Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews May 31, 2011 Time:7:02pm IST Even as Air India approaches its July 31 deadline to join Star Alliance and amid raging controversy on whether the carrier will abide by the deadline, officials say confidently the date will be met. “This event (Joining the alliance) is like an Indian wedding. Everything is last minute, but it will get done…..We will be freezing the date shortly and let you all know…… We’re on track,” confirms an Air India spokesman to Aerospace Diary.  It is believed the Cabinet reshuffle decision is delaying the confirmation of the final date for the Star event. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently hinted the shuffle could happen before the start of the monsoon session likely to be held in the second week of July. The date has not been confirmed as yet. Air India says it has made an extensive presentation to the Star team that was in Mumbai in mid May. There are some segments of the Star requirements that can be done only last minute, says A...

Neelam Mathews May 31, 2011 Time:4:55pm IST After many false alarms, the clearance for Boeing's C-17s is on the agenda of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) being held on June 1. Senior heads including ministers of Finance, Defense and Home Affairs expected to attend the CCS, are said to be in town. Cleared by the U.S for $5.8billion, the MoD order for ten C-17s is for $4.2 billion. It comes with a 30% offsets clause worth $1.2 billion. Boeing is believed to be supplying an air tunnel and an engine testing facility for extreme environments valued at ½ billion U.S dollars as part of the offsets, AerospaceDiary learns. The engine testing facility will be used for the indigenous Kaveri engine presently tested in Russia. The IAF is also planning to place orders for additional aircraft. Word has it that Boeing will get an additional order for at least five more in the short term. Recently the United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defense received a brand new C-17 Globem...

May 31, 2011 The Indian Air Force will be inducting its  first Medium Power Radar called Arudhra, at Naliya in Gujarat on June 3. The radar will strengthen the air defence in the Saurashtara Kutch region as a part of radar upgradation. It forms an important component in the IAF’s plan to achieve network- centric operations, says a statement   "With the operationalization of the Integrated Air Command and Control Systems (IACCS), an automated command and control system of the IAF, the overall air defence of the country will achieve a quantum leap once radar being inducted alongwith legacy radar are networked," adds the statement  

 - Neelam Mathews Asian Defence and Diplomacy (Singapore) Date Posted: 26 May 2011 The last date for India’s first ever Request for Proposal for eight dry-lease (wheel-type) helicopters has another fortnight left to close. The RFP released in Dec. last year by the Indian Coast Guard is expected to set a trend in outsourcing by introducing the concept of wet-leasing of aircraft in the military and will reduce complexity of an already varied fleet, say analysts. In India, the Coast Guard is a military unit resembling a naval coastal defence force. It has responsibility for search and rescue, enforcement of maritime law- smuggling, immigration and shipping regulations- and protecting the country's maritime and offshore resources. The contract for the dry-lease is for five year...

    MRMR RFP expected soon - By: Neelam Mathews Asian Defence and Diplomacy Date Posted: 26 May 2011 Photo: SAAB 2000 The Request for Proposal for Indian Navy’s six Medium Range Maritime Reconnaissance (MRMR) program to meet the growing challenges in India’s maritime domain stretching across 2 million sq. km, outside 200 nautical miles of the Indian Ocean, is expected to be released by July. The MRMR aircraft will replace the ageing fleet of 10 Islanders in service. Companies likely to participate include EADS CASA, ATR, Beriev, Dassault Falcon and SAAB. The present Request for Information lists the role of the MRMR for maritime patrol, anti-surface warfare and search and rescue. Mission requirements indicate a patrol time of at least 4 hours at a distance of 400 na. mi. from the base in full mission configurat...

Credit- Unisys

Neelam Mathews May 25, 2011 Time: 6:00pm IST The ministry of commerce has cleared two aerospace parks at the Gujarat Vitall Innovation City (CVIC) at Valsad and at Hyderabad. The parks will concentrate primarily on mechanical and electronic aspects of aviation respectively. Last year, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation signed an MoU with GVIC to co-develop a high technology aerospace research and manufacturing park that will form one of the industry clusters of GVIC which comprises 2,800 acres. The development, which is supported by the state government, and has in-principle Special Economic Zone status, is just 2 hours drive from Mumbai. Hyderabad has various parks under construction including GMR International Airport’s 250 acres SEZ that houses the CFM training center and Tata- Augusta Westland facility for AW119 final assembly. "An entity that concentrates on electronics is sure to give a boost to cargo volume to the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport," says an of...

