How to Protect Yourself if an Airline Goes Bankrupt.
04-Oct-08 07:00:00 What do airlines and banks have in common? Answer: They can go bust overnight. What are the airline equivalents of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs? Will governments bail out failing carriers in a similar way? If not, what can I do if I have booked a ticket with an airline that collapses?.. |
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Improving Helicopter Safety.
04-Oct-08 07:00:00 In the Sept. 30 Metro story "Md. Copter Crash Scrutinized," about the crash of a Maryland State Police rescue helicopter around midnight Saturday, public health professor Susan P. Baker of Johns Hopkins University said that 15 to 20 percent of people who work regularly in helicopters for 20 years will die in helicopter crashes... |
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No User Fees This Year.
04-Oct-08 06:55:00 On Sept. 30, the very day that FAA funding was set to expire, President Bush signed the “Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2008,” which means the FAA has the money to continue operating until March 31, 2009... |
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Russia's UAC Optimistic Over Indian Fighter Tender.
03-Oct-08 11:40:20 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) is optimistic about MiG-35 Fulcrum’s chances of winning a lucrative tender to supply 126 multirole fighters to the Indian air force, the company’s president said on Friday... |
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Moller Flying Car Auctioned on Ebay.
03-Oct-08 11:39:34 Moller International (OTC-BB: MLER) is offering its M200X for sale. The M200X volantor[1] was the first VTOL aircraft of its kind (flying car) to fly successfully and did so repeatedly during the 1980’s. The most important flight occurred on May 10, 1989 in front of the local, national and international press. This flight, shown on our website at http://www.moller.com/videom200x.htm, resulted in subsequent articles in Forbes, Discover, Popular Mechanics, USA Today and Esquire as well as TV appearances on Good Morning America, The History Channel, 60 Minutes, numerous times on The Discovery Channel and on the evening news with Peter Jennings... |
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Russia May Sign Helicopter Export Deal with Iran by Yearend.
03-Oct-08 11:39:00 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): Kamov, one of Russia’s largest helicopter producers, is hoping to sign an agreement by the end of the year to export its helicopters to Iran, the company’s director said on Friday. Roman Chernyshev said that the agreement is for "supplies of civil rather than military helicopters.".. |
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Human Remains Found at Fossett Crash Site.
03-Oct-08 01:23:11 Federal investigators said Thursday they found human remains amid the wreckage of missing adventurer Steve Fossett’s airplane in the mountains of eastern California. The remains were found among a field of debris that stretched 400 feet long and 150 feet wide in a steep section of the Sierra Nevada. Some personal effects also were found at the crash site but investigators would not describe them in any detail... |
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Virgin Galactic Rejects Million-Dollar Offer to Film Sex Video.
03-Oct-08 01:22:51 GLASGOW, Scotland: The private company planning to take wealthy tourists to the edge of the atmosphere starting in late 2009 or early 2010 has refused a million-dollar proposal to film a sex video while the participants are floating gravity free, the company’s president said... |
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NASA at 50: The Shuttle, Space Station and Beyond.
03-Oct-08 01:22:13 One vehicle’s operative life is coming to a close, while the other’s is still in its formative stages. Their legacies will be inexorably linked: Without the space shuttle, delivery and assembly of the International Space Station’s (ISS) key components would have been difficult at best, and probably could not have happened... |
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Russia's Strategic Bombers to Drill With Full Combat Payloads.
03-Oct-08 01:21:20 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): Russian strategic bombers will conduct training flights with full combat payloads and live fire all cruise missiles on board for the first time in over two decades, an Air Force spokesman said... |
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Sukhoi Starts Testing 2nd Su-35 Fighter Prototype.
03-Oct-08 01:20:55 MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): Russia’s Sukhoi aircraft maker has started flight tests of the second Su-35 Flanker multirole fighter to expedite the completion of the testing program, the company said on Thursday... |
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Arik Air Orders Three A340-500 Airbus Aircraft.
03-Oct-08 01:20:25 Arik Air, the growing private airline based in Lagos, Nigeria, has signed a firm contract for the purchase of three Airbus A340-500s. This order makes Arik Air the 10th and latest customer for the A340-500... |
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US Encourages Brazil to Buy F-18 Fighter Jets.
