All air transport news – Page 2435
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TWA crash hearing helps to clarify policy on fuel tanks
The public hearing on the 1996 Trans World Airlines flight 800 fatal crash ended in Baltimore on 12 December without the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) coming any nearer to discovering the cause, although it can claim to have clarified potential safety policies. Measures to reduce the risk ...
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Air France president Spinetta lays plans for competitiveness
Julian Moxon/Paris Air France president Jean-Cyril Spinetta has unveiled the main elements in his plans to solve the "persistent competitiveness problems" which he says continue to plague the airline. Pilots' unions have objected to the plan, however. The strategy centres on a Fr40 billion ($6.7 billion) investment in ...
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British Midland expects to make record profits for 1997
British Midland (BM) expects to return record profits for 1997, after having successfully fended off growing competition from low-fare airlines, and benefited from the industrial dispute at British Airways. The news comes as the airline reveals plans for head-on competition with BAon the London-Manchester route. BM expects to ...
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Fairchild Dornier posts first result
Fairchild Dornier has revealed its financial figures for the first time, claiming strong net profits of just over $70 million for its latest 1996/7 year to the end of September. The privately owned US company, which has given out almost no financial information since taking over the troubled Dornier ...
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PIA chairman begins mission to restore 'financial discipline'
New Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has set about a clean sweep of the carrier's finances, taking heavy write-offs in the latest 1996/7 accounts and pledging to "restore operational and financial discipline". The accounts, which show a heavy Rs4.8 billion ($110 million)net loss in the year to ...
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Rocky Mountain high
Guy Norris/VANCOUVER We pull out of a 3g turn over Garibaldi Lake and fly towards the Black Tusk rock. The immense flanks of the mountain rear up in front and, for a moment, it seems as if my flight with the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic display team is about ...
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Super send-off
Allan Winn/Bristol - Bremen FOR 26 YEARS, THE JOKE was that every Airbus had its first flight on a Boeing wing - as a collection of components carried in one of the consortium's Super Guppy outsize transporters. (It was not strictly true - the first two A300s did not, ...
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747-400IGW gets go-ahead
Guy Norris/SEATTLE The Boeing board has given its civil-aircraft sales team authority to offer a growth version of the 747-400 with a maximum take-off weight of 413,140kg and a range of up to 14,245km (7,700nm). The decision is the first significant growth step for the aircraft since the ...
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AlliedSignal puts fan engine core on test
AlliedSignal is testing an engine core which will provide the basis for the company's next generation of business and regional turbofans. First run on 7 December, the "technology-validation core" consists of three axial and a centrifugal compressor driven by a single-stage high-pressure (HP) turbine. Some elements are derived from ...
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737 production recovery disappoints Boeing
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Boeing "is not seeing the improvement anticipated" for its production-recovery programme on the Next Generation 737, admits Commercial Airplanes Group president Ron Woodard. The number of jobs behind schedule have stayed essentially static since October, despite Boeing's efforts to "rebalance" the 737 production line. Woodard ...
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Guarantee allows Garuda to receive 737s at last
Garuda Indonesia will finally begin taking delivery of six completed Boeing 737-300/500s parked in the USA, following a long-awaited guarantee from the Indonesian finance ministry on lease financing. Delivery of the aircraft has been on hold since August after demands from the US Eximbank for a guarantor to agree ...
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Europe signs deal on military satellites
THE GOVERNMENTS of France, Germany and the UK have signed a protocol agreement to start development of the $2.2 billion Trimilsat military- communications satellite system, to be launched in 2005. The Trimilsat system, which is expected to include an as-yet-undecided number of geostationary satellites, will replace the UK Skynet ...
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P&W considers new rival for CFM56
Guy Norris/EAST HARTFORD Pratt & Whitney has begun studies of an advanced-technology geared-fan engine in an initiative to re-enter the narrowbody market and challenge the dominance of CFM International. The study outlines an initial series of engines for the 107-156kN (24,000-35,000lb)-thrust range, and is based around the use ...
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Saab decides to terminate turboprop products
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Saab is to discontinue manufacture of the Saab 340 and 2000 turboprops by mid-1999, shifting the focus of its civil-aircraft operation to support and finance of existing fleets, and to contracting for other manufacturers. The Swedish company is continuing discussions about the possible move of the production ...
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Branson signs for Trent A340-600s
Virgin Atlantic chairman Richard Branson has signed a contract with Airbus Industrie for eight Rolls-Royce Trent 500-powered A340-600s and taken an option on eight more. The UK airline becomes the first firm customer for the A340-500/600 series launched this month. First deliveries are due in early 2002. Source: Flight ...
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Precision/Unison in control link
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Unison Industries and Precision Airmotive have teamed to develop electronic mixture-control (EMC) for piston aircraft. It combines electronic ignition-control with automatic mixture-leaning to increase engine fuel-efficiency and power while reducing pilot workload. The development is based on Unison's LASAR engine-control system and Precision's RSA fuel ...
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Sikorsky begins deliveries of 'all-glass' S-76s
Sikorsky Aircraft has begun delivering S-76 helicopters equipped as standard with a Parker Gull integrated instrument-display system (IIDS). Consisting of three liquid-crystal displays replacing the conventional engine and rotor instruments, the IIDS complements the Honeywell four-tube electronic flight-instrument system which has been standard in the S-76 for some time. ...
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BA pioneers global monitoring
Ian Sheppard/LONDON British Airways is using an aircraft visual-tracking system which allows it to monitor the position of aircraft and immediately react to unforeseen events which cause flights to be diverted. Previously a diversion decision by a flightcrew would require "a call to tech-dispatch and manual calculation of ...
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Pathfinder 21 flight tests to begin
Soloy's Pathfinder 21 modification to the Cessna Caravan 208B is set to begin flight- testing in January following US Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certification of the 1,000kW (1,330shp) Soloy Dual Pac, which combines two Pratt & Whitney PT6-114As driving a single-propeller shaft (Flight International, 3-9 December). Flight-testing will ...
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Italy ponders AMX disposal
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA The Italian air force is considering selling off some of its Alenia/Embraer AMX fighter aircraft as it struggles to rationalise the number of variants of the type in the fleet and to improve its poor availability. The AMX disposal option has emerged from the highest echelons ...