All Ops & safety articles – Page 1265
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News
Marketplace
-Detroit-based ProAir will add a third Boeing 737-400 in December, leased from Boullioun. The secondhand aircraft will be used to increase frequencies and for expansion. -US regional Trans States Airlines has exercised six options for the 50-seat Embraer RJ-145. Its original contract, signed in February, included nine firm orders and ...
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Transition Planning
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC The US Federal Aviation Administration has produced a new blueprint for modernisation of the country's airspace system, but industry remains far from convinced that the document represents a firm timetable for the introduction of new technologies. Manufacturers have been researching the new communications, navigation, surveillance and air ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Boeing targets year end for assessment of 747 stretch
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing expects to complete windtunnel tests of a stretched, 500-seater 747 by the end of the year and, pending the successful conclusion of business case studies and sufficient customer commitments, says it could launch the aircraft by mid-1999. Boeing, which celebrated 30 years of 747 assembly earlier ...
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GE90-powered Continental 777 hits ETOPS proving flight hitch
This new General Electric GE90-powered Continental Airlines Boeing 777 had to carry out a precautionary diversion following a starboard engine low oil-quantity alert during a transpacific extended range twin engine operations (ETOPS) proving flight for the airline. The aircraft, en route on a nonstop New York-Tokyo flight on 7 October, ...
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Southern African airlines struggle to survive as profits plunge
By Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN Dangerously low profit margins are threatening the future of airlines in Southern Africa as low yields from domestic services and excessive levies imposed by government-owned monopolies take their toll, according to the Airline Association of Southern Africa (AASA). Airlines in the region are reporting ...
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Rutan to launch Boomerang after production agreement
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Burt Rutan's unconventional, asymmetric piston twin, the Boomerang, is set to enter production. Oregon-based Morrow Aircraft has reached an agreement with Rutan under which the one-off design could be certificated within three years - provided that sufficient financing is secured. Under the agreement, Rutan's Scaled ...