Archive For May, 2013
The Bangalore‐headquartered Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said it will develop certain critical electronic systems for the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile. This is part of an agreement to enhance the indigenous content of the BrahMos programme. According to a statement by HAL, it forged a partnership for the long‐term support of all variants of the supersonic […]
A groundbreaking solar‐power Swiss aircraft is ready to make a coast‐to‐coast flight across the US, its creators. The experimental Solar Impulse plane, which has made several trips since its maiden flight in 2009, will take off on May 1, 2013 on a transcontinental tour split in five stages. ‘We are ready to do this flight […]
Six of the 69 MiG‐29 fighter planes of the Indian Air Force have been upgraded in Russia and the remaining jets will be upgraded in India, a Russian official has said. The official from the Russian Aircraft Corporation MiG made the comments at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace Exhibition 2013 in Malaysia. The official […]
Union Civil Aviation Minister Mr Ajit Singh said that India will make efforts to get Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv certified by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) US, in the near future. Speaking at the inauguration of the FAA-Asia Pacific Bilateral Partners’ Meet-2013 here, he said “in the last decade the […]
Japan’s golden era of aviation, which culminated with the feared and respected Mitsubishi Zero fighter planes, had ended a decade earlier along with World War II. Banned from making planes by American occupiers after the war, then allowed only to make parts for US military jets, Japan’s aircraft industry was a shadow of its former […]
The Mars Orbiter mission will take off in October or November as planned, regardless of a comet also due to pass by the red planet when it reaches there next year. ISRO Chairman Dr K. Radhakrishnan said that ISRO would not change its schedule. It would, in fact, like to study the comet and its […]
India’s Rs 80 crore national Micro Air Vehicle (MAV) programme to design and develop MAV has got a boost with the setting up of a Micro Air Vehicle Aerodynamics Research Tunnel in the National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) campus in the city — the first of its kind in India to test fixed-, flapping- and rotary-wing […]
The defence public sector company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. has formally revealed plans to manufacture civil transport planes along with suitable Indian and foreign partners. Without elaborating, the Bangalore‐based military aircraft maker said the civil segment was highly promising. “Separate operations are planned to handle the civil segment, including suitable partnerships with private Indian industries and […]
India should formulate a national aviation policy to facilitate growth in the sector, said Mr Tony Tyler, Director‐ General of the International Air Transport Association (IATA). “The call is not for special favours or preferential treatment,” Mr Tyler said at the inaugural Aviation Day India meet. The IATA head was of the view that the […]
The recent Union Budget provided some succour to the fledgling maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) wing of the aviation industry in the form of waiver of custom duty on spares. But the industry has a lot more runway to cover for a take‐off. India is still nowhere within sighting distance of achieving self‐sufficiency in maintaining […]