DASSAULT FALCON 7X ELECTRICAL UPGRADE
Airworthiness The US Federal Aviation Administration has followed the European Aviation Safety Agency in issuing a final rule, with only a 30-day comment period, requiring the replacement of electrical control units in the Dassault Falcon 7X fleet, with modifications to minimum equipment lists until the work has been done. Dassault has developed an upgraded secondary power distribution box after finding that the existing ones could suffer damage from other parts, leading to the loss of electrical power with resulting uncommanded slat retraction, depressurisation, and failure of the oxygen control system. Dassault issued a service bulletin in April.
FIRST HAWKER 4000 DELIVERED
BUSINESS jets Hawker Beechcraft has delivered the first of its flagship Hawker 4000 super-mid-sized composite business jets, to Gary and Donna Hall. Hall is a businessman who travels regularly between Joplin, Missouri and Las Vegas and has owned Beechjet 400As and a Hawker 800XP. The Hawker 4000 can cruise at 41,000ft (12,500m) and Mach 0.84.
MITSUBISHI LOOKS TO WORK ON 737 SUCCESSOR
DEVELOPMENT Mitsubishi Heavy Industries hopes to help Boeing manufacture the successor to the 737 narrowbody, in addition to developing its own 70- to 90-seat Mitsubishi Regional Jet. "We have experience manufacturing carbonfibre wings for the Boeing 787, and that will help us when a decision is made on the successor to the 737," says the company. Meanwhile, Mitsubishi may announce at the Farnborough air show a second MRJ customer All Nippon Airways has ordered 15 90-seaters, with options for 10 more, with first deliveries in late 2013 or early 2014.
SOUTHWEST DETAILS RNP PROGRAMME
NAVIGATION Southwest Airlines will invest $175 million during the next six years to implement required navigation performance (RNP) procedures at the 64 airports it serves the move would by 2015 save an estimated 156,000t of emissions and $25 million in fuel every year. Roll-out of RPN, which relies on satellite-based navigation instead of ground-based systems, will begin late next year, probably at Dallas and Houston airports. Southwest's Boeing 737-700s are equipped to operate RNP procedures and classic airplanes will be modified to be RNP-capable.
BULGARIA GETS US ALL-CLEAR
SAFETY Bulgaria's safety oversight rating according to the US Federal Aviation Administration's international aviation safety assessment programme has been raised from category 2 to category 1. The US agency says this means FAA checks have ascertained that its civil aviation authority exercises safety oversight standards that comply with International Civil Aviation Organisation standards and recommended practices.
EUROPEAN EDITOR JOINS FLIGHT
LONDON Niall O'Keeffe has joined Flight's London team as European Editor. The former group editor at Aviation Industry Press, publisher of magazines including Airline Fleet & Network Management, Aircraft Technology Engineering & Maintenance and Aviation & the Environment, will write in-depth news, analyses and features across Flight's portfolio of print and online products, including Flight International and flightglobal.com.
Source: Flight International