All Airframers articles – Page 1594
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News
UPS may package passengers
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA UPS Airlines is considering operating weekend passenger-charter services using otherwise-idle cargo aircraft. As a first move, quick-change conversion kits for five Boeing 727-100 freighters are being considered as a way to increase aircraft utilisation. The results of a study into the feasibility of offering passenger-charter services to tour ...
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Carib Express ceases operations
CARIB EXPRESS, the Caribbean regional in which British Airways held a 20% stake, has been wound up and its aircraft returned to British Aerospace. The airline started operations in February 1995 with three BAe 146-100s leased from BAe's Asset Management Organisation (AMO), operating regional services from Barbados. ...
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Aviall continues disposals in quest for core profits
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AVIALL IS TO sell its aerospace-fastener operation, in another step towards its ambition of stripping the group back to its profitable aircraft-parts distribution business. An agreement was signed at the end of April to sell the fasteners-distribution unit to a new company formed ...
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Regional and utility aircraft directory
Fokker's demise is the most dramatic in a series of upheavals taking place throughout the regional-aircraft industry Compiled by Andrew Doyle and Jennifer Pite/LONDON Graham Warwick/ATLANTA FOKKER IS DOWN, the count almost over, but the winner is far from clear: not the customers left with unfulfilled orders for ...
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Boeing sets decision date for new versions of 777
Guy Norris and Paul Lewis/SEATTLE BOEING IS targeting September for a decision on development of either the 777-100X "shrink" or higher gross weight -200X derivative as its new ultra-long range passenger aircraft. A continuing product development study of the two new proposed 777 family members ...
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GATX seeks approval for 747F modification
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA GATX/AIRLOG HOPES to gain US Federal Aviation Administration approval for a modification to its Boeing 747 freighter conversion by mid-1996. An initial attempt to obtain relief with an airworthiness directive (AD) limiting gross weight failed, and the company is conducting additional structural analysis. ...
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NTSB criticises FAA on 737 FDR
NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), chairman Jim Hall has criticised the US Federal Aviation Administration, for rejecting the Boards call for an immediate upgrade, of Boeing 737 flight data recorders (FDRs). Proposed new rules about the retrofit of modern FDRs on commercial passenger-carrying aircraft will soon be issued ...
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DASA prepares 328 cryoplane
DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) is to go ahead with a programme to convert a Dornier 328 turboprop to a hydrogen-fuelled testbed late this year. "The aim is to use the knowhow gained with the Dornier 328...for Airbus applications at a later date," says DASA. The project, now in ...
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Leisure International selects Airbus A321
UK CHARTER CARRIER Leisure International Airways (formerly Air UK Leisure) has selected the Airbus A321-200 rather than the Boeing 737-800 for its future fleet needs. LIA declines to comment on the selection, although it confirms that an announcement "is imminent". The airline has replaced its fleet ...
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BWIA drops EMB-145 plans, renegotiates A340 order
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON BWIA HAS ABANDONED its intentions to operate up to ten Embraer EMB-145s and is rethinking its plans for an Airbus long-haul fleet. The airline, however, discounts rumours that it is talking to Boeing again. The Caribbean-based carrier, which signed a letter of intent ...
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Regional return
US regional Mesa Air Group is to terminate its leases on two Fokker 70s, and has begun negotiations to acquire up to eight alternative regional jets within the next nine months. The New Mexico-based company blames the decision to return the aircraft on the "limited production and uncertainty as to ...
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Mesaba shift
Northwest Airlink carrier Mesaba Airlines has signed an amended agreement under which Northwest Airlines will purchase all of the regional's capacity, while the cost of Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8 heavy maintenance will be shifted from Northwest to Mesaba. The agreement will allow both carriers to benefit from Mesaba's lower ...
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Results reflect increased optimism of US industry
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON THE EFFECTS OF Boeing's ten-week strike fed through into a weak first-quarter performance, but the group remains confident that sales will rebound sharply this year, echoing growing optimism throughout the US aerospace industry. With production picking up slowly, following the October strike, airliner ...
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FiatAvio sells off its shareholding in IAE
FIATAVIO has sold its holding in International Aero Engines (IAE) to its four partners. The deal maintains the Italian engine manufacturer's place on the programme, but as a subcontractor rather than as a shareholder. The Italian company, which is in the throes of merger talks with local rival ...
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Low-fare Europe?
Kevin O'Toole/BRUSSELS IT WAS ONLY a matter of time before the US "no-frills" experiment began to take root in Europe's rapidly deregulating market. Pioneers have already emerged, offering the kind of no-frills point-to-point services which shot Southwest Airlines, ValuJet and others to fame in the USA. ...
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Optegra for Embraer
Brazilian manufacturer Embraer has ordered $260,000-worth of software and ser-vices from computer-aided-design specialist ComputerVision, including the Optegra data-management system and Electrical Design Entry wiring-design system. Source: Flight International
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DASA ready to finalise sale of Dornier unit to Fairchild
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON, DC DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) hopes to complete the sale of of its Dornier Lufthahrt regional-aircraft manufacturing unit to US manufacturer Fairchild Aircraft before the end of the month, according to Manfred Bischoff, DASA's president and chief executive. Speaking in Washington on 30 April, ...
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Varig emerges from cutbacks
VARIG dipped into the red during 1995 after shouldering the cost of widespread redundancies, but the Brazilian carrier has outlined plans to expand again this year. After making a profit of around $209 million in 1994, the airline slipped to a deficit of just under $7 million ...
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GE gives go-ahead for CRJ-X engine
GENERAL ELECTRIC has formally launched development of the CF34-8C turbofan amid growing speculation that Bombardier is to follow suit with the proposed CRJ-X 70-seat stretch of the Canadair Regional Jet. At the same time, GE has signed an -8C collaboration agreement with Japan Aero Engines, a group formed ...
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Out of the black comes Tacit Blue
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US AIR FORCE has taken the wraps off another of its classified stealth projects with the unveiling of the Tacit Blue technology demonstrator. The Tacit Blue was used to test low-observable technologies eventually used in the Northrop Grumman B-2 bomber and other stealthy ...