Usglobaljetsacc Discussion Threads

[ariane] 12/11/2004 21:39

Three minutes in space for £100K




The Ascender takes off like a conventional aircraft
A Bristol company has unveiled plans to take passengers on a 30-minute ride into space for £100,000 each.
Bristol Spaceplanes has designed an aircraft, the Ascender, which it says will fly to a height of 62 miles.

The company, which has yet to win financial backing for its plans, says it has identified a site in Malaysia for a 'space tourism hub'.

David Ashford, director of the company, said: "To start off with, it will be for the rich."

He added: "But with economies of scale and more advanced technology, it will come down to a few thousand (pounds)."

Steep climb

Bristol Spaceplanes says the Ascender is similar to Concorde.

It has jet engines but is smaller than the supersonic airliner, which was taken out of service last year.

Unlike its famous predecessor, the Ascender's fuselage contains rocket fuel.

It takes off like a conventional aircraft using the jet engines, but then pulls into a steep climb when the pilot switches on rocket engines.

But any out-of-this-world experience will be brief.

"You are in space for about three minutes," Mr Ashford said.

"It's an up-and-down flight. The total flight time is 30 minutes and you land where you started.

"You don't go into orbit and go round the earth like a satellite."

[waldron] 07/11/2004 19:06

Flying taxi vision for commuters


Are Jetpods the future of commuter travel?
Commuters could soon be taking flying taxis to work instead of waiting in line for a street cab, experts suggest.
British developers Avcen say Jetpods would enable quick, quiet and cheap travel to and from major cities.

The futuristic machines will undergo proof-of-concept flight tests in 2006 and could be ready for action by 2010.

As well as taxis, which would use a network of specially-built mini runways, there are military, medical and personal jet versions as well.

London-based Avcen say Jetpods would be able to travel the 24 miles from Woking, Surrey, to central London in just four minutes.

And because it could make so many trips, fares for a journey from Heathrow to central London could cost about £40 or £50.

'Whizzing around'

Unlike big passenger jets, the Jetpod would fly at no more than 500 to 750ft and would cruise at 350mph - slower than an airliner, but faster than a propeller-driven light aircraft or civilian helicopter.

People shouldn't think that these things are going to be whizzing around crashing into each other

Mike Dacre, Avcen
Each Jetpod should cost under one million US dollars (£542,388).

Avcen managing director Mike Dacre said: "We see it as very much as a 'park and fly' concept. You drive to a pick-up site, get on the aircraft, and off you go.

"But people shouldn't think that these things are going to be whizzing around crashing into each other. They'll be following set routes.

"Jetpods are meant to be a workhorse, a taxi cab in the air, for on-demand free-roaming traffic."

The craft would be able to use strips of land about 400ft long, a tenth of the length of a conventional runways.

Twin turbojets

Its twin turbojets would produce up to 20 decibels less noise than the latest engines currently in service.


How the military version would look
Seating five passengers, they would also have over-wing engines, which help cut down noise.

A system of nozzles that directs part of the thrust down through the wings further reduces noise, and provides the aircraft's STOL (short take-off and landing) capability.

Mr Dacre said the idea was for each aircraft to fly along its own 'corridor' in and out of a city from designated pick-up points outside.

"We know that cities like Moscow, Tokyo and New York are crying out for something like this, and there's nothing remotely like it around at the moment," he said.

Avcen has funding available to develop and trial the aircraft, but will need further investment, The Engineer magazine reported.

Another possible addition to the Jetpod fleet is an unmanned model designed with the ability to hover.

It could be used to carry out rescues or repairs while being controlled by operators 300 miles away.

[waldron] 27/10/2004 14:44

Bombardier Says It May Sell More High-Speed Trains in China
Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Bombardier Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of trains and third-largest maker of passenger airplanes, said it may win more orders for high-speed passenger trains than initially anticipated in China.

The rail minister ``tells us he may order twice as many trains in the future from various manufacturers,'' raising the number of high-speed trains to 400 from 200, Chief Executive Paul Tellier said at a briefing in Beijing, a stop on his tour of China to review the company's strategy for the market.

