All Ops & safety articles – Page 1427
-
News
Austflight signs Shanghai manufacturing venture
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Australian ultra-light aircraft manufacturer Austflight has signed a joint venture agreement with the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory to build the Australian-designed Drifter SB582 two-seat ultralight aircraft in Shanghai. Under the agreement, the joint venture also plans to offer to supply components, to two other ...
-
News
Inconsistency in BALPA policy
Sir - The Independent Pilots Association (IPA) commends the letter from Chris Darke, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) on licence validations within the European Union (EU) (Flight International, 11-17 October, P49). The IPA is also concerned that licence validations have been issued to non-EU ...
-
News
BFGoodrich develops standby indicator
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE has introduced a flat-panel standby attitude-indicator. The GH-3000 combines a colour liquid-crystal display with a solid-state inertial sensor in a 3ATI-size unit interchangeable with existing electromechanical standby instruments. The US companies Avionics Systems division says the $22,500 GH-3000 offers high reliability, with a design mean time ...
-
News
Canadair delivers Special Edition
BOMBARDIER HAS formally unveiled its Canadair Special Edition (SE) corporate jet - an adaptation of its CRJ regional airliner - and delivered the first example to Middle-East distributor TAG Aeronautics. The SE - first disclosed at September's National Business Aircraft Association convention in Las Vegas, Nevada - will ...
-
News
X-31 crash
A NASA mishap investigation board has concluded that an accumulation of ice in or on the unheated pilot-static system was the root cause of the crash of the X-31 experimental aircraft at Edwards AFB, California, on 19 January. The NASA board says that the build-up of ice blocked the small ...
-
News
Airbus prepares for shortened A330 launch launch imminent
Julian Moxon/PARIS AIRBUS INDUSTRIE IS preparing to launch the shortened version of the A330 long-range wide body twinjet "before the end of the year", for service entry in 1998. The manufacturer has been pushing to launch the 250-seat A330-M10 as soon as the market showed sufficient ...
-
News
FAA justifies safety-assessment actions
Graham Warwick/Miami THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is defending its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme against criticism that it constitutes the implementation of punitive action against airlines in countries judged not to comply fully with international safety-oversight standards. The FAA has recently added Ecuador, ...
-
News
Reduced separations lie ahead on Atlantic routes
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE NORTH ATLANTIC Systems Planning Group (NATSPG) plans to start preparations in December to pave the way for the introduction of a trial 1,000ft (300m) reduced vertical- separation minima (RVSM) across the Atlantic by January 1997. The NATSPG, which includes all major ...
-
News
Bidders line up for Kenya Airways stake
KENYA AIRWAYS IS close to selecting a strategic airline-partner, with KLM understood to have joined front runners British Airways and South African Airways (SAA) among the final bidders. Submissions were handed in on 3 November, with a winner due to be selected, on 30 November, at a meeting ...
-
News
Sextant HFDS certificated
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE has achieved French certification of its head-up flight-display system (HFDS) for Category IIIB landings in the Boeing 737-300. Launch customer Aeropostal has carried out the first commercial flight using the system. Aeropostal flies passengers by day, converting its aircraft to freight configuration for night-mail services. Director-general ...
-
News
FSF chairman challenges RAA to take pro-active role
FLIGHT SAFETY Foundation (FSF) chairman Stuart Matthews has hit out at the US Regional Airlines Association (RAA) decision to spend $500,000 on a publicity campaign promoting the safety image of the regional, rather than investing in what he describes as more "pro-active" safety measures. Matthews says that ...
-
News
India prepares for change to CNS/ATM
David Learmount/SEATTLE INDIA HAS DRAWN up plans to replace its terrestrial air-traffic-control (ATC) system with a global-navigation satellite-system (GNSS)-based communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management (CNS/ATM) by 2015. A Government study shows that the new system has the potential to yield tenfold increases in system air-traffic capacity ...
-
News
Welcome common sense on JAA rules
Sir - The editorial "Regulatory fatigue" (Flight International, 1-7 November) was a welcome shaft of common sense in the dreary saga of the move towards European Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) regulations on flight-time limitations and the proposed changes in the USA and Canada. No-one should underestimate the difficulties ...
-
News
Novel design
Peter Henley/NORTH WEALD A MERE GLANCE at the Grob 200 reveals its designer's novel approach to his task. The airframe is constructed of composite materials, its engine is mounted behind the cabin (driving a three-bladed pusher propeller which lives on the end of a long tailcone), directional stability ...
-
News
Flight of fancy?
The debate about free-flight air navigation continues. In the USA... Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration and the civil-aviation community "...stand at the threshold of a great opportunity to safely re-order the [nation's] air-traffic system". This statement supporting "free-flight" air navigation is taken ...
-
News
Fear of litigation threatens US safety, says Hinson
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is planning to "secure" voluntarily reported incident data filed by US airlines, despite problems with the US Freedom of Information Act, according to FAA Administrator David Hinson. Giving the keynote address at the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) 1995 seminar in Seattle on 7 ...
-
News
KLM reporting a record first half
BRITISH AIRWAYS HAD a clutch of record traffic figures and its highest-ever profits to show as the group revealed an "outstanding" set of results for the first half of the financial year. Net profits climbed to £323 million over the six months to September, as sales broke through ...
-
News
The ins and outs of licence validation
Sir - Recent correspondence from Capt Rackham (Flight International, 20-26 September, P76) and British Airline Pilots Association general secretary Chris Darke (Flight International, 11-17 October, P49) highlights the differences between European Community member states on licence validation. Capt Rackham's experiences are very different to the requirements which would ...
-
News
Boeing redesign is a necessity
Sir - There are pros and cons about new-generation Boeing 737-600/-700/-800 receiving grandfather rights towards its certification, but I would like to point out that European Joint Airworthiness Authorities regulations safety requirements on the amount and size of exits only increase safety. Surely the safe transportation of passengers is the ...
-
News
Strato 2C funding hinges on contract negotiations
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH THE GERMAN Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) is negotiating a new contract with composite-aircraft manufacturer Burkhart Grob, which must be completed by mid-November to save the Strato 2C programme. Grob says that outstanding funding of DM46.74 million ($31 million) is being withheld by the German ...