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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 0500.PDF
MIR TRANSPORT Ukraine International looks for European equity share UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL Airlines (UIA) is in advanced talks with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and three foreign airlines over the possible sale of up to one-quarter of the carrier. Deputy president Dick Creagh says that die airline, 11.3 %-owned by lessor GPA, with die rest held by the Ukrainian Government, is seeking investors to take 24% of an expanded equity base. Creagh declines to name die car riers talking to UIA, but "...wants to see cash flowing this year". Anodier source familiar with die Ukrainian situation, however, sug gests that Austrian Airlines, which has a good relationship with UIA, Creagh "...wants to see cash" and Swissair, which already serves Kiev, are the most likely candidates. Tentative talks widi Lufthansa are known to have led nowhere. UIA has now swapped its two leased Boeing 737-400s for -200s but, says Creagh, will take an additional -300 this mondi. It may even buy one aircraft. The airline is discussing co operation widi Crimean carrier Crimavia, despite tension between Crimean audiorities and die Central Government. It may, however, have to cede its long-haul aspirations to 100% state-owned Air Ukraine. The flag carrier has undergone a manage ment shake-up, and a delegation visited Boeing and General Electric early in February to discuss leasing a Boeing 767. A new US/Ukraine bilateral agreement has opened up addi tional US cities to Ukrainian carriers. • NEWS IN BRIEF • ORIENT EXPRESS GROWTH The Orient Airlines Assoc iation has reported an 11% growth in average passenger traffic for its 15 member carriers in 1994. Average passenger-load factors were up by 1% on the previous year, to 69.44%, while freight traffic increased by nearly 17%. Passenger capacity rose by 9.18%. • GARUDA A300 PLANS Garuda has cancelled plans to sell nine Airbus A300-B4s, following its failure to find a cash buyer for the aircraft. Under the original plan, the Indonesian flag carrier sought a buyer which would refur bish them and then lease them back to Garuda. Now the airline says that it will update the aircraft itself and put them back into service. GE90-powered 777 reaches Mach 0.96 in dive THE GENERAL ELECTRIC GE90-powered Boeing 777 reached Mach 0.96 during a high speed dive in February, as part of a faster-than-expected expansion of die aircraft/engine flight envelope. "We are well into die test sched ule. In fact we're already at the point that we'd normally be at six weeks into a programme like this," says Boeing. By die end of February, the GE90-powered 777 had amassed around 40h of flight time since its first flight on 2 February, and reached a maximum altitude of 43,000ft (13,000m). More than 150h of ground run ning have also been achieved. "The aircraft is performing extremely well. We completed flutter testing in one day, which is much shorter dian usual, and we did more engine tests on the same flight." GE, meanwhile, is running new flight tests of a GE90 on its Boeing 747 testbed from Mojave, Cal ifornia, to pre-empt any possible performance anomalies which may crop up in the 777 tests. GE CF6 and GE90 marketing development manager Vince DiGiovanni says that die flight tests include "...some deliberately high angle-of-attack stalls to veri fy operability of the engine within the envelope". The engine has so far proved stall-resistant. "All the JT9Ds on the testbed were stalling, while the GE90 kept going," he says. The supplemental 747 test pro gramme is seen as GE's insurance against any further delays hinder ing die certification timetable. "We will certificate on schedule in August, with deliveries beginning immediately afterwards to British Airways," says DiGiovanni. • Meanwhile, US 777 engine rival Pratt & Whitney is awaiting a deci sion from the US Federal Aviation Administration on whether the PW4084/777 extended-range twin-operations (ETOPS) effort will be affected by an unscheduled engine removal from test aircraft WA004. The engine was just 35 cycles short of the 500-cycle goal when it seized during aground run on die Boeing flight line. Human error is blamed for the incident, which occurred after die engine oil had been drained for an oil change. Standard procedure is to "turn the motor" to scavenge the last of die oil out of the bearings, but a Boeing mechanic is believed to have run the dry engine for more than 3.5min, after which it seized. The engine has been returned to P&Ws Hartford plant in Connecticut for an "analytical teardown, with die FAA looking 777: Mach 0.96 reached in faster-than-expected time on", says die engine maker. P&Wis "quiedy optimistic" diat die incident will not cause die FAA to require any changes to die ETOPS programme. The affected engine had already amassed 2,000 cycles of ground running before being flown on WA004 and had run up "about 100 extra flight cycles" before die ETOPS pro gramme officially began. P&W says: "We don't know if die FAA will ask us to run anodier used engine, or maybe anodier [new] one." It adds diat die engine was performing well until dien and looked "...pretty good when we borescoped it". A new engine has, meanwhile, been sent to Everett, Washington, to allow WA004 to resume general test duties. • Fast progress in die flight-test programme means that one of die 777 test fleet, WA003, is to be pulled out of flight-test work for earlier-than-planned refurbish ment. The aircraft has amassed more than 425 flight hours and 224 flights and will be fitted out with a complete interior over the next diree months. Total time on die P&W-powered fleet now exceeds 2,230h and 2,620 flights. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 March 1995
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