All Systems & Interiors news – Page 885

  • News

    What chance is there for UK industry in the assembly of AI(R) 70 regional jet?

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Sir - The recent announcement that Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) is to launch its AI(R) 70 regional jet at the 1997 Paris air show should be encouraging news for the UK aerospace industry. I would not place my money on the aircraft being assembled in the UK, however. ...

  • News

    Ilyushin pushes the boat out on maritime-patrol Il-114

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Alexander Velovich/MOSCOW ILYUSHIN HAS begun flight-testing a maritime-patrol variant of its Il-114 twin regional turboprop, the Il-114P. The Il-114P is being developed in collaboration with the Proton-Service scientific research centre, NPO Geophisica, NPO Poliot, VNII Radiotechniki "Skala", NII Sistemotechniki and NII Prinbornoi Automatiki. ...

  • News

    Inertial-platform failure is identified in Ariane 5 loss

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON INSPECTION of a segment of the vehicle-equipment bay recovered from the debris of the Ariane 5 booster lost on 4 June has revealed a malfunction in the inertial platforms, the European Space Agency (ESA) says. ESA and French space agency CNES had earlier reported ...

  • News

    Aer Lingus evaluates 180-seaters

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON AER LINGUS IS evaluating the various 180-seat (two-class seating) aircraft types, with a view to introducing a new aircraft in 1997, but more likely in 1998. The airline says that it is in "-the early days of looking at the options available". The ...

  • News

    Unions agree to Alitalia facelift

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA ALITALIA'S UNIONS have given a tentative go-ahead to the airline's increasingly urgent restructuring plans, agreeing to accept cost-cutting in exchange for three places on the board and an eventual 20% stake in the group. The deal was finally thrashed out on ...

  • News

    UK study shows advantage of combined GPS/Glonass

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    COMBINED GLOBAL-positioning-system (GPS)/Russian Glonass receivers can significantly boost the integrity of real-time satellite-based differential-navigation systems in aircraft, says a UK team which recently completed what are believed to be the world's first flight trials of such a system. The UK Civil Aviation Authority's Institute of Satellite Navigation (ISN), ...

  • News

    Boeing prepares to offer 747-500/600MD

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/SEATTLE BOEING IS to seek board authority to offer the "Major Derivative" (MD) 747-500/600 in July, but may be forced to extend the development timescale by more than a year to incorporate more advanced technology, at the insistence of its airline advisory group. Boeing ...

  • News

    Crash casualties

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    THE CRASH of a ValuJet McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in Florida in May is turning out to have an impact far beyond the regrettable loss of 110 lives and an aircraft. That is not because the crash itself was extraordinary (although the coincidence of circumstances which add up to the likely ...

  • News

    Brunei FANS-1 upgrade is first on 'Classic' 747

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/LONDON THE Brunei royal family has ordered the world's first Future Air Navigation System-1 (FANS-1) upgrade for a "Classic" Boeing 747. Work on the modification, which is being performed by Lufthansa Technik, is under way. The aircraft, a 747SP, is being fitted with ...

  • News

    Rivals set to benefit from ValuJet suspension of operations

    1996-06-26T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON VALUJET HAS built its main hub at Atlanta Harts-field, and at its peak, the airline represented about 8% of the passenger traffic at the airport, ranking it second only to Delta Air Lines. With ValuJet flights unavailable, "price-sensitive" customers from Atlanta have been ...

  • News

    Fertile ground

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Canada's Radarsat has been such a success that a second satellite is planned. Tim Furniss/LONDON IN JUNE, CANADA'S Spar Aerospace-built remote-manipulator-system robot arm was operated on yet another Space Shuttle mission, the STS77/Endeavour. Marc Garneau, one of Canada's four space travellers, was aboard for the ...

  • News

    Jet setting

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Following its N250 turboprop, IPTN has started work on an 80- to 130-seat regional jet, Paul Lewis reports from Bandung. In a country besieged with bureaucracy and straining to meet the transportation needs of its 190 million inhabitants, Bacharuddin Habibie, head of national aerospace manufacturer Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara ...

  • News

    Boeing plans for further FANS-1 certification

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    BOEING IS PLANNING to certify future Air Navigation System 1 (FANS-1)-equipped versions of its 757s and 767s by late 1997, possibly as part of a joint US Federal Aviation Administration/European Joint Airworthiness Authorities effort. The US company is developing an improved version of its FANS-1 avionics package to ...

  • News

    -IPTN's N250

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    -IPTN's N250 will be a winner, if performance figures match the aircraft's characteristics IF THERE IS any lingering cynicism, over the destiny of IPTN's N250 programme, a visit to the company's design, manufacturing and flight-testing site at Bandung, Indonesia, would be likely to put it to rest. The site ...

  • News

    Reutlinger lays down cost goal for Sabena

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Herman de Wulf/BRUSSELS SABENA PRESIDENT Paul Reutlinger has laid out details of the new cost-cutting targets and fleet rationalisation being demanded by new partner Swissair in a bid to bring the Belgian carrier back to profitability by 1998. Reutlinger says that Sabena needs to shave ...

  • News

    PW206 to power Bell 427

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The PRATT & WHITNEY Canada PW206D turbo-shaft engine has been selected by Bell Helicopter Textron to power its new light twin, the Bell 427. The 450kW (600shp) PW206D was chosen over the Allison Model 250-C22+ and the Turbomeca Arrius 2 to power ...

  • News

    ValuJet to reduce maintenance contractors

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker/ATLANTA VALUJET AIRLINES, in response to criticism from the US Federal Aviation Administration is to cut the number of outside maintenance contractors it uses. An interim report, by the FAA on ValuJet's maintenance and safety procedures, highlights discovered since the Atlanta, Georgia-based airline came ...

  • News

    Debonair makes low-cost fares and quality promise

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    DEBONAIR, THE LATEST UK start-up hoping to bring the US low-fares experiment to Europe, has promised fares of 50-70% below existing levels. The airline is planning to launch services from London Luton on 19 July, with free flights on its routes to Barcelona, Munich and the Dusseldorf ...

  • News

    Competitive codes

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    American Airlines chairman Bob Crandall was more wrong than he was right when he said 15 months ago: "Code-sharing is profoundly anti-competitive and, in the long term, will inevitably reduce the number of air carriers competing for your business. When airlines team up and code-share, they are able - by ...

  • News

    Open skies crucial to BA/American deal

    1996-06-19T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON NEWS OF THE British Air-ways and American Airlines code-sharing deal and the promise of a US/UK open-skies agreement has sparked off a round of intense lobbying from competitors on both sides of the Atlantic, hoping to make gains from a new bilateral. BA ...