All Systems & Interiors news – Page 818
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Sfim uses GPS to calibrate aircraft approach paths
Julian Moxon/PARIS French avionics specialist Sfim has developed a new low cost system to replace the optical equipment used for tracking aircraft flying runway approaches when calibrating runway landing equipment. Its Traki trajectography kit uses the satellite global positioning system (GPS) instead of a ground- based theodolite to ...
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German guard will take its first EC135
Germany's border guard is to receive the first of 13 Eurocopter EC155 twin-engine medium helicopters this year. Eurocopter co-president Siegfried Sobotta says the group is putting a "tremendous effort" into getting the first of the EC155s to the border guard this year. The EC155 is a further development of ...
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Developing nations ask ICAO to help with CNS/ATM funding
Emma Kelly/RIO DE JANEIRO Developing nations have urged the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to establish an international aviation monetary fund to help them finance implementation of communications, navigation and surveillance/ air traffic management (CNS/ATM) system programmes. Bolivia, Pakistan and the 53 African ICAO member nations were among ...
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Global Hawk flies second mission
THE Global Hawk reconnaissance unmanned air vehicle has flown for a second time at Edwards AFB, California, performing what the company describes as a "text book" mission lasting 2h 24min. The aircraft reached 41,000ft (12,500m) during the sortie, which also included the successful hand-off of command and control via ...
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Fast and furious
Dave Higdon/KANSAS CITY Breaking out into the sunshine and levelling off the new Mooney Bravo high-performance piston single just above the cloud at 6,000ft (1,830m) brought home graphically the speed we were making. Billowing cloud tops blurred past the windows at more than 200kt (110km/h) as we raced south ...
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Vantage takes voice control
VisionAire has revealed new details of its teaming arrangement with Iowa State University to develop a voice control system for its Vantage single-engined composite business jet. The work is aimed at developing a voice recognition and synthesis system for cockpit control of secondary switching functions such as navigation and ...
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Embraer studies market for larger regional jet
Graham Warwick/SAO PAULO Embraer will decide within a year whether to develop a larger member of its regional jet family. Speaking at the roll-out of the 37-seat ERJ-135 on 12 May, president Mauricio Botelho said: "We think there is a market, but we are not sure if it is ...
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Free flight study finds pilots' workload is not increased
Ian Sheppard/LONDON A Dutch national aerospace laboratory (NLR) study has concluded that workload does not increase when a pilot is given responsibility for separation assurance in a "free flight" air traffic control environment. Ronald van Gent, NLRproject leader, says that the conclusion surprised the research team. "We anticipated a ...
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Controlling the future
David Learmount/LONDON There was a deafening silence from UK National Air Traffic Services (NATS) between 5 April and 13 May. At the beginning of the period, NATS had somewhat nervously announced that it had run the first full "operational" test of the much delayed new en route air traffic ...
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Airtours anticipates summer with 747
Airtours International has boosted its summer 1998 season charter capacity with the damp lease of a Boeing 747-200 from Air New Zealand (ANZ) for operation on transatlantic flights from Belfast, Cardiff and Manchester. The 416-seat 747, which is being crewed by ANZ pilots and Airtours cabin staff, is being flown ...
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AlliedSignal expands EGPWS applications
AlliedSignal Aerospace is developing a version of its enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) to fit corporate aircraft. It is responding to proposed US Federal Aviation Administration regulations requiring installation of terrain avoidance and warning systems in all aircraft with six or more seats . The two air transport ...
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US plan to 'sabotage' European ADS-B fails
An alleged US attempt to sabotage a European-backed technology for the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) has collapsed in the face of international opposition. Delegates to an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) panel considering the matter voted to stick with their original plan for the development of a Swedish-developed ...
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Routes
-Alaska Airlines is to offer a twice-weekly roundtrip service from Los Angeles to La Paz in Mexico from 25 October, using a Boeing MD-80 originating in Seattle. -Aero Lloyd will operate a weekly service from Alicante, Spain to Linz, Austria, from June. -Braathens has started a three times daily service ...
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Fool's gold ?
Is it right to assume, in the wake of Continental Express' order for 37-seat Embraer RJ-135s to operate alongside its 50-seat ERJ-145s, that the regional turboprop is dead and that, to survive, particularly in North America, all regional airlines must move to jet-power even for their smallest needs? Or ...
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Counting on Columbus
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Despite recent fears of delays in the assembly of the International Space Station (ISS), Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa)is still working on the assumption that its key contribution - the Columbus Orbital Facility (COF) - will be launched on time, or perhaps earlier than expected. Russia is running ...
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Survival of the fastest ?
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Airline industry analysts are "unabashedly bullish" over the future of regional jet aircraft, which are expected to produce fundamental changes in the airline business over the next five years. Merrill Lynch's Byron Callan says that 32- to 70-seat regional jets comprise "the most rapidly growing market segment" ...
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Airborne 767 freighter set for certification
Flight Structures (FSI) and Timco expect the Boeing 767-200 cargo modification developed for Airborne Express to receive its supplemental type certificate (STC) from the US Federal Aviation Administration within the next two months. According to Michael Hugill, president of Seattle-based FSI, the modification of the first 767, one of ...
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Gemini in talks with Boeing for MD-11s
Gemini Air Cargo is talking to Boeing about a potential deal to acquire new MD-11 freighters, but is also examining possible secondhand aircraft acquisitions as it awaits a decision from the manufacturer on the tri-jet's production future. The Washington Dulles-based supplemental cargo carrier, which has just introduced its eighth ...
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China gears up for more Iridiums
China Great Wall Industry is to launch a further eight pairs of Motorola Iridium mobile communications satellites aboard Long March 2C/SD boosters. The move will allow Motorola to maintain a fleet of six in-orbit spares as replacements for operational craft in the 66-satellite operational system. The third launch of ...
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Light flier
Peter Gray/SINGAPORE With so many other light helicopters on the market, it was going to be interesting to evaluate the five-seat EC120B Colibri, the new multipurpose machine from Eurocopter and its Chinese and Singaporean partners. The aim of my evaluation, which follows Flight International's technical description, was to see if ...