All Ops & safety articles – Page 1237
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News
Boeing builds profits and 737s as 747 slips
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Boeing is to reduce the production rate of the 747-400 from five to three and a half aircraft a month by the second quarter of next year in the face of a continuing soft market, particularly in the Asia region. Company chairman Phil Condit warns that ...
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Modifications delay Japan's XF-2 prototypes
The Japanese Technology Research Development Institute (TRDI) is working on a series of modifications to its four XF-2A/B flight test prototypes, causing further delays to the flight test schedule. Work includes structural reinforcement to the aircraft's wing-tip for rolling pull-out manoeuvres and the reshaping and positioning of underwing missile pylons ...
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African safety improves in 1998, despite growth
Lois Jones/DAKAR Air accidents in Africa are reducing, says ASECNA, the air navigation agency for Francophone Africa. The number of reported accidents stand at 14 in 1998, compared with last year's tally of 30. Reported near misses stand at 17 this year, compared to 26 in 1997, says ...
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Certification work will delay Jetcruzer 500 by 12 months
Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures (AASI) says certification work on the Jetcruzer 500 turboprop pusher will not be completed until the "second half of next year", meaning a delay of more than 12 months over the company's original predictions. AASI says the delay is part of a conscious effort to ...
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Airport tag
The US Federal Aviation Administration has awarded a $932,000 contract to Sensis of De Witt, New York, to develop a tagging system for transponder-equipped aircraft operating on airport taxiways and runways. The award could go to $2.5 million if all contract options are exercised. The safety device, which is dubbed ...
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727 shot down
A Congo Airlines Boeing 727-100 (9Q-CSG) crashed on 10 October after take-off from Kindu Airport in the eastern province of Congo after being shot down by unidentified troops. The aircraft was bound for Kinshasa and all 40 passengers and crew on board were killed. Shortly after take-off, the pilot sent ...
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EC eyes tougher noise policy
Alan George/BRUSSELS A significant tightening of European emissions and noise controls is foreshadowed in a European Commission (EC) consultation paper, which is intended to help formulate a new environmental policy while incorporating the decisions of the United Nations Kyoto conference on climate change. The consultation paper, entitled Air ...
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Counting chickens
Manufacturing mergers and corporate consolidations have been dominating the aerospace industry in the USA and, belatedly in Europe, for several years. The amalgamation of Lockheed and Martin Marietta, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas and the continuing debate about an Airbus Industrie single corporate entity had been observed from Asia with apparent ...
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European free flight demonstrated in Berlin
Chris Yates/BERLIN The first live trial of the prototype Airborne Separation Assurance System (ASAS), jointly developed by the Eurocontrol Experimental Centre as part of the Free Route Experimental Encounter Resolution programme, and Carmenta of Sweden, has been successfully completed. Initial results were demonstrated at the Global Navcom 98 ...
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Sakha ATC update
Airsys-ATM has clinched a deal to modernise and equip the air traffic control (ATC) systems of the Sakha Republic (ex-Yakutia) in north-eastern Siberia, over which many trans-Siberian and planned cross-polar airways are routed. Under the contract, details of which have not been revealed, the joint venture between Thomson-CSF and Siemens ...
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JARs could scupper 'virtual airlines' in Europe
British Airways' "virtual airline" arm Airline Management (AML) has been advised by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to make its management structure more accountable. If it cannot do this it will fail to meet European Joint Aviation Requirements-Operations (JARs) Rules when they take effect on 1 April, 1999. The ...
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Airbus stands by safety regulations
Airbus has insisted that existing safety regulations are adequate for large aircraft such as the 480/660-seat A3XX now on the drawing board. Speaking at the Very Large Transport Aeroplane (VLTA) conference at Noordwijkerhout, the Netherlands, on 13-16 October, Wolfgang Didszuhn, vice-president for product integrity at Airbus, said: "There is ...
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Pilots' share deal paves way for the privatisation of Air France
Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France's management and pilot unions have finally struck a deal which should end years of dispute and allow the airline to proceed to partial privatisation next year. The agreement, a refined version of the one that ended the crippling pilots' strike in June, is regarded ...
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Lufthansa confirms talks with struggling Air Namibia
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN Lufthansa has confirmed that it is negotiating with TransNamib, the state holding company of Air Namibia, which is looking for an alliance partner in order to stem alleged serious financial loses on its intercontinental services. "Talks have taken place. They were held in a positive ...
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Bul Aero's all-composite Zulu ultralight enters production
Bul Aero,the Avions Robin sister company, has started production of its Zulu single-engined ultralight aircraft. The Zulu, which achieved French certification in July, has clocked up more than 100h of flight testing at the company's Darois base. The all-composite Rotax 912-powered Zulu offers a maximum take-off weight of 550kg ...
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Mooney Eagle programme advances towards its target
Mooney Aircraft's worst fears for development of its new M20S Eagle piston single have failed to materialise, and it is on schedule to begin delivering the entry-level aircraft in January, after US approval around 1 December. Soon after Mooney launched the Eagle early this year, company sources confided that ...
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US cargo group members plan ADS-B tests
The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued a supplemental type certification (STC) to II Morrow for installation of equipment to support tests of automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) systems on several freight aircraft belonging to members of the Cargo Airline Association (CAA) . Three CAA members, Airborne Express, ...
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FAA examines insulation rules after MD-11 crash
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Within six months, the US Federal Aviation Administration is to produce a tougher burn test specification for aircraft internal insulation blankets. The action results partly from investigations into the 2 September crash of a Swissair Boeing MD-11 off Nova Scotia. Although the cause of the fatal ...
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Space rescue
Tim Furniss/LONDON On 26 September, 92 days after being lost in deep space, the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) began sending back images of the sun again. The spacecraft's remarkable rescue owes much of its success to the initial location work completed by the large radio ...
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'Intranet in the sky' is planned
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Two European airlines are leading the drive to link aircraft on the ground and in the air with the airline's "intranet" information technology systems. Lufthansa charter affiliate Condor and Swissair plan demonstrations of systems to allow Internet-style exchanges of information with aircraft using low-power datalinks ...