Airbus might have to seriously consider alternative means of financing development of the A350 if the German government withholds loans of €600 million ($787 million) for the project, as reported in the German press. Airbus won’t comment, nor will German government officials, but any such development would force parent company EADS to defer to its plan to use its own funds rather than accept political influence over its decisions on work share or production locations.
Aerospace
October 18, 2012 - 3:00pm
Switzerland-based aviation maintenance and completion services firm Amac Aerospace has been granted Boeing 747-400 and 747-8 Part 145 approval, meaning that it can now provide base and line maintenance services on these types. The Boeing approvals come on the heels of Amac Aerospace gaining its European EASA Part 145 approval to undertake heavy base maintenance on the Boeing 777 and Airbus A330 and A340.
October 16, 2012 - 3:33pm
Aeronautics engineer Richard Whitcomb–whose research at NASA produced the area rule, supercritical wing and winglets–was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame earlier this month. He died in 2008 at the age of 88. During Whitcomb’s almost four decades at NASA his “fundamental insight into aerodynamics and his practical solutions led to three of the most significant and practical contributions to aeronautics in the 20th century,” said NASA Langley Research Center director Lesa Roe.
October 3, 2012 - 11:50am
Pattonair has opened a European Hub in Derby, UK, where the Pattonair Group head office is located. It will serve as a central hub for all of the company’s European operations. Pattonair’s supply chain services include kitting, line feed, distribution, aftermarket and MRO, consultancy, reverse logistics, warehouse management and supplier management. Customers include large global aerospace OEMs and Tier 1, 2 and 3 manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce, Goodrich Actuation Systems and Parker Aerospace.
October 2, 2012 - 7:17am
Brazil’s Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes announced an order for 60 Boeing 737 Max airliners today. According to Boeing, the deal is worth approximately $6 billion and is the largest single aircraft order from a single carrier in South America’s air transport history.
October 1, 2012 - 12:10pm
Governments on opposite sides of the Atlantic remain at loggerheads over subsidies to their respective aerospace industries following a European Union rebuke last week of a U.S. claim that it has met a World Trade Organization deadline to withdraw illegal support to Boeing.
September 20, 2012 - 3:43pm
Aviation Partners’ high-Mach blended winglets on the Falcon 50 series were STC’d by the FAA on Tuesday. EASA approval is pending, the company said. The FAA certification is the culmination of an 18-month development and flight-test program, and comes on the heels of its similar winglet approvals for the Falcon 900 and 2000 series. Aviation Partners claims its Falcon 50 winglets provide a drag reduction, and corresponding range increase, of 5 percent at Mach 0.80 and more than 7 percent at long-range cruise.
September 14, 2012 - 1:15pm
At first glance, the proposed merger between EADS and BAE should not pose problems for competition regulators on either side of the Atlantic, from a defense perspective. There is very little overlap between the businesses. “It’s a great strategic fit,” one EADS official told AIN. However, that may not stop companies such as Finmeccanica or Thales from raising questions about the consolidation of first-tier defense contractors in Europe.
September 14, 2012 - 1:05pm
The ILA Berlin airshow, held this week on a new site at Schonefeld Airport, remains largely a regional event driven by German industry and government requirements. News of the merger talks between EADS and BAE Systems broke halfway through the event, although not by design, a senior EADS official told AIN. But there was other important defense news announced or discussed at the show.
September 14, 2012 - 12:55pm
Maintaining India’s fleet of more than 230 aging Cheetah and Chetak reconnaissance and surveillance helicopters is turning into a nightmare due to unavailability of spares, according to K.C. Nanda, general manager of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd’s Barrackpore Division, who sounded the warning at a defense conference held in Kolkata in August. HAL built both the Cheetah and the Chetak under license from Eurocopter.
