Systems & interiors – Page 907
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
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. ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
Agent blues
The traditional role of the travel agent in distributing airline products is being challenged by CRS pricing polices, ticketless travel, the Internet and commission capping by airlines. Does this mean the end of the travel agent as we know it? Chris Lyle discusses the implications.In theory, travel agents should be ...
-
News
Growing up
The flag carriers of the scattered Pacific islands are maturing and learning how to cooperate both with one another and major airlines. However, geography and colonial legacies remain the biggest obstacles to their future development. David Knibb reports. Isolation makes the scattered Pacific islands different from all other developing countries. ...
-
News
Profit share: a stroke of genius
Singapore Airlines' chairman J Y Pillay has absolutely no doubt that in an unforgiving airline industry, survival rests on the continuing struggle to improve productivity and keep ahead of costs. And there can be little doubt that Pillay's message is getting through at an airline which consistently turns in some ...
-
News
Getting IT right
What does a business do when none of its computer systems support its core business processes? Simple. It realigns its information technology with those processes, then develops a plan to put the systems in place. UK-based Britannia Airways has done just that, showing how IT can add significant extra ...
-
News
Designer networks
Management Fewer market restrictions mean more carriers are free to plan their networks with the passenger's complete journey in mind and can adapt their pricing and distribution policies to match. By Richard Bond.Deregulation brings with it plenty of changes but none so great as in the area of network management. ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
Twice bitten
After its second exit from Chapter 11, TWA is attempting to reinvent itself, from new livery to balance sheet. Mead Jennings talks with CEO Jeffrey Erickson. If Trans World Airlines Inc could receive one dollar for each time its death has been predicted in the past nine years, it probably ...
-
News
The CAA is targeting New Zealand's poor general-aviation safety record
Aviation morale in New Zealand is sky high, with Air New Zealand among the beneficiaries of economic reform Paul Phelan/Auckland To the casual observer, New Zealand may appear to be the poor relation of its neighbour, Australia. Nothing could be further from the truth, particularly in ...
-
News
Community Express
Left to right are, Chris Calvert, Community Express chief pilot, Jay Hughes, cabin attendant; Roy Steptoe, chief executive, Community Express Airlines; and Alan Street, business-development director, Birmingham International Airport. The UK start-up recently took delivery of its first Shorts 360-300, putting the aircraft into service between Birmingham and London on ...
-
News
Cabin sensor
A low-power-consumption aircraft cabin-pressure sensor for cabin/cockpit pressurisation controls, oxygen-mask-release systems and cockpit-depressurisation alarms is to be marketed by Moorpark, California-based Kavlico. The ceramic capacitive transducer has a range of 0-1bar, and can be mounted on a personal computer circuit board if required. It uses a 5V DC power supply. ...
-
News
School uses GPS to check proficiency
EMBRY-RIDDLE Aeronautical University is experimenting with the global-positioning system (GPS) as a means of evaluating students and instructors in its flight-training programme. GPS position data is being recorded in flight then replayed on the ground, to evaluate pilot proficiency objectively. Embry-Riddle's campus in Prescott, Arizona has developed an ...
-
News
EasyJet launches with easy fares
THE EASYJET Airline Company (Flight International, 9-15 August) is to start scheduled services from London Luton Airport on 10 November, with three daily services (two at weekends) to Glasgow, adding similar frequencies to Edinburgh on 24 November. Services will initially be operated by GB Airways with Boeing 737-200s, until EasyJet ...
-
News
Safety spotlight shifts on to loss of control
IN-FLIGHT LOSS of control is now the biggest single killer of airline passengers, replacing controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), according to a recent Boeing analysis of the subject. Boeing's chief engineer for aeroplane safety engineering Paul Russell says that from 1990 to 1994, 1,056 people died in loss-of-control ...
-
News
Safer seats 'too costly' for use
David Learmount/LONDON SEAT-DESIGN CHANGES, which could improve passenger safety, are unlikely to be adopted because of their extra weight, according to a Japanese research agency. The Japanese Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) confirms that the changes are effective, but concludes that manufacturers and carriers will ignore them because ...
-
News
Boeing acts on data dispute
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA BOEING HAS MOVED to resolve a growing dispute, between avionics suppliers and simulator manufacturers, over the data required, to simulate aircraft systems. The manufacturer says that it was forced to intervene by the volume of complaints received from suppliers and airlines. Tom Goldade, ...
-
News
E&S buys into the training-device market with Xionix
VISUAL-SYSTEM Supplier Evans & Sutherland (E&S) have acquired training-device manufacturer Xionix Simulation in a move to expand its airline-training business. Dallas, Texas-based Xionix will be operated as a separate unit within E&S' commercial-simulation business. Salt Lake City, Utah-based E&S says that growing airline demand for visual-equipped ...