Systems & interiors – Page 865
-
News
MDC lines up MD-80 freighters
McDonnell Douglas (MDC) has had "informal" talks with China Eastern Airlines about the setting up of a cargo-modification line for MD-80s in Asia, and particularly China. Although freighter versions of the DC-9 were built, MDC has never delivered a main-deck cargo-door-equipped MD-80. The talks are believed to have ...
-
News
MDC goes digital
McDonnell Douglas has selected Avtech to supply a digitally controlled audio system for the MD-95 100-seat airliner. The system manages flightdeck communications and uses a databus to connect the audio control panels to the remotely mounted audio management unit. Source: Flight International
-
News
UK ignores EC warning on BA
The UK Government has brushed aside warnings from the European Commission (EC) that it could be taken to court if it approves the proposed British Airways alliance with American Airlines, without imposing tougher conditions to ensure transatlantic competition. The spat has also exposed more fundamental legal questions over the extent ...
-
News
Message to Saturn
The European Space Agency (ESA) is inviting members of the European public to write and sign short personal messages for a CD-ROM to be fitted to the Huygens probe scheduled to be flown towards the planet Saturn in October and land on the ringed-planet's moon, Titan, in 2002. ...
-
News
Competing powers
"The EC competition commissioner's interest in the BA/AA alliance is curious - the competition department has failed to involve itself in more significant airline competition issues." By seeking to stamp his authority on the proposed alliance between British Airways and American Airlines, the European Commission (EC) competition commissioner, ...
-
News
Japanese airlines finalise low-cost plans
Japan Air System (JAS) and Japan Airlines (JAL) are planning to incorporate new low-cost subsidiary carriers shortly, in the face of growing domestic liberalisation and the entry of new competing start-up airlines. JAS also announced that its new subsidiary operation, Harlequin Air, was to have been established on ...
-
News
Reaching for free flight
Forecasts of extraordinary growth in civil air traffic have become commonplace. The details vary, but a projected doubling of traffic by 2010 and a tripling by 2020 are widely accepted. There is just one problem - those numbers are not feasible, given the existing operational infrastructure. The problem is worst ...
-
News
Building for the future
In the race to WIN what promises to be one of the world's largest air-transport markets in the 21st century, aircraft manufacturers in recent years have been busy beating a path to Beijing bearing all manner of industrial and infrastructural inducements. Airbus Industrie is about to take the wraps of ...
-
News
Infracstructure deterrent to growth
Lack of infrastructure could be an important deterrent to growth unless a rapid and comprehensive expansion of airports and air-traffic- control equipment is put in place. Air Transport Action Group director Thomas Windmuller, speaking recently at a conference in Bangalore on infrastructure, said that at least $5 billion is expected ...
-
News
Rockwell-Collins wins tilt-rotor avionics
BELL BOEING HAS selected Rockwell-Collins to supply avionics for its Model 609 civil tilt-rotor. The team has chosen Collins' Pro Line 21 integrated digital avionics, already selected for Raytheon's Premier 1 business jet. The cockpit of the six- to nine-passenger 609 will have three 250 x 200mm, liquid-crystal ...
-
News
IASL installs EFIS
International Aviation Services (IASL) is undertaking a major overhaul and upgrade of an ex-airline Boeing 747SP for an undisclosed Middle-Eastern head-of-state customer. The work includes the installation of a five-tube Honeywell EFIS-85 electronic flight instrumentation system (EFIS), dual navigation-management systems, dual global-positioning system and satellite communications. The supplemental type certificate ...
-
News
Airbus selects two vendors for advanced FMS
Airbus INDUSTRIE has selected Honeywell and Sextant Avionique/Smiths Industries to supply future air navigation system (FANS)-capable flight-management systems (FMS)on its aircraft from 1998. Honeywell plans to gain certification for its upgraded FMSon the A330 and A340 in April 1998, with A319/320/321 approval following six months later. Sextant/Smiths has ...
-
News
Sabena revives study of off-shore contracts
Sabena has confirmed that it has resurrected cost-saving plans to employ flying personnel on out-of-country contracts. The proposal, which is still under study, would see pilots and cabin crew continue to be based in Brussels, but paid in Switzerland, probably via Sabena's partner Swissair, with the transaction made through a ...
-
News
Safety defeated
THE YEAR 1996 SAW the largest number both of airline fatal accidents and of fatalities on record. Other serious worries for the air-transport community highlighted by 1996 include the number of deaths on the ground caused by crashes - also the worst ever - and some compelling trends indicating that ...
-
News
Five UK police forces opt for Skyquest moving-map systems
Five UK Police helicopter-support units have ordered Skyquest Aviation's EuroNav III moving-map system, for use during airborne-surveillance missions. Using the EuroNav III, an onboard police observer is able to pinpoint a location such as a house address, and provide the pilot with instant navigation data to reach the ...
-
News
Augsburg considers expansion with Dash 8-400
Augsburg Airways, which recently became the first "Team Lufthansa" franchise partner, is considering further fleet expansion with the de Havilland Dash 8-400. While no firm purchase decision has been taken, the southern Germany-based regional airline says that its partnership with Lufthansa opens the possibility of future operations on ...
-
News
Fokker will make selection of F28 retrofit engine in February
Plans to launch a re-engineing programme for the Fokker F28 Fellowship are gathering momentum, with a final engine selection expected in February. Programme partners Fokker Services and Perry Group plan a launch decision in April, depending on market response. Lion Boenders, product marketing manager at Woensdrecht, Holland-based Fokker ...
-
News
Comsat picked on WAAS
COMSAT Mobile Communications has been selected by the US Federal Aviation Administration to provide satellite-communications services for the Hughes Aircraft Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), ex -pected to begin operations in December 1998. Under a contract potentially worth $100 million if all options are exercised, COMSAT will furnish satellite and ...
-
News
Iridium programme to kick off
The first three of Motorola's Iridium satellites were scheduled to be launched by a McDonnell Douglas Delta 2 from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 10 January. A total of 66 operational satellites to be launched into low-Earth-orbit constellations by 1999 will provide the world's first global telecommunications network, providing a worldwide ...
-
News
Airbus issues hydraulic pump warning after A330/340 fires
Airbus Industrie has instructed all A330 and A340 operators to de-activate the aircraft's electrically driven hydraulic pumps, following a series of fires which has left at least two aircraft badly damaged. In the latest incident, an auxiliary pump is suspected of having overheated on a Malaysia Airlines (MAS)A330-300 ...