Archive For September, 2012
The Indian navy has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for 56 light utility helicopters to replace its fleet of Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) Chetaks. The move follows a request for information released in May 2010. It calls for aircraft with a maximum weight of 4,500kg (9,920lb), with bids due in January 2013. The RFP, which […]
The initial version of a fighter plane, being jointly developed by India and Russia and tipped to be one of the most-advanced in the world, will be unveiled in India in 2014. The Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft (FGFA) with stealth features is slated to be inducted in the Indian Air Force by 2022. The two […]
Scientists in the US have developed a James Bond style, foldable two-seater plane which can travel by land, sea, and even in snow and will soon hit the market priced at $3,50,000. The Lisa Akoya is a multipurpose plane which is just as comfortable on water and even snow as it is in the air. […]
Hours before the much-awaited touchdown of NASA’s car-sized rover Curiosity on the Martian surface, an Indian scientist who identified the landing site, is keeping his fingers crossed. Mr Amitabh Ghosh, chair of the science operations working group at NASA Mars Exploration Rover Mission, was a key member of the team that zeroed in on the […]
Sharpening its missile teeth, India successfully test-fired its medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missile with a strike range of 2000 km as part of a user trial by the Army from the Wheeler Island off Odisha coast. “The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted from a mobile launcher from the Launch Complex-4 of Integrated […]
To give a cutting edge to its missile prowess, India successfully test-fired BrahMos supersonic cruise missile from the integrated test range at Chandipur off Odisha coast. The missile with a flight range of up to 290 km is capable of carrying a conventional warhead of 300 kg, a Defence official said, adding the missile, a […]
As part of its human space flight program envisaged for a take off in 2016, Indian scientists are planning to design and develop an indigenous space suit. The space suit will be designed to protect astronauts against extremes in temperature compounded by intensive solar radiation in space during the mission. Existing technologies of this nature […]
An RAC MiG-29KUB trainer operated by Russian pilots has landed aboard the INS Vikramaditya, becoming the first fixed-wing aircraft to land on the ship since its refurbishment. In a call with Flightglobal, the Indian navy confirmed that the landing had taken place, and that the aircraft had taken off again using the ship’s ‘ski-jump.’ The […]
The game changer in civil aviation will be the inevitable advent of liquid hydrogen-fuelled supersonic airliners. Kochi, by way of its geographical position, could cash in on the opportunity to become the supersonic capital of the world in future, argues an eminent academic in aerospace. Thrissur-born Dr Narayanan Komerath, Professor at the Daniel Guggenheim School […]
The aviation sector is all set to have a new civil aviation policy and a new civil aviation authority on lines of other regulatory bodies that are already in place in different sectors. The absence of a civil aviation policy was not only impeding growth of the sector but was also leaving the industry in […]