Systems & interiors – Page 923
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Boeing floats short 777 with longest range yet
Paul Lewis and Guy Norris/ SEATTLE BOEING IS considering launching a short-bodied ultra-long-range variant of the 777, which would be capable of carrying around 250 passengers on routes up to 16,650km (9,000nm). Airlines are already being briefed on the aircraft The 777-100X or "Shrink" as ...
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Volga-Dnepr pushes An-124 co-operation
Kieran Daly/LONDON VOLGA-DNEPR Airlines is leading a renewed effort to co-ordinate the investment by operators of the Antonov An-124 Ruslan outsized freighter in technical improvements to the aircraft. The carrier hosted an April meeting of An-124 operators and suppliers in Ulyanovsk, where it proposed a ...
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Lufthansa and SAS form strategic alliance
Andrzej Jeziorski/COPENHAGEN LUFTHANSA AND Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) have forged an alliance linking their traffic systems and putting an end to SAS's role in the European Quality Alliance. No equity exchange is involved. The agreement, signed on 11 May in Copenhagen, will combine the partners' ...
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MDHS speeds up 600N programme programme
McDONNELL DOUGLAS Helicopter Systems (MDHS) has accelerated development of the MD600N (formerly the MD630N) to bring forward US certification to the third quarter of 1996. Several design changes have been announced by the Mesa, Arizona-based company,, including a switch to a more powerful, digitally controlled, version of the Allison 250 ...
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Coping with technology
Kieran Daly/TOULOUSE The almost universal use of cockpit-resource-management (CRM) techniques will be one of the major features of training as airline pilot-recruitment reaches its next peak. Even though the concept is today far from new, its practice is still very much in development and is having to evolve ...
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Tying the knot
In the world of airline alliances, few proposed so far have implications as great as that between Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) - not entirely from what is being done (though that is impressive enough), but also from what is not. This deal pulls together, in ...
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Airbus homes in on future derivatives
GROWTH VERSIONS OF Airbus Industrie's A319 and A340, together with a "shrunk" A330, are emerging as the priority items in the manufacturer's continuing studies of possible new models. A further stretch of the A321 - the so-called A322 - has been ruled out for now, but the consortium ...
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Cargo boosts long-haul economics
TWO OF AIRBUS Industrie's long-haul customers are using their aircraft to fly pure-freight services. Cathay Pacific has found the A330 and A340 sufficiently efficient to operate as lower-deck-only freighters once their day-time passenger duties are completed, and Aer Lingus says that it converts one of its three A330-300s ...
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Airbus challenges 737 'grandfather' allowance
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE is bracing itself for a bitter struggle to force the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) to decline "grandfather" certification-rights for Boeing's new 737 family. The consortium is determined to raise the profile of the issue, which has become a key factor in recent airline aircraft-selections. ...
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ERS 2 in orbit after Ariane success
The European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS 2 remote-sensing satellite was safely placed into a 770 x 797km, Sun-synchronous polar orbit on 21 April, after launch by an Ariane 40 from Kourou. Following a three-month commissioning phase, the ERS 2 - which has a predicted operational lifetime of 30 ...
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CIS engine head defends PS-90A
THE HEAD OF THE CIS aero-engine manufacturers' association (ASSAD) has hit out at Western and Russian firms which, he claims, are plotting against the Aviadvigatel/Perm Motors PS-90A turbofan. Victor Chuiko, president of ASSAD, failed to show up at the conference for unspecified reasons, but his presentation was included ...
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FDRs ruling unites carriers/airframers
OPPOSITION IS growing to the US proposal to force the retrofitting enhanced flight-data recorders (FDRs) to early-model Boeing 737s and other aircraft. Airlines and manufacturers insist that the proposed installation deadlines are unrealistic and that, in any case, the move is not economically justifiable. The ...
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EU proposes trans-Atlantic bilateral treaty counter-attack
EUROPEAN Commission (EC) Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock, has warned that, unless the EC is given a mandate to centrally negotiate future aviation agreements with the USA, "we will witness implementation of a policy that is not just America first, but America first, last, both ways across the Atlantic and within ...
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Networkers of the future
As deregulation bites, Europe's airlines will have to chose between being network managers or capacity or service providers, says an analysis by consultants McKinsey & Company. Europe's airline industry has traditionally been characterised by monolithic national carriers with strong links to their national governments, a lack of competition on routes, ...
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Tough finding the right niches
There are encouraging signs of start-ups and expansion in Europe though financial returns and yields are low. Europe's regional airlines are emerging from the recessionary gloom comparatively unscathed. The last three and a half years have seen their share of closures, but on balance the sector is growing. ...
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French malaise
Air France is moving in the right direction to achieve profitability but some serious contradictions risk undermining its credibility. Jacqueline Gallacher reports from Paris.Air France Group is on the defensive these days, but after receiving a highly controversial FFr20 billion ($4 billion) in state aid, who wouldn't be? With appeals ...
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Unwelcome package
Overcapacity is continuing to reduce aviation insurance rates at a time when they are already badly out of kilter with operating costs and claims. So far the reinsurance markets have borne the brunt. Gordon Mackenzie reports.Aviation underwriters with a superstitious bent saw it as an ill omen when, at the ...
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Transfers hold key to growth
North American regionals and majors will become even more tightly linked as future commuter operations grow.The increasing trend whereby major airlines transfer short-haul jet routes to regional carriers is expected to encourage the growth of regional airlines in the US and Canada. Already, 95 per cent of regional airline passengers ...
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Singular battle over EU currency
At the core of the heated debate in Europe about the future of the European Union lies the concept of the single currency. While the politicians battle it out as to whether a common currency across the EU would be a political act with a loss of sovereignty, the technical ...
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Psyched up
Austrian Airlines is bouncing back after three years without profit. Carrier president Herbert Bammer says alliances and open skies with the US could lead to a turnaround. Mead Jennings reports. A small airline from a small country: Austrian Airlines has two of the essential ingredients for an inferiority complex, ...