London City Airport is situated only ten kilometers from the City of London, which is one of Europe’s leading financial centers. Many banks, stock-broking firms and law firms have their headquarters here. “Many of our London passengers are business travelers with high demands for an efficient and convenient journey. We are dedicated to fulfilling these needs and are therefore launching this route to London City,” says Johnny Skoglund, Vice President at SAS Braathens.

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The Red Bull X-Alps selection committee has confirmed a final list of 30 athletes due to contend the 2007 event, which starts on the Krippenstein (Dachstein range) in Austria on July 23rd.

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AgustaWestland and the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) have today signed an agreement to modify six EH101 Merlin helicopters the MoD are buying from Denmark, to provide additional helicopter support for the UK armed forces. The agreement also includes the purchase of six new build EH101 Merlin helicopters that will be delivered by the MoD to the Royal Danish Air Force to replace the original aircraft. The six ex Royal Danish Air Force EH101 Merlin Joint Supporters, which will be known as EH101 Merlin HC Mk3As in RAF service, will be delivered to AgustaWestland’s Yeovil facility where they will be modified to MoD requirements. The aircraft were delivered to the Royal Danish Air Force in the last 12 months and will enter service with the Royal Air Force later this year after modification. The aircraft will be also equipped with BERP IV technology main rotor blades which will provide further improved performance. The Merlin Mk.3As will be the first helicopters to be equipped with these new technology blades, developed under a jointly funded AgustaWestland and UK MoD research and development rotor technology programme.

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This image of the Mississippi Delta was captured by TopSat, a micro-satellite built and operated by a QinetiQ-led consortium of British firms. The Mississippi Delta is a region of cotton, rice and sugar farming that has played an important role in the social and cultural heritage of the southern United States. According to popular US legend the Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg.

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29 March 2007 - AirTEXT is a free service aimed at those who have been diagnosed with asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, heart disease or angina as well as for those who live or work in London. The service has operated in the Borough of Croydon, the largest borough by population, since July 2005 and has received a positive response with 80 percent of users saying it has helped them manage their symptoms better and reduce their exposure to air pollution. Subscribers can choose whether they want airTEXT alerts delivered through SMS text messages, voicemail or e-mail and whether they want to receive the alerts the morning of days when air pollution is likely to be higher than normal or the evening before. Forecasts are generated for each London borough.

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Today ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain and Her Excellency Ms Sarah Dennis, New Zealand’s Ambassador to France, signed an arrangement on the installation of a transportable telemetry station to track the Ariane 5 launcher that will carry into orbit ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) for its maiden flight in autumn this year. Europe’s ATV will be one of the vital supply craft for the International Space Station, delivering equipment and spare parts as well as food, air and water for its permanent crew. Once docked to the ISS, the ATV will serve to re-boost the space station; then, as part of a controlled re-entry, it will burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, disposing of waste material no longer needed on the ISS.

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The inventory of research aircraft at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center has grown by one with the acquisition of a Predator B unmanned aircraft system adapted for civilian missions. Built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI) of San Diego, NASA took possession of the new aircraft last November, and it is due to arrive at the NASA center at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., this spring. The aircraft has been named “Ikhana” (ee-kah-nah), a Native American word from the Choctaw Nation meaning intelligent, conscious or aware.

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Hallbergmoos – The General Manager of NETMA (NATO Eurofighter and Tornado Management Agency) Peter Worrall and Eurofighter GmbH CEO Aloysius Rauen on Thursday 29 March signed a contract that extends the capabilities of Eurofighter Typhoon beyond those already delivered with Tranche 1 based on the Main Development Contract. This contract (officially called “First Batch of Enhancements for the Eurofighter”) clears the roadmap for integrating new functionalities based on the four air forces’ requirements between the four customer nations (Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom) and the Eurofighter consortium of Alenia Aeronautica, BAE Systems, EADS CASA, and EADS Germany. Also today EADS CASA delivered SS011 to the Spanish Air Force, the first Block 5 aircraft and representing the latest and last production standard of Tranche 1.

