All Safety News – Page 1432
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News
TTS builds 777 for Orbit subsidiary
THOMSON TRAINING & Simulation (TTS) is to install a Boeing 777 full-flight simulator at its Orbit Flight Training subsidiary at East Midlands Airport in the UK. The simulator will be the first for the 777 to be operated by an independent European training-centre. British Airways, has agreed to ...
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Northwest fumes at KLM activities
NORTHWEST AIRLINES has effectively accused its Dutch partner, KLM, of attempting to gain control of the company, as boardroom friction between the two airlines heads towards legal action. The accusation comes in a letter to Northwest employees, explaining the board's decision to put a "poison pill" in place ...
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Hull-loss accident rate climbing
COMMERCIAL JET HULL-loss accident rates are increasing, according to Boeing's chief of systems engineering, Earl Weener. If the trends are sustained, the number of hull losses per million departures will be higher than it was 20 years ago, Weener told a Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Seattle on 6-9 November. ...
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Austflight signs Shanghai manufacturing venture
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Australian ultra-light aircraft manufacturer Austflight has signed a joint venture agreement with the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory to build the Australian-designed Drifter SB582 two-seat ultralight aircraft in Shanghai. Under the agreement, the joint venture also plans to offer to supply components, to two other ...
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Inconsistency in BALPA policy
Sir - The Independent Pilots Association (IPA) commends the letter from Chris Darke, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) on licence validations within the European Union (EU) (Flight International, 11-17 October, P49). The IPA is also concerned that licence validations have been issued to non-EU ...
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The first assembly missions
Flight 1A/R Nov 1997 Russia Russian Functional Energy Block (FGB) launched on the Proton, to provide propulsion, guidance, communications, 3.2kW electrical power and thermal control. One front-docking system, with forward and lower ports, and one rear docking system. Flight 2A Dec 1997 USA STS88/Endeavour ...
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Messier-Dowty plans to lower cost of landing gear for Airbus
Andrew Doyle/LONDON MESSIER-DOWTY AIMS to slash the cost of manufacturing Airbus landing gears by 20-40%, while increasing commonality of parts across the product range and reducing the cost of ownership for airlines, says Geoff Smith, managing director of the Anglo-French joint-venture. According to Smith, a ...
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Air-traffic-controller strikes blamed for European delays
Julian Moxon/PARIS STRIKES BY AIR-TRAFFIC controllers and the shortage of airport and airspace capacity are being blamed for a serious increase in departure delays in Europe during the July-September period. The Association of European Airlines (AEA) describes as "appalling" the figures for the three months, in ...
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BFGoodrich develops standby indicator
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE has introduced a flat-panel standby attitude-indicator. The GH-3000 combines a colour liquid-crystal display with a solid-state inertial sensor in a 3ATI-size unit interchangeable with existing electromechanical standby instruments. The US companies Avionics Systems division says the $22,500 GH-3000 offers high reliability, with a design mean time ...
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Zeppelin prototype enters final assembly
Zeppelin Luftschiff-technik has begun final assembly of its New Technology (NT) airship prototype - the first rigid airship the company has produced since the Second World War. The 68m-long prototype, LZ N07, is scheduled for completion in July 1996, in time for an "official" first flight in early ...
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Lower minima and TCAS for HGS-fitted 737s
BOEING 737-300s FITTED with Flight Dynamics head-up guidance systems (HGS) have been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration for take-off operations in visibility conditions as low as 90m (300ft) runway visual range (RVR). Operators of HGS-equipped 737-300s were cleared to perform landing operations with RVRs of 210m ...
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Welcome common sense on JAA rules
Sir - The editorial "Regulatory fatigue" (Flight International, 1-7 November) was a welcome shaft of common sense in the dreary saga of the move towards European Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) regulations on flight-time limitations and the proposed changes in the USA and Canada. No-one should underestimate the difficulties ...
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X-31 crash
A NASA mishap investigation board has concluded that an accumulation of ice in or on the unheated pilot-static system was the root cause of the crash of the X-31 experimental aircraft at Edwards AFB, California, on 19 January. The NASA board says that the build-up of ice blocked the small ...
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Airbus prepares for shortened A330 launch launch imminent
Julian Moxon/PARIS AIRBUS INDUSTRIE IS preparing to launch the shortened version of the A330 long-range wide body twinjet "before the end of the year", for service entry in 1998. The manufacturer has been pushing to launch the 250-seat A330-M10 as soon as the market showed sufficient ...
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Novel design
Peter Henley/NORTH WEALD A MERE GLANCE at the Grob 200 reveals its designer's novel approach to his task. The airframe is constructed of composite materials, its engine is mounted behind the cabin (driving a three-bladed pusher propeller which lives on the end of a long tailcone), directional stability ...
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Flight of fancy?
The debate about free-flight air navigation continues. In the USA... Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration and the civil-aviation community "...stand at the threshold of a great opportunity to safely re-order the [nation's] air-traffic system". This statement supporting "free-flight" air navigation is taken ...
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Bidders line up for Kenya Airways stake
KENYA AIRWAYS IS close to selecting a strategic airline-partner, with KLM understood to have joined front runners British Airways and South African Airways (SAA) among the final bidders. Submissions were handed in on 3 November, with a winner due to be selected, on 30 November, at a meeting ...
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KLM reporting a record first half
BRITISH AIRWAYS HAD a clutch of record traffic figures and its highest-ever profits to show as the group revealed an "outstanding" set of results for the first half of the financial year. Net profits climbed to £323 million over the six months to September, as sales broke through ...
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Reduced separations lie ahead on Atlantic routes
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE NORTH ATLANTIC Systems Planning Group (NATSPG) plans to start preparations in December to pave the way for the introduction of a trial 1,000ft (300m) reduced vertical- separation minima (RVSM) across the Atlantic by January 1997. The NATSPG, which includes all major ...
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FAA justifies safety-assessment actions
Graham Warwick/Miami THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is defending its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme against criticism that it constitutes the implementation of punitive action against airlines in countries judged not to comply fully with international safety-oversight standards. The FAA has recently added Ecuador, ...