Aerospace Diary

Press Release April 5, 2012 The maiden flight of the second fully modified aircraft for the indigenously developed Indian Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AEW&C) was held on April 4, at the San Jose dos Campos in Brazil. The necessary mission systems and components including the dummy AAAU (Active Antena Array Unit) are successfully fitted onboard Embraer EMB 145I aircraft. Vijay Kumar Saraswat, SA to RM, Secretary Depttof Defense R&D and DG DRDO, said the “modified aircraft fitted with the dummy antenna unit performed very well.” This marks an important milestone in the AEW&C program as this aircraft will be delivered in June 2012 to India. The other mission systems will then be integrated on to the aircraft and Mission System flight trials are likely to commence from Nov 2012.  G Elangovan, Distinguished Scientist and Chief Controller Res & Dev (Avionics), DRDO in his message after the successful flight congratulated the entire team of CABS and ...

Press Release April 4, 2012 The Electrical & Automation business of Larsen & Toubro yesterday completed the share sale agreement formalities for the acquisition of Thalest Limited, the UK-based holding company of Servowatch Systems Limited, Bond Instrumentation & Process Control Limited and Servowatch Inc, (USA). Thalest Limited is engaged in offering Integrated Platform Management System (IPMS) and Integrated Bridge System (IBS) solutions for naval warships and mercantile marine ships, vessels and floating systems. L&T’s Electrical & Automation business has been present in this space with marine electrical and automation solutions. Speaking on the acquisition, Senior Vice President & Head of L&T Electrical & Automation,. S. C. Bhargava, said, “We are approved as an IPMS and IBS supplier for the Indian Navy together with Servowatch. Thalest / Servowatch joining the L&T family will help offer cutting edge technology in control & automation ...

GUEST COLUMN The development below to an extent  provides an insight into how airline mergers are treated in the EU- Neelam Mathews   By: Suzanne Rab Partner King & Spalding April 4, 2012 On 2 April 2012, the European Commission cleared International Consolidated Airline Group's (IAG) acquisition of British Midlands (BMI).  The Commission accepted conditions that British Airways, owner of IAG, release 14 slots at Heathrow and commit to provide competing long-haul flight operators with passengers who are connecting at Heathrow. The Commission stated that its investigation initially found that the transaction risked creating monopolies on a number of domestic, European and international routes out of Heathrow which was found to be Europe's busiest passenger airport. Of the divested slots, 7 relate to domestic and 5 to medium-haul routes and two additional slots will be released to Transaero, a Russian airline It was always expected that it would be cha...

Posted by Neelam Mathews April 3, 2012 A commercial Launch Services Agreement between Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO and ASTRIUM, was signed recently. Under this agreement, an advanced Remote Sensing satellite – SPOT -6 –  weighing nearly 800 kg, built by ASTRIUM, will be launched on-board ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), during the second half of 2012. Along with SPOT – 6 satellite, the PSLV, in its 'core alone' configuration, will also carry other co-passenger payloads. This Launch Services Agreement signed between ANTRIX and ASTRIUM is a part of the Long Term Agreement signed between the two agencies in September 2008. In November 2010, under a commercial contract between ANTRIX and ASTRIUM, an advanced communication satellite HYLAS was successfully built by ISRO and ASTRIUM together for a EUROPEAN customer.

Posted by- Neelam Mathews April 2, 2012 The Pakistan government has approached the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to appoint experts for inquiry into the Airblue plane crash following the Peshawar court expressing dissatisfaction over the previous inquiry report. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had sent a letter to ICAO.A senior law officer of CAA, Ubaidur Rehman Abbasi, informed the bench that they were awaiting outcome of their request made to ICAO. The ministry of defense had last month issued a notification for appointing a board of accident inquiry into Airblue flight accident, which crashed on July 28, 2010, at Islamabad leaving 152 persons dead. The notification said that the board should exercise powers, conferred o it under the Civil Aviation Rules 1994, and furnish report to the ministry of defense within 30 days.

Neelam Mathews April 2, 2012 The much awaited revised offset policy is out. It reinforces its aim is to augment capacity for R&D, foster development of international competitive enterprises and give a boost to synergistic sectors like homeland security and civil aviation. The policy recognizes: TOT as eligible for discharge of offset obligations Technology acquisition by DRDO for a list of specified technologies will be treated as an eligible offset with a multiplier of upto 3. While Tier 1 subvendors can already discharge part of obligations on behalf of the main vendor, the overall responsibility will rest on the vendor. Offsets can now be discharged within a timeframe extending to two years beyond the period of the procurement of the contract Validity of Banking of offsets has been extended from 2 to seven years In the discharge of offsets obligations relating to direct export, FDI, TOT  or investment in ‘kind’ through non equity route, a multiplier of 1.50 ...

Aerospace Diary learns Kingfisher Airlines is operating 14 of its aircraft instead of the "holding plan" with 20 aircraft that promised "service integrity". While this is not confirmed, TV Channels are reporting many cancellations today already that points in this direction. One does hope that once again KF is not taking its people for a ride. This is a letter addressed to the founder of KFA by its employees. April 2, 2012 To Dr. Vijay Mallya Honorable chairman Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. Dear Sir, With reference to your mail sent on 1 April, 2012 all the undersigned KFA employees have come to a point where operations have become unsafe due to stress caused by our financial constraints. In the past we have received similar E-mails assuring us that salary would be paid on certain date. However, none of the assurances have been met. The resulted salary payments being overdue for four months has left employees feeling cheated and deceived resulting...