All air transport news – Page 2533
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Cobham acquires
Cobham, the acquisitive UK aerospace group, has continued its growth with an agreement to buy Westwind Air Bearings for £75 million ($116 million). Westwind, based in Poole, Dorset, has been growing strongly and is forecasting operating profits of £8 million on rising sales of £25.8 million for 1995. Cobham, formally ...
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United hushkits to extend service lives
Kieran Daly/LONDON UNITED AIRLINES has decided to hush-kit its Boeing 727 fleet and some of its 737-200s, allowing the aircraft to remain in service into the next century. The carrier, which earlier cancelled its options on a second batch of 50 Airbus A320s, is also ...
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Air China will take A340s
AIR CHINA IS TO TAKE delivery of three Airbus Industrie A340s, previously ordered by China Aviation Supplies (CASC). Airline sources say that the aircraft will replace four Boeing 747SPs used for long-haul passenger flights and Government VIP missions. The three A340s will be in addition to Air China's ...
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Boeing regroups as strike ends
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES BOEING IS WORKING flat out to catch up on delayed airliner deliveries and resume production after 32,000 machinist-union workers voted overwhelmingly on 13 December to return to work . The 68-day strike stopped deliveries of more than 30 airliners and suspended production ...
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GE90 power surge hits 777 ETOPS progress
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES PLANS TO BEGIN extended-range twinjet-operations (ETOPS) tests of the General Electric GE90-powered Boeing 777 have been hit by an incident in which a British Airways aircraft suffered an engine surge during pre-delivery flight tests. Although the engine recovered automatically from the surge, ...
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Double or quits
The Spacehab venture has been assured of a future by its involvement in the Shuttle-Mir missions. Tim Furniss/CRYSTAL CITY, ARLINGTON THE ARLINGTON-BASED Spacehab Company, which leases the Space Shuttle-based Space Research Laboratory of the same name, has raised $100 million in international private financing. This is the ...
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Boeing defines plans for a 'simple' 777-300 stretch
Guy Norris/SEATTLE DETAILED PLANNING for the design of the stretched Boeing 777-300 is to be completed by mid-February 1996. Half of the design will be released to manufacturing by September, and major assembly is due to begin in late March 1997. Boeing is keeping the ...
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Qantas will fly to India again
QANTAS HAS made sweeping schedule changes, which will include the carrier resuming services to Bombay via Singapore from next July, ending a six-year absence from India. A direct Boeing 747-400 flight from Melbourne to Johannesburg will be the first from Australia's East Coast. The three existing flights depart ...
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Demand drives Short Brothers to expand composites business
SHORT Brothers HAS unveiled ambitious plans to expand its aerospace-composites business in an effort to keep pace with demand for the engine nacelles and the other aircraft components it manufactures. The Belfast, UK-based company, part of Bombardier, is investing £5.1 million ($7.81 million) in a new autoclave and ...
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IPTN begins second phase of N250 flight tests
Paul Lewis/BANDUNG INDONESIA'S INDUSTRI Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) has begun a second phase of expanded flight-testing of its prototype N250. The twin turboprop has undergone 39 flights to date, totaling 40h, since its maiden flight on 10 August. The lead prototype has been flown to ...
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Dowty leads wing- technology study
Andrew Doyle/LONDON DOWTY AEROSPACE is leading a 30-month research programme aimed at developing advanced wing technologies for possible incorporation in Airbus aircraft. The £1.5 million ($2.3 million) "advanced high-lift programme" consists of 16 separate projects and is being partially funded by the UK Department of ...
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America West lays off 500 maintenance workers
AMERICA WEST Airlines has sacked 500 maintenance workers at its Phoenix, Arizona, headquarters as the prelude to switching heavy maintenance on its fleet of predominantly Boeing 737s to a third-party support company. The airline, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1994, will contract out "C" and "D" ...
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Taking shape
Boeing began major assembly of the first 777-200 increased-gross-weight (IGW) version on 20 February. The aircraft will be rolled out in the middle of this year, before delivery to British Airways in early 1997. The 777-200IGW has a take-off weight of 286,900kg and a range of 13,400km (7,230nm), compared with ...
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Restructured USAfrica ready for relaunch
USAFRICA AIRWAYS is optimistic that it will be able to restart services early in 1996 following the signing of a marketing pact with Continental Airlines and bankruptcy court approval for a refinancing package. USAfrica began serving South Africa in June 1994 from Washington, but it ceased operations and ...
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Competition for 100-seat regional-jet slot increases
Paul Lewis/LANGKAWI COMPETITION TO join with China and South Korea to design and produce a new 100-seat regional jet is intensifying, with rival European and US manufacturers now submitting their best and final offers. Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) and the Korean Commercial-aircraft Development Consortium (KCDC) ...
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Bombardier follows Dash success with Pelangi sales
DOMESTIC MALAYSIAN carrier Pelangi Air has ordered four Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8-200Qs and two larger -300s for delivery from April 1996. A further two Dash-8-300s are on option. The aircraft will replace Pelangi's three remaining Dornier 228s and two Fokker 50s, the disposal of which will be accomplished with ...
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CIS operators hit by series of crashes
Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW David Learmount/LONDON THREE SEPARATE crashes have left more than 150 people killed and at least 38 seriously injured in the CIS. An Azerbaijan Airways (AZAL) Tupolev Tu-134, a Baku Air Boeing 707 operated by AZAL, and an Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA) Tu-154M all ...
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Avro deal threatened by Saudi dissidents
POLITICAL FRICTION between the UK and Saudi Arabia over the continued presence of Saudi dissidents in London is jeopardising an estimated $250 million bid by British Aerospace subsidiary Avro Aerospace International to supply flag carrier Saudia with 12 Avro RJ70/85 regional passenger jets. The contract has been under ...
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MDC details test plans for F-18E/F
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) expects to fly the second F-18E Super Hornet by 16 December. Flight testing of the first F-18E is expected to resume shortly after repair of an environmental-control-system bleed door, failure of which caused the 29 November first flight to be cut short. ...
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Honeywell wins American deal
AMERICAN AIRLINES HAS selected the Honeywell/ Trimble HT9100 satellite-based navigation system for a fleetwide retrofit of 340 Boeing 727s and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s and MD-80s. The contract, is the first major fleet satellite-navigation avionics contract awarded, since the introduction of the Boeing/Honeywell FANS 1 system and is the ...