Neelam Mathews New Delhi Time:10;00 am IST It is reassuring to see that International Air Transport Association (IATA) has said it is encouraged by the improved coordination of European authorities so far in managing its airspace in light of the Grimsvotn volcanic eruption. Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary has said restrictions on flights in and out of Scotland are unneccessary and a test flight which travelled between the affected airports yesterday was not affected: "There is no evidence of any volcanic ash. We inspected the aircraft, the wings, the engine, on landing – nothing," said O’Leary to BBC. Ryan Air’s view and other airlines view is that the UK met charts are unreliable. This was rubbished by CAA Transport Secretary Philip Hammond that the ash cloud spreading from an Icelandic volcano does not exist. Hammond said the information he had seen regarding the Ryanair flight suggested it "did not actually fly in any areas" where ash was expected....

Neelam Mathews May 22, 2011 Time: 9:40pm IST   Commercial Bids for the 75 basic trainer aircraft for the Indian Air Force were opened late last week. It is expected the contract will be awarded- given all things move smoothly- by July.   India has been anxious to make a procurement decision on the much needed trainers to replace its ageing fleet of over 100 HPT-32 (Hindustan Piston Trainers) that have suffered a spurt of crashes, leaving India to depend on its second line of limited trainers. The final contenders are Beechcraft T-6C military trainer, Pilatus PC-7 and Korea Aerospace KT-1.   The IAF requires its trainers to have a synthetic cockpit, no head on display and a service life of 12,000 hours.   The Basic Trainer RFP comes with a 30% offsets clause.    An additional 106 aircraft may be added. They will be manufactured by government-owned defense manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) through technology transfer.    

Neelam Mathews May 22, 2011 Time- 8.50 PM IST   The first critical orbit-raising manoeuvre of GSAT-8 was successfully conducted at 03:58 hrs (IST) this morning with the firing of the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board GSAT-8 for 95 minutes by commanding the satellite from ISRO’s Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka, says ISRO. Arianespace orbited two communications satellites: ST-2 for the operator ST-2 Satellite Ventures Pte Ltd., a joint venture of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) and Chunghwa Telecom Company Limited (Chunghwa), and GSAT-8 for the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). This was the 58th launch of an Ariane 5, and the 44th successful launch in a row. ST-2 is the second satellite launched by Arianespace for SingTel and Chunghwa, following the launch of ST-1 in 1998. GSAT-8 is the 14th ISRO satellite to be launched by Ariane. Since the launch of the Apple experimental satellite on Flight L03 in 1981, Ariane...

Show News Daily-EBACE 2011 Neelam Mathews May 19, 2011 http://www.zinio.com/reader.jsp?issue=416170928&o=ext Air Works India Eyes More Commercial, Military MRO Deals May 16, 2011   By Neelam Mathews   NEW DELHI             Sixty years since it was founded, Air Works India holds a 30-40% share of the general aviation MRO market across the country, but no, the company wants to expand that business and is eyeing up new opportunities in commercial – and perhaps even military – MRO and support work. Top of the list is a pending certification from Dassault to work on the Falcon 900EX and its Enhanced Avionics System (EASy). If approval is received in time, the company hopes to make an announcement here at EBACE. “Certification involves hard work and investment in capital, including tooling and equipment and training to ful...

Neelam Mathews May 18, 2011 Time: 10:39 Air Works India (Engineering) has announced it has divested a 4.8% stake to Elephant Capital for £2.45 million.  The investment will be made through Elephant Capital’s Mauritian subsidiary, Tusk Investments Fund 1.   The investment is the first of two tranches and a further announcement will be made in due course.  Elephant Capital’s co-investment vehicle will be investing £.4 million. Board members of Elephant Capital include James Norman Hauslein, Chairman/CEO (Atlas Acquisition Holdings) Gaurav Burman, Director (Dabur Oncology), Pramnath Raj Sinha, Board Member (Ballarpur Industries, Niraj Agarwal and Francis Anthony Hancock. Elephant Capital acquired Amar Chitra Katha last year and Clintech for 8 million. Air Works India has also announced an MOU with Abu Dhabi Airports Company, for setting up an MRO facility at Al Bateen Executive Airport. “This is another small but significant step for an Indian MRO company to make...

Neelam Mathews May 16, 2011 Time:6:55pm IST India ’s DGCA and the U.S. FAA talks began today in New Delhi on the Implementation Procedure for Airworthiness (IPA) taking the two closer to the signing of the Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement (BASA). Chris Carter , who manages the FAA' s Certification Procedures Branch is leading the FAA team of three members. During the FAA visit from May 16-19, the draft of BASA IPA content will be reviewed by the FAA and DGCA teams. The final draft will then be submitted to legal counsel of both the Civil Aviation Authorities . Once the implementation procedure for airworthiness agreement is finalized and the Executive Agreement gets India’s Cabinet clearance, the final signing is expected in September. The EA clearance is not expected to pose any problem, civil aviation secretary Nasim Zaidi , had told Aerospace Diary. One of the first to benefit from BASA will be Goodrich. A “shadow” certification is under development with Goodrich in India fo...

