The concern of some watchers is just what the end game is for China’s more than 15-year drive to modernize its defense industrial base. Part of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) goal is to keep generating revenue with the type of foreign arms sales that made so much money for it in the 1980s.
Politics
November 28, 2006 - 12:05pm
Under a freshly signed contract, Embraer will provide the Indian government with a complete support package for its five Legacy 600 business jets. The 10-year agreement covers a spare part exchange program, a repair program and a number of technical assistance services. The latter include technical publication updates, recurrent training, a rental program for ground support equipment, field support and back-office engineering.
November 28, 2006 - 6:21am
Jet Aviation (Booth No. 780) announced it has received French government approval to operate the Cessna Citation Bravo into Saint Tropez- La Môle International Airport. According to the company, it is the first air-charter operator to receive this authorization. La Môle, only nine miles from Saint Tropez, is the closest airport to the popular Mediterranean resort destination.
November 27, 2006 - 12:18pm
AgustaWestland is not relocating all its military helicopter manufacturing to the UK, as had been assumed by some in the wake of last month’s dual announcements of a UK Ministry of Defence order for 70 Future Lynx helicopters and the news that the firm’s AW149 model will be built at its facility at Yeovil in southwest England.
November 27, 2006 - 11:35am
Western aerospace executives may be wary about attending the Iran airshow, but will be missing out on a great future business opportunity if they don’t go, according to the event’s organizers. The show is scheduled from November 28 to December 1 at the Kish Island Free Trade Zone–located close to Dubai and one of the main trading links between Iran and its neighbors in the Gulf.
November 27, 2006 - 4:48am
Vector Flying Training Services, a joint company founded by Bombardier, KBR and URS to compete for a UK military training contract, has named Sir Malcolm Pledger as its new chairman. Pledger has nearly 40 years experience with the Royal Air Force, starting as a university cadet and ascending to commander in chief of the RAF Logistics Command.
November 21, 2006 - 11:50am
Over the last several months, the FAA has redesigned its Web site so that it’s easier to use, better organized, carries more information and introduces several new features.
November 21, 2006 - 6:12am
ExecuJet Europe next month is opening what it describes as the first dedicated executive aircraft FBO at Berlin Schoenefeld Airport. The new operation will expand the existing Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services maintenance facility, in which ExecuJet is a 20-percent shareholder. The round-the-clock FBO will phase in services over the next six months.
November 21, 2006 - 5:48am
Former Flight Options pilot Franklin Rodriguez, 36, pleaded guilty last week in federal court to charges that while in the Air National Guard he and loadmaster John Fong, 37, smuggled into the U.S. some 300,000 Ecstasy pills–worth an estimated $11.6 million on the street–after conducting a military C-5 Galaxy mission from Germany to Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y.
November 17, 2006 - 6:36am
The verbal sparring over ATC funding and user fees reached the front page of The Wall Street Journal today in a long article, “Why Big Airlines Are Starting a Fight with Business Jets,” that impartially lays out the opposing positions of business aviation and the airlines. Front-page, left-column placement of the story shows the importance the newspaper’s editors place on the issue.
