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Defence & Aerospace

Parliamentary defence committee concerned about the state of the SANDF

By: Rebecca Campbell Updated 11 minutes ago The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans has expressed concern that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is rapidly losing its capabilities. This situation was the result of repeated budget cuts. These cuts had also hurt the SANDF’s acquisition... →

SANDF warns Parliament of the serious consequences of underfunding

By: Rebecca Campbell Updated 13 minutes ago In a briefing to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, the Department of Defence (DoD) has warned that the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is in dire need of rejuvenation. The briefing was delivered on May 27. The DoD started its briefing by quoting the... →

Photo by Creamer Media
A Ratel 90 fire support vehicle of the South African Army

Boeing announces low-rate restart of 737 MAX airliner production

By: Rebecca Campbell Updated 5 hours ago US aerospace giant Boeing announced on May 27, at Renton in the US state of Washington, that it was restarting production of its troubled 737 MAX single-aisle airliner. This restart would initially be at a low rate, with only one of the three production lines at the Renton facility being used.... →

Denel divisions finalise ventilator projects

By: Donna Slater 27th May 2020 Two divisions within State-owned defence company Denel have reached critical stages in the design and manufacture of medical ventilators needed to assist critically ill patients diagnosed with Covid-19. The projects both fall under Project Sabela, which is being coordinated by Denel, in... →

First attempt at space launch by Virgin Orbit fails

By: Rebecca Campbell 26th May 2020 Commercial small satellite launch company Virgin Orbit has reported that its first demonstration launch, on May 25, had had to be aborted because of an “anomaly” that occurred shortly after the rocket’s first stage had ignited. Virgin Orbit uses an air-launched rocket system in which the launch... →

Photo by Virgin Orbit
LauncherOne (bottom of picture) successfully ignites its first stage after being dropped by Boeing 747 “Cosmic Girl” (climbing away at the top of the picture)

Leading aerospace journal suggests that the A380 Superjumbo is doomed

By: Rebecca Campbell 25th May 2020 Renowned British aviation weekly Flight International has opined, in its latest edition, that the Airbus A380 Superjumbo airliner is already “heading for the scrapyard”, even though it entered service only a little more than ten years ago. This was despite its popularity with passengers, for whom... →

Photo by British Airways
An Airbus A380 of British Airways over Table Bay, with part of Cape Town in the background

Rolls-Royce highlights pandemic’s negative impact on civil aerospace

By: Rebecca Campbell 22nd May 2020 UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has warned that the scale of the disruption to the civil aerospace sector caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (and the measures taken by many countries to counter it) would result in a smaller market in that sector, which would take several years to... →

Young African scientists awarded UK funding for postdoctoral research

By: Rebecca Campbell 22nd May 2020 South Africans are among the 29 early-career African scientists who have been selected to receive research funding under the Future Leaders – African Independent Research (Flair) programme for 2020. Other recipients come from Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Sudan, Uganda... →

Union blasts Denel for last-minute unilateral three-month salary cut

By: Rebecca Campbell 21st May 2020 Trade union UASA announced on May 21 that it was “rejecting” the letter sent out by South Africa’s State-owned defence industrial group Denel’s CEO Danie du Toit in which he announced that the company would not be paying its employees for the next three months (May, June and July). The union... →

Covid-19-induced civil aviation crisis forces Rolls-Royce to restructure, cut jobs

By: Rebecca Campbell 21st May 2020 UK-based global major industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has announced a major restructuring of its civil aerospace business, which will involve the loss of thousands of jobs. This restructuring will also affect the group’s central support functions. At least 9 000 jobs would be cut from... →

Denel unable to pay salaries this month, union reports

By: Rebecca Campbell 20th May 2020 The Solidarity trade union has reported that, at a meeting with Denel management on May 18, the State-owned defence industrial group had confirmed that it could not pay its staff their salaries at the end of this month. Export orders worth R101-million could not be delivered because the necessary... →

Denel says can't pay staff salaries in May

By: Reuters 19th May 2020 Defence firm Denel said on Tuesday that it could not pay salaries for May and that June and July salaries were in serious jeopardy. Denel, which makes military hardware for the South African armed forces and clients around the world, added in a statement to reporters that it was talking to the... →

