OPEN-ROTOR TEST PACT
Boeing, Rolls-Royce, RUAG Aerospace and German contract manufacturer Deharde Maschinenbau have signed an agreement to test a model concept aircraft with open-rotor engines at the RUAG Low Speed Wind Tunnel in Emmen, Switzerland early next year. Rolls-Royce will provide propulsion input from its UK facilities, while Boeing will design the integrated wind tunnel model airframe to be made by Deharde using counter-rotating open-rotor engine simulation data from RUAG. Boeing's director of technology in Germany, Michael Friend, says: "This investigation will help us to better understand the interaction of open-fan propulsion with a candidate airframe concept and how much fuel savings might be possible."
QANTAS TAKES A330 WORK IN-HOUSE
Qantas Airways is to take its Airbus A330 heavy maintenance work in-house in Brisbane from early 2010. The work is currenly done by Lufthansa Technik in the Philippines. The Brisbane maintenance base, which employs 510 people, already performs heavy maintenance checks on Qantas Boeing 767s. Qantas has six A330-200s and 10 A330-300s and Jetstar has six A330-200s, says Qantas, adding that the Qantas group will receive two more A330s in the next 12 months.
Source: Flight International