03-Oct-08 01:19:52 SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP): The U.S. Embassy said Thursday that it is encouraging Brazil to buy Boeing-built F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, one of three models selected by Latin America’s largest nation as finalists for a fleet revamp... |
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Bush Signs NASA Budget, Soyuz Waiver Into Law.
03-Oct-08 01:19:14 WASHINGTON: NASA now has the legal ability to conclude a new deal with Russia for the three-person Soyuz vehicles it will need to ensure U.S., Canadian, European and Japanese astronauts can fly to the International Space Station beyond 2011... |
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Historic WWII Ford Airplane to Go Under the Hammer.
03-Oct-08 01:18:23 This rare 1929 Ford 4-AT-E Tri-Motor airplane is set to be auctioned in a No Reserve sale by the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company in January 2009. Recently restored to its original specifications, the plane has a fascinating history, having survived bullet fire during the World War II attack at Pearl Harbor... |
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SkyCatcher Flight Testing to Continue with Reconfigured P-1.
03-Oct-08 01:18:00 Cessna Aircraft Company will resume flight testing of the Model 162 SkyCatcher as soon as it reconfigures another test aircraft, says Angela Landwehr, manager of media relations. The original prototype, which had more than 100 flights and 128 flight hours on it, was lost when it crashed two weeks ago during a power-on, cross-controlled spin test. The installed BRS system did not properly deploy, she said, so the test pilot successfully bailed out and parachuted to safety... |
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NTSB Investigating Crash Believed to be Steve Fosset's Aircraft.
03-Oct-08 00:19:20 The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched investigators to California to investigate the crash of a small plane that was found yesterday that appears to be the aircraft piloted by adventurer Steve Fossett. |
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Petite, Square 1lb Satellites to Rule Outer Space.
03-Oct-08 00:15:29 Small, inexpensive cube-shaped satellites could be all the space rage if researchers have their way. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a grant to SRI International to tackle the first mission of the tiny flying quadrangles known as CubeSats which are tiny satellites with dimensions of 10×10×10 centimeters, weighing a little less than 3lbs that typically use commercial off-the-shelf electronics components... |
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Lockheed Marting F-22 Raptor Reaches Milestone in Maturity.
30-Sep-08 17:13:49 MARIETTA, Georgia: The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-22 Raptor surpassed more than 50,000 total flight hours in August while establishing new standards in capability and maturity. "The F-22 continues to demonstrate the field performance vital to an operational weapon system," said Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-22 general manager. "The fleet reliability measures are ahead of plan and the force-on-force exercises have shown Raptors provide the capability to dominate airspace today and in the future." |
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Russian Plane Maker Sukhoi Calls for Infrastructure Overhaul.
30-Sep-08 17:13:11 KHABAROVSK (RIA Novosti): Russia’s aircraft industry needs comprehensive infrastructural reforms to enable it to compete successfully on the global market, the head of the Sukhoi aircraft producer said on Tuesday. "Partial modernization and reform will ensure neither a technological nor commercial effect - this is just money down the drain," Mikhail Pogosyan said... |
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China's Third Manned Spaceflight Returns Safely to Earth.
30-Sep-08 17:12:31 Shenzhou 7, China’s third manned flight to space, has landed safely on Earth. The spacecraft’s reentry module touched down on the grasslands of Inner Mongolia Sunday at 5:38 a.m. ET (0938 GMT), concluding a roughly 68-hour mission. The three astronauts onboard, Zhai Zhigang, Liu Boming and Jing Haipeng, are reportedly in good health... |
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Sikorsky Teams With Carson to Launch Modernization Program for S-61 Aircraft.
30-Sep-08 17:12:02 STRATFORD, Conn. (PRNewswire via COMTEX): Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. today announced the signing of an agreement with Carson Helicopters, Inc. that will lead to the launch of a modernization program for the legendary S-61(TM) Sikorsky helicopter. Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp... |
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Rebels Down Helicopter. Ocampo Celebrates in New York.
30-Sep-08 17:10:51 WASHINGTON (PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX): The Rebels yet again shot down a UN-AU peacekeeping helicopter this afternoon killing 4 people on board. The fire reportedly came from Kalma camp, where Government forces, during a mission to purge the camp of these very weapons used today to shoot down the copter, came under fire, an assault that caused the deaths of a number of civilians... |
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US Approves 25 F-35 Fighter Aircraft Sale to Israel.
