British F-35s have secretly been flying missions into Syria and Iraq | Combat Aircraft

martes, 25 de junio de 2019

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Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to Acquire Canadair Regional Jet Program from Bombardier Inc.



June 25, 2019 Montréal Bombardier Inc., Press Release

  • MHI now positioned to transform and lead the underserved regional jet business, with bolstered customer support services
  • Key step in MHI’s strategy of expanding its aircraft business globally, with a mid-term focus on North America
  • Completes Bombardier’s aerospace transformation and refocus on business aviation

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd (MHI) (TOKYO:7011) and Bombardier Inc (TSX: BBD.B) announced today they have entered into a definitive agreement, whereby MHI will acquire Bombardier’s regional jet program for a cash consideration of $550 million USD, payable to Bombardier upon closing, and the assumption by MHI of liabilities amounting to approximately $200 million USD. Under the agreement, Bombardier’s net beneficial interest in the Regional Aircraft Securitization Program (RASPRO), which is valued at approximately $180 million USD, will be transferred to MHI.

Pursuant to the agreement, MHI will acquire the maintenance, support, refurbishment, marketing, and sales activities for the CRJ Series aircraft, including the related services and support network located in Montréal, Québec, and Toronto, Ontario, and its service centres located in Bridgeport, West Virginia, and Tucson, Arizona, as well as the type certificates.

This acquisition is complementary to MHI’s existing commercial aircraft business, in particular the development, production, sales and support of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet commercial aircraft family. The maintenance and engineering capabilities of the CRJ program will further enhance critical customer support functions, a strategic business area for MHI in the pursuit of future growth.

Seiji Izumisawa, President & CEO of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., commented: “As we outlined during the recent Paris Air Show, we are working hard to ensure that we provide new profit potential for airlines and set a new standard for passenger experience. This transaction represents one of the most important steps in our strategic journey to build a strong, global aviation capability. It augments these efforts by securing a world-class and complementary set of aviation-related functions including maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), engineering and customer support.”

Izumisawa concluded, “The CRJ program has been supported by tremendously talented individuals. In combination with our existing infrastructure and resources in Japan, Canada and elsewhere, we are confident that this represents one effective strategy that will contribute to the future success of the Mitsubishi SpaceJet family. MHI has a decades-long history in Canada, and I hope this transaction will result in the expansion of our presence in the country, and will represent a significant step in our growth strategy.”

“We are very pleased to announce this agreement, which represents the completion of Bombardier’s aerospace transformation,” said Alain Bellemare, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc. “We are confident that MHI’s acquisition of the program is the best solution for airline customers, employees and shareholders. We are committed to ensuring a smooth and orderly transition.”

Bellemare continued: “With our aerospace transformation now behind us, we have a clear path forward and a powerful vision for the future. Our focus is on two strong growth pillars: Bombardier Transportation, our global rail business, and Bombardier Aviation, a world-class business jet franchise with market-defining products and an unmatched customer experience.”

The CRJ production facility in Mirabel, Québec will remain with Bombardier. Bombardier will continue to supply components and spare parts and will assemble the current CRJ backlog on behalf of MHI. CRJ production is expected to conclude in the second half of 2020, following the delivery of the current backlog of aircraft.

Bombardier will also retain certain liabilities representing a portion of the credit and residual value guarantees totaling approximately $400 million USD. This amount is fixed and not subject to future changes in aircraft value, and payable by Bombardier over the next four years.

The transaction is currently expected to close during the first half of 2020 and remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

The agreement contemplates a reverse break fee payable by MHI under certain circumstances.

About MHI

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), headquartered in Tokyo, is one of the world’s leading industrial firms with 80,000 group employees and annual consolidated revenues of around US$38 billion. For more than 130 years, the company has channeled big thinking into innovative and integrated solutions that move the world forward. MHI owns a unique business portfolio covering land, sea, sky and even space. MHI delivers innovative and integrated solutions across a wide range of industries from commercial aviation and transportation to power plants and gas turbines, and from machinery and infrastructure to integrated defense and space systems.

For more information, please visit MHI’s website: www.mhi.com/index.html

About Bombardier

With over 68,000 employees, Bombardier is a global leader in the transportation industry, creating innovative and game-changing planes and trains. Our products and services provide world-class transportation experiences that set new standards in passenger comfort, energy efficiency, reliability and safety.

