All news – Page 6973
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Vantage debut
VisionAire plans to display the proof-of-concept prototype of its Vantage single-turbofan business jet at the US National Business Aviation Association show in Dallas, Texas, on 22-25 September. Some 55 flights, totalling 100h, have been completed at Scaled Composites in Mojave, California. The aircraft is to be based from October at ...
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UK begins search for Royal replacements
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has released an invitation to tender for two helicopters for the Royal Flight. The leased aircraft will replace two Westland Wessex which have been in service for more than 30 years. Tenders have been issued to UK-based helicopter operators, including Air Hanson, ...
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USNavy sinks Adour plan
Plans to transfer assembly of Rolls-Royce Turboméca Adour 871 (F405) engines to R-R's US subsidiary Allison Engine have been suspended after the US Navy killed the effort by calling it "unnecessarily risky". The decision comes as a blow to Allison, which has been working on the transfer plan ...
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Boeing fights to stay on schedule
Guy Norris/LOSANGELES Boeing is temporarily transferring "several hundred" assembly workers from the 767 line to the adjacent 747 line as part of an effort to stave off impending delivery delays, which may result in the late handover of at least one of each model this year. ...
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LTU issues challenge to German Britannia
LTUTouristik, a conglomerate of tour operators belonging to the LTU Group, has issued a legal challenge to the establishment of Britannia Airways' new German subsidiary. LTU has taken out an injunction in a Hamburg court against Britannia's Munich-based partner, tour operator Frosch Touristik International (FTI), after the company ...
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easyJet considers new 737 and A320 in fleet-expansion plans
easyJet has expanded its plans for the acquisition of new Boeing 737s, and is now considering the Next Generation -700, as well as an offer of A320s from Airbus. The company is in final negotiations and says that a firm order should be placed soon. The Luton, UK-based ...
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Japan Airlines sells DC-10-40 fleet to Omega-led consortium
Paul Lewis/SINGAPOREMax Kingsley-Jones/LONDON An Omega Air-led consortium has reached an agreement to purchase Japan Airlines' (JAL) entire fleet of 20 McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40s, for sale or lease and possible conversion into freighters. NI Aircraft Leasing, a subsidiary of Japan's Nissho Iwai, has acquired the rights to ...
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Klimov holds MiG-29 engine talks in Iran
Russian engine design bureau Klimov is in negotiations with Iran for a licence-production agreement for its RD-33 engine, which powers the MAPO MIG MiG-29 Fulcrum. Senior officials from MAPO MIG, of which Klimov now forms a part, confirm that "an RD-33 engine licence-manufacturing agreement in Iran" is being ...
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Power is restored to Mir-Kristall module
Electrical power has been restored to the Kristall module aboard the Mir space station following a successful internal spacewalk by cosmonauts on 22 August. Anatoli Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov reconnected the electrical cables leading from the solar panels of the crippled, depressurised Spektr module to the main power system on ...
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World 'ignores' life-saving equipment
The Korean Air (KAL) Boeing 747-300 fatal crash at Guam on 6 August has highlighted the need for use of minimum safe-altitude warning (MSAW) systems at airports worldwide, says the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). There was a fault in the Guam MSAW software when KAL's 747 hit a ...
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SASCommuter confirms selection of 15 Dash-8 400s
SASCOMMUTER confirms that it plans to sign a $350 million deal for 15 Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8-400 turboprops, plus 18 options, representing the largest single order to date for the Canadian manufacturer's new high-speed 70-seat aircraft. The Dash 8-400 selection will fill a gap between the mainline ...
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Swissair and Lufthansa study 747 replacements
Airbus could land two more prestige customers for its A340-600 later this year, as Swissair and Lufthansa examine the aircraft to replace their Boeing 747 "Classic" ßeets. Swissair says that it expects to make a decision on the long-term future of its 747-300 ßeet by the year-end. The Ìve aircraft ...
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British Army bargains more WAH-64s against tank cuts
Douglas Barrie/LONDON The UK could acquire an additional 20 Westland/McDonnell Douglas WAH-64 Apache attack helicopters if the British Army succeeds in an attempt to trade off cuts in heavy armour with more attack helicopters. Tank units now attached to the British Army of the Rhine are ...
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Aircraft makers join forces for worldwide software standards
Ian Sheppard/LONDON A collaborative project in concurrent engineering, involving some of Europe's leading aerospace companies, is about to expand into the global arena. The Advanced Information Technology (AIT) project is a wide-ranging attempt to combat the burgeoning costs of information technology (IT) and to work with ...
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Stretched 757 advances
The first pressure bulkhead web component for the tail section of the new Boeing 757-300 is checked at Northrop Grumman's Commercial Aircraft division in Dallas, Texas. Boeing's fuselage-assembly-improvement team has transferred the 757 design into electronic CATIA three-dimensional models, allowing the shortest design-to-production time of any Boeing derivative programme. The ...
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Global Aircraft puts flexible propeller under test
A flexible self-optimising propeller which combines the advantages of fixed-pitch and constant-speed units is being tested by US firm Global Aircraft of Starkville, Mississippi. Production of the Quasi-Constant-Speed (QCS) propeller, priced at $3,500, is set to start this month, initially aimed at experimental aircraft. Production of units certificated for general-aviation ...
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Robst controls
Penny & Giles has developed a rotary variable-differential transformer for the automatic roller-decoupler device of the McDonnell Douglas AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, which, on damage to the primary flight controls, informs the flight-management system when control has passed to the back-up system. Production of the units will begin in November. ...
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Home-base time needs more work
Sir - It was with cynical amusement that I read the article "Trans-Tasman partners study operations link for efficiency" on the proposals by Air New Zealand and Ansett of Australia for mixed-crewing economies (Flight International, 20-26 August, P16). Savings in crew utilisation and accommodation costs, with crews getting ...
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Two captains could enhance safety
Sir - The crew of the Korean Air Boeing 747 which crashed 5km (2.5nm) short of the runway at Guam on 6 August was executing a non-precision approach at night and in poor visibility. The instrument-landing-system glidepath was known to be inoperative, and there were no visual-approach-slope indicators. ...
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Georgia Tech
Maj Gen George Harrison has become director of the Electronic Systems Laboratory at Atlanta-based Georgia Tech Research Institute. He was formerly commander of the US Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center at Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, retiring in July. Source: Flight International