All Systems & interiors articles – Page 755
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AA 2000 to open x-files?
What are the chances of Asian Aerospace turning into an X-rated show? Asia-Pacific holds the key to the next major aircraft programmes planned by Airbus Industrie and Boeing. The European airframer is carrying out market testing for its planned 550-seat A3XX all-new aircraft and expects the region to account for ...
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Swissair to rewire MD-11 cockpit areas
Swissair is to carry out an extensive programme of cockpit-area rewiring on its 19 Boeing MD-11s, starting in August. The airline's decision is based on analysis, since the September 1998 crash of one of its MD-11s near Halifax, Canada, of wiring routing in the forward fuselage, according to Swissair engineering ...
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Mergers
The board of American Airlines' parent AMR has approved the spin-off of its 83% stake in Sabre Holdings to AMR shareholders on 1 March, making the computer reservations system specialist fully independent. The European Commission has approved Saab's acquisition of fellow Swedish company Celsius, while Saab has sold its Combitech ...
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Insidious training
Perhaps the time has come to look again at the traditional content of pilot recurrent training. The fundamental emergency which all pilots know that they will face in their simulator session is engine failure at or soon after take-off decision speed (V1). In every simulated take-off they are ready and ...
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WAAS delayed as safety tests run into difficulties
Raytheon and US Federal Aviation Administration officials have held the first of a series of meetings to determine the impact of problems uncovered during acceptance testing of the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS). A 60-day stability test of the key satellite-based navigation system, intended to improve the accuracy, availability ...
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Problem case
Setbacks to the US Federal Aviation Administration's satellite navigation centrepiece - the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) - just won't go away. The WAAS, designed to allow the US National Airspace System (NAS) to move away from its reliance on ground-based navigation aids to more accurate and efficient satellite-based ...
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Bad company
Asia's poor safety performers tarnish airlines in the region with good records David Learmount/LONDON By the end of the 1990s, South Asia and Asia Pacific had earned a poor reputation for airline safety, although not all of the region's airlines deserved it, but they suffer for the sins of others, ...
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BA and KLM post third-quarter losses
Chris Jasper/LONDON Frits Njio/AMSTERDAM British Airways has announced third quarter results which suggest it is on the way to a big full year loss, although a rise in yields suggests its new premium passenger strategy is paying off. European rival KLM has posted even poorer figures, but unlike BA ...
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Air Canada tackles part of Canadian's debts
Air Canada has restructured part of the C$3.5 billion ($2.4 billion) debt owed by Canadian Airlines, with which it is merging, after reaching agreement with GE Capital Aviation Services. The deal, worth "tens of millions of dollars" according to Air Canada chief executive Robert Milton, covers the lease of a ...
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SAS studies candidates for 70-seat regional jet order
Andrew Doyle/COPENHAGEN SAS expects to launch a competition early next year to select a 70-90-seat regional jet family. The carrier requires around 20 aircraft for use on long thin routes, mainly from Stockholm and Oslo. The Scandinavian carrier, which does not operate regional jets, plans to complete a ...
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Boeing's 777-300 reliability figures are the best for a widebody introduction
Boeing's 777-300 reliability figures are the best for a widebody introduction Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Boeing says its experience with the introduction of the 777-300 has been a case of "no news is good news". Mike Fleming, Boeing's 777 fleet support chief, says: "In terms of performance ...
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US majors feel the squeeze, but profit from the sale of assets
Chris Jasper/LONDON On first sight, recently published financial figures for the USA's major airlines appear to point to a successful year in 1999. Most of the top 10 reported healthy net profits and exhibited increases in passengers boarded and group turnover. All this indicates that the air transport market they ...
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SIA Overrun
Singapore Airlines (SIA) has replaced the nose landing gear of one of its Airbus A310-300s after a runway overrun at Kuching International Airport in Malaysia on 29 January. The aircraft landed in heavy rain, coming to a stop on soft ground about 20m (65ft) past the end of the runway. ...
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SpaceDev/Boeing link for exploration
SpaceDev and Boeing have agreed a teaming arrangement to investigate opportunities of "mutual strategic interest" in commercial deep-space exploration and exploitation. They will use as the basis for the study a variety of small low-cost missions formulated by SpaceDev, the world's first commercial space exploration company. The two firms ...
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US distributor first to order Socata TB GT
Julian Moxon/TARBES Socata has launched its TB Generation Two (TB GT) range of light aircraft with a major US order for 79 aircraft. The deal, signed with recently appointed West Coast distributor New Avex, includes up to 10 TBM700 single-engined turboprops. The Aerospatiale Matra general aviation subsidiary has also ...
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BA steps up the class war
Chris Jasper/LONDON British Airways has launched a radical overhaul of its premium cabins, introducing aft-facing and flat-bed seats in business class and a new "upper economy" product. The move is aimed at increasing the proportion of business travellers on BA's long haul services, and cements its strategy of targeting high-yield ...
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Air France/Delta to raid rival groups
Emma Kelly/PARIS and ATLANTA Air France and Delta Air Lines are identifying members of competing alliances to join their unnamed airline grouping, which they aim to unveil in the second quarter. The partners are tight-lipped on potential alliance members following disappointment over their public courting of British Midland ...
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777X crew rest plans advance
Boeing is working with an advisory group of 14 airlines towards the final configuration for upper-lobe crew-rest areas for its planned ultra-long range 777-200X/300X family. An advanced flightcrew rest area in the forward upper lobe has been finalised, which will free four first or business class seats, or provide extra ...
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Airbus slips delivery plan for A3XX
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Airbus Industrie is targeting October 2005 for first production delivery of the A3XX-100 if it can muster sufficient market support by mid-year for the consortium's supervisory board to commit to a simultaneous launch offer of passenger and cargo variants of the ultra-large aircraft. The October ...
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FAA issues MD-11 inspection ADs
The US Federal Aviation Administration is proposing to issue eight additional airworthiness directives (ADs) calling on the inspection of Boeing MD-11 electrical system wiring. The move follows the 1998 crash of a Swissair MD-11 near Halifax, Nova Scotia. An electrical fire is suspected. The FAA says that the ADs ...