Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews A lot of water has flown with speculations galore since the unfortunate crash of AirAsia A320-200 QZ8501, an airline with a decade-old accident-free record. However, it has stirred up long-standing issues that are unfortunately only raked up when attention is drawn by tragedies such as this. One such issue is the urgent need for tracking guidelines that seem to be caught in a quagmire of vacillation by world bodies responsible for aviation health. This nightmare has also exposed the insularity and arrogance of governments. Why, for instance, were SAR operations not started immediately once the plane went off the radar? Yes, the weather was bad and still is. As an aviation safety expert said,this attitude “is unpardonable.” Having faced the nightmare of MH370, one would have thought that as soon as contact was lost with the aircraft, there would be alarm bells ringing. Call it geo-politics or egos, everybody seemed to be waiting for the other to ask or offer hel...

SINGAPORE AIR SHOW  »  2014 by    NEELAM MATHEWS February 11, 2014, 5:00 AM The Indian government last week stalled completion of several major military equipment deals until at least the end of the current financial year on March 31. “We have no money,” said defense minister  A. K.  Antony at the Defexpo show in New Dehli on Thursday. Antony said 92 percent of the defense budget had already been used up this year. With around $1.2 billion diverted from the defense capital expenditure budget back to the central government coffers, nothing is left for the advance payments that will need to be made when the contracts are signed–and to make matters worse the Indian rupee has taken a beating in the past year, making imports expensive. Some major deals in the final stages of being signed include 126 Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft ( MMRCA ), the Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport Aircraft and a repeat order for s...

Aviation International News » May 2012 by  Neelam Mathews May 5, 2012, 5:53 AM   Judging by the dominance of business jets at India Aviation 2012, held at Hyderabad in southern India from March 14 to 18, predictions of double-digit general aviation growth in the country have inspired manufacturers and service providers to boost their presence in the market. India’s ailing airliner sector was conspicuous by its absence from the third biennial show, barring a static display of the Boeing 787 in Air India’s colors and a mock-up of the Russian Irkut MC-21 airliner. Instead, a spurt of announcements relating to India’s business aviation sector lifted spirits. AgustaWestland and Tata Sons inaugurated the final assembly line for the AW119 helicopter at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airpo...