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Cameron offered air tanker as VIP jet (Reuters) - Senior British politicians and royals might consider making foreign visits in converted air force refuelling jets after a row over the use of a rented Boeing for a trade mission to tout European-made Airbus planes. Britain's aerospace industry lobby group said proposals were being drawn up by the industry that could allow Prime Minister David Cameron and even the Queen to use modified Airbus jetliners that double as refuelling planes. The proposals follow a British media storm after Cameron led a business delegation to Indonesia in a chartered Boeing 747 to...

£10billion spent on refuelling planes which don't work on RAF jets A £10billion fleet of refuelling planes for the RAF have been found to suffer leaks when they fill up British jets. Tests have shown connecting pipes leak on the Voyagers when they try to resupply Tornado jets - although they work fine when used by American fighters. It is feared the latest glitch to affect the aircraft, also used to evacuate battlefield casualties and transport troops, could delay their entry into service. The MoD agreed the PFI programme - the biggest ever - with Oxfordshire-based AirTanker for 14 planes....

Drivers may hate rising gas prices, but some companies are delighted as they watch the oil price soar. Firms like BMW and Airbus, which are leaders in fuel efficiency. actually benefit from expensive oil. They are just two of a growing number of companies that are already developing technologies for a post-fossil-fuel world. …A few cents more and a liter of super unleaded gasoline will cost German drivers €1.80 (around $9 a gallon). That means that someone driving a BMW 3 Series will have to pay over €110 ($150) to fill up the tank, with its 63 liter (17 gallon)...

Airbus completes qualification of Mirage 2000 and F-16 for UAE in flight refuelling Posted 26 March 2012 · Add Comment Airbus Military has successfully completed receiver qualification of the two primary aircraft-types that the UAE Air Force will refuel from the three A330 MRTT multi role tanker transports that it currently has on order. In an extensive series of flight tests in Abu Dhabi, the compatibility of the new generation A330 MRTT with UAE Air Force Mirage 2000 and F-16 Block 60 fighters was fully demonstrated. Operating from Al Dhafra airbase, the aircraft performed air-to-air refuelling at speeds throughout the...

On the evening of May 31, 2009, 216 passengers and 12 crew members boarded an Air France Airbus 330 at Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The flight, Air France 447, departed at 7.29pm local time for a scheduled 11-hour flight to Paris. It never arrived. At 7 o’clock the next morning, when the aircraft failed to appear on the radar screens of air traffic controllers in Europe, Air France began to worry, and contacted civil aviation authorities. By 11am, they concluded that their worst fears had been confirmed. AF447 had gone missing somewhere over the...

<p>SYDNEY – Qantas Airways Ltd. (QAN.AU) said Wednesday it has taken one of its Airbus A380 superjumbos out of service after cracks were discovered in its wings.</p>

Norwegian Air has signed deals valued at $21.5 billion for 222 Boeing Co. and Airbus single-aisle aircraft, the carrier said Wednesday. The carrier ordered 100 of Boeing's new 737 MAX jets and 22 of Boeing's existing 737 aircraft. Its Boeing's largest order ever from a European airline, Boeing said. The Boeing order is valued at $11.4 billion at list prices, though airlines negotiate discounts, especially on large orders like this one.

Airbus said on Thursday it had discovered more cracks in the wings of A380 superjumbo aircraft but insisted the world's largest jetliner remained safe to fly. The announcement comes two weeks after tiny cracks were first reported in the wings of the 525-seat, double-decker aircraft, which entered service just over four years ago. Airbus said it was in talks with the European safety agency, EASA. "Additional cracks have been found and we are working closely on this issue with EASA," an Airbus spokesman said. "They do not affect safe operation of the aircraft.

Australian aircraft engineers have called for Airbus A380 - the world's biggest passenger aircraft - to be grounded, after Singapore Airlines and Qantas found cracks in the wings of their super-jumbos. 'We can't continue to gamble with people's lives and allow those aircraft to fly around and hope that they make it until their four-yearly inspection,' said Steve Purvinas, secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.

