All air transport news – Page 2453
-
News
IPTN makes changes to N-250 after early flights
Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) is making minor changes to the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight-control system (FCS) of the N-250, Indonesia's first fully indigenously designed airliner, following early flight tests. IPTN test pilot Erwin Danoewinata says that the general handling characteristics are "very satisfactory", and that the FCS is ...
-
News
NASA looks at ways to save PCA during crises
NASA is studying a potential application of its recently completed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system, which would allow a twin-engined aircraft to survive a catastrophic engine and flight-control failure. The PCA was developed following the 1989 crash of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with disabled flight controls. The crew ...
-
News
US Court threatens GAIN safety system
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC David Learmount/LONDON A COURT DECISION ordering USAir to provide lawyers with internal safety-audit data which the airline thought was protected from compulsory public release by the Federal Aviation Administration could seriously damage US efforts to set up an international safety programme. The Supreme ...
-
News
R-R invites Bristol division bids
Brian Dunn/MONTREAL ROLLS-ROYCE Industries Canada is selling its Bristol Aerospace division, saying that the Winnipeg-based company no longer fits its long-term plans. The 30-year-old relationship with Bristol is being cut to allow Montreal-based R-R Canada to concentrate on its main businesses of manufacturing aircraft and industrial ...
-
News
R-R develops a low-emissions combustor for RB.211-535E4B
ROLLS-ROYCE is developing a new combustor for its RB.211-535E4B turbofan, which it claims will reduce the engine's nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 40%. The new variant is due to enter service, powering Condor's first Boeing 757-300, in the first quarter of 1999. According to David Snape, chief ...
-
News
Boeing takes lead in order race
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON BOEING HAS edged ahead of Airbus Industrie in turbofan-aircraft sales at the end of the third quarter of 1996, the two manufacturers having effectively matched each other's performance in net-order terms during the first half-year. The US manufacturer, which had around 50% of the ...
-
News
Sabena places new long-haul fleet
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS THE RATIONALISATION of Sabena's long-haul-aircraft types is the priority item on the carrier's fleet-planning agenda, with a decision expected soon on standardising on a single type. The long-haul decision is seen as a more urgent than the replacement of its older Boeing 737-200s, ...
-
News
Airbus Industrie creates freight airline for Belugas
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has set up a subsidiary to operate its A300-600ST (Super Transporter) "Beluga" outsized transports on commercial cargo charters. It is estimated that the new division, Airbus Transport International (ATI), could earn the consortium up to $15 million-worth of revenue each year using spare capacity on the Beluga fleet. ...
-
News
Germany to lead free-flight trials in Europe
GERMANY'S civil-aviation authority, the DFS, is working with Lufthansa to carry out trials of free-flight technologies in Europe. "We're looking at how to implement free flight in Germany as soon as possible," says Dr Klaus Dieter Ehrhardt, responsible for CNS/ATM planning in the DFS. "We will look at ...
-
News
SAS to begin using ADS-B system in 1997
Scandinavian carrier SAS is to equip "at least" ten commercial aircraft, and ground vehicles, with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) systems in 1997, and plans to equip its new Boeing 737-600s in 1998. The trials are part of the European-Commission-funded North European ADS-B Network programme, which has established a ...
-
News
Airlines are 'confused' over European free-flight issues
Julian Moxon/AMSTERDAM A MAJOR INITIATIVE to prove the cost benefits of flying in a "free-flight" air-traffic-management (ATM) environment must be mounted if the system is ever to become reality, say leading industry officials speaking at the Flight International Airline Navigation '96 conference in Amsterdam on 9 -11 October. ...
-
News
IPTN plans N270 talks in December
SENIOR OFFICIALS from Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) and its US subsidiary, American Regional Aircraft Industry (AMRAI), plan to meet in mid-December to re-evaluate development of the proposed stretched N270 turboprop. The Indonesian meeting is expected to conduct a complete review of the yet-to-be launched, programme in ...
-
News
MAS sale
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is understood to be looking to sell its two GE CF6-powered Boeing 747-400 Combis and its single Pratt & Whitney JT9D-powered 747-300 Combi. The airline wants to rationalise its mix of airframes and engines and to implement an all-passenger and all-freighter fleet. The airline's two Rolls-Royce RB.211-powered ...
-
News
Continental order provides further fillip to new 737s
THE RECORD-BREAKING sales pace of Boeing's next-generation 737 continues to accelerate, with an order for 30 -600s from Continental Airlines, taking total firm orders of the new family to 423. The Continental order also includes 30 current-generation 737-500s and takes total -300/ 400/500 series sales to around 1,916, ...
-
News
Fan-blade snag delays 737 engine approval
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES CERTIFICATION of the CFM International (CFMI) CFM56-7B2 for Boeing's next-generation 737 family is expected to be delayed by almost two months, to give the engine maker more time to validate modifications to the troublesome fan-blade retention system. CFMI says that the delay "-will ...
-
News
Merpati concludes BAe 146 lease agreement with NJS
NATIONAL JET Systems (NJS), of Australia, has signed an agreement to sublease up to ten BAe 146s to Merpati Nusantara Airlines. The aircraft will partially replace the Indonesian domestic carrier's ageing Fokker fleet of 15 F27s and 25 F28s on regional routes, beginning in November. Adelaide-based NJS, which ...
-
News
Samsung presents Dutch with Fokker business plan
Julian Moxon/PARIS Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE SOUTH KOREA'S Samsung Aerospace has finally presented to the Dutch Government its business plan for the acquisition of Fokker Aircraft. A response from the Hague is due by 18 October and, if the plan is accepted, will lead to the launch of ...
-
News
Deutsche BA will sell turboprops to French carrier
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH DEUTSCHE BA IS TO sell its loss-making turboprop activities to French carrier Regional Airlines, leaving the German British Airways daughter to focus on its jet-airliner operations. The sale comes just a month after BA announced that it was to restructure its European operation as part of ...
-
News
No-gain pain
AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS ARE effective, if often tragic, teachers, and the aviation community always learns greatly from them. Incidents - the accidents which didn't quite happen -- can be just as effective teachers, but the aviation community learns far less from them. The reason is fear of disclosure- a fear which ...
-
News
Good business
Scottish regional airline Business Air is to add two ex-American Eagle Saab 340As to its fleet, bringing the total to ten. The airline wants to develop further its Manchester-based routes and take advantage of its new code-sharing agreement with Continental Airlines. Business Air, which recently became part of the Airlines ...