All news – Page 7391
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PIA prepares for $1 billion fleet renewal
Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) is gearing up to order $1 billion worth of new aircraft, as part of plans to replace 21 ageing widebody and turboprop aircraft in its fleet by 2000. The move comes as the carrier enters the throes of a major restructuring, with the Pakistan ...
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Saudi Arabia talks to Russia and China about new missile
Saudi Arabia has approached China and Russia for a possible replacement for its ageing Chinese-made CSS-2 surface-to-surface missiles (SSMs), raising fears in Washington that the move could undermine Western non-proliferation efforts. The Saudi defence minister, Prince Khalid bin Sultan, has held talks on the subject in both Moscow ...
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NASA may re-fly Columbia in July
The Space Shuttle mission, the STS 83/Columbia, which had to be aborted because of a problem with a fuel cell, could be re-launched as early as July using the same seven crew, says NASA. The $500 million, 16-day mission ended when the Shuttle touched down at the Kennedy ...
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SIA is first to order FANS-A upgrade for Airbus A340s
Singapore Airlines (SIA)has become the first customer for the Airbus future-air-navigation system-A (FANS-A), with a commitment to install it on its fleet of long-haul A340-300s. Airbus aims to gain certification of FANS-A equipment on the A330/340 in April 1998, with ßight trials using its A340 testbed due to ...
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Virgin Executive Aviation takes off
The Virgin Group has joined forces with the McCarthy leisure-investment group to form Virgin Executive Aviation, a corporate-jet and helicopter charter company aimed at exploiting European business and leisure-travel markets. The new company also plans to offer feeder services into London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports for Virgin Atlantic's ...
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R-R, Lyulka Saturn form joint venture
Rolls-Royce and Russia's Lyulka Saturn are to form a joint-venture company to develop an industrial-gas-turbine engine based on the design bureau's AL-31 powerplant, which is fitted to the Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft. The 16mW-power AL-31ST will be marketed by Lyulka Rolls-Royce, and will use advanced combustion system technology ...
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MD-95 takes shape
Alenia has completed the first fuselage sections for the McDonnell Douglas MD-95, and shipped them to the US manufacturer's Long Beach, California, final-assembly plant. The Italian manufacturer has completed the first shipset 17 months after beginning design work on the fuselage when the programme was launched in late 1995. Korean ...
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Raytheon poem
Raytheon Cossor has won a $15 million Eurocontrol contract to supply a pre-operational European Mode S (POEMS) secondary-surveillance radar system, as part of the European Air Traffic Control Harmonisation Improvement Programme. The POEMS system will be used to validate Eurocontrol's specification for a Mode S ground station, including full networking ...
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China pins hopes on latest Long March
The launch of a Long March (LM) 3A booster from Xichang towards the end of April is regarded as critical to the future of the country's commercial-launcher aspirations, following a series of commercial failures. The failures, climaxing with the loss of the first LM3B in February 1996, has ...
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Titan DMSP launch
A US Air Force Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) weather satellite was launched by a Titan 2G booster from Vandenberg AFB, California, on 4 April. It was the first launch of a DMSP by a refurbished Titan intercontinental ballistic missile, called the 2G, which has replaced the retired Atlas E. ...
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Ray Hillman...
Head-up-guidance-system specialist Flight Dynamics has appointed Ray Hillman director of products and customer services - a newly created job. Based in Portland, Oregon, USA, he will be responsible for product line management, field service, technical manuals and the Portland repair station. Hillman's career has included work for British Aerospace, Smiths ...
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R-R, Boeing to draw up -524HT test plans
Rolls-Royce has signed a memorandum of understanding with Boeing covering the formulation of a flight-test schedule for the RB.211-524HT "hybrid" turbofan, although the timing of the programme remains uncertain as the UK manufacturer works to locate a suitable testbed aircraft. The -524HT, which uses the core of the ...
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Jersey European may add larger aircraft to cope with expansion
JERSEY EUROPEAN Airways is considering options for the expansion of its fleet, which could see the airline introduce new larger aircraft in 1998. The regional airline, which flies 12 British Aerospace 146s, four Fokker F27s and two Shorts 360s, has experienced 25% annual growth over the past six ...
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Crossair modifies LF507s on Avro RJ85s and RJ100s
Crossair is now half way through the process of making the engine modifications needed to improve unsatisfactory dispatch reliability on its AI(R) AvroRJ85/RJ100 fleet in a bid to (Flight International, 16-22 October, 1996). President Moritz Suter confirms that the Swiss regional airline has had "serious problems" with the ...
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Saab signs up to A3XX
Saab has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Airbus to join the study phase of the A3XX programme, and is understood to be interested in taking a risk-sharing stake of around 5%in the project. Airbus has also signed an MoU with Finland's Finavitec, to add to deals with Belairbus ...
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TWA 800 inquiry
The public hearing on the July 1996 Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100 crash near Long Island, USA, is to start "in late summer", says the US National Transportation Safety Board. It adds that an explosion definitely occurred in the centre-wing fuel tank, but the cause is still not known and ...
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Delta JT8D fan finding
Failure of inspection techniques at manufacture, assembly and in service were responsible for the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-200 fan-hub failure which killed two passengers on a Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88 in July 1996, according to findings from a US National Transportation Safety Board hearing. A minor flaw caused ...
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Korean airspace talks collapse
Talks between North and South Korea officials on opening the Pyongyang Flight Information Region (FIR) to international flights have again collapsed over the form of a communication link between the two countries' air-traffic-control authorities. Three days of discussions in Bangkok, Thailand, brokered by the International Civil Aviation Organisation ...
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Two weeks of RVSM confirms pilot fears over TCAS alerts
Airline pilots have reported frequent, long-duration, "nuisance" traffic advisories (TAs) from their traffic-alert and collision-avoidance (TCAS) systems in North Atlantic air space during the two weeks since the implementation of reduced vertical-separation minima (RVSM) in the area. RVSM is a procedure for operating with vertical separations of 1,000ft ...
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USA signs Singapore in open-skies push
The USA has continued its push for new open-skies deals with the signing of its new aviation agreement with Singapore, which is the first fully liberalised pact within the key Asia Pacific region. "The signing of this agreement-represents an important step toward ending restrictions on aviation services in ...