ARA working with NASA over Arizona, California and Mexico
Hot on the tail of a trip to the arctic Directflight’s ARA team have taken the aircraft to the USA to work in the deserts of Arizona. The aircraft will be based in Tucson Arizona for a month, flying over the southern USA, Mexico and the Gulf of California. SALSTICE The campaign, titled SALSTICE, is [...]
read more
Arctic Exploration – ARA successfully completes ACCACIA
The ARA returned to Cranfield on Monday 4 April having carried out a 3 week scientific campaign within the arctic circle. The campaign, entitled Aerosol Cloud-Coupling and Climate Interactions in the Arctic (ACCACIA), should increase the understanding of arctic weather and climate in an attempt to improve forecasting and climatic predictions. The aircraft will be based at Kiruna in Sweden [...]
read more
Directflight Re-Win Shetland Island Service
Directflight are delighted to announce that they have been successful in securing the Shetland Island Council PSO contract for a further three years. Directflight would like to thank the Council and resident Island communities for their continued support. “This decision by the Council reflects both the high quality of the bid submission and the historical performance [...]
read more
Rare Bird sighted on Fair Isle
On Monday 24th September Directflight flew out a group of ornithologists to Fair Isle to allow them to photograph a rare visitor to UK shores. The Magnolia Warbler, a native of North America, has only been sighted in the UK once before, on the Scillies in 1981. These photographs were taken by Steve Arlow on [...]
read more
ARA SAMBBAs to Brazil
South AMerican Biomass Burning Analysis – SAMBBA On Saturday 8th September the Atmospheric Research Aircraft will leave Cranfield to complete a 5 week detachment to Brazil, South AMerican Biomass Burning Analysis -SAMBBA. The campaign is the result of months of planning and negotiation with the authorities in Brazil and the UK. The aim of the detachment [...]
read more
BBC Report on the ARA’s Role in Pollution Monitoring Operations around London
The BBC’s David Shukman has once again been experiencing front line science with the Scientists and Directflight Crew on the Atmospheric Research Aircraft. This report augments one on the BBC 10 O’Clock news on the 8th of August 2012 that explored the levels of atmospheric pollution in London during the Olympic Games. The full report on [...]
read more
Marine Scotland Aircraft Complete Avionics and Sensor Upgrade
Directflight has just completed the first of 2 Marine Scotland (MS) maritime patrol aircraft mission equipment and cockpit upgrades. This was developed in consultation with MS to improve mission planning and execution, and enhance aircrew situational awareness. The systems were procured by MS and the installations project managed by Directflight supported by its contractors Caledonian Airborne Systems of Aberdeen [...]
read more
Paul Churcher retires from Directflight
Paul Churcher The Staff, Management and Directors of Directflight wish to convey their best wishes to Paul Churcher who leaves the company today to move to the open spaces of Scotland. Directflight has greatly benefited from the contribution that Paul has made to our Engineering processes, practices and technical performance since he joined the company in [...]
read more
BBC and Channel 4 News report on the work of the ARA
Journalists from BBC and Channel 4 News teams took an opportunity to fly on the Atmospheric Research Aircraft yesterday to report on research being undertaken by scientists studying frontal weather systems. BBC coverage was provided on the Today program and BBC News, David Shukman’s full report can be found by clicking here . Channel 4′s Science Editor Tom [...]
read more
ARA returns from a successful campaign in Sweden
Kiruna Sweden – March 2012 Words and Pictures by David Simpson - Directflight Operations Coordinator – ARA Operations The team have just returned from a successful Science Campaign to Kiruna in the Arctic north of Sweden. This was on behalf of the UK Met Office, along with the University of Edinburgh, the National Centre for Earth Observation and the [...]
read more