Bombardier, a Montreal-based company with global sales of $15.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, announced Oct. 15 that it won a $263 million contract to sell 20 eight-car high-speed trains to China. In addition to building 50 regional airports, China plans to link all of its major cities with high- speed trains, including magnetic levitation systems, which Bombardier doesn't make.

``I'm convinced that China in two decades will be a center of the economic order,'' Tellier said. ``That is why any successful executive must consider China.''

Bombardier is looking at the possibility of sourcing airplane parts from China, Tellier said. ``We're in discussion with three possible manufacturers,'' he said, without identifying any of the companies.

Aircraft

Bombardier, which makes high-speed trains and propulsion technology through two ventures in China, is also looking at selling its C series 100-seat regional aircraft in the mainland, he said. Bombardier has invested $38 million and dedicated a team of 200 engineers to come up with a design for the C series and will make a decision in early 2005 whether to manufacture the aircraft.

``China is one of the key markets for us,'' said Tellier, who refused to give an estimate on how many C series aircrafts he aims to sell in China. ``But globally, we hope to sell thousands of these.''

The company has sold 64 small- and medium-size aircraft seating 90 passengers or fewer in China, Tellier said.

Its rival, Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica, the world's fourth-largest aircraft maker, will boost sales from its factory in China as the government cuts the cost of internal flights, Chief Executive Mauricio Botelho said in July.

Embraer, which expects the plant's deliveries this year to be half of the dozen 50-seat planes it targets, estimates Chinese airlines will buy 250 jets in the next decade to serve routes within the country, Botelho said in an interview on July 30 at the company's offices in Sao Paulo.

[maywillow] 18/10/2004 07:32

LONDON (AFX) - Cobham PLC said Embraer has selected Chelton Satcom's
HSD-7000 Inmarsat Swift64 Aero High Speed Data system to provide the LEGACY
corporate jet with global in-flight connectivity.
Cobham also said the Chelton HGA-6000 High Gain SATCOM antenna has been
selected by Gulfstream for optional installation as part of the broadband
multi-link fully integrated Inmarsat and SKYlink satellite communication systems
on their G450 and G550 aircraft.
No financial information was available for either of the contracts.
Two aircraft will be modified for testing and the first installation is
currently underway in Savannah, with Supplemental Type Certificate approval on
the G550 expected by the end of the year.
A G450 STC is planned for Spring 2005.
Chelton Defence Communications, together with US team partner, Northrop
Grumman, has also received a 6 mln stg order from the US Army Communications and
Electronics Command (CECOM). ROVIS is a digital audio system which provides
noise free communications between crew members inside combat vehicles and
externally to up to six combat net radios.
To date, over 25,000 systems have been delivered in fifteen countries.
acb/bam

[waldron] 30/9/2004 22:31

cheers pc

See also STAR

[pc4900074200] 30/9/2004 22:23

Slightly off topic, but!!

SpaceShipOne rolls to first mark.

SpaceShipOne, the rocket plane aiming to win the $10m Ansari X-Prize, has completed the first of two qualifying flights above the Californian desert.



And!!!

Second team goes for space prize.



pc

[grupo guitarlumber] 29/9/2004 17:42

SAO PAULO (AFX) - Embraer SA said Air Canada has signed a purchase agreement
for 45 Embraer-190 aircraft, worth 1.35 bln usd at list price.
The purchase agreement also contains options for up to 45 additional
aircraft, which could potentially increase the total value of the contract to
2.7 bln usd.
The purchase is contingent upon Air Canada's emergence from the Companies'
Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA), Embraer noted.
Deliveries of the aircraft, configured for dual class seating, are scheduled
to begin in Nov 2005.
This announcement confirms the commercial proposal signed by Air Canada in
Dec 2003 and allows Embraer to add 45 new firm orders and 45 options to its
orderbook.
[e-mail]
jmp/jsa

[grupo] 31/8/2004 19:38

Guinness recognises jet record


The record may not stand for long
The Guinness Book of Records has officially recognised the world speed record set by Nasa's X-43A hypersonic aircraft earlier this year.
The 3.6m-long scramjet achieved Mach 6.83 - nearly seven times the speed of sound - in a flight on 27 March.

The record is set to be included in the 2006 Guinness World Records book.

