All Systems & interiors articles – Page 912
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Associate membership
THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) is having trouble managing its relations with neighbors near and far. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the case of air services. Partly, this is because the European Commission (EC) does not have the authority to control member states' air-services agreements. Partly, also, the EU ...
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Medical cost-cutter
LUFTHANSA Technik has developed a device for moving seriously ill patients on board airliners, which it claims is up to 60% cheaper to use, than a private-ambulance aircraft. The patient-transport compartment (PTC), includes breathing apparatus and a 13,000litre oxygen supply. Until recently, the carriage of such a large amount of ...
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Weak dollar ravages DASA
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) racked up massive losses in the first half of the year as the weakness of the US dollar against the deutsche mark ravaged its civil-aircraft sales. The German group posted a loss of DM1.6 billion ($1 billion) for the period, ...
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Datalink deal
Universal Avionics Systems and Teledyne Controls have teamed to develop a low-cost datalink service, which will be able to communicate via VHF, satellite, Mode S and airphone systems. Universal's two-way datalink will provide the basis for the new unit. Source: Flight International
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Peril of departing from standards
Sir - As more aircraft are in competition for slots in increasingly crowded routes, air-traffic control (ATC) has resorted to assigning aircraft non-standard levels to facilitate traffic flow. I witnessed recently a competent controller in a non-radar environment having to berate the crew of a European flag carrier ...
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Ringing the Earth
TEN HUGHES HS-601 Inmarsat P satellites will ring the Earth with worldwide blanket-coverage mobile-communications services in 1999. The HS-601s are being built under a $1.3 billion contract, with a first launch due for 1998. The operational system requires two planes of five satellites, each in intermediate circular 10,400km orbits. Each ...
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Flying firefighters
The London fire service has been conducting an extensive trial in the use of helicopter air support. Brian Walters/LONDON EVERY WORKING DAY, about 2.5 million motor vehicles enter London, resulting in acute traffic jams at peak hours. In those conditions, it is hard for emergency services to ...
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US Navy plans to modify Osprey V-22 radar design
THE US NAVY has directed the development of specific terrain-following/terrain-avoidance radar-design changes and related modifications needed to create the CV-22 special-operations variant of the Bell Boeing MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. A contract to be awarded in 1996 will pay for the conversion of one engineering and manufacturing development ...
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Challenger 604 approval expected before time
CANADIAN certification of the Canadair Challenger 604 business jet is expected on 15 September, more than a month earlier than scheduled, and the first aircraft will be delivered at the end of September, Bombardier says. US certification is expected by the end of October, four weeks ahead of schedule, and ...
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United 777s: heavy but happy
Guy Norris/Los Angeles UNITED AIRLINES admits that its first Boeing 777s is overweight, but is still satisfied with the aircraft's performance. New 16G crash-worthy seating is the largest single contributor to the higher-than-expected operating empty weight (OEW) of the initial aircraft, says the carrier. In United's ...
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Air France and BA aim to please passengers
TWO OF EUROPE'S largest airlines have committed huge sums of money to woo the high-yield passengers with new concepts in first-class cabins. Air France launched its new L'Espace service on long-haul routes to the Americas and Asia on 11 September, while British Airways is expected to reveal its ...
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Swissair in preliminary negotiations on Austrian stake
SWISSAIR PRESIDENT Otto Loepfe says that preliminary talks have taken place over taking an increased stake in Austrian Airlines. Loepfe says that he has already held discussions with Austria's new finance minister, Andreas Staribacher, but that he is still waiting for "a concrete reaction" from the Austrian Government, ...
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Cabin comforts
Trends in aircraft-interior design are being dominated by the increasing need for passenger comfort and entertainment Gunter Endres/LONDON THE CABIN-INTERIORS market has undergone significant changes in the past few years, prompted largely by the recession in the air transport industry. The inability of airlines to finance ...
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How cabin-noise suppression works
There are three principal sources of noise in the cabin of a typical twin-engine turboprop aircraft. The first is a result of engine vibration transmitted through the wing structure, which causes the cabin walls to vibrate. Secondly, cabin noise is generated by the propeller slip-stream, coming into contact with the ...
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Contracting the inside out
Bombardier is the latest to contract out interiors Kevin O'Toole/BIGGIN HILL IN AN ERA OF standardisation, the cabin interior remains one of the few parts of an aircraft where the airline customer still has a chance make its mark. For the customer, it ...
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Virtual evacuation
Cabin design and procedures for safe emergency evacuation, may be changed by computer modeling. Martin Hindley/LONDON AIRCRAFT EMERGENCY evacuations are designed as far as possible to work no matter what the nature of the emergency, but passenger behaviour is inherently difficult to define and predict. ...
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FAA in the hot seat
The controversy over the FAA's 16G seat-certification rule continues to rumble on. It was introduced in FAR 25.562 Amendment 25-64 as long ago as 1988 and adopted in March 1992 under technical standard order (TSO) C127 for all new commercial aircraft. The major bone of contention is the ...
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Oriental headache
Western manufacturers seem to be tripping over themselves in their eagerness to sign collaborative agreements with Asian partners as a low-cost route to developing new airliners. Their potential Asian partners seem to be tripping over themselves to sign such agreements, as a low-cost route to acquiring new airliner technology. If ...
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KLM
Jan Meurer has been named vice-president for operations at Dutch national carrier KLM, replacing Henny Essenbert, who becomes group managing director for Air UK. Enno Osinga succeeds Meurer as vice-president for customer service at KLM Cargo. He was formerly manager of cabin- crew divisions and deputy to the manager of ...