Programmes – Page 1134
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News
Ericsson plans radar merger
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Ericsson Microwave Systems is in exclusive talks with GEC-Thomson-Dasa Airborne Radar (GTDAR) over merging their respective active array radar projects into a single European programme. A draft memorandum of understanding between the parties already exists and the Swedish company has ceased discussions with potential US partners while it ...
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Sunshine jetset resets
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON While the sun is shining on Europe's holiday makers this summer, the tour operators have been hard at work on an industry-wide consolidation. The events of the last year or two have begun to reshape the major travel markets of Germany and the UK. The transformation has ...
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TrunkLiner programme is scrapped
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE China has scrapped the Boeing MD-90-30 TrunkLiner programme less than a month after the collapse of AE-3IX co-development negotiations with Airbus Industrie Asia, delivering a double blow to the country's once bold aerospace ambitions. Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) has instructed Boeing's Long Beach plant to ...
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US Airways plans fleet overhaul
US Airways is planning to update and expand its Shuttle fleet with Boeing 737-300s, but it claims that this will require its pilots to agree to a modified employment contract The division, which operates a fleet of 12 Boeing 727-200s on services between Boston, New York and Washington DC, ...
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ERJ-135 arrives in USA for flight tests
Embraer has flown its ERJ-135 (foreground) regional jet prototype to Moses Lake, Washington, for a series of test flights, due to end in early August. The aircraft, a shortened ERJ-145 prototype, made its maiden flight on 4 July and has quickly built up hours with a series of tests. ...
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F-16 testbed receives JSF's all-electric flight control system
Graham Warwick/FORT WORTH Lockheed Martin has begun installing an all-electric flight control system in an F-16 testbed under a programme to mature the technology for use in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). Ground tests are to start in August, leading to a first flight next January. The Advanced ...
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WorldNav communications unit to become ACARS successor
Honeywell has launched its own communications management unit (CMU), catching up with competitors AlliedSignal and Rockwell Collins and filling a gap in the company's WorldNav product suite. Honeywell expects the CMU, which complies with the latest ARINC 758 standard, to succeed the current airborne communications addressing and reporting system ...
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Spacehab buoys up expansion plans with Johnson acquisition
Spacehab, the private company that provides pressurised modules for the Space Shuttle, has almost doubled in size by acquiring a leading company supporting NASA's Shuttle programme. Houston-based Johnson Engineering manages spacewalking training operations at NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center, Texas, as well as supporting the ...
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Boeing's aluminium
Boeing has appointed TMX, the Detroit-based subsidiary of Germany's Thyssen, to be sole distributor of its aluminium stock for the next 10 years starting late this year. The $300 million contract will see "select" mills being used. Currently 50 distributors, seven flat-rolled product mills and 14 extrusion mills are used. ...
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737 operators clamour for hushkits to meet noise rules
Boeing 737 hushkit specialists AvAero Aircraft Noise Reduction and the Nordam Group have between them amassed orders and options for more than 500 kits, with both reporting a new flurry of activity in the market. Florida-based AvAero says a new order from First Air of Canada means it has ...
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Airbus holds talks with China to develop A310 replacement
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) has tabled a series of possible substitute collaborative proposals to the defunct AE31X, including working with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) on a new widebody aircraft to follow on from the Airbus A300/A310. The study project - dubbed the P305 - being ...
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AirTran Airlines leaps back into profit
AirTran Airlines has turned in its first quarterly profit since the Florida crash two years ago which forced the carrier, then called ValuJet, to suspend services for several months. The new group, which emerged last year from the merger of AirTran Airways and ValuJet, is forecasting a "solidly profitable" ...
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Augsburg considers flotation to maintain expansion rate
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Augsburg Airways is considering a public flotation to keep its expansion rolling, although the German regional carrier says that such a move is at least three years away. Augsburg has financed its fleet growth, now planned at two aircraft a year, through private debt placement, but concedes that ...
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FAA finalises parachute testing
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The US Federal Aviation Administration is close to completing tests on a parachute system that will allow Cirrus Design's SR20 aircraft to decelerate and drift down to the ground in the event of a mechanical failure or other emergency. Tests on the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) ...
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Further delays hit PW4098-powered 777-300
The long-delayed flight tests of the Pratt & Whitney PW4098-powered Boeing 777-300 are not expected to resume until at least the end of this month following an incident at SeaTac International Airport, near Seattle, in which a new engine slipped in its handling cradle. P&W says that the PW4098, ...
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Going separate ways
Andrzej Jeziorski/TOULOUSE After months of negotiations, ATR and British Aerospace put an end to their Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) partnership on 3 July with the signing of the official termination documents, retroactively valid from the beginning of the month. Two-and-a-half year old AI(R) - formed under French law as a ...
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Guizhou to expand as China Southern takes control
Guizhou Airlines is preparing for a major expansion of its aircraft fleet and domestic network following an agree- ment for China Southern Airlines to acquire a controlling interest in the Chinese provincial carrier. The Guiyang-based airline has received the first of three Boeing 737-300s on a seven-year dry lease ...
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Iranian carrier negotiates for ex-PAL A300B4s
The Iranian charter airline Mahan Air is close to finalising a deal for three Airbus A300s as part of its fleet restructuring from Russian to Western equipment. The five-year-old airline, based in Kerman, southern Iran, operates an all-Russian fleet of two Tupolev Tu-154Ms and two Ilyushin Il-76s. Negotiations are ...
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JAA 'category A' approval nears for Explorer helicopter
The European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) is expected to certify the Boeing MD Explorer helicopter to "category A" performance levels by the end of the month, according to the manufacturer. The long-awaited clearance rates the MD 902 version as capable of safely continuing flight during a landing or ...
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More Asian carriers negotiate order deferrals
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Korean Air (KAL) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) are negotiating with Airbus Industrie and Boeing to defer up to 16 widebody aircraft due for delivery in 1999 and 2000, as Asia's economic downturn takes its toll on air traffic. Industry and airline sources suggest that KAL is ...