All air transport news – Page 2320
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Manufacturers issue fresh bids as SIA revives long haul plans
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Airbus Industrie and Boeing have submitted fresh proposals to Singapore Airlines (SIA) in response to a renewed impetus within the airline to move ahead with its ultra long haul requirement with either the A340-500 or 777-200X. The two rival manufacturers are understood to have made improved ...
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SkyWest buys Brasilias for new United Express services
Skywest Airlines is to buy 20 new Embraer EMB-120 Brasilias after United Airlines awarded the carrier a contract to provide United Express regional services in the US Pacific North-west, replacing WestAir. Skywest will also acquire seven used Brasilias because it requires a total of 27 additional aircraft for its ...
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Transbrasil resurrects plans to purchase Boeing 777-200s
Brazilian independent airline Transbrasil has revived plans to acquire Boeing 777s, some 30 months after it scrubbed a deal with Boeing. The Sao Paulo-based airline has signed a letter of intent for four 777-200IGWs, say airline sources in Latin America. The airline's last deal with Boeing was for three ...
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Airtours acquires Air Belgium with Sun
UK group Airtours has acquired a majority stake in Air Belgium following its take-over of Belgian tour operator Sun International. The move marks a further incursion for the UK charter airline business into the continental European market. Airtours will take over an 80% stake in the largely privately owned ...
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European airlines continue to wage war on airport charges
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Europe's airlines are continuing their attack on airport charges, unveiling a study which highlights massive variations in costs within the region and suggests that European charging levels are two or three times higher than for their USor Asian counterparts. The issue re-ignited in 1997 when members ...
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Brave new world
GLOOM-MONGERS aside, Asia's aerospace sector is strong enough to host Asian Aerospace '98, but this show does represent a watershed. It comes at a time when economic turbulence has spelled the end of many old assumptions about the shape of the aerospace world, and the position of the players in ...
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MAPO plans to fly MiG 1.42 by August as LFI demonstrator
MAPO MIG's Object 1.42 fifth generation fighter prototype will finally be flown by the third quarter of this year, with the aircraft being used as a technology demonstrator for the company's Lightweight Frontal Fighter (LFI), according to Mikhail Korzhuyev, new general director of Mikoyan design bureau. The aircraft has ...
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P&W completes F100-229A altitude testing
Pratt & Whitney has completed initial altitude tests of an advanced version of the F100-229A flight engine, which is fitted with a new fan and inlet to boost power and increase durability. The -229A is designed to power the Boeing F-15E and Lockheed Martin F-16C/D from 2000 onwards - ...
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Singapore negotiates on JSF participation
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Singapore is conducting talks with the US Department of Defense (DoD) on participating in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme as an observer, in a further sign of increasingly close defence co-operation between the two nations. The Singapore Ministry of Defence is understood to be discussing a memorandum ...
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Tight rein forecast
Max Kingsley-Jones and Kevin O'Toole/LONDON for Flight International It is one of the ironies of the airline cycle that just as the manufacturers are gearing up to record production levels, the market runs into trouble. Last time round it was the Gulf war which heralded a dramatic and damaging descent ...
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Multimission craft
Julian Moxon/Marignane, FRANCECUTAWAY DRAWING/Giuseppe Picarella In bringing two new machines to the market in the space of two years, Eurocopter appears to have pulled off something of a coup. By any standards, the eight seat, twin engined EC135 and now the five seat EC120 Colibri single have both been very ...
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Calculated landings
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS According to David Jacobson, a training captain on Qantas' Boeing 737 domestic fleet, in this age of "-technical precision, the manual landing flare manoeuvre has remained imprecise. Conventional techniques have relied upon an inconsistent, critical estimation of height above the landing surface, and are subject to a number ...
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Rutan assistance helps Angel relay concept to take wing
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC A US company plans to begin operations in 2000 with a communications-relay aircraft designed by Burt Rutan. A proof-of-concept aircraft is under construction at Rutan's Scaled Composites and is to be flown in mid-1998. Angel Technologies of St Louis, Missouri, says that it is "on ...
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Extra expects approval for 330 aerobatic aircraft in March
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH German light aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau expects to complete certification of work on its new Extra 330 aerobatic aircraft by the end of March. The aircraft, an upgraded version of the Extra 300, has a more powerful engine and "much better manoeuvrability" for competition flying, says ...
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Dornier Seastar plans India restart
Dornier Seastar is hoping to resume production of its Seastar multi-role amphibious aircraft in India with manufacturer Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), eight years after the programme was halted. The German company, headed by Conrado Dornier, has submitted a proposal to HAL chairman Krishnadas Niar to set up a joint venture, ...
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AE31X partners launch pre-development work
Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) and Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) have agreed to launch pre-development work on the AE31X project in March, before any final joint venture business agreement and without the active participation of Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero). A joint team is to be established in Toulouse ...
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BA to fund new orders with refinancing deal
Max Kingsley-Jones and Kevin O'Toole/LONDON British Airways is in talks with engine manufacturer General Electric over a wide ranging aircraft refinancing package which would see the carrier take more GE-powered Boeing 777s in place of some of its outstanding 747-400s. GE is understood to have made an approach to ...
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P&W prepares for geared fan launch
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES An advanced technology geared turbofan that will form the basis of a new family of engines in the 107-156kN (24,000-35,000lb) thrust range is to be launched by Pratt & Whitney. P&W will use the new engine to challenge the market dominance of CFM International's CFM56. ...
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Boeing lines up more buyers for new 717
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing is close to signing orders and options for almost 200 717-200s, with leasing companies the main focus of interest. According to company sources, by far the biggest single impending sale of the 100-seater is to leasing giant International Lease Finance, which is understood to ...
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Boeing investigation
An in-depth US Federal Aviation Administration examination of Boeing 737 horizontal stabiliser manufacturing and assembly found no problems which would affect flight safety, but the audit uncovered minor quality control violations which the US aircraft manufacturer corrected immediately. The inspections, at plants in Renton, Washington, and Wichita, Kansas, were prompted ...