But the record may not stand for long, because another X-43A flight in October aims to smash it by flying to Mach 10 - 10 times the speed of sound.

Lower costs

In the March flight, the unmanned experimental craft was boosted to an altitude of 29,000m (95,000ft) by a rocket launched beneath an aircraft.

It then burned its engine for around 11 seconds during a flight over the Pacific Ocean.

Scramjets burn hydrogen as fuel but take their oxygen from the air, which is forced into the engine at very high speed.

In contrast, rocket engines have to carry their own source of oxygen in heavy tanks.

Scramjet technology could lead to single-stage-to-orbit space vehicles - spacecraft that fly into space in one piece. This would substantially reduce costs in the space delivery business and - eventually - the prices we pay for all our telecommunications.

All shapes and types

The X-43A flight easily broke the world speed record for an air-breathing engine aircraft. The previous known record was held by a ramjet-powered missile, which achieved slightly more than Mach 5.

The highest speed attained by a rocket-powered plane, Nasa's X-15 aircraft, was Mach 6.7. The fastest air-breathing, manned vehicle, the SR-71 "Blackbird" spy plane, achieved slightly more than Mach 3.2.

Commercial airliners fly just below Mach 1 (1,194km/h or 741mph).

The term scramjet stands for supersonic combustible ramjet.

[maywillow] 26/8/2004 06:29

Bombardier faces uncertainty
By Bernard Simon in Toronto and Caroline Daniel in Chicago
Published: August 26 2004 03:00 | Last updated: August 26 2004 03:00

Bombardier, a Canadian transport equipment group, said it might further scale back production of its regional jets, depending on the financial health of US Airways and Delta Air Lines, its two biggest customers.


The two airlines, which make up 40 per cent of Bombardier's order backlog, are struggling to avoid filing for protection from their creditors under US bankruptcy law.

"Only a fool would deny that there are some major challenges" in the aircraft industry, Paul Tellier, Bombardier's chief executive, said yesterday, as the company announced a two-thirds drop in second-quarter earnings.

But Mr Tellier said difficulties in the regional jet market were balanced by growing demand for Bombardier's Learjet, Challenger and Global Express business jets, and by gradual progress in putting the company's rail equipment division on a more stable footing.

Bombardier's net earnings dropped to $23m, or 1 cent a share, in the quarter ended July 31, from $68m, or 4 cents, a year earlier. Revenues rose fractionally to $3.88bn, with a 5 per cent fall from the aerospace division offset by a 9 per cent gain from rolling stock.

Bombardier's shares, at a 10-year low, lost 10 Canadian cents to C$3 in early trading in Toronto yesterday.

Nigel Heath, an analyst at Dominion Bond Rating Services in Toronto, said that the US Airways and Delta orders were a "huge uncertainty".

Bombardier's unfunded pension liability, one of the biggest among Canadian companies, also remains a substantial drain on cash resources.

Nevertheless, in Mr Heath's view, the potential loss of the US Airways and Delta business "is not life-threatening" to Bombardier, because other airlines would probably take up at least some of the orders, and the company could speed up deliveries to customers in other parts of the world.

"A number of actions could be taken to reduce the pain threshold," Mr Heath said.

Last month, US Airways deferred deliveries of 19 Bombardier aircraft, which were scheduled to start in the current quarter.

The airline also converted orders for 23 of the 50-seat CRJ200 to the 70-seat CRJ700.

Bombardier announced this year that it would cut production of the CRJ200 this summer.

Pierre Beaudoin, head of Bombardier's aerospace division, said he was confident that US Airways' orders for 12 jets still scheduled for delivery this year would go ahead. The production schedule will then be reviewed.

US Airways' aggressive expansion in its use of regional jets is a critical part of its new business transformation plan.

Delta, the world's largest operator of regional jets, has warned that it will be forced to file for bankruptcy in the absence of a new pilots' contract and concessions from its debt holders.

Mr Beaudoin said Delta had confirmed its regional jet orders, but that bankruptcy protection would raise questions about financing. Discussions are taking place with the airline, Mr Beaudoin said.

In contrast to the turbulence in the regional jet market, Bombardier delivered 26 business jets in the quarter to July 31, up from 14 a year earlier.

