All Ops & safety articles – Page 1411
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News
Japan to invest in airports
THE JAPANESE Government has approved plans to spend '3.6 trillion ($34 billion) on a series of airport projects, including a new airport at Kanto. The bulk of the funds - '2.83 trillion - has been earmarked for airport construction, but '200 billion has also been pledged for ...
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Fairchild plans for Asia
FAIRCHILD FASTENERS, the California-based aerospace precision-fastener specialist, hopes to reach final agreement later this month with Taiwan-based King Grand to develop a new joint manufacturing, sales and distribution site near Taipei. Fairchild believes that the move could lead to full fastener-manufacturing capability in Asia in 1997. "We want ...
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BTG breathes LIVE into ASTA project
David Learmount/AMSTERDAM A BRITISH TECHNOLOGY Group (BTG) system which provides airport ground-movement controllers with real-time identification of all categories of aircraft and vehicles may provide a solution to one part of the US Federal Aviation Administration's all-airport surface-traffic automation (ASTA) project, according to the manufacturer. ...
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Schweizer delays delivery of Twin Condor spy craft to US Coast Guard
DELIVERY OF Schweizer Aircraft's RU-38A Twin Condor surveillance aircraft to the US Coast Guard (USCG) has been delayed by between six and eight months because of design flaws discovered during flight-testing of the twin-boom aircraft, says Paul Schweizer, the firm's president. The first of three low-cost, long-range ...
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Delta warns Europe of coming low-cost threat
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC EUROPE'S AIR-transport markets will soon face major structural change as the influence of low-cost carriers begins to spread, according to Delta Airlines chairman Ron Allen. Speaking at the US Federal Aviation Administration's Commercial Aviation Forecast conference in Washington on 5 March, Allen ...
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Death toll rises
The crash of China's first Long March 3B and its Intelsat 708 payload on 14 February, T+22s after launch from Xichang, caused six deaths and injuries to 57 on the ground, China Great Wall Industry has revealed. US officials have been invited to participate in an inquiry into the disaster, ...
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'Major disappointment': what O'Gorman wrote
Dear Ron United's 777 reliability and performance has been a major disappointment during the past few months. I am very concerned, and would like to ensure that Boeing and United are taking any and all actions necessary to fix these significant problems as soon as possible. The ...
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Don't judge one by the majority
Sir - You were right to give the US Federal Aviation Administration finalist status in the Flight International Aerospace Industry Awards 1996 Safety Section, but the illustration of a LanChile freighter shows the problem behind the FAA's policy. Firstly, Chile is among the safe countries on the International ...
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EMB-145 'exceeds expectations'
EMBRAER'S EMB-145 regional jet is performing better than predicted, the Brazilian manufacturer says. One prototype and two pre-series aircraft are now in flight-test and a fourth EMB-145, is scheduled to have been flown, by 20 March. Engineering director Luis Affonso says that the performance is exceeding specification because ...
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World accidents and incidents fell in 1995
PRELIMINARY statistics from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) show that airline fatal accidents and security-related incidents declined in 1995. The scheduled airlines of the 184 contracting states of ICAO experienced 26 accidents involving passenger fatalities, compared with 28 fatal accidents in 1994. The number of fatalities came ...
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Combi Saab 2000 nears certification
SAAB AIRCRAFT is hoping to complete development and certification of a passenger/cargo combi version of its Saab 2000 turboprop by the end of 1996, in an effort to boost flagging sales. The Swedish manufacturer is proposing two different basic combi configurations. The aircraft can be configured typically for ...
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Northwest takes A320s and defers A330 deliveries
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NORTHWEST AIRLINES has postponed and may eventually cancel delivery of 16 Airbus A330s in favour of acquiring 20 more A320s and hushkits for its 32 Boeing 727-200s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s. The decision puts in doubt the US carrier's intentions of ever ...
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THE GE 747 testbed
THE SHEER SIZE AND extra capacity of General Electric's Boeing 747 test-bed gives it an obvious advantage over its smaller predecessors. "It is five, or even ten times, as efficient as the 707," comments Phil Schultz, GE flight-test organisation (FTO) chief pilot. "We can run five or six objectives in ...
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Recorder reveals clue to 757 crash
A FAULTY AIR-SPEED indicator has emerged as a possible factor in the 6 February crash of a Boeing 757-200 in the Caribbean, which claimed 189 lives. Dominican Republic accident investigators, aided by the US National Transportation Safety Board, say that data from the recently retrieved cockpit-voice recorder ...
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Second Trent 777 returns to Seattle after testing
THE SECOND Rolls-Royce Trent 800-powered Boeing 777 was expected to return to Seattle on 1 March after undergoing 91 route sectors with Cathay Pacific Airways. Boeing is striving to achieve early extended-range twin-operations (ETOPS) clearance for the aircraft. By the end of February, the Trent 777 had undergone ...
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BAe calls for Airbus restructuring
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE must start to rework its consortium structure and finances, before going ahead with the launch of a new A3XX large-aircraft project, says British Aerospace chief executive Dick Evans. There is little prospect of BAe approving a new Airbus programme "...unless there ...
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ANZ optimistic of Ansett deal
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AIR NEW ZEALAND (ANZ) remains optimistic that it can go ahead with the proposed deal with TNT to acquire up to half of Ansett Australia. The agreement with TNT, which owns half of Ansett together with News Corporation, is still under negotiation, but ...
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Lufthansa and United apply for anti-trust immunity in USA
LUFTHANSA AND United Airlines have applied for US anti-trust immunity to expand their strategic alliance. The move came just hours, after a new open-skies bilateral air accord was initialed, by US and German transport officials. Final signature on the bilateral is expected by the third quarter. German transport ...
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Japan gears up for US bilateral battle
Kevin O'Toole/TOKYO BATTLE LINES are being drawn up in Japan and the USA as pressure mounts on both sides of the Pacific for a renegotiation of the controversial passenger bilateral between the two countries. Although talks are now under way over a revised cargo agreement, ...
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'Bitter' union conflicts force Sabena chairman to resign
SABENA CHAIRMAN and chief executive, Pierre Godfroid has resigned, to be replaced by Swissair executive Paul Reutlinger. Godfroid ran into a bitter dogfight between the management and the airline unions over a controversial restructuring plan involving a pay freeze and longer working hours. Two other senior Sabena managers have been ...