All Systems & interiors articles – Page 902
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News
Austflight signs Shanghai manufacturing venture
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Australian ultra-light aircraft manufacturer Austflight has signed a joint venture agreement with the Shanghai Aircraft Manufacturing Factory to build the Australian-designed Drifter SB582 two-seat ultralight aircraft in Shanghai. Under the agreement, the joint venture also plans to offer to supply components, to two other ...
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Crandall attacks liberalisation progress
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON IN ANOTHER FIERCE attack on the lack of progress being made in UK-US liberalisation, American Airlines chairman Bob Crandall says that he is against any deal which falls short of giving the carrier an equal footing to that of British Airways at London Heathrow. ...
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Eva to Central America
Taiwanese carrier Eva Air will launch a new route on 13 December, linking Taipei with Los Angeles and Panama City. The Los Angeles-Panama City connection will be the only non-stop service between the two cities and the first direct flights between Asia and Latin America by a Taiwanese airline. The ...
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Countdown to Alpha
T-2 years and counting: the first hardware has been built for the Alpha International Space Station. Tim Furniss/WASHINGTON DC THE ALPHA INTERNATIONAL Space Station "...isn't a paper programme anymore", says Wilbur Trafton, director of NASA's Space Station programme. "We're talking launches just round the corner." ...
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Messier-Dowty plans to lower cost of landing gear for Airbus
Andrew Doyle/LONDON MESSIER-DOWTY AIMS to slash the cost of manufacturing Airbus landing gears by 20-40%, while increasing commonality of parts across the product range and reducing the cost of ownership for airlines, says Geoff Smith, managing director of the Anglo-French joint-venture. According to Smith, a ...
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Hull-loss accident rate climbing
COMMERCIAL JET HULL-loss accident rates are increasing, according to Boeing's chief of systems engineering, Earl Weener. If the trends are sustained, the number of hull losses per million departures will be higher than it was 20 years ago, Weener told a Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Seattle on 6-9 November. ...
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KLM reporting a record first half
BRITISH AIRWAYS HAD a clutch of record traffic figures and its highest-ever profits to show as the group revealed an "outstanding" set of results for the first half of the financial year. Net profits climbed to £323 million over the six months to September, as sales broke through ...
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Novel design
Peter Henley/NORTH WEALD A MERE GLANCE at the Grob 200 reveals its designer's novel approach to his task. The airframe is constructed of composite materials, its engine is mounted behind the cabin (driving a three-bladed pusher propeller which lives on the end of a long tailcone), directional stability ...
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Welcome common sense on JAA rules
Sir - The editorial "Regulatory fatigue" (Flight International, 1-7 November) was a welcome shaft of common sense in the dreary saga of the move towards European Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) regulations on flight-time limitations and the proposed changes in the USA and Canada. No-one should underestimate the difficulties ...
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India prepares for change to CNS/ATM
David Learmount/SEATTLE INDIA HAS DRAWN up plans to replace its terrestrial air-traffic-control (ATC) system with a global-navigation satellite-system (GNSS)-based communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management (CNS/ATM) by 2015. A Government study shows that the new system has the potential to yield tenfold increases in system air-traffic capacity ...
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FSF chairman challenges RAA to take pro-active role
FLIGHT SAFETY Foundation (FSF) chairman Stuart Matthews has hit out at the US Regional Airlines Association (RAA) decision to spend $500,000 on a publicity campaign promoting the safety image of the regional, rather than investing in what he describes as more "pro-active" safety measures. Matthews says that ...
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Reduced separations lie ahead on Atlantic routes
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE NORTH ATLANTIC Systems Planning Group (NATSPG) plans to start preparations in December to pave the way for the introduction of a trial 1,000ft (300m) reduced vertical- separation minima (RVSM) across the Atlantic by January 1997. The NATSPG, which includes all major ...
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FAA justifies safety-assessment actions
Graham Warwick/Miami THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is defending its International Aviation Safety Assessment (IASA) programme against criticism that it constitutes the implementation of punitive action against airlines in countries judged not to comply fully with international safety-oversight standards. The FAA has recently added Ecuador, ...
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GEC-Marconi aims for F-5 users with Hakim
Guy Norris/SAN ANTONIO GEC-MARCONI Dynamics has fit-checked the 227kg version of its precision-guided munition (PGM) beneath the wing of the upgraded Northrop Grumman F-5E Tiger IV, and is also continuing flight-testing the weapon on a McDonnell Douglas F-4. The company is aiming the weapon, called ...
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Boeing redesign is a necessity
Sir - There are pros and cons about new-generation Boeing 737-600/-700/-800 receiving grandfather rights towards its certification, but I would like to point out that European Joint Airworthiness Authorities regulations safety requirements on the amount and size of exits only increase safety. Surely the safe transportation of passengers is the ...
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Inmarsat to test cheaper satcom
INMARSAT PLANS a flight trial of its new Aero-I satellite-communications (satcom) service in January 1996. The service, allowing use of smaller, cheaper, avionics and antennae, will become available with the launch of new Inmarsat 3 communications satellites early in 1996. Spotbeams will be used to concentrate satellite power, ...
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A better pace-setter
Harry Hopkins/OBERPFAFFENHOFEN SINCE IT FIRST ENTERED service, the Dornier 328 high-speed turboprop has been the subject of a great many detail refinements, not least to its aerodynamics, its propellers and systems. So extensive are these changes that the designation of the current production version has been changed from ...
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JAL orders stretched 777-300
JAPAN AIRLINES HAS ordered five stretched Boeing 777-300s in a deal worth $800 million. It already has ten 777-200s on order, with options for a further ten. The first -200 Model will enter service in the second quarter of 1996, with service entry for the stretched -300 planned for 1998. ...
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BA sleeps first
British Airways' $790 million three-year programme of investment in customer service kicks off in 1996 with the $180 million relaunch of First Class and Club World. Bucking the trend in recent years of abolishing longhaul first class, BA will offer those passengers semi-private 'cabins' with a seat which converts to ...
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Moving targets
Singapore Airlines' chairman J Y Pillay calls it 'The genius of the organisation at work.' Productivity has become a mantra in an airline industry which is desperate to find ways of improving its long term financial performance. All airline managers are putting in a great deal of effort to improve ...