US donates 730 000 masks for South Africa's health department

By: Donna Slater 15th May 2020 The US government, through the US Department of Defense’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s Biological Threat Reduction Programme (BTRP), has procured and started distributing 729 000 protective masks to South Africa’s Department of Health (DoH) to help curb the spread of Covid-19. The masks,... →

Boeing launches initiative to give people the confidence to resume flying

By: Rebecca Campbell 15th May 2020 Global major US aerospace group Boeing has launched a Confident Travel Initiative to help restore commercial air travel following the Covid-19 pandemic. Severe flight restrictions and national lockdowns by many countries have devastated commercial air passenger travel around the world. Boeing... →

International bioeconomy development group to expand its South African initiative

By: Rebecca Campbell 15th May 2020 The international bioeconomy development and promotion organisation, RSB, hopes to launch a Bioeconomy Initiative Platform in South Africa later this year. This platform has been shaped with inputs from business, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and government. It will function as an... →

Three companies to develop new lunar landing craft for Nasa astronauts

By: Rebecca Campbell 15th May 2020 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), America’s space agency, announced at the end of April the three companies that it has chosen to design and develop human landing systems (HLS) for its Artemis progammme. Artemis is the successor to the renowned Apollo programme, which... →

Boeing-led Australian consortium unveils major unmanned aircraft prototype

By: Rebecca Campbell 15th May 2020 US aerospace and defence giant Boeing on May 5 unveiled the outcome of its biggest-ever investment in unmanned aircraft outside the US, the prototype Loyal Wingman unmanned air vehicle (UAV), in Sydney, Australia. The Loyal Wingman has been developed by a Boeing-led consortium of Australian... →

Comair announces it has entered business rescue

By: Rebecca Campbell 15th May 2020 South African private-sector airline group Comair announced on May 5 that it was going into business rescue. This was to protect the company’s interests and those of its stakeholders. Comair operated the British Airways in South Africa brand and the Kulula low cost carrier brand. This was a... →

Rolls-Royce release virtual reality training system for business jet engines

By: Rebecca Campbell 14th May 2020 UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has expanded its immersive virtual reality (VR) training system to include its BR725 aeroengine. The BR725 has been developed to power large business jets and is, for example, the powerplant for the Gulfstream G650 executive jet (the current... →

Photo by Rolls-Royce
An image of the BR725 engine on an aircraft, taken from the VR training programme

South Africa amends arms export document after inspection row

By: Reuters 13th May 2020 South Africa has made a subtle change to arms export rules that could unlock more than a billion dollars of weapons sales to countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. A notice published in the government gazette on May 11 alters the circumstances under which South African... →

Trade union blasts Denel over failure to make required payments

By: Rebecca Campbell 8th May 2020 The UASA trade union has accused the State-owned Denel defence industrial group of being in breach of contract with its workers. The union stated that it was “incensed” at reports the group had last month not made third party payments (on behalf of its employees) to the Unemployment Insurance... →

Paramount Group donates face masks to SANDF

By: Donna Slater 8th May 2020 Aerospace and defence company Paramount Group has donated 1 000 facial masks to the South Africa National Defence Force (SANDF) as part of its continued effort to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) to those working on the front lines of the international fight against the Covid-19... →

Rolls-Royce highlights Covid-19 impact on its civil aerospace business

By: Rebecca Campbell 8th May 2020 UK-based industrial technology group Rolls-Royce has warned that the scale of the disruption to the civil aerospace sector caused by the Covid-19 pandemic (and the measures taken by many countries to counter it) would result in a smaller market in that sector, which would take several years to... →

Plight of African airline industry even worse than previously believed

By: Rebecca Campbell 8th May 2020 The International Air Transport Association (Iata), the representative body for the global airline industry, warned on April 23 that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the African airline industry was going to be significantly more severe than previously expected. The association called on... →

Global aviation sector wants measures to help restart air travel and protect jobs

By: Rebecca Campbell 8th May 2020 The International Air Transport Association (Iata), which is the representative body for the global airline industry, has urged governments to cooperate with the sector to implement confidence-building measures to deal with the expected slow recovery in air passenger demand. National travel... →

Parliament wants reports on aircraft accidents while supporting SANDF deployments

By: Rebecca Campbell 8th May 2020 Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Defence has called for a written report on two incidents regarding Lockheed Martin C-130BZ Hercules transport aircraft of the South African Air Force (SAAF), which occurred this year. Both incidents damaged the aircraft involved, to different degrees. The... →

