All Ops & safety articles – Page 1337
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News
Airbus issues hydraulic pump warning after A330/340 fires
Airbus Industrie has instructed all A330 and A340 operators to de-activate the aircraft's electrically driven hydraulic pumps, following a series of fires which has left at least two aircraft badly damaged. In the latest incident, an auxiliary pump is suspected of having overheated on a Malaysia Airlines (MAS)A330-300 ...
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Fokker will make selection of F28 retrofit engine in February
Plans to launch a re-engineing programme for the Fokker F28 Fellowship are gathering momentum, with a final engine selection expected in February. Programme partners Fokker Services and Perry Group plan a launch decision in April, depending on market response. Lion Boenders, product marketing manager at Woensdrecht, Holland-based Fokker ...
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Tu-224: different class of aircraft
Sir - In the article "Kato launches Sirocco to lead R-R-powered Tu-204 effort", Dr Ibrahim Kamel, president of the newly formed Sirocco, is quoted as saying that the Tupolev Tu-224 (Western-powered Tu-204) will cost about $36 million. You then say that comparative "sticker" prices for the similarly sized Airbus A321-100 ...
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Indian ATC responsibility
Sir - It is beyond comprehension to understand how the Indian Government and, more importantly, its air-traffic-control (ATC) services can deny responsibility for the 12 November, 1996, mid-air collision between a Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B and an Air Kazakhstan Ilyushin Il-76 at New Delhi. Surely the 1,000ft ...
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The reliability of the GPS system
Sir - The report by the UK National Air Traffic Services (Flight International, 4-10 December, P6) indicates that the global-positioning system (GPS) is unreliable for sole-means navigation. I believe that it should be used with another aid, preferably an inertial-navigation system. The questions of reliability and the political ...
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TTS unveils new-design simulator
THOMSON TRAINING &Simulation (TTS) has delivered the first of its new-design full-flight simulators to the ATR Training Centre (ATC) in Toulouse, France. The new design was evolved following TTS' acquisition of Rediffusion and includes features from the UK company's Concept 90 simulator. The first new-design machine to enter ...
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Light moves
Time did not stand still for the big light-aircraft manufacturers while they sought and gained product-liability reform. This ultimately allowed them to re-enter their former markets, but by that time, US production had dropped from its early-1980s peak of about 70 light single- and twin-engined aircraft a day, to a ...
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DASA/DLR move towards ENSS
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) and the German Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) are embarking on a programme to develop key components of a future European Navigation Satellite System (ENSS). The ENSS has now been adopted as one of DASA's lead research projects. Over the next two to three years, the ...
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Crash data help
Indian accident investigators have decided to send abroad the flight-data and cockpit- voice recorders (FDR/CVR) from the two aircraft involved in the mid-air collision near New Delhi on 12 November 1996. The CVR and FDR from the Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747-100B are to go to London, UK, to be ...
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Outside control
There is nothing new in the perception of inadequacy in African and Third-World air-traffic control (ATC) - merely in the articulation of that perception. The major international bodies (the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have long known not only about the problems, but ...
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Passenger traffic continues growth
World scheduled passenger traffic continued to grow by 7% in 1996 and is expected to stay buoyant this year, according to preliminary estimates by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Traffic growth, measured in terms of revenue-passenger kilometres (RPKs), was again led by a 9%rise on international services, ...
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Comparison system detects database differences
XIONIX SIMULATION has delivered a navigation-database comparison system to British Airways. The system allows BA to compare navigation databases to identify differences and isolate errors. It is in use at the carrier's operations centre at Heathrow. BA is using the comparison system to increase the integrity of navigation ...
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Chinese develop new navigation pod
China is developing a low-altitude navigation pod to provide strike aircraft with all-weather terrain following and target-identification capability. The 200kg Blue-Sky pod is being developed by the China Leihua Electronic Technology Institute (CLETRI), and is believed to have been test-flown already. The pod is fitted with radar and ...
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The last challenge
It has long been accepted that certain world regions provide a disproportionate number of the global air-transport industry's serious accidents. These events influence public perception of air-transport safety and, if they are serious accidents, that perception does not take much account of where they happen. Even if they do occur ...
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Australia considers making GPWS compulsory
Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has begun industry consultation on proposed new standards for the installation of ground-proximity-warning systems (GPWS) on Australian commercial aircraft. The move to adopt the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) approved standards follows a coroner's re- commendation after the crash of a third-level ...
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NATSwill introduce North Atlantic ATN
The UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) is pushing on with the implementation of the aeronautical telecommunications network (ATN), clearing the way for the debut of the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) on North Atlantic routes. An upgrade of the Oceanic Control Centre at Prestwick, Scotland, being planned ...
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Why was this aircraft allowed to land at Heathrow?
Sir - On 8 December, 1996, I was awaiting clearance at Heathrow when a Fokker 50 (with a known undercarriage problem) approached runway 09R (Flight International, 18-31 December, 1996, P10). The expected happened, and the left main gear collapsed. What I would like to know is: why was ...
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AD could ground 727 freighter conversions
US CARGO CARRIERS are bracing for a Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive (AD) which could severely restrict the payload of Boeing 727 freighter conversions. The AD had been anticipated in late December 1996, but the FAA says that it now plans to begin discussions with aircraft modifiers and operators in ...
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Deja vu with age-60-years ruling
Sir - A US Federal Appeals Court panel will rule shortly on whether the US Federal Aviation Administration can continue to bar pilots of 60 years old from commanding US passenger aircraft. The general consensus seems to be that the "Age 60" rule is not based so much on medical ...
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Boeing offers airlines 767-400ERX stretch
BOEING IS NOW formally offering the stretched 767-400ERX to airlines. Authority to offer was given at the beginning of January, and the company expects a formal launch early this year, leading to a first flight in 1999 and certification and first delivery in 2000 (Flight International, 18-31 December, 1996, P5). ...