All air transport news – Page 2535
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Cargo expansion
Polar Air Cargo plans to add six Boeing 747-200s to its fleet of 12 747-100 freighters, and is projecting that it will be operating 22-24 aircraft within two years. The Long Beach, California-based carrier operates cargo services to Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand and South America. Source: Flight ...
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Atlas finance
US cargo carrier Atlas Air plans a $100 million public offering to part-finance the acquisition of three additional Boeing 747-200s, which are to enter service early in 1996 after being converted to freighters. Source: Flight International
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Safety comparisons with US record should be balanced
Sir - The article "Hull-loss accident rate climbing" (Flight International, 22-28 November, P22) calls for a response. It is correct to use the USA as a benchmark to trace the evolution of the frequency of this type of accident. The USA has been, and still is, a leader ...
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UTC signs for ICAD design software
UNITED TECHNOLOGIES has signed an agreement, potentially worth almost $1.9 million, to use Concentra's ICAD System design-automation software at Hamilton Standard, Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. The deal includes an option to buy Burlington, Massachusetts-based Concentra's Selling Point sales-engineering automation software. Concentra says that P&W has used ...
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T-tail, take three
McDonnell Douglas has finally launched its MD-95 into the hotly contested100-seat market. Guy Norris/LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) hopes to build a lot of future business on its newly launched MD-95. Not only will it lead the attack on the yet-to-be-realised 100-seat market, but the small airliner ...
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New members join in-trail-climb club
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES NORTHWEST, AMERICAN and Singapore Airlines (SIA) are set to join Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in operational trials of in-trail-climb (ITC) procedures over the Pacific. The use of ITC is being examined as a way of preventing one aircraft becoming "trapped" beneath ...
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Growing up
Boeing has begun assembly of its firstnew-generation 737.Guy Norris/SEATTLE IT IS UNPRECEDENTED but, by mid-1997, Boeing's Renton site in Seattle, Washington, will be producing six different models of the same jet airliner. The aircraft is the best-selling 737, and the ramp-up represents the phase in its development when production of ...
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Boeing 777: shake, rattle and roll?
Sir - I have recently flown on "Friendly Skies'" new "Mega Twin" (United Airlines' Boeing 777) and there is no doubt that the aircraft is most impressive in terms of space and cabin layout. One thing surprised me, however, and that was the high level of noise and ...
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Multi-type piloting
Increasingly, commercial pilots will be simultaneously qualified on more than one type. David Learmount/LONDONPaul Lewis/HONG KONG IT SEEMS CERTAIN that, in the future, the average airline pilot will be simultaneously qualified on more aircraft types than are today's aircrew. Most major-carrier commercial pilots today are "type-rated" on one ...
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Osprey tilts the balance
A leaner, cheaper, V-22 tilt-rotor is taking shape, thanks to advances in manufacturing technology. Graham Warwick/FORT WORTH MAJOR PIECES OF THE FIRST production-representative V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor are coming together at Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Helicopters, and confidence is growing that the dramatic cost and weight reductions achieved ...
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Boeing tackles 'tail-wag' problem on United 777s
Guy Norris/SEATTLE BOEING PLANS TO MAKE changes to the 777 gust-response system as part of efforts to eliminate a slow yawing motion, or "tail-wag", experienced by crews on the first few United Airlines aircraft. "We sent a team out to fly with the aircraft on revenue ...
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Garuda Indonesia gears up for approaching privatisation
GARUDA INDONESIA is going to turn many of its operations into financially independent business units from 1996, in preparation for the national carrier's eventual privatisation. The state-owned airline has targeted the Garuda Maintenance Facility (GMF) and ground handling as the first two divisions to be given the new ...
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AlliedSignal wins 2h cockpit-voice recorder certification
A solid-state cockpit-voice recorder (SSCVR) made by AlliedSignal Aerospace, which stores 2h of digitally recorded sound, has received US Federal Aviation Administration certification. An SSCVR will be required on all Part 121 transport-category aircraft in Europe by April 1997, and AlliedSignal believes that the FAA will require the ...
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Long Beach rolls out the barrel
MCDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) has begun production of the first MD-11 fuselage barrels at its Long Beach assembly site, following transfer of the work from General Dynamics' Convair division in San Diego, California. Production of the fuselage sections, 5.5m in diameter and 18.3m in length, was transferred to Long ...
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UK firm starts work on new low-cost amphibian
A LOW-COST TWIN-engined amphibian aircraft based on the Pilatus Britten-Norman (PBN) Islander is being developed by a new UK aircraft company. Ross Aircraft has already successfully tested a one-fifth-scale model in proof-of-concept trials on a Scottish lake and is in negotiations with potential backers in a bid to ...
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MIAT targets safety
THE NEW HEAD of Mongolian Airlines (MIAT), Huvaahuugiin Aleksandr, has made improving the national airline's safety record the main priority of his tenure. MIAT has suffered 20 fatal air crashes in its history, the latest on 21 September when an Antonov An-24 flew into a mountainside on approach to the ...
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MDC takes Russian DC-XA tank
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) has received a cryogenic liquid-oxygen tank produced in Russia using an advanced aluminium-lithium alloy. The tank will be installed in the upgraded Delta Clipper Experimental Advanced (DC-XA) re-useable launch-vehicle, due to be flight-tested in 1996. The 630kg 2.4m-diameter tank was produced by RSC Energia, using ...
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Dow-UT claims first composite exit case
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA DOW-UNITED Technologies Composite Products (Dow-UT) has completed the first turbofan fan exit case to be built from composites. The 2.8m-diameter case has been produced under a $14.8 million contract from the US Advanced Research Projects Agency, using an advanced resin-transfer moulding (RTM) process developed by Dow-UT. ...
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Taiwan 'ready to give support' to Jetcruzer
TAIWAN IS PREPARED to back a joint venture with Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures (AASI) to produce the Jetcruzer six-seat single-turboprop aircraft, according to local reports. Jack Tang, deputy director of the Taiwanese economics ministry's committee for aviation and space industry development, is quoted as saying that the venture ...
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Airbus extends widebody family
Julian Moxon/PARIS AIRBUS INDUSTRIE HAS launched the shortened, longer-range, version of its twin-engined A330 widebody and confirmed its development of the ultra-long range A340-8000. The A330-200 is scheduled to be flown for the first time in the middle of 1997, and to be ready for service ...