All Systems & interiors articles – Page 875
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Fairchild promises to launch a 30-seat turbofan 328 by 1997
FAIRCHILD DORNIER chairman and chief executive Carl Albert says that there is "no question" about a go-ahead for a 30-seat turbofan version of the Dornier 328 turboprop. "We'll launch it before the end of the year," he says, promising also that a 50-seat stretched version will be launched "about 12 ...
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SAS to begin using ADS-B system in 1997
Scandinavian carrier SAS is to equip "at least" ten commercial aircraft, and ground vehicles, with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) systems in 1997, and plans to equip its new Boeing 737-600s in 1998. The trials are part of the European-Commission-funded North European ADS-B Network programme, which has established a ...
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An-124 crashes on approach to Turin
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA Paul Duffy/MOSCOW THE TWO PILOTS of an Aeroflot Russian International Airlines (ARIA)-operated Antonov An-124 were killed, along with at least two people on the ground, when the aircraft crashed into houses short of the runway while attempting to land at Turin's Caselle Airport, Italy, on 8 ...
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BE Aerospace climbs
BE Aerospace (BEA) continues its climb back to profits, showing a net profit of $3.2 million for the first half of its financial year to the end of August. A year ago, the group had notched up losses of more than $40 million as it battled with a slow market ...
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Recommendations for improved safety
THE HUMAN-FACTORS TEAM makes a large number of recommendations for action by the FAA and other agencies. There are eight main headings, but some basic demands, like the need for better information-exchange on incidents, is repeated in varying forms under several of them. The principle recommendations for each heading include: ...
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Simulator helps students
A LOW-COST simulator, aimed at helping aeronautical- engineering students understand the mechanics of aircraft flight, is being used at London's City University, in the UK. The MP520-T, developed by UK-based Merlin Products, includes an enclosed, single-seat cockpit mounted on a three-axis hydraulic, or two-axis pneumatic, motion system. ...
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Unwanted demands
According to the FAA, flight-deck automation confuses pilots too often. David Learmount/LONDON HIGHLY AUTOMATED aircraft with digital flight-management systems (FMS) often surprise pilots and sometimes leave them dangerously confused. This is the basic conclusion of the US Federal Aviation Administration from its two-year review of modern airline flight-decks. ...
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You have control
Several recent airliner accident reports have identified problems with cockpit automation as principal or contributory causes of the accidents. Much of the conventional reaction (especially by pilots) to these incidents is of the "automation must be stopped" or "automation has gone too far" variety. That reaction, in human terms, is ...
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US Safety Board sees need for post-Cali crash modifications
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that newly certificated long-haul commercial passenger aircraft should have an automatic system for retracting speed brakes if the pilots start an emergency climb. The system could have saved the American Airlines Boeing 757, which crashed ...
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Rockwell consolidates Collins avionics business
Rockwell has brought together its Collins avionics and communications businesses into a single business unit, in a re-organisation, which follows the sale of the remainder of the group's aerospace interests to Boeing. The two Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based units, Collins Commercial Avionics and Collins Avionics & Communications, together with ...
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Honeywell talks to Lockheed Martin about APALS involvement
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES HONEYWELL IS IN talks about becoming involved in Lockheed Martin's Autonomous Precision Approach and Landing System (APALS). The US avionics company confirms: "There have been talks, and we are certainly kicking it around." The discussions are led by Honeywell's Business and Aviation Systems ...
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NTSB proposes more 737 rudder system changes
Boeing will have to revise the design of 737 rudder control system components, develop a cockpit display showing rudder position, and establish service life limits for certain rudder control parts if several proposals under study by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are made compulsory. The aim is to ...
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Saab to take 340 finishing in-house
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON SAAB AIRCRAFT is working on a programme to take all Saab 340 painting and interior finishing work in-house, from its UK subcontractor Hunting Aviation, by the end of this year. This marks the end of 13 years of subcontracting this activity in the UK ...
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Airbus pushes on with new versions of A340
David Learmount/TOULOUSE Airbus Industrie is to challenge Boeing's 777-300 stretch with an enlarged, rewinged A340 which carries as many passengers and flies further, says the European consortium's A330/ A340 commercial programme manager David Pound. The European consortium is effectively launching the -500 and-600 variants of the ...
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Documentation shortfalls force IPTN to delay certification N250
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) has been forced to delay the maiden flight of its first N250-100 certification prototype, as the result of component documentation falling below US Federal Aviation Administration requirements. The second prototype N250, had been due to fly in May, but ...
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Kiwi files for Chapter 11 as ValuJet resumes flights
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Kiwi International Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming rising debts and the fall-out from the ValuJet crash and the grounding of Kiwi aircraft. Ironically, the filing took place on 30 September, the day that ValuJet returned to the air and at ...
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Airport growth
World airport passenger traffic grew 6.6% over the first half of the year, helped by the booming North American market, where numbers grew by more than 7%. Atlanta Hartsfield, boosted by the Georgia city's hosting of the Olympic Games in the summer, was the fastest- growing of all the major ...
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Firm evidencr on cause of TWA 800 explosion is elusive
WITH NEARLY 80% of the Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 now recovered from the sea off Long Island, New York, there is still no evidence of bomb or missile damage. At the same time, there has been further study into the centre fuel-tank explosion and whether it caused the 17 ...
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Slots of value
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) is keen to overhaul the slot-allocation system at Europe's airports by creating a "market" in which some slots could be traded for money. It is right to be looking for an overhaul but, if it believes that airline services should exist as much for the customer ...
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BA fights for the continent
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON THE announcement of a new wave of restructuring at British Airways should have come as little surprise. In May, chief executive Bob Ayling followed the group's world-beating 1995 profits announcement with a stark warning that BA needed to make another £1 billion ($1.5 billion) in savings. ...