FALCON 9 LAUNCH DELAYED AGAIN
Space Exploration Technologies has once again been forced to push back the first test flight of its Falcon 9 rocket following delays at Cape Canaveral to a Delta IV GPS satellite launch. The flight - which had originally been planned for mid-2007 and then for 28 May - is now scheduled for early June. The launch vehicle will carry an instrumented Dragon cargo and crew transport capsule.
IRAQI AIRWAYS CLOSURE 'WON'T STOP KUWAIT CLAIM'
Lawyers acting for Kuwait Airways insist that the dissolution of Iraqi Airways would not prevent the Kuwaiti airline pursuing its case for compensation for aircraft lost when Iraq invaded the country in 1990. Iraq's transport ministry has reportedly threatened to end the legal wrangle by declaring Iraqi Airways insolvent.
POWERJET SAM146 NEARS CERTIFICATION
PowerJet expects to receive European certification for its new SaM146 powerplant in the coming weeks after completing certification tests for the engine, which will power the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet. To date, the SaM146 engine has accumulated 7,000h of testing, including 3,500h in flight.
AIR FRANCE STRETCHES A380 DELIVERY SCHEDULE
Air France is planning to take no more than two Airbus A380s a year over the next three years, stretching the delivery schedule to 2014-15. The airline - which ordered 12 of the type - took its first two in its last financial year, 2009-10, and a third arrived on 14 April. But the carrier's latest fleet plan shows that it will introduce one more in the current fiscal year, and a pair in each of 2011-12 and 2012-13.
VOLCANIC ASH COSTS $5BN IN GLOBAL GDP
Nearly $5 billion in global gross domestic product was lost owing to air travel disruption caused by the Icelandic volcano eruption in the 14-24 May period, according to a study by consultancy Oxford Economics.
TOO EARLY TO DECIDE ON NEW AF447 SEARCH: BEA
Latest efforts to locate the wreckage of Air France flight AF447 have ended without success. French investigation agency BEA is not yet sure whether a new search will be undertaken.The search was the third since the loss of the aircraft almost a year ago in the South Atlantic while en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.
VIRGIN GALACTIC TESTS CARRY ON
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reusable suborbital transport prototype has made its second captive carry flight under the WhiteKnightTwo mothership from Mojave Air and Spaceport, sporting two new horizontal control surfaces on the inboard faces of its twin tail booms. Scaled Composites, builder of both vehicles, did not disclose the purpose of the new fins but says all objectives were achieved during the 4.6h flight to a peak altitude of 51,000ft (15,550m), which saw SS2 pressurised and powered from the mothership in flight and exposed to a long cold soak.
JAL STILL WORKING OUT RESTRUCTURING PLAN
Japan Airlines, whose January bankruptcy made it the highest-profile airline failure of the current economic crisis, has delayed submitting its financial rehabilitation plan by two months to end-August, claiming it "needs more time to flesh out the plan".
Source: Flight International
