Russian Helicopters Develops a Range of New-Generation Unmanned Rotorcraft

At the 4th International Forum and Exhibition Unmanned Multipurpose Vehicle Systems - UVS-TECH 2010, held as part of Engineering Technologies 2010 that opens today in Zhukovsky, Russian Helicopters rotorcraft-manufacturing holding company showcases two perspective unmanned helicopters, Korshun and Ka-135.

These models are designed under Russian Helicopters program on developing a broad spectrum of vertical take-off and landing UAVs within three categories: long range (over 400 km), medium range (up to 400 km) and close range (up to 100 km).

Korshun medium-range unmanned helicopter weighs 500 kg and enjoys the range of 300 km, payload of 150 kg and maximum speed of 170 km/h.

In the niche of close-range vehicles Russian Helicopters debuts Ka-135, new UAV of co-axial scheme with piston-engine and tricycle landing gear, weighing 300 kg and boasting up to100 km operational range, up to 100 kg payload and 170 km/h max speed.

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UAE to include EIAST projects in curriculum

The Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) has signed an agreement with the UAE Ministry of Education as per which its key findings will become part of the secondary school curriculum of Geography and Social Studies.

As per the agreement, EIAST will provide the ministry with detailed information on its vision, mission, researches and main programmes, in addition to the images received by DubaiSat-1 to be included in the geography text book of the tenth grade next year, said a statement from UAE Ministry of Education (MoE).

This initiative is part of the ministry’s efforts to strengthen the student curriculum with contemporary subject materials to enhance the knowledge base of students, and complements EIAST’s efforts in sharing its concrete contributions for the benefit of the UAE student community.

A delegation from the Ministry of Education headed by Shaikha Kholood Saqr Al Qassimi, director of Curriculum Department, MoE, recently visited EIAST to identify its workflow, future development plans and programmes, as well as to discuss aspects of cooperation between them.

Adnan Mohammed Al Rais, team leader of Ground Systems and Image Processing, gave a detailed presentation on the launch process of DubaiSat-1, how the Ground Control Station is connected to the satellite for receiving images and updates on DubaiSat-2.

The delegation also visited the Ground Control Station connected to DubaiSat-1, the Image Processing and Data Analysis lab, and the Assembly Integration and Test room.

Shaikha Kholood lauded the efforts of UAE nationals in achieving the historic accomplishment.

“We are pleased to co-operate with the EIAST and share their knowledge base with the student community of the UAE. By incorporating EIAST’s achievements as part of the student curriculum, we aim to further positioning the UAE on the international map of innovation and excellence by promoting stronger interest in the young minds about the country’s scientific accomplishments.”

Ahmed Al Mansoori, director general, EIAST, said the joint initiative was important given the vital role that the ministry plays in strengthening and developing the skills of future generations.

'We are pleased to co-operate with the ministry and we hope that EIAST’s activities, especially the achievements of DubaiSat-1, will be a catalyst for UAE high school students to pursue the path of advanced technology for the overall welfare of the nation,' he added.

The delegation from the Curriculum Department, MoE, included Mariam Kamal, head of Humanities curricula; Fatima Ahmed Al Muhairi, art director, and Dr Jassim Mohammed Abdel Karim, a specialist in geography - Social Studies Division.

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Arabsat 5A Satellite Shipped To Launch Site

The first Arabsat 5th generation satellite today left the Astrium facilties in Toulouse and was loaded in Blagnac airport on an Antonov cargo airplane that will transport it to French Guyana in view of an April launch into geostationary orbit.

Arabsat-5A, a multi-mission satellite, will provide additional capacity at the Arabsat 30.5 degrees East position for a large range of satellite communications services such as television backhauling and broadcasting, telephony, business communications, Internet trunking and the provision of VSAT and other interactive services, over sub-Saharan Africa, the North-Africa and Middle East (MENA) region, and beyond.

Arabsat 5A was built by an industrial team of Astrium and Thales Alenia Space acting as co-prime contractors. Astrium, the team leader, supplied the Eurostar E3000 platform and assembled and tested the spacecraft.

Thales Alenia Space supplied the communications payload featuring 26 active transponders in C-band and 24 in Ku-band. The Launch and Early Orbit Phase will be conducted from the Astrium spacecraft control centre in Toulouse.

Arabsat-5A will have a launch mass of 4,800kg and a spacecraft power of 11kW at the end of its 15-year designed lifetime. Arabsat 5A is the 4th Eurostar built for the Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabsat) based in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the 1st Eurostar E3000 in a series of four Arabsat 5th generation satellite ordered to date. A sister spacecraft, Arabsat 5B also known as Badr 5, is undergoing final testing in Toulouse.

Arabsat 5A is planned for launch by an Ariane 5 which will also carry another Astrium-built satellite, COMS, for the South Korean space agency KARI. Launch of Arabsat 5A and COMS is scheduled for the end of April.

