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Aviation History
1995
1995 - 2582.PDF
HEADLINES NEWS IN BRIEF United's own furnishing, accessories, seating and fittings are largely responsible for extra weight United 777s: heavy but happy GUY NORRIS/LOS ANGELES UNITED AIRLINES admits that its first Boeing 777s are overweight, but is still satisfied with the aircraft's performance. New 16G crash-worthy seating is the largest single contributor to die higher-than-expected operating empty weight (OEW) of die initial aircraft, says die carrier. In United's configuration, the aircraft's OEW of 143,075kg is around 7,965kg more than Boeing's published figure of 13 5,110kg. "We attribute around 2,0001b [900kg] of that to the strengthened 16G seat ing," says United 777 programme manager, Gordon McKinzie. "We thought we were pushing the allowables on floor strength at the beginning, but it's OK now." McKinzie says that United's own furnishings, accessories, seating and cabin fittings are largely responsible for the weight difference. "The air craft contracts have weight guaran tees built into the empty weight, and Boeing is well within it. "At one point, early in the pro gramme, weight was really out of control and Boeing went on an emergency diet. We're OK now, we are where we want to be," says McKinzie. A host of other "incre mental" factors also drove up the weight, adds McKinzie. .Although United reduced the number of seats from 300 to 292, the penalty of the higher OEW is believed to be up to 40 passengers on long-duration flights up to 12h. Despite the heavier-than-expect- ed OEW, McKinzie says: "Pounds of fuel per pounds of payload we're still better off than other types like the A3 30 which we looked at, main ly because we can earn- much more payload — particularly cargo". United assessed the Airbus A330 and McDonnell Douglas MD-11 before opting for the 777. The A3 30 was rejected mainly because of United's exacting requirement for hot-and-high-performance guarantees on the long non-stop Denver to Honolulu route. McKinzie says: "We've had the usual growing pains," but adds that the first six aircraft are doing so well that the special fleet-maintenance watch, common for new tvpes, has now been dropped. Earlv incidents include cracks discovered in an elbow of an oil line in the aircraft's PW4084 engine. Pratt & Whitney says that cracks were discovered in 20% of around 50 PW4000 series engines powering 777s and A3 30s. It adds that no aircraft have been grounded by the discover ', but it is replacing the elbow with a block joint. "Despatch-reliability-wise, they're doing 2.5% better than the 767 or 747 were at this point in time. Load factors are up in the high 90%," says McKinzie. He also refutes allega tions that 777 operations are ham pered by incompatibility with gates. "There's only one airport (Am sterdam) where we have to shut down the engines and be towed in. That's because of an over-the-wing loading bridge." McKinzie also says diat the large engines do not slow down start-up procedures. • • BA CHOOSES SCHOOLS British Airways has announced its choice of training schools for ah initio and refresher courses. The 18-month ah initio courses are split between the Australian Aviation College in Adelaide, Australia; the Cabair College of Air Training in Cranfield, UK; and the Oxford Air Training School, in the UK. British Aerospace's Flying College at Prestwick, Scotland, has been chosen to provide refresher training for more than 150 fully-trained BA pilot cadets who had been j held in other jobs pending vacancies. It is the first time BA has undertaken ah initio training for several years. Sea Launch project gains a boost T HE INTERNATIONAL Sea Launch project for commercial geostationary-orbiting satellite- launcher services from an equatorial mobile offshore platform has moved on with die award of S171 million contracts to two Norwegian firms. Sea Launch, a partnership be tween Boeing (USA); NPO Energia (Russia); NPO Yuzhnoye (Ukraine); and Kvaerner (Norway); has given Kvaemer the go-ahead to convert a semi-submersible oil rig into a mobile launch pladbrm and to deliver a control-centre support ship. Both orders contain cancellation clauses and depend on Sea Launch securing binding launch contracts. 3 Swissair in preliminary negotiations on Austrian stake SWISSAIR PRESIDENT Otto Loepfe says that prelim inary talks have taken place over taking an increased stake in Austrian Airlines. Loepfe says that he has already held discussions with Austria's new finance minister, Andreas Staribacher, but that he is still waiting for "a concrete reaction" from the Austrian Government, which holds a controlling 52% stake in its national carrier. Swissair, which holds a 10% stake in its long-standing Austrian partner, has previously stated that it is looking to increase the hold ing to 25%. If the deal goes ahead it would mark another significant step in the Swiss airline's ambitions to pull together a powerful European alliance, now includ ing Sabena, in which it took a 49.7% stake earlier this year. Austrian Airlines admits that it will hold discussions with Sabena to investigate co-operation be tween the two airlines, in the wake of Swissair's alliance with the Belgian carrier. "Swissair has a major holding in Sabena so it is logical for us to talk with them too," says Austrian Airlines. Links between Austrian Airlines and Swissair are well established, with the two airlines serving each other in their home markets and sharing offices and ground-hand ling stations worldwide. • Austrian Airlines says that its teaming with Delta on the North Atlantic has been working well. The daily non-stop service between Vienna and New York, which Austrian operates with a Delta code-share, has been reaching 90% load factors over the summer. J FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13 - 19 September 1995 5
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