Airbus halts production of long-haul A340 plane AFP | Nov 10, 2011, 06.07PM IST PARIS: European planemaker Airbus said today it was abandoning production of its A340 long-haul four-engine aircraft, which failed to compete with Boeing's 777. "We have accepted reality. We have not sold any A340s for nearly two years," Airbus finance director Hans Peter Ring said during a presentation on the third-quarter results of Airbus parent company EADS. The abandoning of the programme will allow Airbus to write back into its books a provision of 192 million euros ($261 million) it had made on the programme. The A340...

LE BOURGET, France (AP) — A confused cockpit crew without proper training to head off high-altitude disaster flew toward it, instead, with wrong-headed maneuvers, no task-sharing and perhaps unaware their flight was about to end in the Atlantic Ocean. Screeching stall alarms and incoherent speed readings from faulty sensors, bad weather in a darkened sky and growing stress make up the chaotic cockpit scenario in the final moments of the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris on June 1, 2009. All 228 people aboard the plane were killed. Friday's third report by France's accident investigation agency, or...

"What do you think? What do you think? What should we do?" The 37-year-old Air France co-pilot with over 6,000 flying hours was running out of ideas as a stall alarm bellowed through the Airbus cockpit for the sixth time in exactly two minutes. His junior colleague with two years on the job was already in despair as he battled to control the jet's speed and prevent it rocking left to right in pitch darkness over the Atlantic, on only his second Rio de Janeiro-Paris trip as an A330 pilot. "I don't have control of the plane. I don't have...

The pilots did it. Put bluntly, that seems to be what the latest report by French air crash investigators on the loss of Air France flight 447 two years ago is saying. More precisely, the pilots had not been trained to deal with the sudden emergency they faced and lost control. What the investigating body, France’s Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA), are not saying, at least not overtly, is that the crash should never have happened–and, but for a technical failure, would not have. Air crash investigation reports always deliver a torrent of technical jargon that has been through...

The crew piloting a doomed Air France jet over the Atlantic did not realize the plane was in a stall, were insufficiently trained in flying manually, and never informed the passengers that anything was wrong before they plunged into the sea, according to new findings released Friday. Based on newly discovered cockpit recordings from the 2009 crash, the French air accident investigation agency is recommending mandatory training for all pilots to help them fly planes manually and handle a high-altitude stall.

DALLAS -- While the hours count down to a final early morning board meeting of AMR corp, parent company of American Airlines, industry sources briefed on Airbus's North America strategy say the sales play by the European airframer is the opening salvo of the coming fleet replacement battles with US airlines that may eventually push Airbus production to record rates as high 60 A320 family aircraft per month after 2016 to meet the replacement demand. The announcement, now expected in Wednesday's early morning hours, is to split some portion of a 300 to 400 aircraft order between rivals Boeing and...

(CBS/AP) FORT WORTH, Texas - American Airlines is buying at least 460 new planes over the next five years and splitting the order between aerospace giants Boeing and Airbus. American's parent, AMR Corp., said Wednesday it will buy 260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing. It will also take options and purchase rights for up to 465 additional planes through 2025.

FORT WORTH, Texas — American Airlines is buying at least 460 new planes over the next five years in what it calls the biggest airline order in history. And in a victory for Airbus, it's splitting the work between the European plane maker and Boeing. American said Wednesday it will buy 260 planes from Airbus and 200 from Boeing Co. It expects the new, better-mileage planes to provide much-needed savings on fuel costs. American's current fleet is among the least fuel-efficient in the industry.

ATLANTA (TheStreet) -- Three U.S. carriers are also the world's three biggest airlines -- United(UAL_), Delta(DAL_) and American(AMR_) -- but little indication exists that any of them have any particular desire to fly the world's biggest passenger airplane. Four years after the introduction of the Airbus A380, which can carry up to 600 passengers, 49 aircraft are flying for six international airlines, and orders have been placed by a total of 18 airlines. None are based in the U.S. Moreover, no U.S. carrier seems close to purchasing the A380, although Airbus spokesman Clay McConnell said that "eventually you will see...