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EAA AVIATION CENTER, OSHKOSH, Wis. - (March 29, 2007) - The unmistakable din created by the roaring engines of former military aircraft is one of the many unique sensory experiences that bring aviation devotees back to EAA AirVenture Oshkosh every summer. Visitors to this year’s July 23-29 installment of the annual event, dubbed “The World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration,” are in for a special treat, as the EAA Warbirds of America will expand their activities in the air and on the ground.

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As negotiations for a single US Airways pilot contract continue to drag on after a year and a half, the US Airways and America West pilots demonstrated their frustration with US Airways management’s behavior by picketing on March 27 at Pittsburgh International Airport and March 29 at New York City’s La Guardia Airport. Nearly 120 pilots picketed inside the Pittsburgh Airport terminal and about 75 pilots demonstrated at La Guardia with signs that declared, “US Airways—Empty Promises for a Single Airline” and “US Airways Management’s Multi-Millionaires Are Pilot-Subsidized.”

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British Airways launched a new cargo link from Munich via Delhi to Hong Kong on Thursday (yesterday). The service will be operated with advanced widebody Boeing 747-400 jets. It will particularly benefit the growing market for cargo services from southern Germany to the Far East. In the past the majority of this freight was trucked to Frankfurt and flown from there. The new route will generate valuable time savings especially for customers in the Munich region and in Bavaria.

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ICAO invites to its second environmental Colloquium (the first held in April 2001) which will focus on aviation emissions. This Colloquium will provide a forum on aviation emissions, in particular on related key developments emanating from the 7th Meeting of ICAO’s Committee for Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) from 5 to 16 February 2007. This is a timely event to seek and share information on the work on emissions with a view to facilitate environment-related discussions and high-level decision-making at the 36th Session of the ICAO Assembly in September 2007. It will attract representatives of ICAO’s 189 Contracting States, aviation industries, international organizations and academic/ research institutions. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided in six languages (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish).

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29 March 2007 - Singapore Airlines is requesting customers to provide their mobile phone contact at the time of reservation, and asking travel agents to ensure that this information is sent through to the airline as part of the process of making reservations for clients. The information will support the introduction of an enhanced mobile flight information service that alerts the customers, ahead of time, if their flight is re-timed. Customers will receive a text message on their mobile phone from the Airline (only if there is a significant change in flight time). The SMS will indicate the new flight time, and will be sent between three and 48 hours prior to the original flight time.

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ST. LOUIS, March 28, 2007 — Boeing [NYSE: BA] will lead a team of suppliers in pursuit of a contract for production of the upper stage for the Ares I crew launch vehicle, NASA’s first new human-rated launch vehicle since the space shuttle. Ares I, which will transport the Orion crew exploration vehicle to low Earth orbit, is an essential element of the nation’s space exploration program that will return astronauts to the moon no later than 2020.

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Brussels, Belgium – In the five years since it was launched, the EUROCONTROL Airport Operations Programme has delivered a number of solutions that reinforce safety, capacity and efficiency while providing increased environmental benefits at Europe’s airports. The objectives of the airport programme, was to develop processes and procedures that would be implemented across ECAC leading to harmonisation and predictability.

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Brussels, Belgium – Addressing the Global ICAO Symposium on Air Navigation Performance, the Director General of EUROCONTROL, Víctor M. Aguado said that the European air traffic management system has benefited from a systematic continent-wide performance measurement and review system, and noted that such an experience could be usefully developed on a global level.

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The Red Bull X-Alps selection committee has confirmed a final list of 30 athletes due to contend the 2007 event, which starts on the Krippenstein (Dachstein range) in Austria on July 23rd. Most recently added to the list are Colombian Hugo Jimenez, Honza Rejmanek (United States) and Ulric Jessop of the United Kingdom. Turkey will announce its representative following a national qualification event taking place at the beginning of May.

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SWISS’s customers are helping to build an SOS Children’s Village near Phuket in Thailand, thanks to their generosity last year. The money was raised through the “Your small change can make a big change” campaign, under which SWISS collects donations aboard its flights for the benefit of disadvantaged children. SWISS passengers donated CHF 171 070 through the airline’s inflight change collections last year. These funds, together with those collected in 2007, will be devoted to a new SOS Children’s Village near Phuket, Thailand, where SWISS will be financing a house to provide ten children with a new home. Work on building the new Village has already begun.

