All Safety News – Page 1382
-
News
Maersk begins overhaul of Estonian Air
Max Kingsley-Jones/BILLUND MAERSK AIR has set about ploughing its airline expertise into Estonian Air, following ratification of its agreement to take a 49% stake in the privatised Baltic carrier. In May, the Danish airline, in partnership with investment consortium Baltic Creco, was chosen by the ...
-
News
Frontier dips
Frontier Airlines is the latest of the US start-ups to warn of a likely dip in its fortunes in the September quarter. The Denver-based carrier says that it expects to post a loss over the three months, blaming sluggish traffic, rising fuel costs and rising lease rates. The loss would ...
-
News
Manufacturers' forecasts chart bright future for cargo aircraft
BOEING AND McDonnell Douglas (MDC) are forecasting strong growth in the air-cargo market, with the world's freighter fleet expected to double over the next 20 years. MDC's predictions are slightly more optimistic than Boeing's, with an annual growth rate in air cargo of 7.9%, compared with Boeing's assessment ...
-
News
'Outrageous' ATC charges anger European regionals
Julian Moxon/HANOVER THE EUROPEAN Regional Airlines Association (ERA) is complaining bitterly about the "outrageous" air-traffic-control (ATC) charges being imposed on its members. At its annual general meeting in Hanover, Germany, earlier in October, ERA director-general Mike Ambrose said that landing and navigation charges account for ...
-
News
US airlines voice concern despite records
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON LATEST RESULTS coming in from the major US airlines point towards another round of record profits in the third quarter, but beneath the headline figures there is growing concern in the industry over how much longer the boom will last. Continental led off the ...
-
News
Kiwi International forced to suspend operations
KIWI International suspended flight operations on 15 October after failing to gain a cash infusion from investors. The US airline had filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks before, and cut services, blaming high debts and the fall-out on other low-cost start-ups from the ValuJet crash. Kiwi has struggled ...
-
News
NTSB urges 737 rudder changes
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is urging the US Federal Aviation Administration to require that Boeing make various changes to the design of 737 rudder-control and system components. Three of 14 NTSB recommendations would require Boeing 737 design changes, and ...
-
News
Inchon incoming
Seoul is struggling to meet targets for its new airport. Paul Lewis/SEOUL THE GROWING IMPORTANCE of Asia as a world economic powerhouse is best illustrated by the fact there are no less than four major new international airports, either being planned or built in the ...
-
News
Lancer flare
Rockwell B-1B bombers are being cleared to fire newer-model countermeasure flares with no restrictions, but are still constrained to Mach 0.85, with no rolling or yawing, if using older flares. The flare firing envelope has been restricted since 1995, when aircraft began suffering tailstrike damage after dispensing countermeasures. The damage ...
-
News
LF507 reliability levels 'not acceptable' says Crossair
Julian Moxon/HANOVER LOWER-THAN-expected despatch reliability of the AlliedSignal Engines LF507 turbofan powering Aero International Regional (AI(R)) RJ100 Avroliners has forced the engine manufacturer to spend $30 million on developing solutions. Crossair president Moritz Suter criticised the engine's 99.3% dispatch reliability during the recent European Regional Airlines ...
-
News
Lockheed Martin pushes C-130J flight envelope
Testing of the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules II is catching up on its delayed start, with rapid expansion of the flight envelope to all-new limits. The first four test aircraft have amassed more than 220 flight hours on 60 sorties. Eventually, nine aircraft will be involved in the ...
-
News
IPTN makes changes to N-250 after early flights
Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) is making minor changes to the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight-control system (FCS) of the N-250, Indonesia's first fully indigenously designed airliner, following early flight tests. IPTN test pilot Erwin Danoewinata says that the general handling characteristics are "very satisfactory", and that the FCS is ...
-
News
NASA looks at ways to save PCA during crises
NASA is studying a potential application of its recently completed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system, which would allow a twin-engined aircraft to survive a catastrophic engine and flight-control failure. The PCA was developed following the 1989 crash of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with disabled flight controls. The crew ...
-
News
Helicopter medevac will be aided by GPS
STAT MEDEVAC, a Manassas, Virginia-based helicopter emergency medical service (EMS) operating in western Pennsylvania, has signed a deal with Satellite Technology Implementation to set up a network of 13 global-positioning-system (GPS) approaches at remote hospitals. Installation of the US Federal Aviation Administration approved GPS approaches will allow helicopter ...
-
News
R-R develops a low-emissions combustor for RB.211-535E4B
ROLLS-ROYCE is developing a new combustor for its RB.211-535E4B turbofan, which it claims will reduce the engine's nitrogen-oxide (NOx) emissions by up to 40%. The new variant is due to enter service, powering Condor's first Boeing 757-300, in the first quarter of 1999. According to David Snape, chief ...
-
News
USAir investigates new 'no-frills' division
DISCUSSIONS BETWEEN USAir and its pilots could lead the way towards the creation of a low-cost service designed to counter operations such as those of the newly created Delta Express, Southwest and ValuJet. Successful negotiations between management and members of the Air Line Pilots Association over the start-up ...
-
News
An-124 crashes on approach to Turin
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA Paul Duffy/MOSCOW THE TWO PILOTS of an Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA)-operated Antonov An-124 were killed, along with at least two people on the ground, when the aircraft crashed into houses short of the runway while attempting to land at Turin's Caselle Airport, Italy, on 8 ...
-
News
Airbus Industrie creates freight airline for Belugas
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has set up a subsidiary to operate its A300-600ST (Super Transporter) "Beluga" outsized transports on commercial cargo charters. It is estimated that the new division, Airbus Transport International (ATI), could earn the consortium up to $15 million-worth of revenue each year using spare capacity on the Beluga fleet. ...
-
News
Germany to lead free-flight trials in Europe
GERMANY'S civil-aviation authority, the DFS, is working with Lufthansa to carry out trials of free-flight technologies in Europe. "We're looking at how to implement free flight in Germany as soon as possible," says Dr Klaus Dieter Ehrhardt, responsible for CNS/ATM planning in the DFS. "We will look at ...