Yesterday, to compensate for bending one of its prize exhibits at the Paris airshow (pictured [see below]) and having to stand down the A-400M display because of a "gearbox failure", Airbus has received an order worth $7.2 billion for 72 aircraft from Indian carrier GoAir, the latest in a series of Indian airlines scrambling to meet growing demand in Asia's third-largest economy. Today, however – according to the Financial Times (no link), China has rained on Airbus's parade, blocking a multi-billion dollar order for ten Airbus A-380s in what is termed "a sharp escalation of Beijing's protests against Europe's plan...

IAI, Airbus Military to develop airborne warning systems By YAAKOV KATZ 22/06/2011 Sources say the deal is expected to bring in several hundred million dollars in to Israel Aerospace Industries over the next five years. Israel Aerospace Industries and the Madrid-based Airbus Military signed a joint venture agreement on Tuesday for the development of small and versatile Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AEW&C). Sources said that the deal was expected to bring in several hundred million dollars in revenue to IAI over the next five years. IAI already offers customers AEW&Cs on Gulfstream G550 business jets that are in...

Airbus is trouncing Boeing in their race to be the world's biggest planemaker, claiming over $72 billion worth of orders and commitments at the Paris Air Show, where the popularity of its new fuel-efficient jets twice broke records for the largest order ever. Airbus CEO Tom Enders and AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes signed off Thursday on an $18.5 billion order for 200 of Airbus' new A320neo, which has proven to be the star of the aviation industry's premier event.

HE was one of Air France's "company babies": a dashing 32-year-old junior pilot - and a keen amateur yachtsman - who had been qualified to fly the airline's ultra-sophisticated Airbus A330 jet for barely a year. Yet despite his inexperience, Pierre-Cedric Bonin found himself responsible for the lives of 228 passengers and crew members on June 1, 2009, when the cockpit of his $190 million aircraft lit up with terrifying and contradictory alarm signals en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. While Bonin held on to the plane's “side-stick” controller and looked at his instruments in disbelief, his co-pilot,...

Cruising at 35,000 feet and nearly four hours into what seemed a routine overnight flight to Paris from Rio de Janeiro, an Air France cockpit crew got a stall warning and responded by doing what even weekend pilots know to avoid: They yanked the nose of the plane up instead of pointing it down to gain essential speed. Apparently confused by repeated stall warnings and reacting to wildly fluctuating airspeed indications, pilots of Flight 447 continued to pull back sharply on the controls—contrary to standard procedure—even as the Airbus A330 plummeted toward the Atlantic Ocean, according to information released Friday...

PARIS (Reuters) – Pilots wrestled with the controls of an Air France airliner for more than four minutes before it plunged into the Atlantic with its nose up, killing all 228 people on board, French investigators said Friday. The 2009 emergency began with a stall warning two and a half hours into the Rio-Paris flight and nine minutes after the captain had left the cockpit for a routine rest period. The Airbus A330 jet climbed to 38,000 feet and then began a dramatic three and a half minute descent, rolling from left to right, with the youngest of three pilots...

"Black box recordings from Air France Flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean two years ago, revealed new details about the plane’s final moments. But the report did not assign blame or give an explanation for the crash, which killed all 228 people aboard."

What happened on board the Air France jet that crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio to Paris? According to information obtained by SPIEGEL from the analysis of flight recorder data, pilot Marc Dubois appears not to have been in the cockpit at the time the deadly accident started to unfold. The fate of Air France Flight 447 was sealed in just four minutes. That short time span began with the first warning message on one of the Airbus A330 aircraft's monitors and ended with the plane crashing into the Atlantic between Brazil and Africa, killing all 228 people...

