FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1988
1988 - 1351.PDF
Austria's independent airline, Lauda Air, has begun scheduled services to the Far East Lauda goes long range Austria's first independent scheduled airline, Lauda Air, started scheduled services last week for the Far East and Australia. Lauda received its first of two Pratt & Whitney PW4000-powered Boeing 767-300ERs on May 2 and is now flying twice-weekly to Bangkok and once a week each to Hong Kong and Sydney. Former racing driver and majority shareholder Niki Lauda fought for 16 months to gain the scheduled route licences. Austrian Airlines objected to the licence applica tion; although it has no long- haul services yet, it plans to inaugurate New York and Tokyo next year. Until now, Lauda Air has operated holiday charter flights with two Boeing 737s. It has a third 737 on order for delivery in 1990. Lauda has postponed ambi tions to serve Taiwan after the mainland Chinese Government expressed concern about such a service. The Beijing foreign ministry said that it would be "an issue concerning China's sovereignty if an airline of any country having diplomatic relations with China—even a privately owned company- intended to open air traffic with Taiwan". Austria recognised China in 1971. "We have given up on this project for the time being, but we still hope to make a [Taipei] connection in the future," Lauda Air says. Taipei had granted Lauda approval for trial flights and says that it would still welcome Lauda. Rocket plant explosion impact assessed by Norman Lynn in Los Angeles The USA lost half of its facili ties for production of a key ingredient in solid rocket propellant, used by Nasa's Shut tle and US Air Force boosters and missiles, when one of two US ammonium perchlorate production plants was gutted by explosions and fire on May 4. An initial fire before the explosions at the Pacific Engineering production plant in Henderson, Nevada, detected by a packing depart ment supervisor, is said to have begun in a chemical drying machine. About 200 of Pacific's 300 employees were inside the plant's 12 buildings when four successive explosions shattered the structures within seconds. Employees ran for safety as flames, smoke, and toxic gases towered 20,000ft into the air. Remarkably, only two employ ees were killed, although 250 were injured. The blasts were equal in intensity to underground nuclear tests performed in Nevada. Seismographs 200 miles away at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, registered 3 to 3 • 5 on the Richter scale. The remaining half of US ammonium-perchlorate oxi- diser requirements is produced by a plant operated by Kerr- McGee, located just one mile away from the destroyed plant. It was slightly damaged by the explosions at Pacific Engineering, and production is closed down until the cause of the explosions is officially deter mined. Nasa and Air Force space officials are assessing the effect of lost capacity on their launch schedules. Nasa officials say that there is enough solid propellant available to meet its limited needs this year. Pratt & Whitney tests Stol nozzle Pratt & Whitney is conducting sea-level testing of a two-dimensional, thrust-vectoring nozzle on an F100-220 engine. Similar nozzles will be fitted to the F-15 Stol and manoeuvre technology demonstrator when it flies later this year. 5B AIRLINE MARKET ZAS Airline of Egypt has ordered two McDonnell Douglas MD-83s and plans to order a McDonnell Douglas MD-11 Combi with an option on another, for a total value of about $225 million. The MD-83s are scheduled for delivery in late 1989 and the MD-lls in May and November 1991. Norwegian Regional carrier Norsk Air has leased an Embraer Brasilia from CSE Aviation of Oxford, England. Finance was arranged through London- based Concord Leasing. San Franscisco-based PLM International has bought a Boeing 727-200 and leased it to London-based Dan-Air Services. Mexican charter airline Latur has ordered another Airbus A300-600R, for delivery in October 1989. Both aircraft are to be powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4158 engines. Korean Air has ordered six Boeing 747-400s, with options on four more. A previously unannounced 747-300 combi and two 747-200 freighters are also to be delivered later this year. The total value of the contract to Boeing is about $2 billion. Three previously ordered 747-400s are being delivered in April 1989, and, with this new order, deliv eries will continue into 1994. Polaris Aircraft Leasing has confirmed its order for two Boeing 787-300ERs, and is to lease both to Bahrain- based Gulf Air. The $140 million order is being deliv ered this June and Novem ber. Mexican regional carrier Transportes Aeromar has ordered another Aero spatiale/Aeritalia ATR42, with options on two more. Transportes Aeromar's first ATR42 entered service in November 1987, from its Toluca base near Mexico City. Air Guadeloupe and Air Martinique have also ordered an ATR72 each. Both airlines already operate ATR42s. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 21 May 1988 17
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