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Dubai's Emirates to hire 2,000 staff in 2010

Dubai government-owned airline Emirates said on Tuesday it planned to recruit 2,000 cabin crew in 2010 as it expands its fleet and routes.

The Arab world's largest airline has hired around 660 cabin crew and more than 60 pilots since March 2009, a statement said. The airline's total cabin crew stands at 11,000. "More aircraft and flights mean more staff," the carrier said. "It is expected that a further 2,000 cabin crew will be hired this year."

The company has grown its fleet of planes from 131 to 145, since March 2009, including eight Airbus A380s superjumbos.

Middle Eastern airlines saw the highest growth rate of 11.2 percent in air passenger traffic globally for 2009 as carriers snapped up long-haul connecting traffic, international air traffic body IATA said on Jan. 27.

Emirates, the largest customer for the Airbus A380 superjumbo, said in February funding its aircraft purchases was not an issue and that it would post solid results for 2009.

The airline, which has $55 billion worth of orders with Airbus and Boeing, expects to take delivery of 11 aircraft in 2010 as it presses ahead with expansion into Europe.

One of Dubai's prize assets, Emirates in December raised $1.13 billion from Citibank, backed by a guarantee from the European Export Credit Agencies, and a second loan from Doric Asset to finance six aircraft.

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New Russian stealth fighter makes first flight

The "fifth-generation" stealth fighter -- Russia's first all-new warplane since the collapse of the Soviet Union plunged the defense industry into poverty and disarray -- flew for 47 minutes, planemaker Sukhoi said.

"It's a remarkable event," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told his cabinet, but he suggested the plane still needed work.

"There is very much to be done, in part as regards the engine," Putin said. "But the fact that the plane is already in the air is a big step forward."

Russia's main television networks led news programs with reports of the flight and showed footage of the needle-nosed, camouflage-painted plane taking off from a snow-lined airstrip at a Sukhoi factory in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, in Russia's Far East.

"The plane performed very well. All our expectations for this first flight were met," Sukhoi spokeswoman Olga Kayukova said on Rossiya 24 television. "The premiere was a success."

Foreign journalists were not invited.

Fifth-generation aircraft are invisible to radar, have advanced flight and weapons control systems and can cruise at supersonic speeds. The new plane is Moscow's answer to the U.S.-built F-22 Raptor stealth fighter -- the world's only fifth-generation fighter yet in service -- which first flew in 1997.

Putin said the plane would first be delivered to the Defense Ministry in 2013 and serial production would start in 2015. Analysts have said it would probably be five to seven years before Russia's military gets to fly the new fighter.

Successful development of the fighter, which Rossiya 24 said has been tentatively dubbed the T-50, is crucial to showing Russia can challenge U.S. technology.

The 1991 Soviet collapse ushered in a cash-strapped time of troubles for Russia's military. Its aircraft makers have been building warplanes based on updated Soviet-era designs.

EMBARRASSING SETBACKS

Defense spending increased in the oil-fueled period of economic growth during the 2000-2008 presidency of Putin, who has encouraged pride in Russia's military might.

The military has continued to suffer embarrassing and sometimes deadly setbacks since the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in 2000, killing all 118 seamen aboard.

Several failed tests of the submarine-launched Bulava (Mace) intercontinental ballistic missile, touted by Putin as able to pierce any air defense, have troubled the Kremlin.

The Interfax news agency quoted an unidentified source as saying the new Russian plane had lowered and raised its landing gear twice during the flight and added that "the American F-35 fifth-generation jet couldn't do that (on its test flight)."

Lieutenant Colonel Marcel de Haas, Russian security researcher at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, was not convinced of the plane's bright future.

"My impression is that this new fighter plane is also more propaganda than a real expectancy," he told Reuters by e-mail.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told the cabinet more work had to be done on the engine and the armaments system. Neither he nor Putin went into details.

The new plane is important for future Russian arms sales.

In a statement on the company website sukhoi.org, Sukhoi director Mikhail Pogosyan said the company planned to develop its fifth-generation fighter program further with India, its biggest client for existing planes.

Sukhoi is Russia's largest exporter of military planes and accounts for about a quarter of the country's annual arms sales, which reached $7.4 billion last year.

Besides India and China, existing clients for Russia's weapons include U.S. foes such as Iran, Syria and Venezuela, and their purchase of an advanced new fighter could cause concern in the United States and its allies.

The U.S. Congress has banned export sales of the F-22.

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Bedouins and Circassians, Amman 1921

Diplomacy involving Sir Horace Samuel...the polished Bristol Fighter is Lawrence of Arabia (T E Lawrence's )transport, I think, so he must be in the group. This would be the occasion when the boundaries were determined for Palestine, (Trans-)Jordan and the surrounding states following the British takeover of Palestine from the Ottoman Empire in 1917-1918

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