If you're afraid of flying, reading this post may or may not make it worse. On one hand it describes a story about the smell of a burning plane engine, the expressions of encumbered panic and the experience of coming to terms with death. On the other hand, everybody lives! Reuters photographer Beiwharta had just started to fall asleep on a flight with his family from Singapore to Jakarta when two loud bangs jolted him into a frightening reality. Based on Beiwharta's account of what came next, the activity on a crashing plane is just like you might imagine. The...

Russia to buy two presidential jets from European manufacturer Russia will purchase two Airbus jets for its leadership in a deal worth $235 million with a European aircraft manufacturer despite promises to help its own struggling aeronautical industry. The Russian government announced on Thursday it is buying two Airbus A319ACJs from EADS, headquartered in Toulouse, France, as well as building two Russian Ilyushin Il-96-300 airliners for President Dmitry Medvedev. The entire deal, including the building of four Mi-8 MTV-1 helicopters, will cost the Kremlin's property department 18.6 billion rubles ($652.6 million). Last year, Kremlin property manager Vladimir Kozhin said Russia...

BANGALORE: Boeing said it has a robust order book of 107 commercial planes in India. Out of this, 37 is for the 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The company did not specify the delivery timeline for the aircraft. However, the company will deliver the first of the 787 Dreamliner aircraft to Air India this year and the date of delivery will be formally announced at the Aero India show that begins in Bangalore on Wednesday. A miffed Air India had slapped a fine of $850 million for delay in the delivery. The company is betting big on India's defence market, estimated at...

A U.S. Air Force officer told Congress that both Boeing and EADS handled "correctly and professionally" a situation in which each received data from the Air Force about each company's bid to build a fleet of refueling tankers. Major Gen. Wendy Masiello also testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee that the Air Force unintentionally sent Boeing and EADS the rival bids on compact disks. The reason for the hearing was to determine whether EADS is in a better negotiating position after one of its employees briefly viewed a summary of the Air Force's assessment of rival Boeing's bid, according...

WTO finds Boeing got billions in illegal subsidies, but how many billions? Boeing received billions of dollars in illegal subsidies, a World Trade Organization panel determined in a ruling released to the parties Monday. But the two sides offered vastly different accounts of the ruling, which will remain confidential for several more weeks, until the WTO releases official translations. Airbus said the subsidies amount to at least $5 billion, plus $2 billion more pledged for the future, and cost Airbus at least $45 billion in lost sales -- much more than the impact of illegal subsidies a separate panel found...

The Airbus Military A330 MRTT has successfully passed fuel to receiver aircraft using the Fuselage Refuelling Unit (FRU) for the first time – meaning that all of the aircraft's refuelling systems have now been demonstrated. In a three hour 10 min sortie from Getafe near Madrid on 21st January, the Future Strategic Transport Aircraft (FSTA) variant for the UK Royal Air Force conducted a series of “wet contacts” with two F-18 fighters of the Spanish Air Force. Contacts were successfully performed with both fighters at an altitude of around 15,000ft and at speeds from 250kt to 325kt. The FRU is...

US military's tanker deal: a saga without end Sun, Jan 23, 2011 AFP WASHINGTON - The battle between aerospace giants Boeing and EADS to supply new aerial refueling tankers for the US Air Force could drag on even after the military finally makes a decision on the contract, experts say. For the past decade, the Pentagon has struggled to launch a new fleet of refueling aircraft to replace the old KC-135 workhorses that date back to the 1950s, but the effort has been marred by scandal and bitter feuds. Two previous attempts to move ahead with a new tanker were...

Boeing (NYSE: BA) announced today that it expects delivery of the first 787 Dreamliner in the third quarter of this year. The new delivery date reflects the impact of an in-flight incident during testing last November and includes the time required to produce, install and test updated software and new electrical power distribution panels in the flight test and production airplanes. "This revised timeline for first delivery accommodates the work we believe remains to be done to complete testing and certification of the 787," said Scott Fancher, vice president and general manager of the 787 program. "We've also restored some...

