All Ops & safety articles – Page 1359

  • News

    Maintenance Directory Part 1, The Americas

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    MAINTENANCE AND overhaul companies in North and South America are benefiting from the return to profitability of the region's airlines. While cost-cutting measures such as outsourcing main- tenance have slipped down the airlines' priority lists as profits have soared, overhaul companies say that business has improved since the recession's end. ...

  • News

    KLM to upgrade 747-200/300s

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    KLM is to carry out a $53 million upgrade of its Boeing 747-200/300s and keep the aircraft in service well into the next century. KLM is the first airline to commit to an extensive cockpit upgrade of so-called 747 'Classics'. The package includes a major cockpit upgrade, aimed ...

  • News

    Indian Airlines seeks compensation for V2500 performance

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Indian Airlines is seeking compensation from International Aero Engines (IAE)for the higher-than-expected fuel consumption of the V2500 engines which power its Airbus A320s. IAE, a joint venture including Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce, declines to comment on the extent of the shortfall, although it is thought to be ...

  • News

    BAe flies its first converted A300B4 freighter

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    British Aerospace's Filton, UK-based division, BAe Aviation Services, flew its first converted Airbus A300B4 freighter on 23 January, and hopes to be able to secure approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration and UK Civil Aviation Authority approval by the end of March. The conversion of the first ...

  • News

    Boeing kicks off flight tests of next-generation 737 family

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Boeing's flight-test programme for its next-generation 737 family began smoothly on 9 February, with the 737-700 having a problem-free maiden flight from Renton, Washington. The flight marks the start of an eight-month test effort for the 737-700 which will include 1,200h of flying. Certification is planned in September, ...

  • News

    Oscillations force BA 777 back to Heathrow

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Oscillations force BA 777 back to Heathrow The UK air-Accident Investigation Branch is looking into a mysterious in-flight incident involving a British Airways Boeing 777-200A, which was forced to turn back to London Heathrow in October 1996 after suffering uncommanded rudder movement. BA and Boeing have so far ...

  • News

    AA pilots are ready to abandon talks

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Round-the-clock negotiations between American Airlines management and the Allied Pilots Association, a union which represents some 9,000 of the airline's flightcrew, had still failed to produce a new contract 18h before a threatened 15 February strike was due to begin. The talks have become bogged down on pay ...

  • News

    Aeronet: Development of a network

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    SITA's AeroNet is a centrally managed data network capable of handling and routeing high volumes of complex - and often commercially sensitive - digital data streams from sophisticated applications. It might be compared with the newest databus in civil aircraft - where a point-to-point bus system, such as the Arinc ...

  • News

    Universal dual-system satnav nears approval

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Universal Avionics is on track to win certification of the first satellite-navigation (satnav) receiver capable of using both the US global-positioning system (GPS)and Russian Glonass navigation constellations. The company, best known for its UNS-1 range of flight-management systems, is using a combined GPS/Glonass receiver-processor board provided by US ...

  • News

    New-look BA flies into ten-year profits high

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    British Airways marked ten years since its privatisation in February 1987 with another record profits performance. BA, which is making a small change in its livery pending a longer-term redesign (see above), posted pre-tax profits of ú113 million ($183 million) for the December quarter, the third in the airline's financial ...

  • News

    Crew blamed

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    The 19 February wheels-up landing of a Continental Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 at Houston International Airport, Texas, was caused by the flightdeck crew's failure to ensure that the landing gear was down, says the US National Transportation Safety Board. Source: Flight International

  • News

    DASA blames Boeing for Northrop pull-out

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    The decision by Northrop Grumman not to participate in the Airbus A3XX project has sparked accusations by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) that Boeing and McDonnell Douglas (MDC)have put pressure on their US suppliers not to participate in the proposed European large aircraft programme. DASA chairman Manfred Bischoff says that ...

  • News

    CFMI gears up for bumper year

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    CFM International (CFMI) is stepping up production of CFM56 engines in response to record orders placed during 1996 for 1,280 powerplants valued at $5.5 billion. CFMI president Gerard Laviec says that the company had planned for only "about 700 orders" for the year. As a result of the ...

  • News

    SITA: Dedicated to communicating

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    From the start, airlines could not be efficient without good contactability. The need for better company communications, over developing long routes, gave birth in 1949 to SITA (once known as the Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques) - a non-profit-making co-operative, among major airlines - to provide self-managed communications. It has ...

  • News

    Full system testing is necessary

    1997-02-19T00:00:00Z

    Sir - I read the letter from Jack Karran about the Lima Boeing 757 accident (Flight International, 5-11 February, P41). It should be noted that his suggestion that there should be the ability to test pitot/static "air-pressure sensors" would be adequate only if it were to be a ...

  • News

    Mars failure

    1997-02-12T15:43:00Z

    The commission investigating the failure of the Russian Mars '96 mission (Flight International, 27 November-3 December, 1996) has failed to identify the cause, citing 20 possible scenarios focusing primarily on the fourth stage of the Proton launcher, which failed to fire correctly for a second time after reaching initial parking ...

  • News

    China raises $250 million

    1997-02-12T00:00:00Z

    China Eastern Airlines has completed the initial public offering of 32% of its shares on the New York and Hong Kong stock exchanges, raising about $250 million from the sale. The flotation appears to have been reasonably well received, with the offer 22 times oversubscribed in Hong Kong. ...

  • News

    Japanese firms are cool on Airbus A3XX co-operation plans

    1997-02-12T00:00:00Z

    Japanese aerospace manufacturers are unenthusiastic about the idea of co-operating with Airbus Industrie to develop the consortium's proposed A3XX high-capacity airliner, despite Boeing's recent decision to shelve its rival 747-500/500X . Airbus has been signalling renewed interest in enlisting Japanese support for the A3XX, this time during a ...

  • News

    Airbus fits switch guards after A340 hydraulic incident

    1997-02-12T00:00:00Z

    Following an incident involving a Singapore Airlines (SIA) Airbus Industrie A340 over Australia, the aircraft manufacturer says that it is to put switch-guards over engine hydraulic-valve controls in the A340 cockpit. Sudden pitch changes caused by an incorrect switch selection by the crew injured 11 people, according to ...

  • News

    Alitalia pulls plug on Fokker 70s

    1997-02-12T00:00:00Z

    Alitalia is attempting to return its five leased Fokker 70s to the bankrupt Fokker operation, after failing in a bid to re-lease them to low-cost Italian regional carrier Alpi Eagles. The two airlines concluded a codeshare deal late in 1996 which included the transfer of the Fokker 70s. ...