Aerospace Diary

Security Neelam Mathews   - IHS Jane's Airport Review 26 October 2014   Inmarsat's London control centre. The satellite telecommunications provider is one of several organisations to have proposed a method for enhanced global flight tracking, but the international effort to deliver a solution has been delayed. Source: PA Key Points The Aircraft Tracking Task Force (ATTF) is now expected to present its findings to ICAO in December 2014 Some airlines have expressed opposition to the cost of implementing a future enhanced flight tracking system The Aircraft Tracking Task Force (ATTF), led by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is expected to present options for enhanced global flight tracking to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in December 2014 - three months later than originally intended. The ATTF was formed in May 2014 following the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 on 8 March. As well as IATA and IC...

Neelam Mathews   - IHS Jane's Airport Review 27 October 2014 Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) intends to introduce beacon geolocation technology at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. "We're at an advanced stage of implementation," MIAL CEO Rajeev Jain said on 16 October at the Aviation Information & Communication Technologies Forum in Jaipur. IHS Jane's understands that the Request for Qualification for a pilot project will be made in the first quarter of 2015. If successful, it will be replicated in the GVK consortium-owned Bangalore International Airport. Beacons can track passengers inside the airport within a radius of 50 m in real time. They can help in delivering personalised messages to travellers as they enter business lounges and help airports identify staff movements. To read the full article,  Client Login (111 of 226 words)

IHS Jane's Airport Review Neelam Mathews   - IHS Jane's Airport Review 23 October 2014   Saab has been selected by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to deploy its Advanced - Surface Movement Guidance & Control System (A-SMGCS) at five airports. The product is expected to save costs and significantly improve situational awareness, runway safety, and capacity. A3000 A-SMGCS plus Saab multilateration sensors and SR-3 surface-movement radars will be installed at Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Guwahati, Jaipur, and Lucknow airports. The system "will enable the airport to reduce runway incursions while maximising the use of runways and taxiways", said Anders Carp, head of Saab's traffic management business unit. Installing the Saab equipment "will enhance ground surveillance, leading to improved access and enhanced safety of aircraft operations" at the five airports, said V Somasundaram, board member (ANS) at the AAI.........More on Janes...

AIN DEFENSE PERSPECTIVE  »  OCTOBER 24, 2014 by    NEELAM MATHEWS The Indian air force fleet of some 200 Sukhoi Su-30MKI combat jets has been grounded after a crash. (Photo: Chris Pocock) October 23, 2014, 1:36 PM The crash of an Indian Air Force ( IAF ) Sukhoi Su-30  MKI  on October 14 has led to the temporary grounding of the entire fleet of some 200 jets. The  IAF ’s safety record is again under scrutiny, with concerns about training and maintenance being voiced unofficially. The aircraft crashed approximately 20 km from Pune airbase, near Mumbai, after both K- 36DM  zero-zero ejection seats inadvertently fired. The pilots survived the ejections. “A Court of Enquiry is in progress and certain specific checks are being conducted on the aircraft,” said a Ministry of Defense (MoD) statement. A senior former  IAF  maintenance officer told  AIN , on condition of anonymity: “It is like...

by    NEELAM MATHEWS October 23, 2014, 2:30 PM Indian lawmakers are considering a proposal by the country’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGCA ) that would revoke the commercial licenses of nonscheduled operator permit ( NSOP ) holders with fewer than three aircraft available for charter. Affected  NSOP s that do not augment their fleet to at least three aircraft within one year will have to operate in the private category, depriving them of permission to offer charters. India’s Business Aircraft Operators Association ( BAOA ) sees the proposal as “a kneejerk reaction” to the  DGCA ’s shortage of flight observation inspectors ( FOI s) and its difficulties in recruiting more of them. The process of registering private aircraft owners as  NSOP s requires the services of an  FOI . This scarcity of  FOI s is also hindering India’s compliance with an  FAA requirement that would help restore the country’s safety r...

