Inflight Catering News

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• In April 2022, Airpro announced an investment of EUR 4 million to procure four Elephant e-BETA de-icers from Vestergaard Company. The equipment is expected to be delivered by winter 2022 and will be operated at Helsinki Airport. The company is expected to become the first ground handling company in Finland to deploy electric de-icing services following the delivery.
• In March 2022, Lufthansa LEOS, the ground handling subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, announced that the company became the launch customer of the all-electric towbarless aircraft tractor Phoenix E manufactured by Goldhofer. The new vehicle is battery-powered and can carry a weight of up to 352 metric tons.

In July 2022, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) inducted a 6x6 fire rescue stair vehicle into the Chennai airport fire service fleet. The vehicle is designed to accommodate the rapid evacuation of passengers from wide-bodied aircraft, such as Boeing 747s and Airbus A350s in the vent of an emergency.

In April 2022, RISE™ Robotics, the Zero Emission heavy machinery company, signed a contract worth USD 1.7 Million with AFVentures for the modernization of United States Air Force ground support equipment.

• In March 2022, Newrest announced that the company began providing hot meal services on two-class flights of Air Transat from various countries across Europe like Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
• In November 2021, the Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo announced that it was resuming its meal services that had been suspended since the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline's announcement came after the Indian Civil Aviation Ministry allowed airlines to resume in-flight meal services on all domestic flights.
• In July 2021, gategroup signed a partnership renewal agreement with LATAM Airlines to provide inflight catering services for an additional five years. According to the agreement, gategroup will serve LATAM Airlines at 16 locations, which include two new strategic domestic locations: Bogotá, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile.

• November 2023: Northrop Grumman Corporation successfully completed Thermal Vacuum tests on the Arctic Satellite Broadband Mission (ASBM), a two-satellite constellation designed to deliver broadband communications to the Northern polar region for the US Space Force and Space Norway.
• February 2023: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency awarded Maxar Technologies a five-year contract worth USD 192 million to provide commercial satellite imagery to US allies. Maxar will also provide three-dimensional data services to the allies.

• September 2022: BSF launched a tear gas shell-dropping drone system that will be useful for security forces to control protesters and rioters. It can be used for launching shells from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV).
• June 2022: The Iranian police added nearly USD 10 million worth of anti-riot equipment to law enforcement agencies due to the growing wave of protests across the country. The deputy commander of the Iranian police stated that the new equipment would help security forces to better execute the mission and strengthen the security of the country.

In November 2022, SpaceX launched EUTELSAT HOTBIRD 13G satellite into Geostationary Transfer Orbit.

In March 2022, NASA announced that its first crewed landing of the Artemis program was delayed to 2026 due to the time needed to develop and test the human landing system and NASA's next-generation spacesuits.

• June 2022: Excelitas Technologies® Corp., a leading industrial technology manufacturer focusing on innovative photonic solutions, showcased its latest thermal imaging and camera technologies for military applications at the Close Combat Symposium. The exhibited DRAGON-S12 Non-Cooled Thermal Attachment Sniper Sight featured a 60Hz uncooled thermal sensor coupled with a near-silent aperture, providing exceptional sensitivity and uniformity. The PHOENIX-S product, designed for demanding ground-based sniper missions, demonstrated field-proven capabilities for early detection, recognition, and identification of targets at longer ranges, even in extremely poor light conditions. Its attachment configuration enables easy integration into a variety of firearm systems and optical riflescopes with a magnification of up to 25x.
• May 2022: Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) secured a contract to supply its MiniPOP electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) systems for the Philippine Navy's patrol vessels. As per company specifications and Janes C4ISR & Mission Systems: Air, the MiniPOP is an EO/IR system that can integrate four sensors into a single optical payload. It features a gyrostabilized single line-replaceable unit (LRU) housing a medium-wave infrared (MWIR) thermal imager with an XBn detector, a high-definition complementary metal oxide semiconductor (HD-CMOS) day color camera with continuous zoom, a laser rangefinder, and an IR laser pointer.

In April 2023, Russia deployed four Marker Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to support its war efforts in Ukraine. The Marker is a three-ton, five-wheel UGV with a modular system that can mount heavy machine guns, anti-tank missiles, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) launch modules, grenade launchers, jammers, or other weapons. It is an anti-tank robotic UGV developed by Androidnaya Tekhnika, a robotics company based in Russia, to provide reconnaissance and destroy enemy targets.

In March 2023, the United Kingdom tested three heavy uncrewed ground vehicles (H-UGV) weighing over five tons to evaluate speed, terrain, and communication system capabilities. The newly tested ROBUST UGV was developed by Elbit Systems and launched at the Eurosatory Defense and Security Exhibition in June 2022. It was created with the Israel Ministry of Defense Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D). The UGV hosts a 30 mm autonomous turret and features the company's Iron Fist Active Protection System, fire control, and mission management systems.

• In April 2022, Airpro announced an investment of EUR 4 million to procure four Elephant e-BETA de-icers from Vestergaard Company. The equipment is expected to be delivered by winter 2022 and will be operated at Helsinki Airport. The company is expected to become the first ground handling company in Finland to deploy electric de-icing services following the delivery.
• In March 2022, Lufthansa LEOS, the ground handling subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, announced that the company became the launch customer of the all-electric towbarless aircraft tractor Phoenix E manufactured by Goldhofer. The new vehicle is battery-powered and can carry a weight of up to 352 metric tons.

• July 2022: An agreement to establish a new joint venture to produce helicopter engines was signed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Safran Helicopter Engines.
• April 2022: HAL signed an agreement with Nigerian Army for Phase II Chetak Helicopter Training.
• April 2022: To transform Civil (Passenger) aircraft into Multi-Mission Tanker Transport (MMTT) aircraft in India, HAL and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.