All Systems & interiors articles – Page 863
-
News
Qatar finalises fleet renewal plan
Qatar Airways has arranged to lease two Airbus A300s to replace its fleet of Boeing 747s on long-haul services from its base in Doha. The airline, which underwent a major management and strategic revamp late in 1996 (Flight International 11-17 December 1996, P10), will introduce two ex-Garuda Pratt & ...
-
News
Fokker hopes focus on Malaysian rescue
Fokker's assembly lines face final closure in May, unless administrators running the bankrupt Dutch manufacturer succeed in pulling off a last-ditch rescue plan. Hopes of saving the company centre on talks with a coalition of Malaysian and Dutch investment groups. The latest report from the Fokker administrators says ...
-
News
Brit'Air order launches Canadair stretched CRJ
FRENCH REGIONAL airline Brit'Air is the launch customer for the stretched, 70-seat Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ)Series 700, with a firm order for four aircraft. The Canadian company says that it has options and conditional orders for a further 28 aircraft, plus memoranda of understanding for another 35, ...
-
News
Tiny aircraft come under study
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is considering funding research into so-called micro air vehicles - aircraft with wingspans which measure just 150mm - which scientists believe could be used for tasks such as surveillance and detection of toxic chemicals on the battlefield. The aim is ...
-
News
Greenwich absorbs UNC to create overhaul giant
Greenwich Air Services is poised to make its biggest acquisition to date with agreement to take over UNC. The combined group will become the world's largest independent engine-services operation, with annual sales of around $1.8 billion and more than 10,000 employees. Greenwich chairman Eugene Conese says that the ...
-
News
Extra investigates turboprop EA 400
German aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau is investigating a turboprop version of its six-seat EA 400 tourer machine. According to Extra, the idea has attracted strong interest from potential customers, particularly in the light of the US Federal Aviation Administration's forthcoming repeal of the ban on commercial, instrument-flight-rules (IFR), ...
-
News
A340 switches: re-active or pro-active reaction?
Sir - In the article "Airbus fits switch guards after A340 hydraulic incident" (Flight International, 12-18 February, P16), Airbus Industrie describes the move to install guards as part of its "pro-active" stance on cockpit safety. If that stance were really pro-active, would not the A340 switch guards have ...
-
News
Manx Airlines selects EMB-145
Manx Airlines has finalised its long-awaited regional-jet order with a contract for up to five Embraer EMB-145s, the first of which will be delivered in June for operation on the airline's British Airways Express franchise services. The airline selected the Brazilian regional jet after a three-way fight involving ...
-
News
Falcon 20-B retrofit
Garrett Aviation and AlliedSignal have formed an exclusive partnership under which the latter will continue to market the TFE731 engine retrofit to CF700-powered Falcon 20 operators. Garrett will put its own Falcon 20s into the programme, retrofit and refurbish them, and offer the re-engined -20Bs for sale to non-Falcon 20 ...
-
News
Spare a thought
Airlines in Europe are becoming increasingly reliant on third-party component support services. Maintaining a comprehensive spare-parts inventory for a modern airline is an expensive business, particularly for a small- or medium-sized operator. Many expensive components may be languishing in storage, under-used but held in case an unforeseen failure grounds an ...
-
News
Fly by net
The AeroNet, SITA's latest data-communications system, could be the aviation industry's answer to the Internet. Long established as a provider of data communications for the aviation industry, SITA recently had a self-contained, high-performance data network grafted on to its support structure. Called the AeroNet, it is aimed at eradicating paper ...
-
News
Ethiopian nears decision on new fleet
Ethiopian Airlines is studying proposals from Boeing and Airbus Industrie for its fleet-renewal programme, and is expected to be ready to place an order for narrow- and widebodied aircraft before the end of the year. "Most of the background work has been finalised. My expectation is that we ...
-
News
SITA: Dedicated to communicating
From the start, airlines could not be efficient without good contactability. The need for better company communications, over developing long routes, gave birth in 1949 to SITA (once known as the Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques) - a non-profit-making co-operative, among major airlines - to provide self-managed communications. It has ...
-
News
Gore Commission pushes for user fees
The White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, being led by vice-president Al Gore, has come out in favour of replacing the US ticket tax with user charges as the best way to fund the new satellite-based National Airspace System (NAS), which it says should be brought in seven ...
-
News
Universal dual-system satnav nears approval
Universal Avionics is on track to win certification of the first satellite-navigation (satnav) receiver capable of using both the US global-positioning system (GPS)and Russian Glonass navigation constellations. The company, best known for its UNS-1 range of flight-management systems, is using a combined GPS/Glonass receiver-processor board provided by US ...
-
News
Aeronet: Development of a network
SITA's AeroNet is a centrally managed data network capable of handling and routeing high volumes of complex - and often commercially sensitive - digital data streams from sophisticated applications. It might be compared with the newest databus in civil aircraft - where a point-to-point bus system, such as the Arinc ...
-
News
Boeing kicks off flight tests of next-generation 737 family
Boeing's flight-test programme for its next-generation 737 family began smoothly on 9 February, with the 737-700 having a problem-free maiden flight from Renton, Washington. The flight marks the start of an eight-month test effort for the 737-700 which will include 1,200h of flying. Certification is planned in September, ...
-
News
Airbus suffers setback as GE walks away from A340-600
Airbus Industrie has suffered a setback in its efforts to launch the proposed A340-500/600 growth derivatives in time for a 2001 service-entry date, after exclusive discussions with General Electric over the aircraft's powerplant were abandoned this month. The collapse of talks with GE, which began in April 1996, ...
-
News
BAe flies its first converted A300B4 freighter
British Aerospace's Filton, UK-based division, BAe Aviation Services, flew its first converted Airbus A300B4 freighter on 23 January, and hopes to be able to secure approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration and UK Civil Aviation Authority approval by the end of March. The conversion of the first ...
-
News
Turkey signs up for further 30 Cougars
The Turkish Government has signed a contract for the purchase of 30 Eurocopter Cougar Mk1s, coupled with an agreement on local production. The contract, worth Fr2.5 billion ($434 million), covers ten AS532-ULs for the Turkish army, complementing the 20 ordered at the end of 1993, plus 20 AS532-ALs ...