Mr Tellier said prices had started to improve and the inventory of used aircraft had dropped substantially.

A group of 150 Bombardier employees is pressing ahead with a feasibility study for a 100-135 seat aircraft, which would bring the Canadian company into direct competition for the first time with Boeing and Airbus.

Mr Tellier said that no decisions had yet been taken.

[grupo] 24/8/2004 08:31

$1bn to build unmanned fighter


The X-47B will be designed with "network-centric" warfare in mind
A US defence contractor has received more than $1bn in funding to build a prototype unmanned fighter aircraft for the American military.
Northrop Grumman will build at least three full-scale flight prototypes for the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) over five years.

The contract win will allow Northrop to continue work on its X-47B combat drone.

It is hoped that many unmanned fighters would be networked and controlled from land or from an aircraft carrier.

Key missions envisaged for the vehicle include suppression of enemy air defences, precision strike, electronic attack and surveillance deep into enemy airspace.

Boeing is already developing another drone called the X-45C under the same operational assessment phase of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) demonstration programme, led by Darpa.

J-UCAS aims to find a stealthy, unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) with integrated sensors, navigation and communications that can operate in the network-centric battlefield of tomorrow.

Network-centric warfare involves gaining the upper hand against an enemy through information superiority, enabling resources to be deployed faster and more effectively than has been possible in the past.

"The X-47B promises to be a highly capable air warfare system, well suited to support the full spectrum of military operations," said Scott Winship, Northrop Grumman's J-UCAS programme director.

"It will be very stealthy and thus highly survivable. It will carry a wide variety of sensors with a large internal weapons payload and be fully networked into the military's emerging joint operational architecture."

The award includes initial funding of $30m.

[grupo guitarlumber] 17/8/2004 14:47

SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS, Brazil (AFX) - Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica said
it submitted yesterday with European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company EADS
NV an offer for Portuguese state-owned aerospace company OGMA - Industria
Aeronautica de Portugal.
Embraer had previously announced it would participate in the bidding for a
65 pct in OGMA.
OGMA's other suitors are reportedly Lockheed Martin Corp, Portugalia Linhas
Aereas and another Portuguese company, TAP Mantencao & Engenharia.
[e-mail]
jmp/ec

[waldron] 15/8/2004 11:55

TAOYUAN, Taiwan (AFX-ASIA) - Tens of thousands attended Taiwan's largest
ever air show today with a parade of jet fighters demonstrating the island's
military strength amid escalating tensions with rival China, Agence
France-Presse reported.
The crowd, estimated at more than 100,000 people, defied the summer heat to
get a glimpse of the aircraft at the northern Taoyuan airbase against a backdrop
of a standoff with the mainland.
Organisers have played down the political significance of the four-day event
which opened yesterday but the carnival is co-sponsored by military and
transportation authorities.
On display were flight formations by US-made AH-1W Super Cobra attack jets
and OH-58D Kiowa Warrior scout gunships as well as a squad of home-grown
Indigenous Defensive Fighters.
Also on show were US-made F-16 jet fighters and French-made Mirage 2000-5
jets.
The air show took place after the armed forces recently carried out a series
of drills and rehearsals simulating an invasion by rival China.
Since pro-independence President Chen Shui-bian was re-elected in March,
Beijing has stressed its long-standing vow to take Taiwan by force should the
island try to declare formal independence.
cty/dv/swp

[maywillow] 23/7/2004 15:29

ExecuJet acquires Bombardier 'Global Express' - UAE



Khaleej Times - 23/07/2004

DUBAI - ExecuJet Middle East has recently acquired a Bombardier Global Express on its Air Operating Certificate. The aircraft was obtained to meet increasing demand for ultra-long range charter aircraft in this region.


According to Khader Mattar, sales director ExecuJet Middle East, the charter market in the Middle East has typically favoured the larger, intercontinental aircraft.

"Although our Bombardier Learjet 60 is popular on regional missions, the Global Express will offer our customers non-stop flights to destinations such as Perth, Australia and Cape Town, South Africa," he said. This aircraft type allows ExecuJet to offer departures from most Middle East cities without huge costs, he said.