All air transport news – Page 2231
-
News
GAMECO heads for mainland expansion
Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance (GAMECO) is to open two new facilities in response to growing mainland Chinese demand for aircraft maintenance services. A new three-bay widebody hangar is to be built at Baiyun International Airport in Guangzhou, and land has been allocated for two more similar hangars to be built ...
-
News
Kitty Hawk mulls exit from charter work
Kitty Hawk has parked one of two Boeing 747 passenger aircraft operated by its American International Airways (AIA) unit pending a decision about whether to sell the aircraft or convert it into a freighter. The decision leaves one 747-100 and two Lockheed L-1011 TriStars available for passenger charter customers, ...
-
News
Marketplace
-Continental Airlines has placed a $75 million order with Rolls-Royce for RB211-535E4B engines to power five Boeing 757-200s. The 757s were ordered in 1997 and are due for delivery between December 1999 and June 2000. -American International Airways, a division of Kitty Hawk, has taken delivery of an ex-Middle East ...
-
News
Olympic Airways beats path to alliance link
The search for a strategic partner for struggling Olympic Airways has become the central feature of a new restructuring plan now being implemented by the Greek national carrier. The government, aware that Olympic has been brushed aside in the airline industry's global consolidation programme, has propelled its search for ...
-
News
Pylon crack
Boeing has amended its inspection procedures for Boeing 747 engine pylons after the discovery of serious fatigue cracking in a Cathay Pacific 747 pylon. The crack, in the number one engine pylon, was discovered during a post-flight inspection in December 1996. According to an incident report released by the Hong ...
-
News
Qantas studies 747 classic fleet expansion
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Qantas is evaluating Boeing 747 classic fleets being offered for sale with a view to boosting its own fleet of 747s by up to six aircraft at the end of next year. The airline is working on a business study which proposes the increase in 747 ...
-
News
R-R aims to secure Trent fuel savings with 3-D compressor
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Rolls-Royce is to introduce new compressor blade technology in two members of the Trent engine family, which it hopes will yield a significant reduction in fuel consumption. The blades - designed using three-dimensional aerodynamic (3-D aero) analysis software - will initially be used on the Trent ...
-
News
Crane files lawsuit against BFGoodrich and Coltec in merger bid
BFGoodrich's agreement to acquire Coltec Industries has come under attack from US engineering concern Crane, which has filed a lawsuit against both companies in a bid to force Coltec to consider its merger offer. Stamford, Connecticut-based Crane says the lawsuit is intended to remove anti-takeover provisions in the Coltec/BFGoodrich ...
-
News
Blind alley
It would be difficult to describe the prospects for future supersonic civil transports as anything other than bleak, and getting bleaker, even as the enabling technology is advancing. Notwithstanding the promise of a supersonic corporate jet getting off the ground, there seems little realistic likelihood of even premium airline passengers ...
-
News
JSF engines tested in STOVL modes
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Pratt &Whitney has exercised all short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) modes of the propulsion systems under test for the Boeing and Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstrators. All four JSF119 engine variants were on test by late November. Programme manager Bob Cea says the ...
-
News
Buzzing along
Allan Winn/LONDON According to the laws of mathematics and physics, bees cannot fly. Millions of bees every day prove, of course, that either this theory or the laws of physics are wrong: according to apiarist Rex Boys, it is the theory which fails the test. The physics are sound: it ...
-
News
Moving swiftly
Kanichi Amano/TOKYO Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE When the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) approved funding for a new supersonic engine demonstrator programme, Tokyo once again proved its readiness to put real money behind the development of technology for a new supersonic transport (SST) aircraft. In September, the ...
-
News
Chasing a dream
Paul Duffy/PERM The last seven years have been difficult for the Russian aviation industry. Long accustomed to producing to Soviet state orders, the industry's finance and income also came from the same source. Now in crisis, most state-owned companies in the industry are waiting for state rescue. If ...
-
News
The final frontier
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Every time a Space Shuttle blasts off, its booming sound waves pass unseen over the forgotten bones of a long abandoned project. Lying at the edge of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, are the forlorn remains of Boeing's 2707-200 supersonic transport (SST) full-scale mock-up. Abandoned when the ...
-
News
Robin reorganises manufacturing to tackle backlog
Avions Pierre Robin is reorganising its manufacturing capability in an attempt to step-up production rates and reduce the growing order backlog. The process began in October when the carbonfibre, high performance CAP 202 and CAP 222 aerobatic aircraft were relocated to a new production site at its Darios, Dijon, ...
-
News
VisionAire looks again at Vantage design
Visionaire has pushed back certification and first deliveries of its Vantage single- engined business jet while it undertakes a design review of the aircraft. "We conducted a critical design review on the aircraft in mid-1998 and realised that it was too heavy. In our haste to get the aircraft ...
-
News
Lufthansa delays decision on 728JET
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Lufthansa CityLine has backed away from making a formal commitment to the Fairchild Dornier 728JET programme by the end of 1998. A decision is not expected until March. The German flag carrier's regional arm had been due to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December, ...
-
News
India freezes airline merger with senior management purge
The Indian Government has purged the senior management of state-owned Air India and Indian Airlines airlines, claiming it wants to speed up their privatisation. The civil aviation minister, Ananth Kumar, dissolved the joint board of Air India and Indian Airlines on 11 December, days after the board announced plans ...
-
News
Boeing hopes repairs will occupy Long Beach
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing is resorting to introducing repair and modification work to keep its Long Beach plant in California busy, following the reversal of plans to set up a Next Generation 737 assembly line at the former Douglas factory. Boeing 737 operators face the prospect of their ...
-
News
P&W confirms major delay for Korean Air Lines 777-300
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Pratt & Whitney is being forced to recertificate its PW4098 engine for the heavyweight Boeing 777-300, adding several months to the already delayed programme and making first deliveries to Korean Air Lines almost a year late. The latest problems with the PW4098 emerged during flight ...