All Systems & Interiors news – Page 830

  • News

    Fair enough ?

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    What is a slot, and why does the European Commission (EC) want so desperately to become involved in its future? A slot is not a physical entity, it is merely a permission for a particular airline to land an aircraft, or have that aircraft take off, at a particular time ...

  • News

    Agusta power

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

     Peter Gray/CASCINA COSTA DE SAMARATE Although it has been said before, the statement that "if it looks good, it flies good" certainly applies to the Agusta A109 - and particularly to the Power version. The outside shell has changed little since the first-prototype days of 1971, but as I ...

  • News

    Ultimate mobility

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON Making a mobile telephone call to and from anywhere in the world is about to become reality. Motorola's Iridium satellite system should be declared operational this year. Market studies indicate, however, that satellite services may not make as great an impact as first thought. The sixth Boeing Delta ...

  • News

    The generation gap

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Douglas Barrie/LONDON Fifth-generation fighter, second- generation cockpit - what's the point? So goes the succinct view of no less than Col Gen Anatoly Sitnov, Russian defence ministry acquisition chief, in considering Russia's future combat-aircraft programmes. Sitnov's barbed comment was directed at the Sukhoi S-37 forward-swept-wing multi-role fighter prototype, but it ...

  • News

    Carriers attack EC competition policy

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Europe's major carriers have led an attack on the airline-competition policy coming from the European Commission (EC) - which is studying a series of global alliances - with claims that new entrants are being unfairly promoted at their expense. The attack came during a meeting on ...

  • News

    AI(R) partnership teeters as ATR looks to break with BAe

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA ATR is on the verge of extracting its sales and marketing from Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) and may move to abandon its two-year-old venture with British Aerospace. The partners are to hold an initial meeting by 30 January to review the future of AI(R) following the ...

  • News

    Rekkof seeks way back for Fokker production

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Efforts are under way to restart production of the Fokker 70 and 100 airliners. The initiative is being led by Jaap Rozen Jacobson, chairman of Belgian airline VLM. A new Dutch company, Rekkof (Fokker spelled backwards) Restart, is seeking funds and negotiating with potential suppliers. In a bid to ...

  • News

    Airbus firms up A3XX freighter

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Airbus is firming up its plans for combi and all-freight derivatives of its proposed A3XX airliner, as it works towards a launch decision by early 1999. As envisaged, both cargo versions of the baseline 560-seat, A3XX-100 will feature a main-deck 3.43 x 2.54m cargo door in ...

  • News

    FedEx accepts TCAS 2 and awaits ADS solution

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Federal Express has accepted the need to equip its fleet of jet-powered freighters with the traffic-alert and collision-avoidance system (TCAS 2) to meet pending international regulations, but is still backing the US Cargo Airlines Association (CAA) effort to develop an automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B)-based system. The airline, ...

  • News

    Eurocopter delivers AS365 to Slovakia

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Eurocopter has made its first helicopter delivery to Slovakia, after identifying a potential market for about 20 sales in the East European country. The company has handed over one AS365 Dauphin to Slovakian trade organisation Martimex. The helicopter has been bought by power company Slovenske Elektrarny. The Slovakian media ...

  • News

    Dakota Aero backs Orenda

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Rockwell Twin Commanders are to be re-engined with Orenda piston engines by a new company in North Dakota. Dakota Aero Manufacturers has teamed with Dick MacCoon, the engine's original developer, to offer the re-engined aircraft, to be called the Dakota Commander. MacCoon's company, MRRPM, is developing a supplemental type-certificate ...

  • News

    1997 showed highest CFIT death total

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    David Learmount/LONDON Having caused a record 640 fatalities in airline accidents during 1997, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) has been confirmed as the accident category which poses the greatest danger to life. The latest figures reveal that, despite new technology and a well-orchestrated international campaign to reduce the mistakes ...

  • News

    Sextant, Dassault sign avionics deal

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS Sextant Avionique and Dassault Electronique are to form a commercial alliance under which their avionics products will be jointly marketed to airlines. Talks on the deal have been under way for more than a year, and are unconnected with last year's decision to incorporate Dassault Electronique ...

  • News

    US airport introduces firefighting advances

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Connecticut's Bradley International has fielded the "Snozzle", a firefighting device manufactured by Crash Rescue Equipment Service of Dallas, Texas, and mounted on one of the airport's two new fire trucks . The Snozzle's adjustable boom can apply fire retardants on hard-to-reach aircraft areas, concentrating firefighting ...

  • News

    CSC to run trial of airport smartcard

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Ian Sheppard/LONDON Computer Sciences (CSC) is close to launching a trial with a major European airport operator, based on a prototype "contactless" smartcard for airline passengers, which, for the first time, will act as a re-usable boarding pass, electronic-ticket and multiple-airline loyalty-scheme card. Paul Seaton of the company's ...

  • News

    Order boom peaks

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON If the latest round of year-end order announcements from Airbus and Boeing seemed to lack some of the high drama of previous years, perhaps it comes as recognition that there may be some tougher times ahead. Quite apart from the internal restructuring issues that pre-occupy both manufacturers, the ...

  • News

    Asia-Pacific pathfinders

    1998-01-21T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The Asia-Pacific region has been at the forefront of promoting the new communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic-management (CNS/ ATM) system since the concept emerged in 1983. These efforts will begin to bear fruit in 1998, with the planned opening and start of trials on key new routes between Asia, ...

  • News

    Helibus speeds up

    1998-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/Stratford So little has been said about the S-92 Helibus programme since its 1995 launch that the sight of two near-complete prototypes at Sikorsky's Stratford, Connecticut, factory comes as something of a surprise. The wraps are coming off now - nine months before the first flight - in a ...

  • News

    Britannia will rule carrier Blue Scandinavia after take-over

    1998-01-14T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Chuter/LONDON CONTROL of Swedish charter operator Blue Scandinavia is to pass to Britannia Airways following the acquisition by Britannia's sister organisation, Thomson International, of Swedish tour operator Fritidsresor. The UK airline is also expanding its new charter operation in Germany. Thomson International, part of the Canadian-owned Thomson ...

  • News

    Battle stations

    1998-01-14T00:00:00Z

     Boeing's decision to continue the development of the former McDonnell Douglas MD-95, in the new guise of the 717, has effectively redrawn the battle lines in its war with Airbus Industrie. This takes the civil-aviation giants to a new battleground where their tussle for market supremacy can be continued. ...