Headquartered in Montreal, Canada, Bombardier has production and engineering sites in 28 countries as well as a broad portfolio of products and services for the business aviation, commercial aviation and rail transportation markets. Bombardier shares are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (BBD). In the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, Bombardier posted revenues of $16.2 billion US. The company is recognized on the 2019 Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World Index. News and information are available at bombardier.com or follow us on Twitter @Bombardier.

Bombardier and CRJ are trademarks of Bombardier Inc. or its subsidiaries.

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Italian Govt Confirms Nearly $800M in Piaggio Contracts [feedly]

Italian Govt Confirms Nearly $800M in Piaggio Contracts
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-06-24/italian-govt-confirms-nearly-800m-piaggio-contracts

 -- via my feedly newsfeed

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Madrid: 8th European Conference for Aeronautics and Space Sciences

from EUCASS web page:


EUCASS is the largest aerospace conference in Europe, second only to SCITECH in the USA.

This is the eighth EUCASS conference after Moscow (2005), Brussels (2007), Versailles (2009), Saint Petersburg (2011), Munich (2013), Krakow (2015) and Milano (2017).

The conference is organized by the EUCASS association, founded by a group of European scientists and engineers in order to provide, on the European continent, a high quality forum for the world aerospace scientific community. It is operated by the best specialists in EU, Russia and NIS. It attracts all players, research scientists, engineers, managers and decision makers, world over. It positions itself at the service of agencies and industry and strives to reduce the time to market of discoveries in academic laboratories. Its goal is to foster the competitiveness of its end users, industry and agencies alike.
  • Review the state of the art in Aeronautics and Space Sciences, focusing on promising innovations.
  • Bring recent scientific breakthroughs to the attention of industry.
  • Develop synergies between Aeronautics and Space, academia and industry.
  • Give agencies and industry the opportunity to present their programs.
  • Open the conference agenda to new end-use topics in addition to the traditional enabling sciences.
  • Invite participants to take advantage of the comprehensive coverage offered by the program for the conception of future multidisciplinary projects.
  • Offer PhD students to mix with senior researcher and engineers through very affordable registration fees.
All presented papers will receive a DOI and be downloadable free of charge in Open Access from the EUCASS website. The conference focusses on advances in aeronautics and space sciences. It will feature seven parallel symposia:


continue reading: http://www.eucass2019.eu/

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Suspected WWII bomb blast causes crater in German field

https://www.thelocal.de/20190624/suspected-wwii-bomb-explosion-causes-crater-in-german-field

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TECNAM COMPLETES DELIVERY OF 12 TRAINER AIRCRAFT TO THE HELLENIC AIR FORCE



press release




Tecnam announced the completion of delivery of twelve new Tecnam P2002JF aircraft to the Hellenic Air Force (HAF).

An impressive ceremony took place on Wednesday, June 12, 2019 at the Dekelia Air Base in Tatoi (Athens), in the presence of the Minister of National Defence, Evangelos Apostolakis, and Italian Ambassador Efisio Luigi Marras.

The ceremony was also attended by the Chief of General Staff of Hellenic Civil Engineering, Mayor Christos Christodoulou, Chief of General Staff, Vice Admiral Nikolaos Tsounis PN, the Chief of General Staff, Lieutenant George Blioumis and Walter Da Costa, Tecnam Global Sales and Marketing Director.

The event celebrated the last batch of delivery of twelve Tecnam P2002JF low-wing trainers delivered to the HAF as a result of a thorough and intensive evaluation process.

The arrival of the new training aircraft is part of the implementation of the flight education upgrade program that takes place at the Ikarian School for the initial selection and introduction to flying, as well as for the broader planning of the Armed Forces for the whole of air training. The Tecnam P2002JF replaced the old trainer T-41D, which was used for about fifty years, since 1969.

As part of the ceremony, the last three delivered P-2002JF training aircraft that arrived the previous day, flying from TECNAM headquarters in Capua, were presented by the Minister of National Defence and the Chief of Staff, respectively.

In addition to the twelve P2002 JF aircraft, Tecnam has provided a SOFTEK simulator and a computer-based integrated training system with ancillary support services.

The Tecnam P2002JF is a two-seat, single-engine, low-wing aircraft. Powered by the popular ROTAX 912, and with the latest avionics from GARMIN, it is firmly established as one of world’s most popular single-engine aeroplanes and the aircraft of choice for a large number of Flight Training Organisations and Air Forces.