May 16, 2011 India’s GSAT-8 multi-mission satellite has been integrated on the Ariane 5 launcher for Arianespace’s third flight of 2011, moving this mission campaign into its final preparations for a May 19 liftoff from the Spaceport in French Guiana. GSAT-8 is now positioned as the lower spacecraft in Ariane 5’s dual-payload “stack,” clearing the way for installation of the ST-2 satellite as the upper passenger. Designed, assembled and integrated by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in Bangalore using an I-3K platform, GSAT-8 weighs approximately 3,100 kg. for launch, and carries 24 transponders to augment India’s Ku-band relay capabilities in direct television broadcasting.  It also is configured with the two-channel GAGAN (GPS and GEO augmented navigation) system for aircraft navigation assistance over Indian airspace and in adjoining areas. The ST-2 satellite was built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric Company using a DS2000 platform, and will have ...

Neelam Mathews May 13, 2011 Time- 6:40pm IST Even as India’s Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) expected to meet on April 28 to clear the around $5.5billion order for ten C-17s was put on hold as a result of elections in Kerala, requiring urgent attention of Defense Minister A.K Antony, Aerospace Diary learns the price bid for the deal expires on May 15. It is not clear whether the extension will be given or the government will find time to meet before the expiry date. The IAF is also planning to place orders for additional aircraft. Recently the United Arab Emirates Air Force and Air Defense received a brand new C-17 Globemaster III from Boeing's C-17 final assembly facility in Long Beach. The military transport aircraft is the first of six ordered by the UAE. The C-17s are to expand the UAEs ability to perform humanitarian and strategic-lift missions. The C-17 can transport large payloads and land on short, rough runways. With a full payload of 170,000 po...

Asian Airlines & Airports Date Posted: 14 May 2011 The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) is prepared to consider the  possibility of widening its present membership base to include India, Andrew  Herdman, the trade body's director general told Asian Airlines and Airports. The AAPA currently limits membership to international airlines based  within time zones GMT+7 to GMT+12. This does not include India. “We would be prepared to consider extending that geographic coverage in the future, and we have spoken in general terms with a number of Indian carriers in the past. [Besides] AAPA welcomes  non-member airlines as participants in various AAPA meetings and events,” adds Herdman. While Herdman ...

Neelam Mathews May 11, 2011 Time: 6;07pm IST Even as Air India commits to joining Star Alliance with an announcement expected to made soon, a review meeting held in Dubai on April 20, presided by aviation minister Vayalar Ravi, made an "in principle" decision to set up an engineering base in Dubai. “Given some 200 flights a week to the Middle East, Dubai was found to be the ideal base for flights from Mumbai and Trivandrum,” says a spokesman. Since Air India Express flies primarily to the region, it is expected the engineering base will be exclusively for the Boeing 737s the carrier flies. Meanwhile, even as Star Alliance CEO Jaan Albrecht told a trade publication that Air India has until July 31 to join the alliance or the carrier's invitation will be withdrawn, an Air India official told Aerospace Diary: “There is no issue of an ultimatum being given…This is not a divorce proceeding…We are preparing for the big event and expect the date to be announced soon.” He i...

neelammathews (Twitter) Dr Subramanian Swamy writes to government on scandals related to Rafale, the downselect aircraft for the MMRCA. More to follow......

Neelam Mathews May 10, 2011 Time: 9:pm IST Even as the MoD extended the validity of its Request for Proposal by two months –upto June 28- for 155 mm. towed artillery guns, BAE Systems has reconfirmed it will not participate in the RFP for the 1580 guns. BAE Systems says it has not reconsidered its position on the FH77 B05 howitzer towed 155 mm gun and contrary to a news report, the company denies having held a strategic meeting last week in Delhi, or anywhere else, to reconsider the decision.  "The decision not to bid for this program been made. That decision is not under review," says Guy Douglas, spokesman of BAE Systems to Aerospace Diary. Not many bidders are left in the fray with many blacklisted including Singapore Technology Kinetics (STK); Denel,  Soltam and Rheinmetall. Russia's Rosoboron is believed to have decided not to participate. Interestingly, Israel’s Elbit that bought over Soltam is participating alongwith Bharat Forge, Nexter alongwith Lar...

