Programmes – Page 1212

  • News

    BGTlooks to pilot low-cost fly-by-wire for Tu-204

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    German systems house Bodenseewerk Gerätetech-nik (BGT)has launched a feasibility study with Tupolev over fitting future versions of the Tu-204 twinjet with its low-cost, advanced, digital fly-by-wire (FBW)flight-control-system (FCS) technology. The contract with Tupolev comes as BGT steps up efforts to secure applications for its FBW technology, which it plans to ...

  • News

    NASA names its Hyper-X team

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    NASA has awarded a $33.4 million contract to a team led by MicroCraft to build four experimental aircraft which will be used to demonstrate hypersonic propulsion technologies as part of the Hyper-X project. The other team members joining Tullahoma, Tennessee-based MicroCraft are Boeing North American, GASL and Accurate ...

  • News

    Ill fated ambitions

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    The Romaero Rombac BAC One-Eleven programme is rooted in former Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu's ambitions to make Romania independent of the Soviet Union. As a maverick among the former Communist Bloc leaders, Ceausescu had refused to take part in the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and later exploited initially good ...

  • News

    British Midland selects Airbus A320 family for fleet renewal

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    British Midland Airways (BM) expects to sign a $1 billion firm order with Airbus Industrie for A320s and A321s in May, having concluded an initial memorandum of understanding in early April for up to 20 aircraft. The airline, which selected the Airbus single-aisle family over Boeing's 737-800 and ...

  • News

    Gulf Air reactivates TriStars following disposal of 767s

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Gulf Air is planning to return up to three of its five stored L-1011 TriStar 200s to service, for operation on services within the Gulf, and to the Indian sub-continent. The move comes in the wake of the sale of six Boeing 767-300ERs to Delta Air Lines. One ...

  • News

    Painting by numbers

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    BUILDING L-64 AT Marietta is not a paint shop, although it is here that F-22s will be finished before being towed across the road for radar cross-section verification ready for first flight. Each F-22 is expected to spend about 20 days in this building, where the elaborate, ...

  • News

    No turning BAC

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Typically for the East European industry, Romaero's base at Baneasa Airport in northern Bucharest consists of pockets of activity interspersed with large areas of empty factory floor. On the one hand, there is the lively Pilatus Britten-Norman Islander assembly line, or the busy section of an otherwise empty production hall ...

  • News

    How to build an F-22

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Three companies, three locations, three workforces, one aircraft: major sections of the first F-22 take shape in Lockheed Martin and Boeing factories across the USA, in Georgia, Texas and Washington, before coming together on the Marietta final-assembly line This page should hold cutaway poster of the F-22. If yours is ...

  • News

    First MD-95 wing sections go to Tracor

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    The first wing halves for the initial McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-95 test aircraft, T-1, have been shipped to Tracor Flight Systems in Palmdale, California, for joining. The shipset was made by MDC Canada, but the second and subsequent wings are being built by Hyundai Space and Aircraft of South Korea. ...

  • News

    Romaero admits defeat on One-Eleven launch

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Romanian aircraft manufacturer Romaero has given up a longstanding ambition to manufacture upgraded, re-engined One-Eleven airliners for the world market. The Bucharest-based company struggled for years to find the necessary $100 million funding to proceed with the revamped aircraft, known as the Airstar 2500. A launch ...

  • News

    United drives hard to gain a place in the training market

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    UAL Services is about to install the first of up to 15 new full-flight and fixed-base simulators at its Denver-based Flight Training Center, in a determined attack on the burgeoning US third-party aircrew-training market. The installation, on 15 April, will set a milestone in a $130 million expansion, scheduled to ...

  • News

    A340-600 engine decision due in June

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie is aiming to have secured agreements on a powerplant for its stretched, longer-range, A340-500/600 programme by the time of the Paris air show in June, and has apparently not ruled out offering an engine selection on the aircraft. The European manufacturer had been discussing an exclusive ...

  • News

    Airbus/AVIC AE-100 agreement is not expected until year-end

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie Asia (AIA) is not now expected to reach a full agreement with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) and Singapore Technologies (ST) on the joint development of the planned AE-100/A318 until the end of the year. The three sides are hoping to sign a "framework agreement" by ...

  • News

    Air China looks to build on initial 777 order

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Boeing hopes that the planned visit to the USA of Chinese president Jiang Zemin later this year will clear the way for Air China to order its remaining Boeing 777s, following its confirmation of an order for an initial five. After nearly two years of delay, the Chinese ...

  • News

    Finnair order contest warms up

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Finnair has invited final bids from Airbus and Boeing to replace its fleet of 12 ageing 121-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51s, after completing technical evaluations of the A320 family and next-generation 737. The carrier also plans to eventually replace its 25 142-seat MD-80s with whichever type is selected. The ...

  • News

    Hunting Aviation

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Four business managers have been appointed to boost Hunting Aviation's customer service at the UK's East Midlands Airport. Pictured (from left) are Dave Terrington, who has had a long career at Hunting, most recently as manufacturing section manager; Debbie Bednall, who joins from British Midland, where she was charter manager; ...

  • News

    Snecma president's restructuring pays off

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Snecma has announced a major cut in its losses for 1996 and expects to return to the black this year, following continued recovery in the aerospace business after restructuring under new president Jean-Paul Béchat. Only group figures have been released, so that it is difficult to estimate the ...

  • News

    Loral and Lockheed Martin win more satellite contracts

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    The Intelsat organisation has selected Loral to build two high-powered, high-capacity, satellites for the follow-on series (FOS) 2 programme. The $600 million contract, which includes options for further craft, includes the launch in 2000 of the two satellites into orbital positions over the Indian Ocean. The FOS 2 craft will ...

  • News

    Flight Sciences, which specialises in...

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Flight Sciences, which specialises in helping airlines reduce their fuel bills by improving efficiency, expects to sign contracts with major carriers later this year, as part of its efforts to expand its client base in Europe and Asia. The US company recently completed a five-month project with Austrian ...

  • News

    Special relation

    1997-04-02T00:00:00Z

    Rolls-Royce executives have often been heard to remark that, when it comes to selling engines in Asia, there is, arguably, no better sales tool than Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways. The unique relationship which the engine manufacturer has with the Swire Group's airline operation is about to be strengthened further ...