News in brief

Radome

• ZeroAvia has announced a partnership with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ) to collaborate on zero carbon hydrogen-electric propulsion for regional jets. MHIRJ is the world’s largest CRJ MRO and support company, having acquired the CRJ regional airliner programme from Bombardier. The partnership will not only look at new aircraft with hydrogen-electric propulsion but also at retrofitting existing airliners. In addition, ZeroAvia has entered a partnership with Alaskan Air Group, parent group of Alaska Airlines, to incorporate a 3MW hydrogen-electric powertrain into a de Havilland Canada DHC Q400 turboprop to give it a range of 500nm.
• The Royal Air Force has entered the Guinness World Records by conducting the first-ever flight of an aircraft, an Ikarus C42 microlight, powered by zero-carbon fully sythnetic fuel. The fuel, Zero Petroleum’s UL91, was made using hydrogen extracted from water and carbon extract from CO₂ atmosphere.
• US corporate giant GE has announced it will split itself up into three public companies, focusing on aviation, healthcare and power. GE Aviation will form the core of the independent aerospace concern with the separation completed by 2024.
• Wright Electric has launched the Wright Spirit – a 100-seat, electric-powered regional aircraft. Based on the BAe 146 regional jet, the Wright Spirit will be equipped with four engines. Flight testing will begin in 2023 replacing first one jet engine with a high-power density inverter with a 2,700hp motor, followed by two in 2024 and all four in 2026. 

• Grounded South African low-cost carrier Mango Airlines is now not expected to return to flight after sole shareholder South African Airways decided that the airline is no longer viable. Mango ceased operations in mid-2021 after being unable to pay money owed to South Africa’s Air Traffic and Navigation Services.
• UAE mega-carrier Emirates is to accelerate a recruitment drive for pilots and engineers as the post-pandemic recovery in air travel continues. The airline is planning to recruit a further 6,000 staff over the next six months, with 2,500 of them being pilots and engineers. 
• The Lufthansa Group has announced a return to profits in Q3 2021, with a profit of €17m compared to a loss of €1.3bn for the same period last year. The airline group reports that bookings have returned to 80% of their pre-pandemic levels. 
• Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) is to auction off 73 derelict aircraft which have been abandoned at four of its airports. In August 2020, KAA contacted the owners of the abandoned aircraft to settle accounts and request their removal. The aircraft types for sale include Ukrainian An-24s, a Boeing 737-200, DC3s, a DC-8 and DC-9s and a 707-300 (the bidding price for the 707 begins at $2,497). Auction winners will have seven days to collect their aircraft.

• A UK Lockheed Martin F-35B fighter has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea while flying on a routine operation from the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. The cause of the accident, which happened shortly after take-off from the carrier on 17 November, is not yet known but the MoD has stated that the pilot ejected safely. The accident is the first loss of a UK F-35B.
• On 21 October, Taiwan conducted the first production version flight of its new indigenous AIDC T-5 Brave Eagle advanced trainer. The twin-seat aircraft, developed from the F-CK-1 Ching-Kuo fighter, took to the skies on 21 October, accompanied by a T-5 prototype. Taiwan plans to acquire 66 T-5s by 2026 which will replace the AT-3 and F-5E/F trainers. 
• Dassault has announced that a defence deal with Egypt signed earlier this year has come into force, with the company to supply a further 30 Rafale fighters to Cairo in a €3.8bn contract. This will bring Egypt’s total Rafale fleet up from 24 to 54 aircraft. 
• Kratos and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) are each to design and develop a new Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) demonstrator drone for the US Air Force in 12-month design and development contracts. OBSS will act as an attritable ‘loyal wingman’ and extra weapons bay for crewed aircraft. 

• New Zealand-based Rocket Lab launched two small BlackSky optical Earth-imaging satellites into orbit on 17 November. The satellites were launched from Rocket Lab’s spaceport at Mãhia Peninsula on North Island aboard an Electron rocket, the first stage carbon-fibre booster of which was later recovered from the Pacific Ocean.
• Four astronauts returned to Earth from the ISS on 8 November aboard a SpaceX Dragon crew capsule. NASA commander Shane Kimbrough, pilot Megan McArthur, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet descended to Earth and made a successful splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. 
• US space company Nanoracks has announced a partnership with Lockheed Martin to develop a private commercial crewed space station to orbit the Earth. To enter service in 2027, the Starlab commercial space lab will be continuously crewed by up to four astronauts to conduct critical research, support off-planet industrial activity and ensure a continued US presence in LEO after the retirement of the ISS. 
• UK communications satellite operator Inmarsat has agreed a $7.3bn takeover by US-based Viasat. The deal may be reviewed under the UK’s National Security and Investment Act 2021, brought in to protect key British interests from foreign takeovers.

• Otto Aviation has completed testing of its enhanced laminar flow Celera 500L. The aircraft has now concluded 55 tests flights with a total flight time of 51hr. Otto is now seeking further funding to achieve FAA certification.
• US not-for-profit air medical transport operator Life Flight Network has ordered 12 Bell 407GXi helicopters. The Network operates 25 rotary-wing bases and nine fixed-wing bases across the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West regions of the US. 
• GA manufacturer Pipistrel has completed the first flight testing phase of the hybrid-electric version of its four-seat Panthera. The powertrain and flight performance tests were conducted as part of Europe’s Modular Approach to Hybrid-Electric Propulsion Architecture (MAHEPA) project. A 1929 Junkers monoplane is to return as a 600kg microlight replica, with first deliveries to begin in April 2022. The Junkers A50 Junior Replica, developed by Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG, retains the corrugated metal skin look of the original but uses a Rotax engine and Garmin instruments.