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Malév Hungarian Airlines was today welcomed on board oneworld®, the world’s leading quality global airline alliance, at a series of special celebration events in its Budapest home base. Its addition, as one of the alliance’s first new recruits for six years, is a central part of oneworld’s biggest expansion since its launch eight years ago. It will be joined on board oneworld in the coming days by Japan Airlines, Asia-Pacific’s largest carrier, along with five JAL associates as affiliate members, and by Royal Jordanian, the first airline from the Middle East to find a home with any of the global alliances. Two more members of the LAN alliance will board at the same time as well - LAN Argentina and LAN Ecuador, also as affiliates. Malév and these other oneworld recruits will start offering oneworld services and benefits from this coming weekend, with all on board from 1 April. Dragonair will join them later this year.

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29 March 2007 - On Wednesday 28 March, at around 15:00, the second firing test of the solid rocket motor ‘Zefiro 9’ – the motor that will power the third stage of ESA’s future small launcher Vega - took place at the Salto Di Quirra Inter-force Test Range in Sardinia, Italy. The first results of the test indicate that the behaviour of the motor and the actuation of the nozzle were in accordance with predictions up until 35 seconds after ignition, when a sudden drop in the motor’s internal pressure was detected. The pressure stabilised at a value lower than the nominal, leading to a longer combustion time than the expected 105 seconds.

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The first centre wing box, the ’structural heart’ of the A400M military transport aircraft, has been delivered from the Airbus Nantes site in France to Seville in Spain, where it arrived yesterday, Wednesday 28th March. Deliveries of major structural sections for the first A400M military transport aircraft to the final assembly line in Seville, Spain, started at the end of 2006. An advanced composite structure, the centre wing box connects to the outer wing sections as well as being the component that connects the wings to the fuselage. In addition, the centre wing box is one of the fuel tanks of the A400M aircraft.

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Alexandria, VA – March 29, 2007 – Era Corporation today announced the shipment of its 1,000th surveillance sensor, marking an important milestone in the company’s history and signifying the growing worldwide demand for Era’s next-generation surveillance solutions. In the past year, Era has won the vast majority of competitive procurements worldwide for multilateration and ADS-B surveillance solutions including Beijing, New York, Copenhagen and Dublin. Era delivered the world’s first multilateration surface surveillance system at the Prague Airport in 1999. In 2002, Era recorded another groundbreaking deployment when they commissioned the world’s first wide area multilateration system at the Ostrava Airport.

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Arlington, Va. – Government agencies must redouble efforts to develop the nation’s technologically advanced future air transportation system or our nation will suffer serious operational – not to mention economic – impacts, AIA President and CEO John Douglass said in congressional testimony Thursday. Speaking to the House Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, Douglass said work on the Next Generation Air Transportation System, called NextGen, needs increased emphasis to meet national needs.

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SEATTLE, March 29, 2007 — The world’s longest-range commercial jetliner, the Boeing [NYSE: BA] 777-200LR Worldliner (Longer Range), marks its first year in revenue service this month. With several airlines scheduled to take delivery of new Worldliners this year, the newest 777 to enter service is set to change how passengers travel by offering airlines more flexibility to serve the nonstop routes that passengers demand. Pakistan International Airlines was the first customer to put the 777-200LR into service, taking delivery of the first two airplanes built. Other airlines taking delivery of new 777-200LRs this year include Air India, Emirates and Air Canada.

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SEATTLE, March 29, 2007 — Boeing [NYSE: BA] and LCAL today announced the leasing company placed an order for one additional 787-9 Dreamliner, expanding its fleet to 15 of the advanced-technology aircraft. The deal is worth $183 million at list prices. This order was allocated to an unidentified customer on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries website in 2006. LCAL established itself in 2005 as an aircraft leasing company providing lease services exclusively with the 787 Dreamliner. The company was the first leasing company to order 787s, making a commitment to purchase six 787-8s in May 2005, remaining unidentified until November of the same year. At the end of 2005, LCAL ordered an additional eight 787s worth another $1.2 billion at list prices. The second order was for the 787-9, establishing LCAL as the first leasing customer for this variant.

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