All air transport news – Page 2366

  • News

    MAS/GE engine deal

    1997-08-27T11:43:00Z

    Malaysia Airlines (MAS)and General Electric have finalised an agreement to form the joint venture, Aircraft Engine Repair & Overhaul (1997) (AERO '97). The new company, which is 70% owned by GE and 30% by MAS, will focus on developing the airline's existing CFM56 and Pratt & Whitney PW4000 capabilities. Similar ...

  • News

    Trimming the fat

    1997-08-27T11:15:00Z

    BMW Rolls-Royce is embarking on a weight-reduction programme for its BR715 engine, which is 45kg overweight. The company says that it will transfer the results of a similar programme for the smaller BR710, which trimmed off 35kg, to the new powerplant, and consultations are being held with suppliers to examine ...

  • News

    Grandair's seizure

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    GrandAir of the Philippines, which recently acquired two more Boeing 737-200s on lease, is still awaiting the release of two of its three leased Airbus Industrie A300B4s. The aircraft were recently seized by Dutch owner ING. GrandAir, in the meantime, says that it is working with 737 lessor Askar and ...

  • News

    Cathay will re-engine entire 747-400 fleet

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Hong Kong Aero Engine Services (HAESL) will ship Cathay Pacific Airway's first hybrid Rolls-Royce RB211-524G/H-T engine to Boeing in early September for flight certification, following agreement to modify the airline's entire fleet of 21 747-400s. HAESL is now modifying the first -524G and plans to run the engine ...

  • News

    Dash 8-400 favourite at SAS

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/Stockholm An official announcement on the selection of a new 70-seat turboprop for the SAS Commuter fleet is imminent, says the Scandinavian airline, with an order expected for as many as 20 Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8-400s, to be used alongside the existing Saab 2000 50-seaters. ...

  • News

    ValuJet crash blamed on total US safety-oversight failure

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The cause of the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 crash on 11 May, 1996, was failure by the US aviation-safety system to keep hazardous material off a commercial transport aircraft, according to the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official accident report. ValuJet, the Federal ...

  • News

    Rushing Russia

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    In May this year, Russia's deputy economics minister Andrew Svinarenko told the Aviaexport/Flight International conference in Moscow that the industry must change, and that the Government cannot and will not continue to support the present mix of over-diversification and over-capacity. That is a fine sentiment, but one of little substance ...

  • News

    Eurofighter partners agree on worldwide marketing/sales deal

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The four Eurofighter consortium partners have reached an internal agreement on dividing up areas of responsibility for worldwide marketing and sales of the EF2000 combat aircraft. According to senior sources within the consortium, the agreement was approved in May by member companies Alenia, British ...

  • News

    Lockheed tests F-22

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Lockheed Martin has begun taxi trials in preparation for the first flight of the F-22, possibly by the end of this month, after testing the fighter's 156kN (35,000lb)-thrust Pratt & Whitney F119 powerplants at full afterburner, with the aircraft tied down. A series of minor software problems, including over-sensitive sensors ...

  • News

    Northrop Grumman hawks advanced radars for fighters

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NORTHROP GRUMMAN is taking orders for improved versions of the APG-66 and APG-68 fire-control radars, according to vice-president for avionics systems James Pitts. The advanced systems include the APG-68 Agile Beam Radar (ABR), the active electronically scanned-array variant of the radar installed in ...

  • News

    Advanced wing for the Beaver wins approval

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    A CANADIAN company has received supplemental type-certification for a replacement wing which enables the gross weight of the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver to be increased. Vancouver, British Columbia-based Advanced Wing Technologies (AWT) says that it already has orders for the C$95,000 ($73,000) modification from operators in Alaska, Australia and Canada. ...

  • News

    KLM pursues European plans

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON KLM says that it will continue to press ahead with plans to increase its presence across Europe, having signed its latest partnership deal with Norway's Braathens SAFE- backed with a 30%equity stake. KLM, which took full control of Air UK earlier this year and ...

  • News

    Olympic will buy 737-800s

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/paris Olympic Airways is to acquire a fleet of Next Generation Boeing 737s and Airbus A340s. The airline is close to resolving its long-running dispute with the European Commission (EC), which has held up payment of the last two tranches of its state aid. Resolution of the ...

  • News

    BMW Rolls-Royce presses Bonn to finance Tu-334

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/MOSCOW German engine manufacturer BMW Rolls-Royce has appealed to the Bonn Government to give financial backing to the Tupolev Tu-334 102-seat regional jet. "We believe that some of the financial assistance and credit which the German Government is giving Russia for commercial projects should be ...

  • News

    United buys time for regional-jet deal with Atlantic Coast Airlines

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    United Airlines has agreed to reimburse the aircraft-lease and flight-crew costs for Atlantic Coast Airlines' (ACA) Bombardier Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ) until the end of the year, giving the carrier more time to reach an agreement with its pilots . ACA had planned to begin an independent regional-jet ...

  • News

    Volga-Dnepr signs up for Il-96T

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Ilyushin has signed an agreement with Russian cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr covering the sale of four Il-96T freighters, with two options. The aircraft manufacturer's chief designer Igor Katyrev says the agreement does not constitute a firm contract at this stage, although Volga-Dnepr has scheduled the first delivery for 1999. ...

  • News

    Myasishchev forms a US joint venture for Gzhel production

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    The Myasishchev Design Bureau has formed a joint venture with Cartwright Aviation of Virginia, aimed at eventual US production of the M-101T Gzhel light turboprop aircraft. According to the Russian concern, the US Ìrm will assemble M-101Ts for the USmarket from parts made and supplied by the Sokol ...

  • News

    ESA astronaut qualifies as Soyuz TM commander

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON Thomas Reiter, the European Space Agency's German air-force astronaut, has become the first foreigner to qualify to command a flight of the Russian three-crew Soyuz TM. Reiter, a veteran of a 179-day shift aboard the Mir 1 space station in 1996, which included two ...

  • News

    GATX Airlog close to returning reworked cargo 747s to use

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Two airlines have started work to return to service two Boeing 747 freighters grounded in mid-1996, when the US Federal Aviation Administration imposed load restrictions on the GATX Airlog cargo conversion. Airlog says that work to recertificate the conversion is "about 80% complete" ...

  • News

    Tests complete on first 'Block 4' GE90

    1997-08-27T00:00:00Z

    Boeing has completed flight and performance tests of the first 777-200IGW (increased gross weight) powered by the "Block 4" variant of the General Electric GE90-90B turbofan. The aircraft is being refurbished at the company's Everett site in Washington before delivery to Lauda Air in late September. ...