All air transport news – Page 2679
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Four-rotor Cobra crucial to Venom bid
Douglas Barrie/PARIS Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC GEC-MARCONI'S VENOM bid for the UK's £2 billion attack-helicopter programme hangs on its ability to provide the UK with a four-bladed development of the Bell AH-1W Cobra, according to a senior US Navy official. GEC and the US Marine Corps ...
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GE confident of fan blade answer
Graham Warwick/PARIS GENERAL ELECTRIC Aircraft Engines has developed a solution to the fan-blade failure which has grounded GE90-powered Boeing 777 flight-test aircraft (Flight International, 14-20 June, P4). GE has until mid-July to restage the 3.6kg birdstrike test successfully, if Boeing is to deliver the first GE90-powered 777 ...
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Another 777 suffers depressurisation
THE FOURTH FLIGHT-test Boeing 777, returning from the Paris air show, suffered a pressurisation failure while en route from Washington DC to Seattle on 14 June. The incident was a less-serious recurrence of the loose duct-clamps, which caused pressurisation losses on two other 777s. The aircraft had not ...
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Four engines on offer for A340 stretch
AIRBUS WILL begin evaluating four engine options for the stretched version of the A340 in the fourth quarter of the year, says vice-president, engineering, Bernard Ziegler. The consortium says that it would "...prefer to offer a choice of engines, but that depends on the manufacturers". "We're working with ...
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MDC discusses 100-seater production with Chinese
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) has entered into discussions with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) on the joint development and production of a 100-seat passenger aircraft. Initial talks centre on either assisting China with the development of a new 100-seat aircraft or expanding the existing MD-90 TrunkLiner programme to include ...
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Prospects look modest for new freighters
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES NEW FREIGHTER deliveries will remain sluggish over the next ten years as used-aircraft conversions and belly-hold capacity absorb the bulk of cargo traffic growth, according to latest predictions from McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and Boeing. MDC predicts that cargo traffic will continue to average ...
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Missile killer advances
Loral is developing ERINT, a highly agile upgrade for the Patriot missile system. Graham Warwick/DALLAS Praise for the Raytheon Patriot air-defence system during the Gulf War turned to expert criticism afterwards when the missile's performance against Iraq's Scud tactical ballistic missiles (TBMs) was analysed, with the benefit ...
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Prospects look modest as European cargo blossoms
AIR CARGO traffic on European routes exceeded the world average growth rate of 12% in 1994, in spite of some economic uncertainty, according to David Pierce, Boeing Commercial Airplane Group regional director of marketing. Trends in air cargo tend to indicate wider economic movement, says Pierce. He adds ...
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Plans for longer-range GIV held up
GULFSTREAM Aircraft has suspended plans to develop a longer-range version of the GIV business-jet. The company says, that market research indicates, that the present 7,800km (4,200nm)-range GIV-SP is regarded as, the "best value" by customers. The decision to put development of the 8,300km-range GIV-B on hold for ...
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Airbus picks expansion priorities
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has identified three priorities for the expansion of its A330/A340 range by the end of the century. The European consortium says that the move will give it the "best possible position" in the medium- and long-range markets within five years. The 14,800km (8,000nm)-range A340-8000 will ...
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BMW Rolls-Royce defines family to rival GE CF34
BMW Rolls-Royce has defined the configuration for a new 35-62kN (8,000-14,000lb)- thrust engine family to rival the General Electric CF34-8C. A military-trainer engine is one of the potential applications. A final launch decision on the new BR500 engine family, which comes in below the thrust range of ...
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Northrop Grumman wants AIDC as F-5E/F partner
NORTHROP GRUMMAN is negotiating a partnership agreement with Taiwan's Aero Industry Development Centre (AIDC) for the upgrade surplus F-5E/Fs for resale on the international market. The company is seeking foreign partners to participate in its F-5 Tiger IV modernisation programme. The US manufacturer is hoping that international tie-ups ...
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SITA close to US airline deal
TELECOMMUNICATIONS network giant SITA is on the verge of concluding its first satellite-based communications agreement with a US airline. The contract, with a "major US carrier" will, says assistant vice-president, marketing, Rene Azoulai, "...give us the entry point we needed in this very competitive market". SITA has also ...
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Honeywell co-operates with Trimble for GPS retrofit market
HONEYWELL HAS teamed with Trimble Navigation to develop and market global-positioning-system (GPS) products for the air-transport retrofit market. The agreement, signed on the eve of the Paris air show, does not affect Honeywell's alliance with Canadian Marconi, which supplies the sensor for the US manufacturer's new-airliner GPS products. ...
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High-speed ATR 72 tops AIR product agenda
A HIGH-SPEED version of the 74-seat ATR 72 is likely to be the first product developed by the new regional alliance formed by the ATR consortium (Aerospatiale and Alenia) and British Aerospace. ATR says that it is "studying possible engines" for a higher-speed version of the ATR 72. ...
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A340 ruled out of JSTARS
NORTHROP GRUMMAN and the main Airbus Industrie partners have ruled out the Airbus A340-200 as the basis for a NATO Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) in favour of the Boeing 707. The US company says, that a study team including British Aerospace, Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) ...
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MDC chief attacks civil doubters
McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) chief executive Harry Stonecipher has moved to quash speculation over the group's commitment to the airliner market, admitting that the doubts have been "hurting" sales prospects. In a blustering performance at the Paris air show, he claimed that, if MDC were not already in the ...
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Bombardier costs Dash 8-400 development
DEVELOPMENT OF THE de Havilland Dash 8-400 high-speed regional turboprop will cost C$450 million ($327 million), Bombardier says, with the Canadian company performing half of the work and risk-sharing partners the rest. Bombardier launched the stretched, 70-seat, Dash 8 at Paris with 18 firm orders, including 12 from ...
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CFMI to ground-test improved A320 engine
CFM INTERNATIONAL (CFMI) will begin ground-testing the first improved CFM56-5B/P turbofan for the Airbus A320 family in July. The engine is based on the core of the CFM56-7 under development for the next-generation Boeing 737. The new engines will have wide-chord fans, three-dimensional aerodynamic design, new materials and ...
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Bell Boeing targets Osprey price cuts
BELL BOEING HAS REMOVED more than 900kg of empty weight from the V-22 tilt-rotor transport, compared to the prototype, which had its first public appearance at Paris. The first of four production-representative aircraft, scheduled to fly in December 1996, is projected to be 160kg under its weight target, the team ...