Neelam Mathews Time: 10:35pm IST May 8, 2011 The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines is looking at the possibility of widening its present membership base to include India, Andrew Herdman, Director General told Aerospace Diary. Presently, its membership is open to scheduled international airlines based within the time zones between GMT+7 and GMT+12. This does not envelop India and its carriers. While Indian carriers are presently focused mainly on domestic issues through the Federation of Indian Airlines (FIA), Herdman says with more carriers flying abroad, many issues will be common. “We do invite many Indian carriers to our events,” he adds. AAPA is run as a non-profit association, fully funded through annual membership subscriptions, based on an agreed formula which reflects the relative sizes of member airlines in terms of their regional traffic volumes. Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, it is the trade association of major scheduled international airlines based in the Asia-Pa...

Neelam Mathews May 7, 2011 Time: 12:20pm IST India ’s regional carrier operations seem to be on the verge of taking off with some hiccups along the way. Delhi-based Ventura Air Connect will get the delivery of its first new C208B Caravan Cessna as part of its launch to start regional operations from Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Uttam Kumar Bose, MD tells Aerospace Diary. The operations start from next month “subject to clearances”. "The 14-seater will fly with 9 seats due to weight restrictions” says Bose. The airline plans to get delivery of six Cessnas by the end of this year and all 20 in three years, says Bose. Cessna Grand Caravan, is the latest generation full glass cockpit commuter aircraft, according to a statement. “Our vision is to give connectivity with the state capital to the remote airfields of the state which are not connected. These connections will provide easy accessibility to the cities with tourist interest places and also the business potential cities,” i...

Neelam Mathews May 5, 2011 Time: 9:36 PM IST Arianespace’s third Ariane 5 mission of 2011 has entered the final phase in French Guiana following the heavy-lift launcher’s transfer for the integration of its ST-2 and GSAT-8 dual-passenger payload. The launch is scheduled for May 19. While ISRO’s 15 consecutive successes with its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ( PSLV), have allowed India to launch Remote Sensing satellites into sun synchronous orbits, the persistent unreliability of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is raising concerns of delays to the planned second moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, and the future three-stage 629 ton launch vehicle GSLV -Mk III, will be delayed. GSAT-8 uses Indian Space Research Organization’s   I-3K satellite bus with a liftoff mass of 3,100 kg.  Its payload of 24 transponders will augment India’s Ku-band relay capabilities, while the two-channel GAGAN (GPS and GEO augmented navigation) system will support India’...

Global Dispatches Defense Technology International May 01 , 2011 , p. 19 Neelam Mathews New Delhi India’s military wants to buy 1,500 UAVs Printed headline: Ramping Up India is increasing procurement of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), a critical need in light of the insurgency it is fighting in the northeast, the ongoing threat of terrorism, tension along the Pakistan border, and its emerging role as a regional naval power and subsequent need for persistent maritime surveillance. The military wants to acquire at least 1,500 unmanned systems in the next 3-4 years, ranging from man-portable drones to high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) vehicles. A request for proposal (RFP) is expected this month from the army for 530 systems, capable of flying at 14,000 ft. An air force RFP will be released simultaneously for 150 systems, with ceiling of 22,000 ft., endurance of 1.5 hr. and 4-5 kg (8.8-1...

Neelam Mathews Orient Aviation May 3, 2011 Reeling under a massive debt burden and escalating costs of operations, India’s Kingfisher Airlines, owned by liquor tsar Vijay Mallya, is struggling to cope in a domestic market experiencing aggressive budget carrier expansion and escalating fuel bills. Following a freeze on fleet expansion- Kingfisher has a fleet of 66 aircraft – the carrier is adjusting its fleet plans to meet the needs of a changing market. A debt restructuring exercise is also presently underway. Following a buy-out and merger with Air Deccan, Kingfisher’s debt has risen from just $400 million in the financial year to March 31, 2007 to $1.5 billion at the end of the 2009-2010 year. Analysts say there is little likelihood of Kingfisher making any progress as an airline until the debt is restructured. “I don’t see the debt problem being resolved in the next two years. The stock will continue to be pretty volatile,” said fund manager Phani...

Orient Aviation Neelam Mathews in New Delhi Shifting world dynamics has opened new challenges for security at India’s fast growing airports. Operators’ concern for the safety of passengers needs to be balanced with the smooth and efficient running of airports, presenting them with a dichotomy they will continue to face for some years. As though removing items from carry-on baggage for screening, prohibition of restricted items, stressful queues and having to deal with dutyfree items, were not enough, passengers worldwide continue to bear the brunt of demands that increase daily to ensure they are safe. For instance, the latest rule for domestic passengers at Delhi’s new Terminal 3 airport is mandatory check-in at least two hours before boarding a flight! Yet, security breaches are not as rare as they should be. Many Indian airports continue to struggle with limited infrastructure and the sudden surge of traffic in years following an economic boom made matters worse. Recently, a ...