All aerospace news – Page 1767
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Freeing up the skies
PETER BENNET VIENNA Free flight promises to solve chronic capacity problems and, although it is 15 years away, Europe's aviation industry is moving ahead with creating the infrastructure. "Free flight is a misunderstood concept," says Lars Lindberg, president of AvTech aviation technology consultants in Sweden. "Some people think it is ...
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A year to forget
PETER CONWAY LONDON It took a while for the Asian downturn to affect the air cargo industry, but last year the bad news really hit home. There is little hiding from the fact that 1998 was a dismal year for the air cargo industry. And final figures from the ...
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Expanded horizons
NICHOLAS IONIDES SINGAPORE Singapore Airlines emerged relatively unscathed from Asia's economic turmoil. Now the group's executive team, led by Dr Cheong, aim to ensure that growth gets back on track, with alliances which will increase the carrier's reach around the world. The executive team at Singapore Airlines (SIA) would seem ...
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Births, deaths and marriages
Sifting the sands of global alliance networks is quickly becoming an art. Over the next year to 18 months this skill will be tested to the limits as exposed "independent" carriers seek shelter in global alliances. These are interesting times for alliance watchers everywhere. Swissair's long-running Atlantic Excellence alliance ...
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Free for all
KAREN WALKER WASHINGTON DC US plans for a modernised air traffic control system have undergone a sharp change in direction, making them evolutionary rather than revolutionary and putting the emphasis on government-industry collaboration. Such a programme is more likely to win Congressional support and become a reality. "Ask 10 controllers ...
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Intrepid Explorer
Flying the MD 902 Explorer proved it to be vice-free - as befits a helicopter with a design dictated by pilots and operators Peter Gray/REDHILL The MD Explorer should be the perfect helicopter. The design was conceived in the early 1990s when McDonnell Douglas asked owners round the world what ...
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Destination unknown
Replacing its current fleet could be the least complicated issue facing Canadian Regional Airlines as an airline takeover battle looms Paul Seidenman/CALGARY As Air Canada and Canadian Airlines (CAI) face up to each other in what is becoming one of the hardest-fought airline takeover battles in recent years, shock waves ...
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Galileo partners set up consortium
The industrial partners in the European Galileo navigation satellite programme have established a joint venture consortium with headquarters in Brussels. DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Dornier Satellitinen-systeme, Alenia Aerospazio and Matra Marconi Space are working on the definition phase of the Galileo system funded by the European Community and the European Space Agency. ...
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NASA reschedules Shuttle launches
NASA has given tentative launch dates for the next three Space Shuttle missions as wiring inspections and repairs on orbiters Discovery and Endeavour near completion and similar work begins on Atlantis. The STS103 Discovery, the Hubble Space Telescope-Servicing 3A mission, will be launched on 2 December. The Shuttle ...
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Stevens nears Orenda C90 certificate
Stevens Aviation plans to begin the last phase of flight tests of a Raytheon KingAir C90, re-engined with Orenda liquid-cooled V8 piston engines "within the next couple of weeks". The delayed flight test effort involves two C90s. It should lead to a US Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certificate ...
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Workshop
Australian regional Kendell Airlines has selected GE Engine Services to maintain and service the General Electric CF34-3Bs which power its new Canadair Regional Jet fleet. The deal is valued at around $40 million. KLM and its subsidiary, Martinair, have signed a contract with Boeing covering the exchange, overhaul and repair ...
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Globalstar tally increases as ICO changes business plan
Tim Furniss/LONDON Starsem launched another Soyuz-Ikar booster from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, on 18 October, carrying four more Globalstar satellites into orbit, bringing the total to 44. Starsem, the Aerospatiale Matra, Arianespace, Russian Space Agency and Samara Space Centre company, plans another launch next month, carrying another four ...
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Arianespace puts Orion 2 into orbit
Arianespace launched a 44LP booster from Kourou, French Guiana, on 19 October on mission V122, carrying the Orion 2 digital TV satellite for Loral Orion. It was the 48th consecutive Ariane 4 launch success and the third Ariane 4 launch in 45 days. The V123 mission, set for 13 November, ...
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Mexico LongRangers
Mexico's Attorney General's Office has ordered 24 Bell 206L-4 LongRanger helicopters for use in anti-drug missions. The $35 million deal calls for the first four machines to be delivered by December and the remaining 20 by next September. The new 206s, assembled at Bell's base in Montreal, Canada, will be ...
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ISS mission support site opens
Boeing support personnel for the International Space Station (ISS) and Space Shuttle have begun moving into a $3 million, engineering/mission support room (EMSR). Similar to NASA's mission control complex at Houston, the EMSR was opened at the company's Huntington Beach site in California on 18 October. It replaces ...
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Marconi secures 737 HUD approval from FAA
American Airlines is set to receive its first Boeing 737-800 equipped with a Marconi HUD 2020 Visual Guidance System (VGS) this month, following US Federal Aviation Administration certification of the head-up display (HUD). The aircraft is the first of at least 103 737-800s due to be fitted with the VGS, ...
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Boeing set to launch cockpit upgrades for 'classic' airliners
Andrew Doyle/BRUSSELS Boeing plans to launch major cockpit upgrade programmes for the 737 Classic, MD-80 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 as airlines begin to address the problem of how to comply with future air navigation requirements. The initiative is being driven by industry moves to establish a "free flight" regime in ...
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TWA and Delta expand hub feed
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Trans World Airlines is to launch a regional jet operation as part of an expansion of its feeder service. Another US carrier, Delta Air Lines, has moved to further strengthen its Connection network by acquiring partner airline Comair. TWA plans to have eight 50-seat regional ...
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Out on a wing
NASA is set to turn an experimental project into full-scale scientific and commercial work Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESAs shopping expeditions go, visiting NASA's display of Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) project aircraft on 13 October has to rank as one of the strangest. On show, under the appropriate banner ...
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Silence please
As stringent Stage IV noise limits loom, US aerospace engineers are studying how far noise reduction is technologically and economically possible Guy Norris/LOS ANGELESWhile the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) moves relentlessly towards an undefined Stage IV noise limit for airliner operations in the 21st century, the industry is hard ...