All Systems & interiors articles – Page 750
-
News
Blue sky thinking
Colin Baker LONDON The aims of Europe's environmental policy have been There is little argument that last November's policy paper on transport and the environment from the European Commission was a comprehensive piece of work. Yet, while the air transport industry may agree on the broad aim of a ...
-
News
TAESA faces bleak future
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE The rise in Mexico's credit rating to investment grade may have come too late to save Taesa, the country's third largest airline. Grounded since mid-November and under government orders to raise more capital before it resumed flying, the carrier entered bankruptcy in late February. Its future depends ...
-
News
Argentina wary of US open skies agreement
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE August is the earliest Buenos Aires will reconsider its decision to suspend Argentina's open skies bilateral with the USA. But if the present mood prevails, the bilateral faces a tough future. At least four US officials have met with their Argentinian counterparts since the new government in ...
-
News
Travel agents hit back at Iberia's Internet ticket sales
BARRY CROSS LONDON Spanish flag carrier Iberia launched its first aggressive Internet sales campaign at the end of February, offering 150,000 seats to 30 destinations at discounts of up to 40%. To qualify, passengers simply had to book online. Travel agents reacted with a week's ban on Iberia ticket ...
-
News
FedEx studies head-up displays
FedEX is examining options to fit up to 290 of its jet aircraft with head-up displays (HUD) or enhanced vision systems (EVS). The programme has been launched to improve safety, permit operations to lower weather minima and broaden situational awareness. It was prompted by recent landing accidents involving the ...
-
News
Lockheed Martin forms GPS company
Lockheed Martin has formed a new company, Synchronetics, to provide regional augmentation of the global positioning system (GPS). It plans to operate ground- and space-based augmentation systems that allow GPS to be used for air navigation. Initially, Synchronetics is targeting South America, says Dan Brophy, director of navigation services ...
-
News
Zvezda is cleared for launch despite poor safety levels
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has cleared the launch in July of the Russian Zvezda service module for the International Space Station (ISS), despite US concerns about the failure of the Zvezda and Zarya modules to meet NASA safety standards, such as noise levels and pressurisation integrity. NASA says it ...
-
News
Carriers queue for La Guardia
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines are moving quickly to claim additional slots promised for regional services at New York's La Guardia Airport as the result of newly approved Congressional legislation. Contained in the US Federal Aviation Administration reauthorisation Bill is a provision to grant ...
-
News
Delta discusses CRJ order with Bombardier
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Delta Air Lines is discussing a major new order for the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) series and is studying a longer-term requirement for a larger 110-seat class aircraft. Industry sources say the Atlanta, Georgia-based carrier is in talks with Bombardier to order a substantial ...
-
News
WAAS guides FAA to new approach
The US Federal Aviation Administration plans new categories of approach guidance based on the expected performance of the wide area augmentation system (WAAS). Details revealed at the WAAS users' summit in mid-March suggest the new levels will provide increased operational benefit earlier than expected. The FAA told users that ...
-
News
Performance snags delay first 728JET delivery to Lufthansa
Fairchild Aerospace has slipped 728JET development by six months because the 70-85-seat regional jet's performance would have failed to meet the requirements of launch customer Lufthansa CityLine. The US manufacturer claimed at the February Asian Aerospace 2000 air show in Singapore that the primary driver behind the decision to ...
-
News
767-400ER schedule set back
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing faces a delay to its 767-400ER certification and delivery schedule in the wake of its recently resolved engineering employees' strike. Before the 40-day strike by Society for Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace members, Boeing was on target to certificate the -400ER in April and deliver ...
-
News
Japan's BK117 C-2 prototype flies at Gifu
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) has successfully flown the first Japanese-built prototype BK117 C-2 medium-twin-turbine helicopter at its Gifu plant. First flight was on 15 March, for about 1h, says Masato Furusawa, KHI's senior manager of helicopter project engineering. The prototype hovered and demonstrated forward, reverse and sideways flight and ...
-
News
Investigators throw light on MD-11 crash cause
Canadian accident investigators are again sifting the wreckage of the Swissair Boeing MD-11 Flight No SR111 to check whether cockpit map reading lights could have been the ignition source for the fire which brought down the aircraft, flying from New York to Geneva off Nova Scotia in September 1998. ...
-
News
People
Gareth Kirkwood, managing director (MD) of British Airways subsidiary Brymon Airways, has been appointed MD of British Airways World Cargo. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems sector has appointed four new vice-presidents (VPs): Donald Wilhelm - airspace management systems, George Perkins - space systems, James Armitage - engineering, Baltimore operations ...
-
News
Mergers
Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications expects to complete its merger with Comsat early in the third quarter, after the US Congress approved satellite communications reform legislation that clears the way for the privatisation of the Intelsat and Inmarsat satellite networks. The legislation allows US customers to bypass Comsat, which controls access ...
-
News
Slow service take-up hits Globalstar/Iridium
Loral Space and Communications is considering selling all or part of its 45% stake in the Globalstar worldwide mobile-communications satellite system following slower than expected sales of the telephone service. Meanwhile, Iridium prime investor Motorola has notified customers of its worldwide satellite mobile-telephone and paging services that it will ...
-
News
Frequency wars
At last, the aviation industry has woken up to the fact that it no longer has a birthright to all of the radio frequencies it had assumed belonged to it forever. Radio frequencies are valuable commodities, especially to mobile satellite service (MSS) companies, keen to expand their services and profits ...
-
News
Aviation industry unites on frequency protection issue
Emma Kelly/LONDON The aviation industry has developed a unanimous position on the protection of its radio frequencies, says John White, director of the Infrastructure Support Group at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The decision precedes May's International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). IATA and the International Civil ...
-
News
Smiths identifies purchases as way ahead for expansion
Chris Jasper/LONDON Smiths Industries says limited opportunities for mergers in the avionics sector mean the growth of its aerospace business is likely to be achieved by expanding its burgeoning control systems interests through more bolt-on acquisitions funded by a £750 million ($1.2 billion) war chest. The UK company says ...