful suborbital flight of a wingless testbed.
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News
Alitalia can breathe more easily – and focus on profits
Alitalia is not quite out of the woods, but at least one wolf is no longer snapping at the heels of the former Italian flag carrier.
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News
A340's long haul opened this day in 2002
History buffs, take a moment today to mark the first flight of Airbus’s A340-500, way back in 2002.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: On Asteroid Day, take a minute to look skyward
Anybody inclined to look at deep-space exploration mission proposals and their associated budgets and ask “why?” could do worse than consider the problem of so-called Near Earth Objects; that’s jargon for big chunks of rock that orbit the Sun – until they actually hit us. As long as they are ...
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News
Shrinking Jumbos: Top Ten 747-400 fleets still in service
747-400s are out of production and being phased out, but there's much life left in the type
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: In Russia's space programme, the state strikes back
While a number of recent events in spaceflight have underscored the rising significance of private sector competition, 2014 concluded with a maiden flight that serves to remind us all of the enduring presence of big, state-driven programmes.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Lynx 'set to roar' in 2015
While Virgin Galactic waits for the results of an NTSB investigation into the 31 October 2014 fatal crash of SpaceShipTwo, another Mojave-based suborbital hopeful is making steady progress towards first flight of a very different concept.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Where next, Virgin Galactic?
A 2014 that opened with great expectations that the era of privately funded personal spaceflight would finally begin ended with a crash, nowhere near space
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Space Station maintaining orbit – for now
The International Space Station has been the focal point of human spaceflight activity for so long now that the outpost can seem like a permanent, if remote, feature of our planet.
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News
Sierra Nevada loses appeal against NASA Commercial Crew choice
The US Government Accountability Office has put an end to Sierra Nevada Corporation’s dream of providing NASA with a lifting body spaceplane as part of the agency’s plan to replace the Space Shuttle’s astronaut-transport capability with spacecraft provided by the private sector.
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News
FORECAST: In space, nobody can hear you on Mars
The most exciting thing to watch in spaceflight in 2015 won’t, of course, actually happen – in 2015 or, probably, in anything resembling the foreseeable future. Sorry, space people, but nobody is going to Mars.
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Analysis
ANALYSIS: Don't expect any M&A earthquakes in 2015 - barring surprises
After a few lean years, are aerospace mergers and acquisitions ready to surge?
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News
A350 timeline: Countdown to first delivery
With the first delivery to launch customer Qatar Airways scheduled for this Saturday in Toulouse, Airbus is poised to see years of development work turn to reality in the form of its latest widebody, the A350.