All aerospace news – Page 1981
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US Safety Board sees need for post-Cali crash modifications
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that newly certificated long-haul commercial passenger aircraft should have an automatic system for retracting speed brakes if the pilots start an emergency climb. The system could have saved the American Airlines Boeing 757, which crashed ...
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Kiwi files for Chapter 11 as ValuJet resumes flights
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Kiwi International Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming rising debts and the fall-out from the ValuJet crash and the grounding of Kiwi aircraft. Ironically, the filing took place on 30 September, the day that ValuJet returned to the air and at ...
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Honeywell talks to Lockheed Martin about APALS involvement
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES HONEYWELL IS IN talks about becoming involved in Lockheed Martin's Autonomous Precision Approach and Landing System (APALS). The US avionics company confirms: "There have been talks, and we are certainly kicking it around." The discussions are led by Honeywell's Business and Aviation Systems ...
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WestJet back
Transport Canada has lifted the impending suspension of WestJet Airlines after the low-cost carrier appointed a person responsible for maintenance, and implemented an approved maintenance system. Calgary-based Westjet grounded its four Boeing 737s in September when Transport Canada found maintenance violations. Source: Flight International
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Rockwell consolidates Collins avionics business
Rockwell has brought together its Collins avionics and communications businesses into a single business unit, in a re-organisation, which follows the sale of the remainder of the group's aerospace interests to Boeing. The two Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based units, Collins Commercial Avionics and Collins Avionics & Communications, together with ...
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NTSB proposes more 737 rudder system changes
Boeing will have to revise the design of 737 rudder control system components, develop a cockpit display showing rudder position, and establish service life limits for certain rudder control parts if several proposals under study by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are made compulsory. The aim is to ...
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GE expands with overhaul buys in Malaysia/Brazil
General Electric is forging ahead with international expansion of its growing engine overhaul business, with deals agreed in the last few days to take controlling stakes in the Malaysia Airlines (MAS) engine- overhaul unit and Brazil's CELMA repair centre. Under an agreement understood to have been signed between ...
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Airbus pushes on with new versions of A340
David Learmount/TOULOUSE Airbus Industrie is to challenge Boeing's 777-300 stretch with an enlarged, rewinged A340 which carries as many passengers and flies further, says the European consortium's A330/ A340 commercial programme manager David Pound. The European consortium is effectively launching the -500 and-600 variants of the ...
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You have control
Several recent airliner accident reports have identified problems with cockpit automation as principal or contributory causes of the accidents. Much of the conventional reaction (especially by pilots) to these incidents is of the "automation must be stopped" or "automation has gone too far" variety. That reaction, in human terms, is ...
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LucasVarity investment dispels doubts
Lucas Aerospace is to acquire the Boeing Georgia cargo handling systems operation, in a move, which appears to dispel speculation that the newly merged LucasVarity group would quit the aerospace sector. The acquisition will bring sales of around $90 million, taking the Lucas cargo-handling business above the $200 ...
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Recommendations for improved safety
THE HUMAN-FACTORS TEAM makes a large number of recommendations for action by the FAA and other agencies. There are eight main headings, but some basic demands, like the need for better information-exchange on incidents, is repeated in varying forms under several of them. The principle recommendations for each heading include: ...
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ASTAAS closes down
THE AUSTRALIAN Government has shut down ASTA Aircraft Services (ASTAAS) after failing to find a buyer for the loss-making maintenance operation. ASTAAS, which employed around 450 people, was one of two units left over after the 1995 privatisation of the ASTA aerospace business in 1995. The other unit, ...
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Loral acquires AT&T Skynet Services
LORAL SPACE & Communications has agreed to buy AT&T's Skynet Satellite Services business for $712.5 million (£475 million) in cash. The deal includes AT&T's network of Telstar C- and Ku-band communications-satellites, and is Loral's first acquisition since the company disposed of its aerospace and defence businesses to Lockheed ...
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Airport growth
World airport passenger traffic grew 6.6% over the first half of the year, helped by the booming North American market, where numbers grew by more than 7%. Atlanta Hartsfield, boosted by the Georgia city's hosting of the Olympic Games in the summer, was the fastest- growing of all the major ...
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Aviall
Aviall has completed the divestment of non-core operations with the sale of its fastener-distribution business to Maple Leaf Aerospace. Aviall has progressively sold off its engine overhaul businesses to focus on parts distribution and inventory locator services. The unit is expected to become part of Maple Leaf's Tri-Star Aerospace manufacturing ...
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Orbital
US space and information systems company Orbital Sciences, of Dulles, Virginia, has appointed Rob Strain executive vice-president and general manager of the electronics and sensor-system division. He was most recently a group vice-president for finance and manufacturing. Source: Flight International
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NASA plans a fifth Discovery mission
NASA has invited proposals for a fifth mission in the Discovery programme aimed at producing "smaller, faster, better, cheaper" spacecraft. The mission will be launched in September 2002 and must cost less than $226 million to build and fly. The planetary-class mission will follow the Near Earth Asteroid ...
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ILS will continue with syntin fuel for Proton
The high-performance Russian hydrocarbon-based propellant, syntin, will continue to be used on the Block D fourth stage of the ILS International Launch Services Proton booster for all currently contracted launches, despite no longer being used on the Soyuz U2 booster, to save costs. The Soyuz U2 will continue ...
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FBO industry reshapes
From the USA to the UK, fixed-base operators have been changing hands as industry consolidation continues. In August, Mercury Air Group completed the acquisition of five FBOs from Raytheon Aircraft Services for $8.25 million. The sites involved are at Ontario International Airport in California; Georgia's Hartsfield International and Peachtree-DeKalb Airports ...
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Firm evidencr on cause of TWA 800 explosion is elusive
WITH NEARLY 80% of the Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 now recovered from the sea off Long Island, New York, there is still no evidence of bomb or missile damage. At the same time, there has been further study into the centre fuel-tank explosion and whether it caused the 17 ...