An Airbus Military aerial refueling tanker for the Royal Australian Air Force lost part of its refueling boom during a training flight Wednesday. The incident involved Airbus Military employees refueling a Portuguese Air Force F-16 fighter with a new A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport. "The incident resulted in the detachment and partial loss of the refuelling boom ... which fell into the sea," the Australian Defense said in a statement. "Both aircraft suffered some damage but returned safely to their home airfields." Airbus Military and European military airworthiness authorities will lead the investigation in to the incident, with the participation of...

Technology Transfer: During the visit of China's president, and as China's new stealth fighter takes to the sky, America's top jet engine manufacturer agrees to provide Beijing with state-of-the-art aircraft technology. The aircraft industry remains one of America's strongest manufacturing sectors, providing needed jobs and industrial sales. Already buffeted by the heavily subsidized European Airbus, it may also face stiffer competition one day from a Chinese behemoth buying what American technology it cannot steal. General Electric plans this week to sign a joint-venture agreement under which it will share its most sophisticated airplane electronics, including technology from Boeing's 787 Dreamliner,...

A late rush of orders helped European aircraft-maker Airbus to record higher sales than US rival Boeing in 2010. Airbus said it had received 644 new orders last year, worth $84bn at their full list price - with 200 of them placed in December. That was enough to push Boeing into second place with 625 plane orders. "Aviation is growing again because of Asia, low-cost carriers and emerging markets," said Airbus sales head John Leahy.

Concern surrounds Boeing's tanker bid by GLENN FARLEY / KING 5 News Aviation Specialist NWCN.com Posted on January 10, 2011 at 7:32 PM Updated yesterday at 7:32 PM Gallery.See all 3 photos » EVERETT - Monday marked another milestone for Boeing with the 1,000th 767 nearing completion. Employees signed a banner that mark the occasion, but on everyone's mind was that the future of the assembly line may hang on whether Boeing wins a contract to build at least 179 aerial refueling tankers for the U.S. Air Force. For inspector David Muellenbach, who's been on the 767 program for at...

Airbus says it has landed largest jet order in history Michelle Dunlop, Herald Writer Airbus said today that it has landed a $16 billion deal with India's IndiGo for 180 aircraft. The European jet maker says this is the largest single order for aircraft in commercial aviation history. The tentative order includes 30 of Airbus original A320 single-aisle jets and 150 of Airbus's new engine option A320s, due out in 2016. This is Airbus's first order for the A320 neo, which Airbus says will save carriers 15 percent on fuel costs. "The A320 Family is the recognised market leader. The...

WikiLeaks exposes US-French ‘war’ over jet sales Leaked embassy cables show that US diplomats aggressively pushed foreign governments to purchase Boeing airplanes, helping the US aviation giant in the bitter transatlantic battle with its European rival, Airbus. By Joseph BAMAT (text) In late 2007, the national airline of the Kingdom of Bahrain announced a huge deal to buy airplanes from European aviation giant Airbus. But only a few weeks later, Gulf Air’s decision was suddenly reversed and a new contract signing ceremony with US aerospace rival Boeing was scheduled to coincide with then US President George W. Bush’s trip to...

Even as Boeing continues to struggle with the 787-8 program, future planning calls for resurrecting plans for the 787-10 that have been on indefinite hold while working through technical issues and delays of the current model. Airbus has sold more A330s since the 787 program was announced than in the period leading up to the 787's launch. The A330-200 has been improved to now have an advertised 7,200nm range-nearly matching the low-end of the 787-8, according to Airbus estimates-and the A330-300 now has a 5,850nm range with more improvements planned to provide a few hundred miles more range. Nicole Piasecki,...

