All Systems & interiors articles – Page 903
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News
Australia: not out for compulsory GPS
Sir - After reading the article "Locator rule irks Australian AOPA" (Flight International, 8-14 November, P26), I ought to point out that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) of Australia does not want a compulsory global-positioning system (GPS). What it does say is that the GPS has proved to ...
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Middle East orders for Beech King Air
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT has sold three Beech King Air twin-turboprops to Middle East customers. Two King Air 350s have been ordered by the United Arab Emirates' Amiri Flight, for delivery early in 1996. The aircraft will be configured for communication and VIP-transport duties, with eight-seat interiors. The Amiri Flight ...
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Employee doubts played part in United decision on USAir
UNITED AIRLINES chairman Gerald Greenwald suggests that "significant doubts" among the group's employee owners contributed to the decision to drop its pursuit of a merger with USAir. United finally announced on 13 November that it would no longer press ahead with its talks. American Airlines, which has ...
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Laker sets a date for new venture
SIR FREDDIE LAKER plans to start his new "Regency Service" across the North Atlantic on 29 March 1996, using McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s. The emotive "Skytrain" title, used on his collapsed 1980s' operation, will not be revived, nor will the image of cheap travel. This time around, Laker is ...
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UAE missile decision hinges on UK choice
THE UNITED ARAB Emirates (UAE), is unlikely to decide on a long-range stand off weapon, until the outcome of a similar UK procurement programme for a conventional stand off missile. The UAE had been expected to fund development of a long-range derivative of the GEC Marconi family of ...
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BFGoodrich develops standby indicator
BFGOODRICH AEROSPACE has introduced a flat-panel standby attitude-indicator. The GH-3000 combines a colour liquid-crystal display with a solid-state inertial sensor in a 3ATI-size unit interchangeable with existing electromechanical standby instruments. The US companies Avionics Systems division says the $22,500 GH-3000 offers high reliability, with a design mean time ...
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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 ...