All Ops & safety articles – Page 1424
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Psychologists: analyse thyselves
Sir - Experienced pilots applying for airline jobs are required to take an increasing number of psychological tests, but are these relevant to the job of flying an aircraft safely and efficiently? Do psychologists take their own tests to select themselves for jobs? As an established airline captain ...
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Is there an 'anti-poaching' scheme?
Sir - I believe that there are in existence "anti-poaching" agreements between some airlines whereby, when the imminent big recruitment drive comes, pilots will be prevented from getting better jobs with bigger airlines. This would be illegal, since it would restrict civil liberties, and managers involved in such ...
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Les Wilson
Les Wilson, managing director of Bristol Airport, Avon, in the UK, died in a car crash on 27 November. He was deputy managing director at London Luton Airport before joining Bristol in 1980. A previous past chairman of the Airport Operators Association, he was awarded an OBE in the 1995 ...
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AlliedSignal wins 2h cockpit-voice recorder certification
A solid-state cockpit-voice recorder (SSCVR) made by AlliedSignal Aerospace, which stores 2h of digitally recorded sound, has received US Federal Aviation Administration certification. An SSCVR will be required on all Part 121 transport-category aircraft in Europe by April 1997, and AlliedSignal believes that the FAA will require the ...
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Boeing tackles 'tail-wag' problem on United 777s
Guy Norris/SEATTLE BOEING PLANS TO MAKE changes to the 777 gust-response system as part of efforts to eliminate a slow yawing motion, or "tail-wag", experienced by crews on the first few United Airlines aircraft. "We sent a team out to fly with the aircraft on revenue ...
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Concorde wins race against US TCAS ban
Andrew Doyle/LONDON BRITISH AIRWAYS and Air France have avoided the threat of a ban on their Aerospatiale/BAC Concorde operations to the USA, after Rockwell-Collins finally solved technical problems associated with the external antennae for the traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems (TCAS) which it is supplying for the supersonic airliner. ...
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IATA agonises over CIS air-traffic management
Kieran Daly/LONDON A SPLIT IS EMERGING inside the International Air Transport Association (IATA) over the development of air-traffic management (ATM) in the CIS. Russian ATM authority Aeronavigatsia is considering whether to accept an offer of European Bank for Reconstruction and Development funding, supported by the USA, ...
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Air traffic mismanagement
The Western air-transport industry realised around 1989 that the most enormous commercial opportunity in the entire transition to the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) was opening up before its very eyes: Russia needed a new navigation infrastructure. Since then it has deluged Moscow with advice - some of it wrong, ...
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Airbus extends widebody family
Julian Moxon/PARIS AIRBUS INDUSTRIE HAS launched the shortened, longer-range, version of its twin-engined A330 widebody and confirmed its development of the ultra-long range A340-8000. The A330-200 is scheduled to be flown for the first time in the middle of 1997, and to be ready for service ...
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Airport costs threaten Russian revival
Paul Duffy/MOSCOW HUGE INCREASES in airport charges and fuel costs are threatening to stifle the beginnings of a recovery in the Russian airline market, the country's carriers have warned. Russian airlines have been reporting signs of growth for the first time since 1990, when passenger traffic ...
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American grants Hawaiian a reprieve
FINANCIALLY TROUBLED carrier Hawaiian Airlines has secured a last-minute, but still tentative, agreement with American Airlines to restructure long-term lease agreements for its fleet of ex-American McDonnell Douglas DC-10s. The carrier has until 8 December to put together a set of renegotiated financial agreements with its creditors before ...
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FAA safety ratings sting Latin American/Caribbean carriers
SANCTIONS HAVE begun to bite at airlines in Latin American and Caribbean countries judged by the US Federal Aviation Administration to have inadequate safety oversights. An increasing number of carriers has been unable to put aircraft into service because bilateral agreements have been frozen by the USA until their safety ...
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Osprey tilts the balance
A leaner, cheaper, V-22 tilt-rotor is taking shape, thanks to advances in manufacturing technology. Graham Warwick/FORT WORTH MAJOR PIECES OF THE FIRST production-representative V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor are coming together at Bell Helicopter Textron and Boeing Helicopters, and confidence is growing that the dramatic cost and weight reductions achieved ...
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New members join in-trail-climb club
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES NORTHWEST, AMERICAN and Singapore Airlines (SIA) are set to join Delta Air Lines and United Airlines in operational trials of in-trail-climb (ITC) procedures over the Pacific. The use of ITC is being examined as a way of preventing one aircraft becoming "trapped" beneath ...
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Lufthansa posts profits despite continued exchange-rate trials
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH LUFTHANSA achieved a growth in profits for the first nine months of 1995, despite the massive exchange-rate losses which have blighted German industry all year. The German airline's pre-tax profits, before special items, showed a modest DM4 million ($2.9 million) improvement on the corresponding ...
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Finnair maintains strong position
THE FINNAIR GROUP continued its impressive performance improvement in the six months to the end of September. Compared to the same first-half period of 1994, Finnair made a FIM462 million ($110 million) profit before reserves and taxes, against FIM298 million. Turnover increased by 7.7% to FIM3.6 billion, while ...
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Growing up
Boeing has begun assembly of its firstnew-generation 737.Guy Norris/SEATTLE IT IS UNPRECEDENTED but, by mid-1997, Boeing's Renton site in Seattle, Washington, will be producing six different models of the same jet airliner. The aircraft is the best-selling 737, and the ramp-up represents the phase in its development when production of ...
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Sabena hit by strike
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS STRIKING SABENA workers closed down the airline on 29 November in the first of what is expected to be a series of industrial actions following the abrupt cancellation of all labour agreements on 27 November. The unprecedented contract move surprised observers who are ...
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T-tail, take three
McDonnell Douglas has finally launched its MD-95 into the hotly contested100-seat market. Guy Norris/LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) hopes to build a lot of future business on its newly launched MD-95. Not only will it lead the attack on the yet-to-be-realised 100-seat market, but the small airliner ...
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Abacus first in the frame
Abacus has become the first CRS to win access to the vast Chinese market in a deal that should give the Singapore-based company a lead in developing a full-scale CRS for China. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) awarded the contract in mid-October after a three year battle that ...