All Systems & interiors articles – Page 818
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The complete cycle
Julian Moxon/PARIS In October, the Ariane 503 launcher will release a cone-shaped craft on a re-entry mission, repeating what the USA first did with the Mercury capsule 37 years ago. While this may seem like re-inventing the wheel, the Atmospheric Re-entry Demonstrator (ARD)mission is designed to show that, ...
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Culture shock
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Following a relatively minor accident, Ansett Australia recently set about overhauling the way the whole company looks at its safety task. This was not done in isolation - there is a growing understanding, manifested at recent air safety forums, that some traditional industry practices, and even early ...
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SOHO disappears from its deep space orbit
The European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA spacecraft, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), has been lost in its deep space orbit after operating since December 1995. The spacecraft went into an emergency sun reacquisition mode on 25 June. This is activated when orientation to the sun is lost ...
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Completion centre
Associated Air Center of Dallas, Texas, has become the first US completion company approved by Airbus Industrie to outfit the A319 Corporate Jetliner. Similar agreements have been signed with Jet Aviation in Switzerland and Lufthansa Technik in Germany. The US centre will offer a range of cabin layouts. Source: ...
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American Eagle confirms ERJ-135
Guy Norris/FORT WORTH American Eagle has selected the Embraer ERJ-135 to meet its requirement for up to 150 of the 37-seat regional jets. The carrier expects formally to announce the deal by early September - probably in time for the Farnborough air show. The decision will be a major, but ...
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Mesaba to double RJ85 fleet
Mesaba Airlines, a US regional feeder for Northwest Airlines, is to double its fleet of Avro RJ85 regional jets in a move that is bound to anger Northwest pilots who are already in bitter contract negotiations. The Northwest Airlink affiliate agreed to amend its regional jet agreement to increase ...
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Growth Super Puma will challenge S-92
Eurocopter has launched a growth version of its Super Puma transport helicopter, the MkIII, that will bring it closer to matching the new Sikorsky S-92 in the offshore exploration market. The new variant will be ready for European Joint Aviation Authorities certification and delivery at the end of 2001. While ...
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Do-it-yourself weighing machine approvedTEXT: Ian Sheppard/LondonBritish Aerospace Regional Aircraft has dispatched the first raw material
A weighing device that uses aircraft landing gear struts as scales has won US Federal Aviation Administration approval. The weight and balance system (WBS) is made by Dallas, Texas-based Trinity Airweighs. It can measure the weight and centre of gravity (CG) of an aircraft without the need for traditional ...
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US airports face review
If major US airports thought they were immune from the Department of Transportation's surge of interest in anti-competitive behaviour, they can think again. DOT secretary Rodney Slater is establishing a taskforce with airports in mind. Details of what the taskforce will be looking at are not yet clear, although ...
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Alliances: three forgotten factors
Stop. Wait. Listen. Think. The whole world is alliance-mad. The fanatical alliance worshippers of this world might think this is heresy, but a fundamental question needs to be asked. Is the crazy web of continuously changing alliance relationships actually going to produce workable results? Alliance-building is basically an egotistical ...
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US alliances face scrutiny
The US General Accounting Office has planted serious seeds for concern in politicians' minds by claiming that proposed US domestic alliances could mean a reduction in competitive service to almost 101 million American passengers. The GAO highlights the Delta Air Lines/United Airlines partnership as especially worrying because of its ...
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Swissair moves to reduce fuel bill
Swissair is aiming to save SFr14 million ($10 million) a year and boost its environmentally-friendly image by cutting fuel consumption by 3%. It plans to achieve the reduction by reducing aircraft operating weights and improving operating procedures. Studies conducted jointly by Swissair flight operations and US company Flight Sciences ...
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A common cause
Arianespace's chairman says that the company must forge partnerships to maintain its market share Tim Furniss/PARIS Arianespace of France and Antrix, the commercial wing of India's Department of Space, signed an agreement on 11 June to pursue a plan to market jointly the Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar ...
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Qantas embarks on European charter routes from Heathrow
Ian Sheppard/LONDON Qantas has started operating Boeing 747-400 charter flights in Europe by leasing its aircraft to other carriers during layover at London Heathrow Airport. Qantas pilots and cabin crew will operate five trips to Barcelona and four to Istanbul, flying P&O cruise passengers to and from the ...
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A first class idea
While the rest of the airline industry promotes the idea of no-frills, virtually fat-free flying, Midwest Express is pampering its passengers with premium service. Meanwhile, in France Fairlines hopes to emulate this success. A handful of peanuts and a dribble of Coca-Cola never satisfied anyone, least of all an airline ...
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Are you IT- compatible?
Anybody who has not realised that strategic alliances between airlines are the future of the industry must have been asleep for the last few years. But as the major alliance groups seek to implement the close ties their strategists have planned, they are becoming acutely aware of a painful reality: ...
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Courting trouble
By the time that the European courts actually got round to ruling on the Air France state aid issue, it is a fair bet that few people remembered that the case was still pending. It is, after all, four years since the European Commission waved through approval for the French ...
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Russia pleads poverty to delay de-orbiting the Mir space station
Russia is continuing to play a cat-and-mouse game with NASA over the International Space Station (ISS) and national Mir space station programmes. Being pressed by NASA to de-orbit the Mir as soon as possible to pave the way for the ISS, Russia is claiming that lack of funds will ...
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ESA to develop small satellite launcher
Ministers from the European Space Agency member states have agreed to develop a new small commercial satellite launcher called the Vega. The booster will include the Italian/French-built Ariane 5 solid rocket booster, two Fiat Avio motors and a liquid propellant upper stage. The launcher is aimed at placing payloads ...