All news – Page 6852
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Going with the flow
Tim Furniss/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER With six International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions scheduled for 1999, and 18 more due to take place between 2000 and 2002, NASA's Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is soon going to be a hive of activity. The Photovoltaic Module ...
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AOPA criticises FAA wing-spar mandate
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) says that a proposed wing-spar airworthiness directive (AD) affecting 8,300 Aeronca and American Champion aircraft is unnecessary. The private pilots' group seeks exemptions for all non-aerobatic, lower-gross-weight aircraft such as the original Aeronca Champ and Chief and derivative aircraft such as the ...
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BFGoodrich delivers two more private 'Super 27s'
Two further Boeing 727-200s, modified to "Super 27" configuration, have been delivered to private customers by BFGoodrich Aerospace's Aerostructures group (formerly Rohr) in California. The Super 27 upgrade allows the 727 to meet Stage 3 noise requirements and involves replacing the two outboard engines with Pratt & Whitney JT8D-217Cs ...
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Bombardier creates more room for Global Express maintenance
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier has embarked on an expansion of its service centres to accommodate the Global Express long-range business jet, deliveries of which begin in the second half of 1998. The first Bombardier Aviation Services site to be upgraded is at Tucson, Arizona, where work has begun on ...
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NetJets Europe takes Citation VIIs
Netjets Europe has taken delivery of two Citation VII medium-sized, twin-engined business jets, which will form part of the company's fractional-ownership fleet. Netjets Europe, a joint venture between Air Luxor of Portugal, US Executive Jet Aviation and Switzerland's Zimex Aviation, says that shares in the Citation VIIs are "sold ...
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Alaska FBO improved
Signature Flight Support has revealed plans to expand its newly acquired fixed-base operation at Alaska's Anchorage Airport, which will be used exclusively for transient corporate aircraft, to meet operator concerns over the availability of overnight hangar space. The existing heated hangar can accommodate aircraft as large as the Boeing 737. ...
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PZL-Swidnik upgrades SW-4 prototype with flight-control system
Polish helicopter manufacturer PZL-Swidnik is fitting a hydraulic flight-control system from French manufacturer SAMM to its third SW-4 light-helicopter prototype. The four/five-seat helicopter, powered by a single 335kW (450shp) Allison 250-C20R/2 turboshaft has undergone 70h of flight testing since it was first flown on 26 October, 1996, and is ...
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Cessna singles owners must replace silencers
Owners of more than 300 Cessna 172R Skyhawks delivered since shipments restarted in January 1997 have been ordered to replace the exhaust silencers. The US Federal Aviation Administration issued an airworthiness directive (AD) on 13 January mandating replacement of the silencers, made by Aeroquip, because of leaking welds. The ...
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Turbine-helicopter deliveries increase
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Deliveries of turbine-powered helicopters increased in 1997, buoyed by sales of new light single- and twin-engined aircraft. Bell shipped no fewer than 140 of its new single-turbine Model 407s in 1997, while Eurocopter delivered 28 of its new EC135 light twins. Bell led deliveries in 1997, shipping ...
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Airbus urges AE31X speed-up to compete with Boeing 717
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Airbus Industrie and its Chinese and Singapore partners are discussing speeding up development of the proposed smaller AE316 member of the planned AE31X family of regional aircraft, in response to Boeing's relaunch of the former MD-95 twinjet as the 717-200. It is understood that Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) ...
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British Airways is ready to Go with no-frills contender
British Airways is to launch its London Stansted based "no-frills" division under the name Go. The launch is set for early in the second quarter of 1998. Go's chief executive Barbara Cassani denies that the new airline's remit is to eliminate new low-cost entrants such as easyJet, but warns that ...
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US Air Force places Capricorn in orbit
The US Air Force has launched a prototype of a new-generation National Reconnaissance Office satellite data-system (SDS) spacecraft, called the Capricorn, on 29 January, aboard an ILS International Launch Services Atlas 2A booster from Cape Canaveral, Florida. SDS spacecraft, which are operated in highly elliptical, 38,400 x 320km, orbits, ...
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Engine change delays Stationair deliveries
Cessna has announced nearly a year-long delay in initial customer deliveries of its 206 Stationair and Turbo Stationair six-seat utility aircraft, following its decision to replace the Textron Lycoming IO- and TIO-580 engines with IO- and TIO-540 variants because of reliability and service life issues. The setback came to ...
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Northwest and Continental tie-up raises Alitalia/KLM hopes
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS The tie-up between Northwest and Continental Airlines has been welcomed by European partners Alitalia and KLM, offering the prospect of a global alliance within five years. "The deal opens the door to a much wider co-operation," says Fausto Cereti, chairman of Alitalia, which already ...
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FAA starts search for systems to back up GPS
Potential back-ups to the global-positioning system (GPS) are being considered by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which is backing away from sole-means use of GPS for navigation because of concerns over signal interference. Although the FAA says that "-no decision has been made", it is now likely to approve ...
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Latin carriers link for A320 deal
Three major Latin American carriers, TAM of Brazil, TACA Group of El Salvador and LanChile, are in final negotiations with Airbus Industrie to place a joint order for up to 130 A320-family aircraft. The deal should be concluded by March. LanChile confirms that it has already signed a letter ...
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Insurers threaten to withdraw cover unless airlines tackle computer bug
Aviation insurers have challenged airlines to prove that their fleet avionics are free of the "millennium bug" which threatens to disrupt computer software, or lose their cover for any incidents which result from it. The issue, says a major Lloyds insurance-market underwriter, is what may happen to embedded computer ...
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Bosses mull Airbus merger ideas
Douglas Barrie/LONDON Airbus Industrie presidents were due to meet on 2 February to hear new proposals from a high-level working party tasked with finding an acceptable solution for a merger of Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, and Daimler-Benz Aerospace into a single European aerospace giant. It is hoped that the ...
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New crew launched to Mir on Soyuz
A Soyuz U booster was launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 29 January carrying the three-man Soyuz TM27 to dock at the Russian Mir space station. The TM27 crew, Talgat Musabayev and Nikolai Budarin will inhabit the Mir until August. French mission specialist Leopold Eyharts, who was also ...
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Wexford agrees to acquire US regional
US Airways Express carrier Chautauqua Airlines is to be acquired by US investment firm Wexford Aviation, which plans to place some of its recently ordered Embraer RJ-135 and RJ-145 regional jets with the Indianapolis-based airline. Greenwich, Connecticut-based Wexford has agreed to acquire 100% of privately held Chautauqua, which had ...