In 2016 Tecnam delivered eight P2002JF aircraft to the Argentina Air Force. This fleet has amassed a total of over 7,000 hours and performed 16,000 landings to date.

Evangelos Apostolakis, Minister of National Defence of Greece, said: “Today, we are pleased to see the fruits of a major effort, the implementation of a program to upgrade the flying training that takes place at the Hellenic Air Force. The inclusion of the twelve new aircraft with associated ground support and education equipment is a practical and essential step, part of the broader planning of the Armed Forces for all air training. It is now possible for our future pilots to fly with modern fighters, to ‘spread their wings’, and to train more safely and efficiently. To make a successful jump to the next level of education and have a better transition to modern fleet aircraft.
This is, of course, the culmination of excellent preparation, coordination and cooperation between the Air Force and Tecnam. I would therefore like to express my sincere congratulations on their significant contribution to the overall effort to implement this program.”

Walter De Costa, Tecnam Global Sales & Marketing Director, said: “On behalf of Tecnam and the Pascale family, we are very proud to be part of the future of HAF, honoured to be contributing to the excellent standard of education and training that HAF is providing. Today we have completed the delivery of twelve P2002JF’s exactly on schedule and we very much look forward to supporting our friends in Greece for many years to come.”

More info on the Tecnam P2002JF:
https://www.tecnam.com/aircraft/p2002-jf/

About the Hellenic Air Force
The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) of Greece was formed in 1911. Its mission is to guard and protect Greek airspace, provide air assistance and support to the Hellenic Army and the Hellenic Navy, as well as the provision of humanitarian aid in Greece and around the world. The Hellenic Air Force includes approximately 33,000 active troops, of whom 11,750 are career officers, 14,000 are professional conscripts (ΕΠ.ΟΠ.), 7,250 are volunteer conscripts and 1,100 are women. The motto of the Hellenic Air Force is the ancient Greek phrase Αἰὲν Ὑψικρατεῖν (Aièn Hypsikrateîn, “Always Dominate the Heights”), and the HAF ensign represents a flying eagle in front of the Hellenic Air Force roundel.
https://www.haf.gr/en/

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Embraer Launches Predictive Maintenance System IKON with Big Data and Analytics Based on Amazon Web Services Cloud



Press Release




Embraer announced at the 53rd International Paris Air Show the launch of IKON, a cloud system for capturing, storing and analyzing high volume data for the predictive maintenance of the E-Jets family. The new system is totally based on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform and was developed by Embraer, with the support of the suppliers AWS ProServe and Claranet, using Big Data and Analytics technologies to deliver 96% productivity gains in the aircraft analysis and data processing, setting new standards in aeronautical services and support.



Offering a high degree of scalability, elasticity, durability and analysis, the system delivers efficient management of processing and storage capacity, making possible for Embraer to optimize the data ingestion time of the E-Jets E2. Using AWS’s set of analytics services, this new technology identifies data patterns, and is even able to pinpoint and solve potential aircraft issues before they occur. This ability to perform predictive maintenance will help deliver new feature enhancements to the E2 and accelerate the delivery of improvements to previous models.



“Embraer constantly invests in new technologies. We see IKON as a totally agnostic tool that opens new horizons to deal with data and an evolution that recognizes possibilities for improvements, making us able to function as an aircraft health monitoring provider. Predictive maintenance translates into increased efficiency with reduced costs, higher aircraft competitiveness and availability,” says Johann Bordais, President and CEO of Embraer Services & Support.



In addition to this, the system is a step forward in the process of aeronautical industry digitalization. Today, Embraer's second-generation of commercial aircraft produces about 100GB of directly accessible information per year. Thanks to an expedited routing and analysis system, this high volume of data is able to be transmitted for prompt action. With IKON, the automatic data collection went from 12 days to an immediate process, guaranteeing data is ready to be analyzed 5 minutes after its generation in the aircraft.



