All news – Page 6594
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Darting towards retirement
Peter Henley/BOURNEMOUTH HURN Flying a 35-year-old Handley Page Dart Herald was markedly different from Flight International's usual flight tests of aircraft closer to the leading edge of technology. It was, however, a fascinating experience piloting one of the last operational examples of this first generation turboprop regional airliner. ...
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Moving swiftly
Kanichi Amano/TOKYO Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE When the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) approved funding for a new supersonic engine demonstrator programme, Tokyo once again proved its readiness to put real money behind the development of technology for a new supersonic transport (SST) aircraft. In September, the ...
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Chasing a dream
Paul Duffy/PERM The last seven years have been difficult for the Russian aviation industry. Long accustomed to producing to Soviet state orders, the industry's finance and income also came from the same source. Now in crisis, most state-owned companies in the industry are waiting for state rescue. If ...
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Smart move
Tim Furniss/LONDON On 10 December, while the first components of the International Space Station were catching the world's eye, Sweden launched its Astrid 2 science satellite. The launch was made aboard a Russian Cosmos 3M booster from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome as part of a contract with the Russian Polyot organisation. ...
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Supersonic business
Julian Moxon/PARIS Additional reporting by Guy Norris and Graham Warwick While the announcement was unexpected, few could have been surprised when Dassault Aviation announced at the 1997 National Business Aircraft Association (NBAA) show that it was "studying the feasibility of a supersonic business jet". Dassault's extensive supersonic combat ...
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The final frontier
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Every time a Space Shuttle blasts off, its booming sound waves pass unseen over the forgotten bones of a long abandoned project. Lying at the edge of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, are the forlorn remains of Boeing's 2707-200 supersonic transport (SST) full-scale mock-up. Abandoned when the ...
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Air London calls on UK CAA to resist rule change
Air London, the world's largest corporate charter broker, has called on the UK Civil Aviation Authority not to bow to pressure from other members of the charter broker community to exempt corporate aircraft from the new air travel organiser's license (ATOL) regulations. The regulations, commonly associated with airline travel, ...
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Oxford education
Oxford Air Services, parent company of CSE Aviation and Oxford Airport, has launched a £1 million ($1.65 million) ground training school for pilots, engineers and "personnel working in the aviation industry," The Oxford Aviation College was officially opened on 7 December. Source: Flight International
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Robin reorganises manufacturing to tackle backlog
Avions Pierre Robin is reorganising its manufacturing capability in an attempt to step-up production rates and reduce the growing order backlog. The process began in October when the carbonfibre, high performance CAP 202 and CAP 222 aerobatic aircraft were relocated to a new production site at its Darios, Dijon, ...
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VisionAire looks again at Vantage design
Visionaire has pushed back certification and first deliveries of its Vantage single- engined business jet while it undertakes a design review of the aircraft. "We conducted a critical design review on the aircraft in mid-1998 and realised that it was too heavy. In our haste to get the aircraft ...
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VIP update
The Australian government will replace its two VIP Boeing 707 transports with the same number of Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) or Airbus Industrie A319CJ.Five existing leased Dassault Falcon 900s will be replaced with three leased aircraft with transcontinental capability, expected to be either the Dassault Falcon 2000, Bombardier Canadair Challenger ...
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Gulf strikes
US forces launched a series of cruise missile strikes on targets in Iraq on 16 December, in response to the latest impasse in United Nations Arms Control Commission monitoring work in Baghdad. The attacks, codenamed Desert Fox, were a precursor to further strikes involving manned aircraft likely to include Royal ...
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Lufthansa delays decision on 728JET
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Lufthansa CityLine has backed away from making a formal commitment to the Fairchild Dornier 728JET programme by the end of 1998. A decision is not expected until March. The German flag carrier's regional arm had been due to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in December, ...
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Novel SST configuration revealed
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES A group of Northrop Grumman designers have been awarded a US patent for an innovative supersonic transport design incorporating active and passive laminar flow control, and an unusual reverse delta wing. Northrop Grumman, which says the design is not part of any programme, was contracted ...
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Thai probe focuses on ILS and weather
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Investigations into the accident which destroyed the Airbus A310 operating Thai Airways International flight TG261 on 11 December are focusing on weather conditions, human factors and the lack of a working instrument landing system (ILS) at Surat Thani Airport, Thailand. The 12-year-old A310-200 (HS-TIA), one of ...
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BBA spends $170 million on AMR Combs chain
The UK's BBA Group has agreed to acquire the AMR Combs chain of fixed-base operations (FBOs) for $170 million. BBA owns Signature Flight Support, the largest USFBO chain, and the acquisition will consolidate its dominance of this sector of general aviation. Bidders for the highly respected AMR Combs operation, ...
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Canada Boeing CF-18s to get life extensions
Canada has launched a 10-year, C$1.2 billion ($780 million) upgrade to extend the life of its Boeing CF-18s by 14 years. The programme includes the possible sale of 22 or more of the Canadian Force's fleet of 122CF-18s to help pay for the upgrade, which will enable the aircraft ...
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Major move makes Evensen a first
Major Frode Evensen of the Royal Norwegian Air Force has become the first pilot from outside the four nations participating in the Eurofighter consortium to fly the EF2000 fighter, completing three sorties on 15-16 December. Evensen, a test pilot for Norway's Air Material Command, performed simulated air combat and air-to-air ...
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Galaxy shines for Israeli and US certification authorities
The US Federal Aviation Administration and the Israeli Civil Aviation Authority certified the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI)-built Galaxy business jet on 16 December. The first Galaxy prototype made its maiden flight on 25 December, 1997. Two prototypes have performed 260 test flights and accumulated 750 flying hours. "We have an ...
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India freezes airline merger with senior management purge
The Indian Government has purged the senior management of state-owned Air India and Indian Airlines airlines, claiming it wants to speed up their privatisation. The civil aviation minister, Ananth Kumar, dissolved the joint board of Air India and Indian Airlines on 11 December, days after the board announced plans ...