All aerospace news – Page 1981
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News
Bell rings up sales for 427s during show
BELL HELICOPTER Textron won firm orders for 22 Model 427 light twin-turbine helicopters during the Farnborough air show. Orders for the eight-seat helicopter were placed by 11 Pacific Rim customers, seven European, three Middle Eastern and one from the USA. "These firm orders for a helicopter ...
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MDHS transfers civil training to UND
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA UND AEROSPACE is to provide all factory-authorised flight and maintenance training for McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems' (MDHS) civil aircraft. UND has ordered an MD500E, MD600N and MD Explorer from MDHS for use in the programme, and the aviation-education arm of the University of North Dakota will ...
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Faster future
Dornier's aircraft range faces changes. Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH THE 30-SEAT DORNIER 328 turboprop, which was first flown in December 1991, has always been a problem for its manufacturer, Oberpfaffenhofen-based Dornier Luftfahrt. While its performance, compared with that of its rivals, is impressive, the 328's 335kt ...
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Sound of silence
THE UK GOVERNMENT has decided that the absolute noise limits for airliners leaving London's three major airports should be reduced by up to 3dBA. This action, it says, will reduce noise for airport neighbours at little cost to the airlines - "only" 12% of departures of the heaviest-laden Boeing 747s ...
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Eurocopter embargo payment judgment due in October
A FRENCH Commercial Court will judge on 3 October on whether Eurocopter should pay an international arms dealer for allegedly arranging the sale of 50 Super Pumas to South Africa during the United Nations arms embargo to the country (Flight Inter- national, 1-6 May). The ...
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Pros and cons of low/mid wings
Sir - The concept of the omnibus owes more to tradition than to talent; if a design works, there is no need to change it. Airbus Industrie aircraft - and Boeing airliners - are low-winged, so Airbus, with its A3XX, abjures the main advantage, which a clean-sheet approach has over ...
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Base records
The British Aerospace Systems and Equipment (BASE) SCR500-660 combined cockpit-voice/flight-data recorder has been selected for the Sikorsky S-92 multi-purpose helicopter. The unit can store 1h of voice and 10h of data. The SCR500-120, meanwhile, which holds 2h of voice, has been picked by Aero International (Regional) for its Avro RJ ...
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Polish Government considers Swidnik SW-4 purchase
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH THE POLISH MINISTRY of the Interior could become the launch customer for the PZL-Swidnik SW-4 light helicopter, which is due to be flown for the first time within weeks. According to the company, Polish interior minister Zbigniew Siemiatowski has told Swidnik that he wants ...
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Power games
Andrew Doyle/LONDON THE TWO MANUFACTURERS which will offer engines for Boeing's 747-500X/600X derivatives laid their cards on the table at Farnborough, and highlighted the radical differences between two powerplants which could end up being remarkably similar in terms of performance. General Electric and Pratt & Whitney ...
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Behind the screens
Karen Walker/ATLANTA NEW TECHNOLOGIES are bringing new ways of entertaining and informing passengers while they fly, as well as helping them to use their time productively. The resulting changes in services, which might routinely be offered to passengers in the near future, could have most impact ...
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High hopes for AFLEX
JAPAN'S SMALL-SCALE AUTOMATIC-LANDING Flight Experiment (AFLEX) has been flight tested at the Woomera rocket range, South Australia, as part of a preparatory programme for the H-II Orbiting Plane-X (HOPE-X) automatic space shuttle, which, it is hoped, will fly in about 2000. The AFLEX, which has a similar configuration to that ...
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BASE records
The British Aerospace (Systems and Equipment) (BASE) SCR500-660 combined cockpit voice/flight data recorder has been selected for the Sikorsky S-92 multi-purpose helicopter. The unit is capable of storing 1hr of voice and 10hr of data. The SCR500-120, meanwhile, which holds 2hr of voice, has been picked by Aero International (Regional) ...
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News
Lufthansa takes MD-11s, USAir talks -95s
Guy Norris/FARNBOROUGH McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) is in final negotiations with USAir for a huge MD-95 twinjet order, thought to include more than 50 aircraft on firm order and 50 on option. News of the USAir talks comes hot on the heels of the sale of up to ...
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Dornier sets jet date
FAIRCHILD DORNIER could launch a turbofan version of its 30-seat Dornier 328 next month, with development of a stretched 50-seat turbofan to follow in mid-1997 after an eight-month definition phase. The turbofan development, an alternative to the long-awaited turboprop stretched-version of the aircraft, has already been deemed ...
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Heading out west
The Ilyushin Il-103 trainer is being aimed at Western markets Paul Duffy/Moscow With Russian certification now awarded, and with US Federal Aviation Administration certification expected shortly, the Ilyushin Il-103 trainer has become the pathfinder with which manufacturers wish to bridge the void between East and West on ...
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Highly rated
Is cross-crew qualification delivering its promises? David Learmount/LONDONPaul Phelan/CAIRNS AS AIRLINES AND regulators start to gain experience with cross-crew qualification (CCQ) training and mixed-fleet flying (MFF), its potential is becoming clearer. Cathay Pacific Airways, with its unique Airbus Industrie A330/A340 MFF operation, now has 55 complete ...
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Competitive upgrade
Japan is redesigning its H2 booster to enable it to compete in the launcher market. Tim Furniss/LONDON AN UPRATED VERSION of Japan's H2 satellite launcher will have its first flight in 2000, in a late attempt to make a viable entry into the commercial-launcher market and ...
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BAe's asset management effort reaps return with more deals
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON BRITISH AEROSPACE says that its aggressive drive to limit losses from the group's extensive turboprop leasebook is beginning to produce results, with a series of new deals including the first sales of Jetstream J31s. BAe Asset Management Turboprops (AMT) announced plans to step up ...
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Lucent to test smart helicopter quieting
Use of smart materials to reduce helicopter rotor noise is to be studied by Lucent Technologies and Sikorsky Aircraft, under a three-year, $13 million contract sponsored by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Lucent is a new subsidiary of US telecommunications giant AT&T, and its Bell Laboratories research-and-development ...
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A coming of age
The powerful Trent 800 is carving out a big slice of the engine market for Rolls-Royce. Guy Norris/LOS A little over a year from now the world's longest jet airliner is due to fly from Everett, Washington. Powering the first flight of the Boeing 777-300 will be Rolls-Royce ...