All air transport news – Page 2249
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News
Marketplace
-Pan American has added a fourth Boeing 727-200 to its fleet to expand charter operations. The airline is now examining the possibility of resuming scheduled operations next year. -Qantas has found a buyer for its fleet of four 16/17-year-old Airbus A300B4s - the A300 freighter leasing company Pinnacle Air Cargo ...
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737 Directive
The US Federal Aviation Administration has given affected airlines 60 days to inspect boost pump wiring on Boeing 737s which have logged 20,000-30,000 flight hours. It also ordered installation of an extra layer of Teflon sleeving to protect the fuel pump wires. The order affects 737-100-500 series. The FAA estimates ...
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Routes
-Korean Air and Air France have signed a codeshare deal on flights between Paris and Seoul. The two carriers now operate six weekly flights, of which five will be codeshare services. -All Nippon Airways is seeking permission to open a new non-stop daily service from Tokyo to San Francisco, using ...
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SAS thinks over airliner options
Julian Moxon/PARIS SAS says it could decide "by the end of the year" on its next airliner purchases, following the September delivery of its first Next Generation Boeing 737. The Scandinavian airline is looking at replacing its 14 200-seat Boeing 767-300ERs with the Boeing 777 or a mix ...
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Southern Air ceases operations
Financially troubled US cargo carrier Southern Air Transport (SAT), which has been up for sale for some time, ceased operations on 25 September. The airline plans to liquidate assets as it contemplates filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors. The end came after first Fine Air Services, and then Kitty ...
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MD-11 wreckage yields clues but not answers
David Learmount/LONDON Any remaining doubt about whether the crew of the stricken Swissair Boeing MD-11 was attempting a ditching has now been eliminated by examination of wreckage on the seabed. Investigators have found that the aircraft, when it hit the water at night off Nova Scotia, Canada, on 2 ...
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AMR searches for a buyer for its fixed-base operations chain
American Airlines' parent company AMR has put its AMR Combs fixed-base operation (FBO) network up for sale along with its AMR Services and TeleService Resources units. The company says it wants to focus on its core airline and Sabre computer reservations businesses. AMR acquired the Combs Gates network of ...
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Boeing wins C-130 support contract
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Department of Defense (DoD) has awarded Boeing a $1.2 billion, 10-year contract to support variants of the Lockheed Martin C-130 operated by US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The Integrated Weapon System Support Programme (IWSSP) covers repair, maintenance, modification and upgrade of ...
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Cyprus opts for Russia's Tor as standby to Italy's Aspide missile
Cyprus will buy the Russian Tor (SA-15) surface to air missile system if Italy continues to hesitate in selling the Alenia Aspide 330 system, according to Cypriot media sources. The Cypriot defence minister, Yiannakis Omirou, is understood to have told a closed session of the parliamentary defence committee that ...
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Boeing chooses JSF manufacturing team
Boeing has picked its core team of suppliers for its bid to win the Joint Strike Fighter programme competition. The suppliers are UK-based Flight Refuelling, for the fuel system, Marconi Electronic Systems for cockpit displays, Messier Dowty for the main and nose landing gear and Rolls-Royce for the vertical ...
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Point to point delivery
David Learmount/LONDON Transporting outsized, heavy machinery or plant to a remote site on a different continent is a logistics nightmare which might involve three or more modes of transport. The unit, perhaps a hydro-electric generator, often has to be designed not only for its mechanical efficiency, but to enable modular ...
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Proteus aims to reach new high
Scaled Composites, manufacturer of the Proteus high-altitude long operation aircraft, plans later this month to expand the flight envelope to altitudes above 35,000ft (10,700m) and speeds up to 175kt (320km/h) indicated airspeed (or Mach 0.55) as part of its goal of achieving "loiter" operations at 64,000ft. Proteus, which was ...
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Growing pains
Emma Kelly/LONDONThe in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry is growing up. But it has had to. The IFE industry today is showing the first signs of realism and credibility - much improved characteristics than the over-promises and disappointments that have plagued the industry in recent years. After years of considerable effort, interactive ...
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Proteus market predicted to fly
Guy Norris/MOJAVE Wyman-Gordon is predicting an estimated market for up to 1,000 of the unconventional Proteus high-altitude, long operation (HALO) aircraft being built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites. The US investment company hopes to begin proof-of-concept trials as early as 2000. The prediction, from Wyman-Gordon's chairman and chief ...
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Airbus may move wing production to China
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Airbus Industrie is proposing to transfer part of its A320 aircraft series wing production to China, in a move intended to compensate for the recent demise of the Sino-European AE31X regional jet programme and to counter a similar offer of 717 wing work from Boeing. The European consortium ...
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Philippine Airlines reprieved by union deal
Grounded Philippine Airlines (PAL)has won a reprieve from a final shutdown, following a "yes" vote by ground staff to accept a government-brokered last-ditch deal to revive the ailing carrier financially . The 6,500-strong PAL Employees Association voted on 2 October by a two-to-one margin to accept the deal reached ...
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Fairchild Dornier admits doubts over Crossair 728JET order
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Fairchild Dornier has admitted that doubts are growing over Crossair's commitment to the new 728JET family of regional aircraft, as a result of recent configuration decisions which have gone against the Swiss airline's wishes. Crossair and Lufthansa CityLine each signed a letter of intent earlier this year to ...
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Corrosion detector fishes for faults in the field
Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, and the University of Alaska's Fishery Technology Center are developing ultra-sensitive magnetic field detectors which are already finding applications in the aircraft maintenance business, even though the technology was originally aimed at improving efficiency in the fishing industry. Known as Superconducting Quantum ...
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New materials for GE fan blades
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Dow-United Technologies Composites Products is to develop jet-engine fan blades for General Electric, using an improved carbonfibre material. The blades will be produced using Dow-UT's advanced resin transfer moulding (AdvRTM) process, but employing the company's new Uni-Hybrid composite. Dow-UT says the new material is more ...
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Japan and USA join for ejection seat
Japan and the USA have launched a co-operative programme to develop improvements for the ACES II ejection seat. The objectives are to expand the seat's accommodation range, prevent limb-fail injuries and increase high-speed stability. The Boeing (formerly McDonnell Douglas) ACES II seat is used in Japan Air Self-Defence Force ...