All news – Page 6646
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Airbus sales irk US Congressman
America West Airlines has confirmed a deal for up to 77 Airbus Industrie A320 series aircraft. The move follows a Frontier Airlines letter of intent (LoI) for another 20 jets, rekindling US political criticism of the European manufacturer's growing success in the US market at Boeing's expense. Phoenix-based America ...
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Missile impasse
Russia has rejected a US offer of assistance to complete an early warning radar site at Irkutsk, Siberia, in exchange for amendment of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty to allow the planned National Missile Defense interceptor system to be deployed in Alaska. From there it would be able to protect ...
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GE uses Learjet experiment to plot unusual T-38 engine upgrade path
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES General Electric plans to certificate an upgraded CJ610 engine in a Learjet 20 as a means of offering the same conversion to the US Air Force for more than 500 Northrop T-38 Talon trainers. This will be as an "off the shelf" procurement. The unusual plan, thought ...
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Mexico LongRangers
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has ordered 24 Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters for use in anti-drug missions. The $35 million deal calls for the first four machines to be delivered by December and the remaining 20 by next September. The new 206s, assembled at Bell's base in Montreal, Canada, will be ...
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Continental boss hits out at Airbus A340/ETOPS campaign
Continental Airlines chief executive Gordon Bethune has hit out at Airbus Industrie over its advertising campaign promoting the safety of four-engined aircraft versus twins on Pacific routes. In a letter to Airbus managing director Noel Forgeard, Bethune accuses Airbus of exploiting "the unfounded fears of the travelling public on ...
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British Midland gets ready for Star sign
British Midland (BM) is poised to sign to with Star Alliance after agreeing to a two-week period of exclusive negotiations with Lufthansa. BM has been veering towards one global grouping after another for months. BM says its "proposed agreement" with Lufthansa would see the German major acquire a 20% ...
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Boeing to study further 777 stretch
Andrew Doyle/BRUSSELS Boeing is studying the possibility of stretching the 777-300X to accommodate up to 60 more passengers. The move comes at the request of some of the airlines evaluating the twinjet as a replacement for the 747-400. "We're listening to the airlines and asking the question: 'Can ...
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SAA targets Nigeria for sub-Saharan alliance
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN South African Airways (SAA) aims to become the guiding force in an alliance of sub-Saharan airlines, as it negotiates to acquire a major shareholding in Nigeria Airways. The moves come as the South African carrier prepares to relaunch a competition to upgrade its short- and long-haul ...
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USA aims to extend open skies arrangements round the world
The US Government plans to use a forthcoming meeting to spark discussions on broadening the scope of current bilateral open skies agreements into regional or global arrangements. It has previously been reluctant to do this. The gathering of international transport and aviation authorities will take place in Chicago on ...
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ISS mission support site opens
Boeing support personnel for the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle have begun moving into a $3 million, engineering/mission support room (EMSR). Similar to NASA's mission control complex at Houston, the EMSR was opened at the company's Huntington Beach site in California on 18 October. It replaces ...
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Tupolev Tu-334 is cleared for assembly at Moscow factory
Series production of the Tupolev Tu-334 twinjet has moved a step nearer, with the Russian Government issuing a special order approving assembly at the MAPO plant in Moscow. The paper, signed in early October by Russia's prime minister, Vladimir Putin, replaces a previous government decision to launch series production ...
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Bombardier will decide on regional jets early next year
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier says decisions on whether to proceed with the 90-seat CRJ-900 and 110-seat BRJ-X regional jets will be taken independently, within months of each other, next year. The Canadian company is offering the CRJ-900 to airlines, but will not have the authority to offer the ...
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Marconi secures 737 HUD approval from FAA
American Airlines is set to receive its first Boeing 737-800 equipped with a Marconi HUD 2020 Visual Guidance System (VGS) this month, following US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the head-up display (HUD). The aircraft is the first of at least 103 737-800s due to be fitted with the VGS, ...
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Boeing set to launch cockpit upgrades for 'classic' airliners
Andrew Doyle/BRUSSELS Boeing plans to launch major cockpit upgrade programmes for the 737 Classic, MD-80 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 as airlines begin to address the problem of how to comply with future air navigation requirements. The initiative is being driven by industry moves to establish a "free flight" regime in ...
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Taiwan-Philippines charters set to stop
Charter flights between Taiwan and the Philippines, unaffected by the recent ban on scheduled flights between the two countries due to the row over their air services agreement, are to be suspended by the end of the year. The move will see the severing of the last air links between ...
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Marketplace
Air Canada has received the first of six Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered Airbus A330-300s. Qatari wet-lease specialist Gulf Falcon Group has arranged to acquire five ex-Japan Airlines Boeing 747s, including two -100s and three -200s, from Itochu Air Lease, for delivery from December. Indigo Aviation has sold two CFM International CFM56-powered ...
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TWA and Delta expand hub feed
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Trans World Airlines is to launch a regional jet operation as part of an expansion of its feeder service. Another US carrier, Delta Air Lines, has moved to further strengthen its Connection network by acquiring partner airline Comair. TWA plans to have eight 50-seat regional ...
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Lufthansa's Lido scoops BA flight planning contract
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH British Airways has chosen Lufthansa Group subsidiary Lido to provide its new advanced flight planning system after a two-year selection process. The UK carrier will use Lido Operation Centre (Lido OC) for all flight planning and dispatch procedures, replacing the SWORD system bought from American Airlines ...
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Cargolifter floats its experimental airship
Cargolifter's experimental airship, dubbed "Joey", made its first flight on 20 October from the company's mailbase at Brand, near Berlin, Germany. The machine flew a few circuits of Brand airfield before tethering at its mooring mast. It has a mass of only 1t and with a length of 32m (105ft), ...
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Europe realigns industry sectors
Chris Jasper and Stewart Penney/LONDON British Aerospace and Finmeccanica are to create a European defence electronics business from Alenia Marconi Systems (AMS). AMS is a joint venture between the Italian conglomerate's Alenia Difesa company and Marconi Electronic Systems (MES), with which BAe is merging. The breakthrough agreement, first ...