Written by  Neelam Mathews  Tuesday, 07 October 2014 06:00 With Thailand’s aerospace industry booming, Neelam Mathews reports on the country’s latest MRO developments Thailand’s focus on aerospace is fast making it an emerging centre for component manufacture and maintenance  While investors have indicated that they would like the return of an elected government, in July alone, Thailand’s Board of Investment (BOI) approved applications for 15 industrial projects valued at $1.6bn, indicating business was back to normal. A string of incentives are making investors bullish about moving their business to a country that has already become the third largest in the world in terms of automobile manufacture. Building the future Recognising that infrastructure is a basic need, deputy secretary general of the BOI, Ajarin Pattanapanchai, has said that plans for an aerospace industrial park will be announced soon.  The country is looking to encourage Tier 2 ...

Neelam Mathews Oct 23, 2014 Dwarves, Orcs and Elves take flight once again as Air New Zealand unveils  The Most Epic Safety Video Ever Made  ahead of the December release of the final film in  The Hobbit  Trilogy,  The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,  a production of New Line Cinema and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures (MGM). Wishing all a Happy Diwali!

Please check out http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/indian-guidance-tech-advances-tata-honeywell/ LAND WARFARE 21st October 2014 - 9:52 by  Neelam Mathews  in Delhi  A recent licensing agreement between Tata Power’s Strategic Engineering Division and Honeywell Aerospace will offer India the capability to produce inertial navigation systems. Signed on  29 September , it means that the construction of the Tactical Advance Land Inertial Navigator (TALIN) is set to benefit India’s indigenous defence programmes by providing guidance and situational awareness for vehicles and altitude of position information for precision artillery without the need for GPS satellite guidance. This is particularly important in the jungle, mountainous and desert regions of India where satellite signals are inconsistent. Arijit Ghosh, Honeywell’s president of India operations, told  Shephard : ‘Part of the plan is an immediate order for TALIN2000...

India’s new domestic carrier to be well connected 20-10-2014   |   By Neelam Mathews Tata-SIA owned domestic carrier Vistara, set to be take-off soon, has signed an agreement with air transport IT company SITA for aircraft communications, operations and network connectivity. Vistara will use SITA's integrated suite to manage air-to-ground communications among the flight crew, airline operations and air traffic controllers. SITA's VHF network, the largest in India, will provide the connectivity for these services. The airline will initially use the IP Network to connect its back offices, ticketing desks and check-in counters at 10 airports across India. “We need a network infrastructure that is cost-effective, resilient, easily deployable and scalable….SITA has designed a comprehensive network solution to fit our specific requirements against a very ambitious rollout schedule,” said Phee Teik Yeoh, CEO TATA SIA Airlines Ltd. SITA is also wo...

http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/landwarfareintl/javelin-co-production-india-advances-under-dtti/?nocache=141380557039 Land Warfare 17th October 2014 - 14:00 by  Neelam Mathews  in Delhi  Plans are afoot in India to co-develop and co-produce the next generation of Raytheon-Lockheed Martin FGM-148  Javelin  ATGMs. The Javelin proposal is being instigated as the US signs a new 10-year Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI) with India as the old one is set to expire in mid-2015. On a recent visit to India, US secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel stated: ‘This is an unprecedented offer that we have made only to India and no one else. To ensure our defense industrial cooperation receives the attention it demands, in May, I announced that I was directing the Pentagon's Undersecretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Frank Kendall …. to lead and advance the DTTI.’ Presently, the military has to make do with second-generation 2km rang...

UV ONLINE http://www.shephardmedia.com/news/uv-online/concerns-mount-over-indian-uav-developments/ 17th October 2014 - 10:53 by  Neelam Mathews  in Delhi Efforts to speed up development of the Rustom-2 MALE UAV appear to have stalled with neither confirmation on when production will begin nor delivery to the Indian Army, it has emerged. According to industry sources in India, the aircraft - which is designed by the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), a wing of the Defense Research Development Organization (DRDO)- is due to undergo high speed taxi trials in December. However, there has been no confirmation on when production and delivery of 76 systems for the Indian Army will start for which a Letter of Interest (LoI) has been released. Specifications in the LoI require the MALE to have an all-weather capability to operate between 25,000 to 36,000 ft, an endurance between 36 to 48 hours, and a cruising speed of at least 90 knots. L...