All Systems & interiors articles – Page 911
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BA/KLM set records as traffic takes off
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON BRITISH AIRWAYS impressed analysts with record profits in the June quarter, while KLM followed with another robust performance, helping to underline the strength of demand in Europe's air markets. BA's net profits rose above £100 million ($160 million) for the quarter, the first ...
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Raytheon Aircraft delivers all-cargo 1900Cs to Falcon
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT has delivered, the first of four all cargo Beech 1900Cs, to Dubai-based Falcon Express Air Cargo (FECA), which will use the aircraft for express-package services in the Gulf region. The used 1900Cs have been modified with aluminum cabin liners, cargo nets, plugged windows, special interior lighting ...
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Ringing in the new
What does the new Bell 407 offer over its predecessors? Graham Warwick/MONTREAL IF BELL IS renowned for two things in the commercial-helicopter field, they are the Model 206 and the two-blade rotor. These traditional Bell strengths have threatened to become weaknesses, however, as the prolonged ...
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Why lemons can make pilots sick
Gunter Endres/LONDON WHAT WOULD YOU do if you are a pilot and you smell lemons in the cockpit? You would most likely to assume that the cabin staff is serving a gin and tonic, or cleaning the toilets, and you would ignore it. What you probably will ...
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Taking the heat
CASA president Raul Herranz talks about his successful business strategy. Julian Moxon/MADRID WITH VIRTUALLY no rain in recent months, and the city now suffering the hottest weather in recent memory, the atmosphere in Madrid this summer is hardly refreshing. Unless, that is, one ...
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Foreign interest raises Qantas flotation price
Paul Phelan/CAIRNS AUSTRALIA'S long-running airline-privatisation programme has come to an end with the flotation of the remaining 75% state holding in Qantas Airways. Despite early doubts over demand for the shares, the Australian Government estimates that it will receive around A$1.45 billion ($1 billion) from ...
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Duncan pushes turnaround performance
DUNCAN AVIATION IS guaranteeing customers a reduced turnaround time for the maintenance, refurbishment, or painting of light- and medium-sized business-jets. Lincoln, Nebraska-based Duncan's new PowerTurn programme specifies penalties if the company fails to redeliver the aircraft by the guaranteed date. "[Corporate] flight departments are increasingly expected to maximise ...
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Wilcox wins WAAS deal
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration has awarded Wilcox Electric a $475 million incentive-fee contract to develop and produce the world's first wide-area augmentation system (WAAS), which makes the global-positioning system (GPS) usable for all phases of civil flight. Award of the contract ...
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Sun Country pioneers the use of GPS
MINNEAPOLIS-BASED Sun Country Airlines is the first carrier to obtain operation approval to use the global-positioning system (GPS) for navigation in oceanic and remote airspace. The US Federal Aviation Administration granted approval after a demonstration flight on 25-26 July from Boston, Massachusetts, to Santa Maria, Portugal. The flight ...
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USAir changes tack on unions...
USAIR HAS ABANDONED efforts to win $2.5 billion in union concessions over the next five years, and plans instead to negotiate labour savings in contract talks. The decision to drop the talks with four unions follows disclosure of a $113 million second-quarter net profit. Union workers appear to ...
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Pilot changes
THE EUROPEAN airline-pilot market - much to the chagrin of the pilots - is still very much a buyer's market. There are some signs that it is freeing up, with some major airlines starting to recruit (or at least showing an interest). There is not, however, a widespread shortage of ...
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News
Hot Bird tanks
Propellant tanks are being installed in Eutelsat's Hot Bird 2 satellite at Matra Marconi Space (MMS), Stevenage UK. MMS is also building the Hot Birds 3 and 4 (Flight International, 26 July-1 August). The 20 Ku-band transponder Hot Birds will be co-located at 13°E in geostationary orbit to provide direct-to-home ...
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Passengers become more sophisticated
Sir - The recent stand made by a group of UK charter carriers against low-quality flight operations is long overdue (Flight International, 12-18 July, P8 and Letters, 26 July-1 August, P39). In all markets, passengers are price-sensitive, but they are also quality-conscious. Premium-class passengers, in particular, have become ...
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O-ring anomalies delay the Shuttle missions
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA HAS POSTPONED the launch of the Space Shuttle mission STS 69/Endeavour until late this month, to complete a review of hardware associated with O rings in the nozzle joints of the solid-rocket boosters (SRBs). Examination of the two boosters used for the ...
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El Al to evaluate cockpit system
EL AL IS TO EQUIP two of its Boeing 747-200 freighters with a wall-mounted, removable integrated cockpit-information system developed by Elisra subsidiary, Avionitek. The evaluation could lead to the airline equipping the bulk of its fleet with the unit. The idea is to provide each member of ...
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Other Oshkosh '95 news
LoPresti Aircraft has taken three firm orders for its F22 sport aircraft, which comes in two versions and starts at $129,000. It has verbal commitments for a further four aircraft. The company is deciding where to locate a factory and intends to manufacture complete aircraft by late 1996. General ...
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US-1A follow-on work begins
SHINMAYWA INDUSTRIES plans to modify an US-IA amphibian with new engines and avionics, to serve as a development testbed for a possible replacement search-and-rescue aircraft for the Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force (JMSDF). The company has been pressing Japan's Technical Research and Development Institute (TRDI) for funding to develop ...
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DASA/Collins team succeeds with GPS-based landing tests
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH A TEAM FROM Collins Commercial Avionics of the USA and Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) has carried out successfully what is claimed by the companies to be the first fully automatic satellite navigation-based landing. The trials were part of the Boeing-led GPS Landing System ...
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Born-again fighter
Israel's low-cost upgrade, for the venerable MiG-21, has entered the flight test stage. Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV THE UPGRADE prepared by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) for the MiG-21 (Flight International, 15-21 March, P14) has been driven by the assumption that most potential customers want to enhance the aircraft's ...
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FANS datalink component becomes operational
A PROTOTYPE OF the new oceanic-sector workstation - the controller's link to the Future Air Navigation System (FANS) - is now in operational testing at the US Federal Aviation Administration's Oakland, California, air-route traffic-control centre. The workstation, called the telecommunications processor, represents the first phase of the ...