INDIAN ARMED FORCES CHIEFS ON
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SP's Aviation - ISSUE No 08-08

Issue Features

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  Trendy Jetsetters
  By LeRoy Cook, Missouri, USA

  The range of offering now available in the business jet segment of general aviation is quite wide. Any firm with travel requirements should be able to find a suitable aircraft for its needs.

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  Green Brigade
  By Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia

  Airframes, airlines, airports—the AAA approach supplements engine manufacturers’ initiatives to curb aviation’s adverse impact on the environment.

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  Roll Out the Red Carpet
  

  Ricardo Nogueira voiced doubts about whether the conveniently located space at the old VASP hangars will be available next year and if there will be room for the growing event.

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  Rafale - Catch Me If You Can
  

  Combining the dual strengths of speed and subterfuge, the Rafale’s systems—equipped with the SPECTRA—have set new standards in low-observability and survivability.

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  Red Flag: Lauded & Applauded
  By US Air Force Base Nellis, USA

  Picture gallery fo Red Flag

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  Eurofighter
  By SP's Team

  Matthias Schmidlin, Eurofighter Campaign Director, India in a candid interview to SP’s Aviation underlines the benefits that would accrue to India if it accepts the EADS offer to join the Eurofighter programme.

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  Igor Sikorsky (1889 – 1972)
  By Group Captain (Retd) Joseph Noronha, Goa

  Sikorsky is synonymous with helicopters. Helicopters, however, were just one part of the amazing life of Igor Sikorsky. To begin with, he made the world’s first multi-engine aircraft in Russia. Then, he successfully designed the Flying Clipper seaplanes. Lastly, his helicopters became famous.

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  A Word from Editor
  By Jayant Baranwal - Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

  Trendy wings for the jetsetting corporate sector vie with serious issues pertaining to environmental concerns and India’s procurement policy even as the race for the MMRCA deal hots up with two of the frontrunners drawing aces.

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  HAL to grow civil wings
  By Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. Pandey

  Indian aerospace and defence manufacturing giant Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) will produce the first passenger aircraft to be designed and manufactured in the country. The state-run organisation was bestowed the unique privilege after it got the nod from launch customer, the Indian Air Force (IAF), pipping Indian private sector companies such as Mahindra Aerospace and Larsen and Toubro Ltd.

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  US hits space vacuum
  

  NASA has abandoned plans to get replacements for retiring US space shuttles into service by 2013 because of lack of additional funds and technical issues. The US space agency had hoped to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) aboard new spaceship Orion as early as September 2013, well before the formal deadline of March 2015.

• Unravelling the L1
  By Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia

  L1 is the vendor whose product has successfully passed all compliance parameters and technical evaluation tests and who is also the lowest bidder among all the otherwise successful vendors. However, does the concept work towards the goals and objectives for which it has been put in place?

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  Grappling with the L1
  By Air Marshal (Retd) V.K. Bhatia

  Creation of suitable matrices for technical and commercial evaluations can provide a great tool to help reduce all offers to a common comparable scale, thus ensuring easy, transparent and objective comparisons to determine the L1

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  Forging Ties
  By Air Marshal (Retd) B.K. Pandey

  Training pilots of the Royal Malaysian Air Force on the Su-30MKM fleet will enable the IAF to grow in capability, confidence and reputation to lend credibility to India’s status as a regional power