BY : BBC




RAF pilot Andy Green made history in 1997 when he drove the Thrust SSC jet-powered vehicle at 763mph (1,228km/h).

Now he intends to get behind the wheel of a car that is capable of reaching 1,000mph (1,610km/h).

Known as Bloodhound, the new car will be powered by a rocket bolted to a Eurofighter-Typhoon jet engine.

The team-members have been working on the concept for the past 18 months and expect to be ready to make their new record attempt in 2011.

BY : DutchNews

Negotiations between the government and the aerospace industry on the Joint Strike Force (JSF) jet have run aground, according to a letter sent by the industry to economic affairs minister Maria van der Hoeven on Thursday.

According to the aerospace industry, the government has 'slammed the door shut', reports the NRC. It wants the minister to become 'personally involved' in order to ensure negotiations are 'serious'.

The tension between the partners stems from the government's insistence that any shortfall in its development budget of €858m be covered by the aerospace

BY : Reuters

Two French fighter jets collided off the coast of Brittany on Wednesday and one of the two pilots was found while the other was being searched for, the Defence Ministry said.

The two Super-Etendard jets, made by Dassault Aviation (AVMD.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), crashed during a training exercise at around 5:10 p.m. (1510 GMT) 27 km (17 miles) north of the town of Morlaix, on the French region's northern coast, the French Navy said in a statement.

A spokeswoman for the Defence Ministry said the planes collided during the exercise.

BY : PR


The METHYLE system is capable of simulating flight conditions up to Mach 7.5 (7500 km/h, 2400 Kelvin) for several minutes, for large-size mockups and prototypes, and thus comes as a unique test system in Europe and one of the very few resources of this type in the world.

METHYLE will strongly contribute to the technological development effort that is being made on high-speed aerobic propulsion by MBDA and ONERA, with support from DGA and the European Union, and in cooperation with CNRS (Orléans, Bourges, Nancy), the “Pôle capteurs” (sensors centre), Roxel, Astrium ST, and Auxitrol.

BY: Issued by Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland


The pilot of a Finnish Air Force F/A-18 strike fighter on Friday successfully landed the aircraft with one of its two engines shut down.

"The aircraft's computer systems warned of a fault linke to oil pressures," said Lieutenant-Colonel Jari Nykänen, the chief of staff of Lapland Air Command.

"We will now begin to get to the bottom of the fault."

Lt-Col Nykänen said the pilot had followed standard procedure by shutting down the engine.

BY : RIA Novosti





A Georgian unmanned reconnaissance plane was shot down early on Thursday over the South Ossetian capital, a local Interior Ministry official said.

"A Georgian drone was flying from south to north over Tskhinvali at 00.10 Moscow time (20.10 GMT). South Ossetian military units opened fire at the UAV and shot it down," said acting Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev.

BY : Feza Newspaper

NATO member Turkey has quietly decided to buy variants of three different S-300 missile systems from Belarus and Ukraine to test them at the Konya training center with the Electronic Warfare Training Field (EHTS) system built by local firm Havelsan.

"These missile systems are intended to be used for testing and training purposes to simulate threats that may come from countries with ex-Soviet systems in their inventories," a local defense industry source told Today's Zaman. The decision to buy former Soviet-designated SA-12 (300V version) and SA-10 (S-300) missile systems, as well as SA-15 short and medium-range TOR systems, at a cost of

BY : Chris Pocock For AINonline



This columnist never did discover why the U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor that displayed at this month’s Farnborough airshow, needed an escort from an F-15 fighter. The top-of-the-line stealth fighter flew from RAF Fairford, only 50 miles away, where it was due to make its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo.

When that show was abandoned due to heavy rain, the Raptor’s one scheduled appearance on the opening day of the Farnborough show became, by default, its international debut instead. A UK-based F-15C interceptor joined up with the F-22 after it took off from Fairford, and the pair flew in loose formation to and from Farnborough.

BY : star-telegram.com



Just a few years ago, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter was widely viewed as the world’s leading next-generation, high-technology aircraft, with no strong Western competitor.

That’s no longer the case.

Saab, the Swedish industrial conglomerate better known in the U.S. for performance cars than airplanes, has impressed potential aircraft buyers with an aggressive marketing campaign for its upgraded Gripen fighter jet.

BY : Timesonline



The Royal Navy was promoted into the maritime superleague yesterday when ministers signed the long-awaited contract for two 65,000-tonne aircraft carriers.

They will be the second biggest of their kind in the world, each the size of the QE2. Only the American Nimitz Class aircraft carriers, at 90,000 tonnes, have a more impressive tonnage.

The Ministry of Defence went ahead despite a stretched defence budget and murmurings about the near £4 billion price tag and the wisdom of building such huge warships.

Admiral Sir Jonathon Band, the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff, said the signing - on board HMS Ark Royal, one of the existing, much smaller carriers - was