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Defence & Aerospace

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,... →

Denel reports staff previously trapped in Spain are safely home

By: Rebecca Campbell 28th April 2020 South African State-owned aerospace and defence group Denel has thanked the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) for its assistance in the repatriation of four Denel Aeronautics personnel, who had been caught in Spain by the Covid-19 pandemic. The workers safely returned... →

Boeing ends JV agreement with Embraer, sparking acrimony

By: Rebecca Campbell 28th April 2020 US aerospace giant Boeing announced on April 25 that it had terminated its Master Transaction Agreement (MTA) with Brazilian aerospace group Embraer. Under this, the two groups who have created two joint ventures (JVs). The first JV would have embraced Embraer’s commercial airline business and... →

SANDF calls on reservists, not yet mobilised, to contact their units

By: Rebecca Campbell 23rd April 2020 The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has called on members of its reserve forces, who have not yet been mobilised or put on alert for call-up, to contact their units to confirm their availability. This applies to reservists for all four branches of the SANDF – the South African Army,... →

Huge increase in number of military personnel being deployed to help counter Covid-19

By: Rebecca Campbell 23rd April 2020 President Cyril Ramaphosa formally communicated to Parliament on April 22 that he was massively increasing the numbers of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) personnel undertaking services in support of national efforts to counter the Covid-19 pandemic. The communication was in the form... →

On-standby SANDF to provide field hospitals in fight against coronavirus

By: News24Wire 23rd April 2020 The entire South African National Defence Force has been put on standby. The deployment of more than 73 000 SANDF members will include medical personnel and it might include field hospitals, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said when she addressed the Joint Standing... →

DA commends Ramaphosa for approaching IMF, World Bank to fund part of relief package

By: Sane Dhlamini 22nd April 2020 Democratic Alliance interim leader John Steenhuisen has welcomed President’s Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement of the R500-billion Economic and Social Relief Package and has further applauded the President for approaching the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank for funds. During a virtual... →

DA interim leader John Steenhuisen

Boeing announces major organisational and leadership changes

By: Rebecca Campbell 22nd April 2020 Giant US aerospace and defence group Boeing has announced major changes in its organisation and associated leadership, which come into effect on May 1. The group, the biggest aerospace company in the world, says that these changes are intended to create greater integration within the company and... →

SAPS members that violate the regulations undermine government’s efforts - General Rabie

By: Sane Dhlamini 21st April 2020 South African Police Service (SAPS) Major General Leon Rabie on Tuesday said the abuse of power or involvement in any illegal activities by the members of his organisation during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic not only brings SAPS into disrepute but grossly undermines government’s efforts to... →

Specialist UK company designs new hull form for autonomous vessels

By: Rebecca Campbell 21st April 2020 The ship design division of UK-based design, engineering and scientific services group BMT has unveiled a new hull design concept for autonomous (that is, uncrewed) vessels. This concept is called the Pentamaran platform. The Pentamaran is intended for both defence and commercial applications.... →

Artist’s impression of a Pentamaran autonomous vessel at sea (BMT)

Nigerian Air Force Super Tucano light attack plane has made first flight

By: Rebecca Campbell 20th April 2020 The first Embraer A-29 Super Tucano light attack and reconnaissance aircraft for the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) made its maiden flight in the US, at Jacksonville, Florida, on April 17. (In addition to its primary Super Tucano production line in Brazil, Embraer has a second production line,... →

Photo by Embraer
Nigeria’s first Super Tucano climbs away following its maiden take-off

2019 airline safety report released by Iata

By: Rebecca Campbell 17th April 2020 The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has reported that airline safety last year improved again, both in relation to 2018 and to the five-year average for 2014 to 2018. This improvement was across all major safety performance indicators. “The safety and wellbeing of our passengers... →

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