All Ops & safety articles – Page 1434
-
News
None the wiser
At a preliminary meeting to lay the groundwork for a quasi plenary session early next year, five members of the European Comité des Sages have begun a campaign to accelerate changes in European aviation policy. Mark Odell reports exclusively on the proceedings.Just when the European Commission thought it was safe, ...
-
News
CL-604 improvements
ENGINE With a small speed and temperature increase, within the existing certificated limits, the thrust capability of the CF34-3B is up by 7%; this is used in flat rating power to ISA+15¡C. The take-off distance of the CL-604 in standard conditions has been improved, in a ...
-
News
The truth about Greek airspace
Sir - The article concerning the state of the Greek air-traffic-control system (Flight International, 13-20 September, P9) accurately sums up the frustration shared by those who use Greek airspace. You concentrate on the problems at Athens Airport, but there are problems throughout the system. For instance try obtaining ...
-
News
Czech restructuring plans change again
Andrzej Jeziorski/PRAGUE ANOTHER PIECE of the Czech aerospace industry's restructuring appear to have unraveled, with the collapse of joint-venture discussions between Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) and Czech engine manufacturer Walter. It is believed that the deal finally fell through because P&WC was unwilling to ...
-
News
Age-old dilemma
IT APPEARS that the European and US authorities have reached agreement over "grandfather rights" in the certification of derivative airliner types. Now all they have to do, is agree their respective interpretations over what is a grandfather right and what is a derivative, which may be a little more difficult, ...
-
News
Airbus closes in on ValuJet deal
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AIRBUS IS CLOSE to winning the hard-fought battle to sell ValuJet its first new aircraft. The deal, which is expected to involve around 25 A319s, with an option for a further 25, would be a major coup for Airbus, coming in the face of fierce competition ...
-
News
Arinc/China in datalink deal
ARINC HAS SIGNED a multi-year contract with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to implement air-to-ground digital datalink systems in the country. The CAAC development, consistent with International Civil Aviation Organisation-approved communications, navigation, surveillance and air-traffic-management system, will enable datalink-equipped aircraft to transmit and receive air-traffic-control and ...
-
News
BA beds in for class battle
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON BRITISH AIRWAYS SAYS that the highly publicised launch of its new long-haul first-class "cabin" concept is just part of a broader £500 million ($776 million) programme to redesign all cabin services over the next three years. The new first-class offering, which was officially ...
-
News
Pension beckons for grandfather rights
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES David Learmount/LONDON EXISTING RULES governing the certification of derivative aircraft are to be scrapped if the US Federal Aviation Administration and the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) approve new proposals presented by an international task force of manufacturers and aviation authorities. The ...
-
News
Greenwald blames bilaterals for strangling industry
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON UNITED AIRLINES (UAL) chairman Gerald Greenwald has launched one of the most scathing attacks yet on the system of bilateral air agreements, including among his main targets the slow progress being made on UK-US liberalisation. "What we have now is a kind of ...
-
News
Deregulation fails to dent European duopolies
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON MORE THAN TWO years after Europe signed up for liberalisation, the majority of the region's air routes remain dominated by traditional flag-carrier duopolies, according to the UK Civil Aviation Authority's latest progress report on the European single air market. By the end of ...
-
News
United kicks off transpacific FANS flights
UNITED AIRLINES has inaugurated transpacific operations using Boeing 747-400s equipped with Honeywell's FANS-1 satellite-based communication/ navigation system. The first FANS-1 flight was made on 2 September, from Chicago to Tokyo, over Russia. United Flight 881 was the first over Siberian airspace to communicate with a new FANS controller-workstation ...
-
News
Frustrations in seeking safety
Sir - All airlines would profess to seek at least the preservation, if not the improvement, of flight safety. There appears to exist, a dalliance however, over the fitting of improved flight-data recorders (FDRs), however - vital data is not being captured. The frustration of the US National ...
-
News
Lucas studies 'more-electric' technologies
Andrew Doyle/LONDON LUCAS AEROSPACE's Power Systems division is studying the next stage in the development of so-called "more-electric" aircraft concepts, following its successful bid to introduce variable-frequency generators on Bombardier's Global Express business jet. The company is focused on developing high-power variable-frequency generators for larger ...
-
News
Ranging wider
Canadair has gradually improved its Challenger corporate jet over the past decade. Harry Hopkins/WICHITA THE CANADAIR CHALLENGER series of corporate jets has evolved over 15 years in a series of small steps which have not detracted from the success of the original formula - to marry the ...
-
News
Trent 777 testing resumes after vibration is remedied
CERTIFICATION FLIGHT-testing of the Rolls Royce Trent-powered Boeing 777 has resumed after engineers tackled a rear-bearing vibration problem caused by "distress of the aft-strut fairing and primary nozzle". The test programme has been held up for "about a week", says Boeing, which grounded the aircraft in the first ...
-
News
Uncomfortable with 777 ETOPS
Sir - The article on the British Airways Boeing 777 General Electric GE90 delivery date and extended twinjet operations (ETOPS) certification (Flight International, 6-12 September, P4) makes me feel uncomfortable. ETOPS, I am told, is a means by which a two-engine aircraft can be flown over water. The ...
-
News
Zaire offers Sabena stake in new airline
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS THE ZAIRE Government has offered Sabena a 51% stake in a new airline being formed to take over from defunct Air Zaire. The proposal was formulated during a visit by a Sabena delegation to the Zaire capital Kinshasa. The proposal does not ...
-
News
AlliedSignal studies ESAS stepping stone
Guy Norris/WICHITA ALLIEDSIGNAL IS studying an integrated safety system for airliners which would combine into a single unit individually packaged systems such as the ground-proximity warning system (GPWS), Mode S transponder, weather radar and the traffic-alert and collision-avoidance system (TCAS). The safety-system concept, although "still in the very earliest stages", ...
-
News
Associate membership
THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) is having trouble managing its relations with neighbors near and far. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the case of air services. Partly, this is because the European Commission (EC) does not have the authority to control member states' air-services agreements. Partly, also, the EU ...