The high volume of data and the demand for faster and more accurate decisions require technologies to capture, store and connect information across a network. At the time the plane lands, this data is automatically transferred to IKON via a module installed on the aircraft, called Wireless Server Unit (WSU). To ensure that the information is received with assertiveness and agility, Embraer Ground Server (EGS) uses AWS to automatically connect to the aircraft and handle flight data downloads. After landing, the transmission to the platform is completed in about five minutes. Next, it is transferred to the IKON data lake, allowing engineers to analyze this information efficiently. “IKON and EGS put into practice Big Data and Analytics concepts, which gives Embraer a huge advantage in offering unique services towards customers' needs”, explains Andre Doro, Chief Information Officer at Embraer. AWS is the provider of the entire cloud infrastructure, which offers security, agility, high processing power, analytical tools and cost management – a pay-per-use service, meaning that users only pay for what they use. The AWS ProServe team, the company's professional services division, joined forces with Claranet on the design and implementation of the IKON project and worked to ensure the quality and best practices of data analysis, providing state-of-the-art architecture in terms of efficiency, data quality and scalability. “IKON is a really innovative project, combining the power of the cloud with advanced big data and analytics services, which makes complex data simple and easy to analyze in a short time,” says Cleber Morais, country manager of AWS Brazil. “This project matches one of the most modern pillars of corporate applications: making processes based on data insights a crucial part of business planning, execution and evolution.” IKON is now available in the customized support packages for each customer offered by Embraer Services & Support. These programs are part of a range of products developed to serve Embraer jets fleet around the world through TechCare, the portfolio of products and solutions to deliver the best service and support experience.

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Italian Air Force Solidifies KC-767A Tanker Mission Readiness with Boeing PBL Agreement



press release




Boeing [NYSE: BA] will continue providing Performance-based Logistics (PBL) support to the Italian air force (ItAF) fleet of KC-767A tankers through July 2021 per an extended contract agreement for two additional years announced at the Paris Air Show.

Through the partnership with Boeing, the ItAF can rely on outstanding aircraft availability, which has been instrumental to the success of missions. The ItAF aims at having continued mission readiness and success through the extended PBL agreement.

The KC-767A has been the first international tanker to be certified for aerial refueling of fifth generation aircraft. The ItAF utilized a Boeing built and maintained KC-767A tanker on June 13 and 14, 2019 to successfully ferry by refueling an Italian built F-35B fighter en route from Italy to Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in Beaufort, South Carolina.

“Providing unparalleled services to our defense customers around the globe is paramount,” said Torbjorn ‘Turbo’ Sjogren, vice president of International Government & Defence for Boeing. “We look forward to further supporting our ItAF partners and enabling their mission readiness for the next two years.”

ItAF KC-767A aircraft are equipped with two wing aerial refueling pods, a centerline hose drum unit, a refueling boom and universal aerial slipway installations for boom refueling. The ItAF optimizes the KC-767A fleet by utilizing the tanker’s multirole capability through all-passenger, all-cargo and combi configurations.

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Lockheed Martin and Airbus reaffirm tanker partnership at 2019 Paris Air Show



press release

With an agreement in place to explore U.S. military tanking opportunities, Airbus and Lockheed Martin senior executive leaders met for some "tanker talk" during the 2019 Paris Air Show. The Airbus A330 Multi Role Tanker Transport (A330 MRTT) provided the perfect backdrop for the meeting with (l to r) Alberto Gutierrez, Head of Military Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space; Michele Evans, Executive Vice President of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space.



“Since signing our Memorandum of Agreement with Airbus last December, our teams have been working to expand our business relationship with a focus on providing the U.S. Air Force with the very best capability in aerial refueling,” said Michele Evans, Executive Vice President for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. “We believe with Airbus’ and Lockheed Martin’s expertise in air refueling and innovative, combat-tested technologies such as low observability and networking operations, we make a powerful team to address the U.S. Air Force’s tanker needs today and into the future.”



Dirk Hoke, CEO of Airbus Defence and Space, said: “The relationship with Lockheed Martin through this exciting project is growing day by day, and we’re looking forward to presenting our offer to the U.S. military in the near future. Our A330MRTT has been refueling U.S. military aircraft on combat missions since 2014, and together with Lockheed Martin’s proven record serving the U.S. Air Force we truly believe we can offer unbeatable capabilities.”



“We have said it before and I can only repeat it – the A330MRTT is the most successful and most capable tanker platform in the world. It has proven its versatility and capability time and again. It is a tremendous asset for any military, including the U.S.,” said Alberto Gutiérrez, Head of Military Aircraft at Airbus.



This and other press releases and high resolution photos are available on: AirbusMedia

Visit our Paris Air Show page to stay updated on Airbus presence at Le Bourget.

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