All Systems & interiors articles – Page 829
-
News
Cathay dumps Airbus FANS
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Plans by Cathay Pacific Airways to equip its fleet of Airbus A340-300s with the Airbus interoperable modular future air navigation system (AIM-FANS) package have been scrapped in protest at the US Federal Aviation Administration's failure to modernise its oceanic air traffic control centres (ATCCs). The carrier ...
-
News
Early launch in store for 428JET
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH THE Fairchild Dornier 428JET could be launched as early as the AsianAerospace show in Singapore which starts on 24 February, providing outstanding technical issues can be resolved in time, says the manufacturer. The aircraft is a 42- to 44-seat stretched version of the 328JET, with a ...
-
News
Extra expects approval for 330 aerobatic aircraft in March
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH German light aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau expects to complete certification of work on its new Extra 330 aerobatic aircraft by the end of March. The aircraft, an upgraded version of the Extra 300, has a more powerful engine and "much better manoeuvrability" for competition flying, says ...
-
News
Air Methods equips
Air Methods of Colorado has received contracts from the UK's Police Aviation Services (PAS) and Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters in the USA for multi-function interiors for installation in Boeing MD Explorers. Source: Flight International
-
News
Regional revolution
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Regional aircraft manufacturers must, by now, be getting used to living in a perpetual state of revolution, and 1997 was no disappointment. The year began with Fokker delivering its last few aircraft and ended with the loss of another famous name, as Saab Aircraft announced its retreat ...
-
News
Light twin, right price
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC When Bell introduced the Model 407 light single-turbine helicopter it was essentially competing with itself, or rather with the longevity of its popular Model 206 JetRanger/LongRanger family. With the new Model 427 light twin, the company is breaking new ground, and competing with helicopters from established manufacturers. ...
-
News
NASA works on runway-friction indexing
Ian Sheppard/LONDON NASA is calibrating a new runway-friction indexing method designed to prevent aircraft accidents on icy runways, after it was realised that poor surface-friction information had contributed to incidents where aircraft have slid off the runway or been dangerously slow to reach lift-off speed. The NASA-led tests ...
-
News
Moving goalposts
The UK Government's decision to give British Aerospace £123 million ($200 million) launch aid for development work on the wing of the Airbus A340 500/600 airliner may give a much-needed morale boost to the UK aerospace industry, but it may also do little to bolster (and may even harm) the ...
-
News
Utilicraft negotiates first Freight Feeder orders
American Utilicraft (AUC) says that it is negotiating a 50-aircraft launch order for its FF-1080-200 Freight Feeder with an unnamed US air cargo operator. Funding for the programme is tied to securing a launch customer for the twin-turboprop aircraft, says AUC president John DuPont. "We are in pretty strong ...
-
News
GEC voices fears over European mega-mergers
Ian Sheppard/LONDON A new report from GEC- Marconi highlights fears within the UK avionics sector that it may lose out in the pending consolidation of the European aerospace industry with its interests potentially swamped by those of the aircraft manufacturers within proposed mega-mergers. Senior sources at GEC, ...
-
News
BAe ponders RJ cockpit and engine changes
Kevin O'Toole/MANCHESTER British Aerospace Regional Aircraft is studying further developments for its Avro RJ family, including new avionics and engine options, with the intention of improving the aircraft's economics and keeping the programme up to date. Although the RJ is now effectively alone in the 85- to 100-seat regional ...
-
News
Japan-USA aviation pact opens way to codeshares
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Andrew Mollet/TOKYO The aviation pact between Japan and the USA is expected to spur additional global airline alliances, with a key provision of the air services agreement allowing for codesharing for the first time in the lucrative Japanese-US market. Under the bilateral aviation pact ...
-
News
Continental angers Delta chief executive
Delta Air Lines chief executive Leo Mullin has attacked the "complete misrepresentations" made by Continental Airlines officials on the carrier's failure to reach a merger agreement. Despite three weeks of secret bargaining, Continental eventually snubbed Delta and agreed to forge a strategic alliance with Northwest Airlines. Continental's chief executive ...
-
News
Japanese banking crisis reins in aircraft financing
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Japan's banks are predicting an extended reduction in their aircraft financing activity in the wake of the country's banking crisis and the demise of their favoured funding vehicle, the Japanese leveraged lease. Japanese banks have historically accounted for as much as 20-25% of the world's airliner ...
-
News
New stretch of 747 defined
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing has revised its future 747 growth studies to include a 500-passenger stretch version with a larger wingspan, known as the -400Y Stretch, while dropping another long range variant dubbed the -400ERY. The company stresses that the only new version of the 747 being formally ...
-
News
Airbus puts back entry into service of A3XX
Julian Moxon/PARIS Airbus Industrie is to delay the entry into service of its planned 555-seat A3XX by at least nine months, to the third quarter of 2004. The consortium claims that the delay is "minor" and says that the current economic chaos in key Asian markets is not responsible ...
-
News
Do not pass 'go'
So British Airways' no-frills start-up is "Go"; but will it - and what sort of response will it attract from powerful European competitors like Lufthansa? Even more important, from where will the passengers come to make these no-frills airlines work? The justification for an existing airline to launch a ...
-
News
Going with the flow
Tim Furniss/KENNEDY SPACE CENTER With six International Space Station (ISS) assembly missions scheduled for 1999, and 18 more due to take place between 2000 and 2002, NASA's Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF) at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, is soon going to be a hive of activity. The Photovoltaic Module ...
-
News
Northwest and Continental tie-up raises Alitalia/KLM hopes
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS The tie-up between Northwest and Continental Airlines has been welcomed by European partners Alitalia and KLM, offering the prospect of a global alliance within five years. "The deal opens the door to a much wider co-operation," says Fausto Cereti, chairman of Alitalia, which already ...
-
News
Insurers threaten to withdraw cover unless airlines tackle computer bug
Aviation insurers have challenged airlines to prove that their fleet avionics are free of the "millennium bug" which threatens to disrupt computer software, or lose their cover for any incidents which result from it. The issue, says a major Lloyds insurance-market underwriter, is what may happen to embedded computer ...