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NASA cuts short hot fire test of Artemis I core stage
ORLANDO, Fla. — NASA lit up all four engines on the massive core stage for the Artemis I rocket that will travel to the moon at the end 2021 but cut off the test after a minute into an eight-minute test. The burn took place after 5 p.m. with the stage hooked up in the B-2 Test Stand at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Mississippi. The hot fire was aiming to simulate the thrust the core stage of the Space Launch System rocket, generating 1.6 million pounds burning through more than 700,000 gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for more than eight minutes. But NASA shut it down after just a...
Orlando Sentinel
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Boeing production plummeted in 2020
A devastating 2020 for Boeing production ended in December with a small lift for its workforce producing 737 MAX jets in Renton, Wash., but another blow to those building 787 Dreamliners in Everett, Wash., and North Charleston, S.C. After the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ungrounded the 737 MAX in mid-November, Boeing managed to deliver 27 of the jets out of Renton in December, the first deliveries since the second MAX crash in March 2019. For the second month in a row, however, Boeing in December delivered zero 787s. After a bad 2019, when Boeing was unable to deliver the 737 MAX from...
The Seattle Times
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Airbus jet deliveries depressed by the pandemic, yet still far ahead of Boeing
Airbus said Friday it delivered 566 commercial airplanes in 2020, down 34% from the previous year due to the heavy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel. Yet its business still far outstripped that of Boeing, which until year end couldn't deliver any 737 MAXs. Through the end of November, Boeing had delivered only 118 commercial jets. On Tuesday, it will announce its December orders and the 2020 final tally, certain for the second year in a row to trail its great rival. Airbus also announced net orders for 268 aircraft. Because of cancellations of the grounded MAX, Boeing at the end of...
The Seattle Times
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Amazon bought 11 jets for its freighter fleet for the first time
Taking advantage of the pandemic-driven downturn that has led airlines to retire passenger jets early, Amazon announced Tuesday that it bought 11 used Boeing 767s from Delta and WestJet of Canada during 2020 for conversion to air freighters. The new additions to the fleet are the first planes owned by Amazon. Amazon Air's current fleet of 767s are all leased from two air cargo companies, Atlas Air and Air Cargo Transport Services Group (ATSG). Amazon will continue to rely on third-party carriers to provide crews to fly and maintain the aircraft. A person with knowledge of Amazon Air's fleet sa...
The Seattle Times
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Boeing speeds up 787 consolidation in South Carolina
Boeing will speed up the consolidation of 787 production in South Carolina so that Everett will lose final assembly of the airplane by March rather than the originally announced timeline of mid-2021, according to an internal company memo. The memo to all 787 employees was sent by Lane Ballard, Boeing vice president and general manager of the 787 program and site leader at the North Charleston, S.C., manufacturing site. "Production and delivery consolidation in South Carolina ... will take place in March 2021," Ballard wrote. The company's reduction of the 787 production rate from six airplanes...
The Seattle Times
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Alaska Airlines orders more Boeing 737 Maxes to replace most of its Airbus jets
Alaska Airlines said Tuesday it has ordered another 23 Boeing 737 Maxes, bringing its total order to 68 Maxes that over the next three years will replace most of the Airbus aircraft in its fleet. The financial terms Boeing offered would have been difficult to pass up. In an interview, Alaska Air Group chief executive Brad Tilden said the airline will have to pay no additional money for the 13 Maxes it will take next year. "This does not actually require any capital spending during 2021," he said. That's because Alaska had already paid significant pre-delivery deposits on its pending orders of ...
The Seattle Times
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GAO: Military aircraft missing readiness target
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Key U.S. military aircraft have for years been missing goals for their readiness to fly missions, the U.S. Government Accountability Office reports.The agency said the Navy’s F/A-18E and F Super Hornet fighter jets, its E-2C Hawkeye early warning aircraft and C-2A cargo planes did not meet annual goals for the total time they can fly and perform their mission at any time between fiscal years 2011 and 2019.The Air Force’s F-22 Raptors also missed their annual goals for all of those years.The Navy’s E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, which is to replace the E-2C, missed its goal in each ...
Daily Press (Newport News, Va.)
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Alaska signs deal for more 737 Maxes now that the plane is cleared to fly
SEATTLE — Days after the Federal Aviation Administration cleared Boeing’s 737 Max to fly passengers again, Alaska Airlines became the first carrier to expand its fleet of the aircraft.Alaska announced Monday it will lease 13 Maxes from Los Angeles-based Air Lease Corp (ALC).Alaska already has 32 Maxes on order directly from Boeing, five of which are expected to be flying by summer 2021. Alaska will begin flying the 737-9 Max in March.Following so soon after the plane was ungrounded, the transaction indicates that airlines willing to take new jets in the middle of a historic aviation downturn c...
The Seattle Times
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Space Coast expects 500,000 spectators for Sunday's SpaceX Crew-1 astronaut launch
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Amid a worsening pandemic, as many as half a million people are expected to swarm the Space Coast this weekend for a chance to witness SpaceX’s next crewed mission, only the second time in almost a decade that astronauts will have launched from American soil.The Crew-1 launch of America’s Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker and Japan’s Soichi Noguchi — who for weeks have been quarantining with their families as they complete training — is scheduled for Sunday at 7:27 p.m. from Kennedy Space Center’s 39A launchpad. They’ll take off aboard a Falcon 9 rocke...
Orlando Sentinel