Airbus Works on Final Aerial Tanker Bid, Claiming Edge on Boeing December 17, 2010, 3:34 AM EST By Andrea Rothman Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Airbus Military said it’s working on a final bid in the $35 billion U.S. Air Force airborne tanker contest as it seeks to trump Boeing Co. in a delayed competition that has already spanned nine years. Airbus’s defense arm is bullish about winning the order because its A330 airliner-based model offers greater capability than Boeing’s 767, Domingo Urena Raso, the unit’s chief executive officer, said in an interview in Toulouse, France. “Our plane is bigger, it...

Brazil to seek deal for A330 tankers After issuing a request for proposals in September, the Brazilian air force's KC-X tanker/transport procurement has taken an unexpected turn. Despite having initially forecast the participation of at least three bidders, sources in Brasilia indicate that Airbus Military's A330 multi-role tanker/transport might be selected before the end of the year. Launched earlier in the decade to replace the air force's four Boeing KC-137 (707) tanker/transports, the use of which has been hampered by low availability rates over the last few years, the KC-X programme was fast-tracked early this year. © Airbus Military Problems...

Following an inadvertent peek at Defense Department data, Boeing executives believe the Air Force is likely to award the long-awaited tanker contract to Airbus parent company EADS, according to a leading defense analyst with close ties to Boeing. That view of the feeling inside Boeing is confirmed by two congressional sources familiar with the $40 billion tanker competition. Citing conversations with several unnamed senior Boeing officials, Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said the company's hopes faded when Air Force analyses of the two contending airplanes were accidentally leaked to both sides earlier this month. Those analyses confirmed Boeing's worst...

The first P-3 Orion aircraft modified by Airbus Military for the Brazilian Air Force was inspected today by Brazilian Minister of Defence, Nelson Jobim, during his official visit to Spain. The aircraft is the first of a fleet of nine which will undergo a complete systems modernization programme, including the installation of Airbus Military´s Fully Integrated Tactical System (FITS). As well as FITS, the aircraft will benefit from a powerful new suite of mission sensors, communications systems, and upgraded cockpit avionics. The engines are being updated and, depending on the condition of each individual aircraft, the structures are being renovated...

Air Force officials have said the KC-X source selection process will continue despite a mistake in November, where a limited amount of identical source selection information was provided to both KC-X offerors concerning their competitor's offering. Air Force officials are ensuring a level playing field with regards to the information actually accessed by one of the offerors. The information concerned was limited to a single page of non-proprietary data on a CD that did not include any offeror-proposed prices. "This clerical error does not affect our source selection schedule," said Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy from the Office...

Air Force officials have said the KC-X source selection process will continue despite a mistake in November, where a limited amount of identical source selection information was provided to both KC-X offerors concerning their competitor's offering. Air Force officials are ensuring a level playing field with regards to the information actually accessed by one of the offerors. The information concerned was limited to a single page of non-proprietary data on a CD that did not include any offeror-proposed prices. "This clerical error does not affect our source selection schedule," said Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy from the Office...

What!?!?! Just when we thought this was going to be wrapped up soon, the Air Force has mistakenly given Boeing and EADS information on the other team’s respective bids for KC-X. Read the following from Defense News: “Earlier this month, there was a clerical error that resulted in limited amounts of identical source selection information being provided to both KC-X offerors concerning their competitor’s offer,” Air Force spokesman Col. Les Kodlick said Nov. 20. “Both offerors immediately recognized the error and contacted the Air Force contracting officers.” Kodlick said the service is analyzing the information that was inadvertently disclosed and...

Airlines give strongest sign yet that Rolls-Royce knew of engine fault before 1 blew out

SYDNEY (Reuters) – The world's fleet of Airbus A380 aircraft will need to replace around 40 Rolls-Royce engines to ensure safety after one such engine broke apart in flight this month, Australia's Qantas said on Thursday. That would represent about half of all Rolls-Royce engines currently in service on A380 aircraft, the world's largest passenger plane with a list price of around $350 million each. "We've been talking to Airbus and Rolls-Royce and we understand that the number (of engines to be replaced) is around 40," Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce told reporters. "We've already replaced three and there could...