HELICOPTERS LIFT FINMECCANICA FIGURES
Finmeccanica's AgustaWestland helicopters business chalked up a positive 2010, with sales up 4.7% to €3.64 billion ($5 billion) and profit (EBITA) up 11.3% to €164 million, thanks in part to rising AW139 output. Falling production and a less-favourable product mix pushed aeronautics division profits down nearly 15% to €205 million, although sales were up 6.4% to €2.8 billion thanks to the Eurofighter, Alenia Aermacchi M-346 and Alenia Aeronautica C-27J and G-222 programmes. On the civil side, rising Boeing 787 production offset lower ATR activity.
DAE CUTS MORE AIRBUS ORDERS
Middle Eastern lessor Dubai Aerospace Enterprise has cancelled another 30 aircraft from its Airbus orderbook, including 12 A350s. The decision has wiped out Airbus's sales for the first two months of the year, leaving it with a negative net order count for the end of February 2011. DAE's backlog had originally featured 70 A320s and 30 A350s. Last year it slashed seven A350s and 18 A320s from its books. DAE also dropped several orders it had placed with Boeing.
EUROPE TOASTS EGNOS LAUNCH
Aircraft operating anywhere in Europe now have access to satellite-guided precision approaches with the formal launch of the EGNOS safety-of-life service. EGNOS is the European counterpart to the wide area augmentation system already available in the USA. While signals from the GPS navigation satellite constellation, or Europe's similar Galileo constellation, whose first satellites will be launched this year, give position data accurate to at least 10m (33ft), EGNOS takes that accuracy of vertical and horizontal position down to less than 1m.
NEW STEALTH FIGHTER APPEARS
Russia's second prototype of its fifth-generation stealth fighter, the PAK-FA, completed its first flight on 3 March. The 57min flight by aircraft T-50-2 from the Russian test centre in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, follows the maiden flight of its sister aircraft T-50-1 on 29 January 2010.
ISRAEL REBUILDS SCRAPPED SIKORSKY
The Israeli air force has decided to rebuild a Sikorsky CH-53 helicopter that was cannibalised for spare parts and dumped in a scrapyard several years ago. This will replace an Israeli CH-53 Yasur which crashed in Romania in July 2010. Six Israeli crew members and one Romanian observer were killed when the aircraft came down. According to a report in the Israeli air force magazine, the service's 22nd maintenance unit will perform the rebuild.
LOW-COST MODIFICATIONS COULD CUT CONTROL LOSS
Industry safety veteran Don Bateman has proposed study of low-cost technology modifications to reduce loss-of-control accidents. Speaking at a Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Istanbul, he suggested a hybrid version of the Western and Russian artificial horizon systems which would be more intuitive than either. Bateman, who helped develop the enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS), alternatively proposes a "recovery arrow" and spoken alert to counter excessive bank. He also suggests using EGPWS terrain data to detect runway line-up, and warn pilots to check flaps, as well as alerts for low airspeed.
Source: Flight International
