Russian operator cleans up

Budgie News' man in Moscow, Boris Egpws-Tcasov wanted to clarify a few points over the Il-62 operator Vim Airlines. "Zer iz no truth in rumour zat Vim is planning to focuz on Russian domestos services, OK?"

...and while in that neck of the woods

(From the BBC Monitoring Service)

"New Tu-204 300 a 'revolution' in Russian aviation industry

The new aircraft will be able to carry 160 passengers over a distance of 10,000km, and very soon it will start undergoing tests. It will have to carry out such virtuoso manoeuvres as, for example, the 'cobra', when the aircraft stands almost vertically in the air."

(Can't wait for this flight test programme!)

Intelligent machines

General Atomic: "Whaddaya mean, the autonomous unmanned combat air vehicle has come back...it just left!"

Capt Sensible: "Sir, the problem seems to be the intelligent software that we installed."

Atomic: "Meaning...?"

Sensible: "Meaning sir, it came back because it decided it didn't WANT to go into combat."

Atomic: "Didn't want to!?"

Sensible: "No sir, in fact it has requested a transfer."

Atomic: "To where?"

Sensible: "Coffee plantation monitoring in Hawaii, sir."

Overheard at the UAV conference....

"Hey we need new flight control software, want the good news or the bad news?

The bad news..it costs LOADS to develop.

The good news...it doesn't weigh very much."

NASA's JPL

(Showing video of first flight of 1.5kg "biomorphic" mini-UAV)

"And coming in to the attack from the right is a crow which we think mobbed it out of jealousy."

It had to happen. It was only a matter of time before Harry Potter somehow entered the NASA lexicon. The agency's monicker for the Small System for Indoor/Confined Space On-Demand Surveillance micro-UAV? The SNITCH. What's the next bewitching UAV project? Er...how about the Nimbus 2000?

To some people in the big plane business the very acroynm UAV is a dirty word....unclean air vehicle.

Man bites plane

(From the UK CAA's occurrence report monthly, The Digest). The engineer was working on a spoiler actuator when the spoiler opened and hit him in the face. Note: the injury was not serious. But the headline really tells the story - "Injury to engineer, no damage to spoiler."

Source: Flight International