All Airframers articles – Page 1614

  • News

    Qantas leases Dash 8 simulator from CAE

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    QANTAS HAS SIGNED a ten-year lease with CAE for a de Havilland Canada Dash 8 simulator. The simulator will be housed at the Qantas jet base in Sydney. Three Qantas-owned regional airlines (Southern Australia, Sunstate and Eastern Australia), along with National Jet Systems, will be among the users, ...

  • News

    Airborne chooses 767 freighter

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/ATLANTA US CARGO CARRIER Airborne Express has agreed to acquire 12 used Boeing 767-200s for conversion to freighters, and plans to acquire between ten and 15 additional aircraft for a total investment of $600 million over eight years. The 767s will be the first wide-body aircraft operated ...

  • News

    FAA changes its mind on 747 conversions

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration admits that it has made a mistake in approving modifications by GATX Airlog, which turned ten Boeing 747 passenger aircraft into freighters, and it has proposed an airworthiness directive (AD) severely restricting cargo weights. The FAA is ...

  • News

    Business Express will return RJ70s

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/LONDON US REGIONAL OPERATOR Business Express is to hand back all three of its Avro International Aerospace RJ70s to the leasing company, casting doubts over the future of its remaining nine firm orders and eight options for the type. The first of the three ...

  • News

    Sogerma-Socea will lead Turkish F-5 avionics and structural upgrade work

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/LONDON SOGERMA-SOCEA OF France is to act as prime contractor in the long-awaited avionics and structural-upgrade programme for the Turkish air force's fleet of 70 Northrop Grumman F-5A/B fighter aircraft. The French company, part of Aerospatiale, will perform the structural modifications and act as systems ...

  • News

    P&W completes PW4090 endurance run

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    PRATT & WHITNEY HAVE completed an 850-cycle endurance run on the PW4090 growth engine for the Boeing 777. The 400kN (90,000lb)-thrust engine was run at its maximum turbine-inlet temperatures and was intentionally unbalanced in a ground run simulating between two and six years of airline operations "under maximum conditions", P&W ...

  • News

    Airbus pressured to speed up A3XX studies

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS A STRING OF major airline orders involving the Boeing 747/777 combination is increasing pressure on Airbus Industrie to "accelerate its studies" into a rival programme known as the A3XX. "We can't leave the 747 to dominate the market," says an Airbus source, "so ...

  • News

    US airlines 'will make $2 billion'

    1996-01-10T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC US SCHEDULED airlines are expected to report net profits of $2 billion for 1995, says the US Air Transport Association (ATA) in its year-end report. The ATA says that long-haul carriers earned $2.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, ...

  • News

    Hamilton Standard signs with Russian firm

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    HAMILTON STANDARD has signed a joint venture with Nauka, a Russian designer and manufacturer of environmental-control systems (ECS). The joint company, announced in Moscow at the end of November, is already set up for Westernised production of ECS units. The venture employs 35 workers, but there are plans ...

  • News

    Family ties undone

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Certification "grandfather rights" for derivative aircraft are about to be phased out. David Learmount/LONDON T HE ISSUE OF "grandfather rights" as they apply to aircraft certification provokes righteous indignation, anger and transatlantic disharmony. Something had to be done about them, but reaching agreement without destabilising ...

  • News

    Las Vegas lasers shut down

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Alan Staats/PHOENIX Hotel and casino operators in Las Vegas have been ordered to suspend their laser displays following an incident involving a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 first officer being temporarily blinded by a burst of laser light. The event occurred even though the hotel involved ...

  • News

    DHL expands its Panama presence

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    DHL WORLDWIDE Express is to invest $30 million over the next three years to expand its Latin American and Caribbean network. Initially, the fast-package carrier will upgrade its Panama hub with a new automated sorting system and introduce a Boeing 727-200F freighter service operated by new Panamanian carrier DHL Aero ...

  • News

    Czechs exchange Fulcrums for Sokols

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    THE CZECH Air force is swapping ten "mothballed" Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum fighters for 11 Polish PZL-Swidnik W-3 Sokol helicopters. The barter arrangement, was approved by the Czech Government, on 13 December and deliveries of the MiG-29s to the Polish air force, were due to be completed by ...

  • News

    SAA and Lufthansa to co-operate

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH LUFTHANSA AND South African Airlines (SAA) have put signatures to a co-operation agreement, now scheduled to come in to force from 1 April. The agreement, signed by Lufthansa's chairman Jurgen Weber and his SAA counterpart Mike Myburgh on 15 December, follows a memorandum of ...

  • News

    Boeing to raise output as markets begin to stir

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON BOEING IS TO raise aircraft production rates towards the end of 1996 in a move, which the company says reflects the beginnings of an upswing in aircraft demand, as well as efforts to catch up from the ten-week strike. Production is expected to recover ...

  • News

    British Airways Concorde appeal

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Sir - British Airways would like to speak to the passengers who flew on the BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde inaugural flight to Bahrain on 22 January 1976. The airline is keen to research the events, which surrounded the inaugural commercial flight of the aircraft. Please contact Amanda Ball, ...

  • News

    Executive Airlines to fit GPS to ATRs

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    PUERTO RICO-based American Eagle carrier Executive Airlines is equipping its ten ATR 42s and 72s with global-positioning systems (GPS) to allow cost-saving direct routing. Executive has selected Universal Avionics' UNS-1M GPS-based navigation-management system for its aircraft. The airline's decision follows a six-month proof-of-concept programme, which demonstrated ...

  • News

    Airlines

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/Business Editor THE WORLD AIRLINE INDUSTRY finally shook off the recession in 1995, to produce what are likely to be the highest profits on record. Barring unforeseen disasters, the industry should continue to forge ahead in 1996. The figures have yet to be collated for ...

  • News

    Airbus boost

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie waited until the last few days of December to land its first major order of 1995, announcing a deal with Philippine Airlines for 24 aircraft. Boeing was also included, with eight 747-400s included in the order. The Airbus share of the $3 billion deal includes four A340-300s, eight ...

  • News

    Air transport

    1996-01-03T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/TECHNICAL REPORTER Kevin O'Toole/BUSINESS EDITOR THE GOOD NEWS, at least for manufacturers, is that aircraft deliveries reached the bottom in 1995. The less good news is that the upturn in 1996 will be moderate. The big three, airframe manufacturers (Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas), ...