30-Sep-08 17:09:44 The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency has approved the $15.2 billion sale of 25 F-35 Strike Fighters for Israel with an option for another 50, saying it is vital to US national security interests to assist Israel develop "a strong and ready self-defense capability.".. |
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Ex-Microsoft Exec Signs Up For Second Trip to Outer Space.
30-Sep-08 16:25:32 Ex-Microsoft software developer, astronaut and lets not forget, millionaire, Charles Simonyi, signed up today to take his second flight into space courtesy of private space explorations company, Space Adventures... |
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Software Keeps Things Dropped From Airplanes From Landing On Your Head.
30-Sep-08 16:24:42 When it comes to airdropping tons of water on a huge forest fire or loads of food to flood survivors, dropping things from an airplane to a precise spot on the ground in the face of wind and nasty weather can be a black art. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists have developed wind-forecast software that promise to improve aircraft airdrop target accuracy up to 70%... |
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Boeing Completes 787 Dreamliner 'High Blow' Test.
28-Sep-08 01:16:13 EVERETT, Wash.: Boeing [NYSE:BA] successfully completed a high-pressure test, known as "high blow," on the 787 Dreamliner static test airframe at its Everett factory today. The test is one of three static tests that must be cleared prior to first flight. During the test, the airframe reached an internal pressure of 150 percent of the maximum levels expected to be seen in service, 14.9 lbs. per square inch (1.05 kilograms per centimeter) gauge (psig). It took nearly two hours to complete the test, as pressure was slowly increased to ensure the integrity of the airplane. |
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More Than 60 New 'Hints for Homebuilders' on The Way.
27-Sep-08 07:00:00 With some 50 new videos shot during AirVenture and another 13 taped over the past weekend, EAA’s wildly popular Hints for Homebuilders series is well-stocked with fresh episodes into the foreseeable future. Charlie Becker, EAA director of member programs, reports that EAA captured 13 new hints with Brian Carpenter of Rainbow Aviation Services this past weekend at the EAA aviation center. EAA is hosting for Rainbow Aviation’s 120-hour Light-Sport Repairman Maintenance training course... |
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After 66 Years, Papua New Guinea Jungle Gives Up Downed Aircraft.
27-Sep-08 07:00:00 EARLY on February 11, 1942, 12 Australian airmen in Port Moresby were told that several Japanese cargo ships had arrived in Gasmata harbour on the PNG island of New Britain. The crews of three RAAF Hudson bombers were told they had to destroy the ships to help slow the Japanese sweep through the Pacific and block the build-up of forces to Australia’s north... |
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Rossy the Rocketman Sets Solo Channel Flight.
26-Sep-08 12:35:30 Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy cracked open the Champagne today as he toasted becoming the first person to fly solo across the English Channel using a single jet-propelled wing. A global audience witnessed Rossy leap from a plane more than 8,200ft (2,500m) above France before soaring at more than 100mph over one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes powered by four jets on his home-made wing... |
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2 Terror Suspects Arrested on KLM Airplane En Route to Amsterdam.
26-Sep-08 12:35:14 KLM flight 1804 from Cologne to Amsterdam was sitting on the tarmac at Cologne’s airport as crew members prepared for departure when SEK, Germany’s special police, entered the plane and arrested two passengers suspected of planning terrorist attacks... |
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Liftoff! China Launches Third Manned Spaceflight.
26-Sep-08 12:34:31 China has successfully rocketed three astronauts to space on a mission set to include the nation’s first spacewalk. The Shenzhou 7 spacecraft launched around 9:10 a.m. ET (1310 GMT) aboard a 19-story Long March 2F rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in China’s Gansu province... |
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SkyCatcher to Undergo Small Design Changes.
26-Sep-08 12:34:08 The crash of the Cessna SkyCatcher prototype on Sept. 18 during flight-testing will result in only small modifications where appropriate, a Cessna Aircraft Company spokeswoman said. The aircraft will become Cessna’s entry into the light sport aircraft market... |
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Russia Suspends Boeing 737 Flights.
26-Sep-08 12:33:34 Russia’s aviation authority has suspended flights aboard Boeing 737s until their pilots receive additional training after a recent deadly crash, an official said. All 88 people aboard a Boeing 737-500 died when the plane operated by the Russian Aeroflot-Nord crashed on September 14 while preparing to land in the city of Perm in the Ural Mountains area... |
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