All news – Page 7418

  • News

    Vietnam AMAL gamates

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Vietnam has merged 20 aviation companies, including state-owned national carrier Vietnam Airlines, into a single corporation. Vietnam Airlines chief executive Le Duc Tu will head the organisation as general director. The new corporation includes air-taxi operator VASCO and three airport-management agencies. Vietnam anticipates annual passenger-traffic growth of 35-40% by 2000 ...

  • News

    Sextant signs up for PZL

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    SEXTANT AVIONIQUE has signed a contract with Polish aircraft manufacturer PZL-Mielec to provide an avionics package for the Iryda jet trainer (Flight International, 24-30 April). The contract, to upgrade 11 aircraft and equip six new ones, was signed on 26 April, and will be completed by the end ...

  • News

    On Target

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    The first launch of a Rockwell AGM-130 stand-off weapon with both global-positioning/inertial-navigation mid-course guidance and an improved focal-plane-array infra-red seeker resulted in a direct hit. The April launch from a US Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-15E demonstrated an offset-heading release in reduced visibility. . Source: Flight ...

  • News

    UPS may package passengers

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/ATLANTA UPS Airlines is considering operating weekend passenger-charter services using otherwise-idle cargo aircraft. As a first move, quick-change conversion kits for five Boeing 727-100 freighters are being considered as a way to increase aircraft utilisation. The results of a study into the feasibility of offering passenger-charter services to tour ...

  • News

    Indonesia wants F-16 offsets

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    US GOVERNMENT efforts to find buyers for 28 embargoed Pakistani Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs have taken a further twist, with Indonesia demanding industrial offsets in return for buying nine of the aircraft. Research and technology minister B J Habibie wants the USA to buy components worth 30% of the value of ...

  • News

    Su-27M prototype suffers flight-control failure

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW A SUKHOI SU-27M development prototype, flown from the Ahktubinsk flight-test centre, suffered a near-catastrophic failure of its fly-by-wire system in April, but was recovered by the pilot. The incident involved what is described as a "double malfunction" of the flight-control system (FCS). The Su-27M (Su-35)was being used in ...

  • News

    Sabena crew deal paves way to cost cutting

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    SABENA HAS TIED UP a deal with its pilots over the crewing of the group's incoming fleet of Avro RJ85 regional jets and says that it has had "very constructive" negotiations with its unions over the broader cost-cutting measures. Although the RJ85 fleet will be operated within regional subsidiary Delta ...

  • News

    Aerospatiale to lead Proteus project

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    AEROSPATIALE HAS BEEN selected by French Space Agency CNES to lead the programme to develop the new Proteus small-satellite platform. The state-owned company beat competition from its traditional rival, Matra. The Proteus platform will form the basis of a new generation of small satellites weighing around 500kg, which would be ...

  • News

    DASA prepares 328 cryoplane

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) is to go ahead with a programme to convert a Dornier 328 turboprop to a hydrogen-fuelled testbed late this year. "The aim is to use the knowhow gained with the Dornier 328...for Airbus applications at a later date," says DASA. The project, now in ...

  • News

    Snecma has to sell SEP stake to Aerospatiale

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS THE FRENCH Government has told engine manufacturer Snecma to sell its controlling stake in its SEP rocket engine subsidiary to Aerospatiale, but the two state-owned concerns are at odds over the company's value. Snecma president Bernard Dufour has told French economics minister Jean ...

  • News

    VDO develops graphical aid for low-level navigation

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    GERMAN AVIONICS company VDO Luftfahrtgerate is developing a graphics module to assist military pilots on low-level transport missions. The digital-graphics module, presented for the first time at ILA '96, enables a symbol generator to produce a three-dimensional representation of the aircraft's surroundings on the pilot's primary flight display. ...

  • News

    FAA certificates gas-turbine APU for GV

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    ALLIEDSIGNAL'S RE220 auxiliary power unit (APU) has become what is claimed to be the smallest gas turbine to be granted full certification by the US Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA has issued a technical standard order (TSO) C77a certification for the 220kW (295hp) APU, and related electronic-control-unit software ...

  • News

    Europe and USA hold thrust-vectoring talks

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESAndrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH EUROPE AND THE USA are seeking to co-operate on future thrust-vectoring research. Industry and defence officials from both sides were expected to open talks at the Berlin International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA), which started on 13 May. The discussions could include European ...

  • News

    MB-339CD airborne for first time

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    AERMACCHI'S MB-339CD TWO-SEAT ADVANCED jet trainer had its first flight on 24 April, marking the start of a test programme aimed at first deliveries of a 15-aircraft order to the Italian air force by the end of 1996. The Italian manufacturer says that "...all on-board systems met design targets" during ...

  • News

    Power Pool

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    THE COMMERCIAL-ENGINES business is among the biggest of big-risk businesses, and the risk is seldom bigger than when a new engine is required for an as-yet-unproven large airliner. So it should come as no surprise that two engine manufacturers should pool resources to minimise the risk of participating in such ...

  • News

    Korean Helicopters

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Korean Air is proposing to invest $1.54 billion to establish a helicopter-production plant on a site at Yuldo near Seoul. The company says that it is part of a plan for joint development of commercial helicopters with European and US manufacturers. Source: Flight International

  • News

    China to invest in ATC updates

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    CHINA IS PLANNING TO spend about 6 billion yuan ($720 million) on updating its air-traffic-control (ATC) systems. Bao Peide, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), says that 440 million yuan will be spent making the system fully communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management compatible. The balance will ...

  • News

    Arrest warrant issued for Serge Dassault

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS and Herman de Wulf/BRUSSELS AN INTERNATIONAL arrest warrant has been issued for Dassault Aviation chairman and chief executive Serge Dassault by Belgian magistrates. He is charged with involvement in a BFr90 billion ($2.8 billion) bribe of Belgian Government ministers in exchange for contracts to buy ...

  • News

    Fokkers could be back in production

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON FOKKER COULD RESTART production of a limited number of new aircraft, if proposals being drawn up by its receiver are accepted by the Dutch bankruptcy courts. When the Dutch manufacturer collapsed in February, it won permission to build 15 aircraft which were already ...

  • News

    Carib Express ceases operations

    1996-05-15T00:00:00Z

    CARIB EXPRESS, the Caribbean regional in which British Airways held a 20% stake, has been wound up and its aircraft returned to British Aerospace. The airline started operations in February 1995 with three BAe 146-100s leased from BAe's Asset Management Organisation (AMO), operating regional services from Barbados. ...