G4S orders 25 000 cloth masks through Proudly SA portal

By: Tasneem Bulbulia 7th May 2020 Security provider G4S this week placed its first order of 25 000 locally produced cloth masks through the newly established Proudly SA cloth mask marketplace portal. This was done in support of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to reserve all medical-grade personal protective equipment (PPE) for... →

Armscor to break even in 2020, Castle of Good Hope requests relief

By: Marleny Arnoldi 6th May 2020 The Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor) and the Castle Control Board (CCB) on May 6 briefed the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans on its strategic plans and budgets for the 2020/21 financial year. The parties outlined their expenditure and performance plans for... →

Castle of Good Hope, in the Western Cape

Alternative rocket propulsion system experimentally demonstrated for first time

By: Rebecca Campbell 5th May 2020 A research team at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in the US has experimentally demonstrated a rocket propulsion system that was previously thought to be impractical. The system is known as the rotating detonation rocket engine. This technology is suitable for upper-stage rockets... →

Nasa orders new rockets for its new crewed Moon programme

By: Rebecca Campbell 5th May 2020 America’s space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), has placed a $1.79-billion contract with US rocket manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne for an additional batch of RS-25 rocket engines. The new order is for 18 more of the engines, and adjusts a previous contract... →

Boeing unveils major UAV project in Australia

By: Rebecca Campbell 5th May 2020 US aerospace and defence giant Boeing on May 5 unveiled the outcome of its biggest-ever investment in unmanned aircraft outside the US, the prototype Loyal Wingman unmanned air vehicle (UAV), in Sydney, Australia. The Loyal Wingman has been developed by a Boeing-led consortium of Australian... →

Zimbabwe border fence completed

By: Donna Slater 4th May 2020 The 40 km borderline fence between South Africa and Zimbabwe at the Beitbridge border crossing was completed on April 20, after undergoing 29 days of repairs and the replacement of some sections. At a value of over R37-million, the project involved the repair and replacement of an existing... →

Airbus announces modification to allow airlines to take cargo on their passenger decks

By: Rebecca Campbell 4th May 2020 Europe-based global major aerospace group Airbus has announced that it has developed a modification that allows its A330-family and A350-family widebody airliners to safely carry cargo pallets on their passenger decks, in place of seats. The pallets can be secured to the cabin floor seat tracks,... →

Photo by Airbus
Cargo pallets locked on to cabin floor seat tracks on an Airbus airliner

Nasa announces the three companies to develop new lunar landing craft for astronauts

By: Rebecca Campbell 4th May 2020 The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), America’s space agency, announced at the end of April the three companies that it has chosen to design and develop human landing systems (HLS) for its Artemis progammme. Artemis is the successor to the renowned Apollo programme, which... →

Photo by Nasa
An artist’s impression of the Blue Origin Integrated Lander Vehicle on the Moon

Boeing reports significant impacts on business from Covid-19

By: Rebecca Campbell 30th April 2020 US aerospace and defence giant Boeing has reported that its revenues for the first quarter this year (1Q20) were 26% lower than in the same period last year (1Q19). The 1Q20 revenues were just under $16.91-billion as against the 1Q19 figure of just under $22.92-billion. Using Generally Accepted... →

Photo by Creamer Media
A Boeing 777 in the colours of Angolan airline TAAG

Companies which will develop Nasa’s new crewed lunar lander to be announced soon

By: Rebecca Campbell 30th April 2020 The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has stated that it will announce the companies it has chosen to develop the ‘human landing system’ (HLS) for its crewed Artemis programme on April 30. The HLS will be used to safely put astronauts on the surface of the Moon, including... →

Photo by Nasa
An artist’s impression of the fully assembled Gateway space station orbiting the Moon, with (top) an Orion spacecraft docked with it

Airbus reports first quarter results hit by Covid-19 pandemic

By: Rebecca Campbell 29th April 2020 Europe-based global giant aerospace group Airbus has reported a consolidated net loss of €481-million for the first quarter of this year (1Q20), in sharp contrast to its net income of €40-million during the same period last year (1Q19). The consolidated reported loss per share was €0.61 in 1Q20,... →

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African Aerospace Conference of the Aeronautical Society of South Africa delivers engaging programme

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