All news – Page 8037
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Looking at the thinking cockpit
How intelligent is the combat cockpit going to become? Douglas Barrie/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS Graham Warwick/ATLANTA A late 1980s' slice of Hollywood Cold War melodrama (Firefox) had film star Clint Eastwood stealing the Soviet Union's next-generation combat aircraft. In the ensuing chase, Eastwood has to ...
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Living dangerously
Apathy has forced take-off performance monitoring to be shelved. David Learmount/LONDON The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that there were more than 4,000 take-off related accidents and serious incidents involving airliners in the USA between 1983 and 1990, resulting in 1,378 fatalities. ...
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Civil maintenance growth 'will be slow'
CIVIL-AIRFRAME maintenance markets are likely to show little or no growth over the next decade, despite an increase in flying hours, according to a controversial new study of the sector. The study, compiled by the Utah-based Canaan Group consultancy, concludes that the number of man-hours required for heavy-airframe ...
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P&W to deliver nozzles for ACTIVE testing
PRATT & WHITNEY plans to ship axisymmetric thrust-vectoring nozzles for a McDonnell Douglas (MDC) F-15 to Edwards AFB, California, at the end of this month. A pitch/yaw balanced-beam nozzle (PYBBN) will be installed on each of the F-15's P&W F100-229 engines for flight-testing scheduled to begin in May. ...
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Israel arrows in on defence defence
Israel's main defence against ballistic-missile attack, the Arrow, is at a critical stage. Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV In Hebrew, the Israeli missile-defence organisation is called HOMA - meaning wall. Although it is the incidental result of Hebrew abbreviations, it has a special connotation to its main purpose ...
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Singapore negotiates with USA for additional F-16C/Ds
Douglas Barrie/LONDON SINGAPORE IS negotiating to purchase a further six Lockheed Block 52 F-16C/Ds. The deal would increase its total order to 24 aircraft, which is sufficient to equip two full squadrons. A foreign-military-sales (FMS) contract for the additional aircraft is expected to be concluded in ...
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Air Inter battles for French leadership
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS AIR INTER HAS SWUNG back into profit for the first time in four years, but the carrier warns that it is preparing to defend itself against savage competition expected in the French domestic market. Air Inter posted a net profit of Fr21 million ($4 ...
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AlliedSignal plans to pick up Lycoming LT101 effort
Guy Norris/LAS VEGAS ALLIEDSIGNAL PLANS to certificate a new LT101 turboshaft power-turbine rotor-retention design this year, as part of an aggressive upgrade plan aimed at continuing the reliability-improvement strategy begun by Textron Lycoming before its take-over. The redesign tackles a long-standing problem of shifting blades in ...
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Germany opts for integrated INS/GPS on Tornado
THE GERMAN AIR FORCE is opting for an integrated laser inertial-navigation/global-positioning system (LINS/GPS) to replace the existing inertial- navigation system (INS) in its Panavia Tornados. The German defence ministry says that Honeywell, Litton and GEC-Marconi Defence Systems are expected to bid to replace the GEC-Marconi FIN 1010 three-axis ...
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BA and KLM turn in impressive performances to end 1994
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON BRITISH AIRWAYS and KLM continue to set the pace for the European airline industry with further strong performances in the December quarter. A leap in profits at BA for the last three months of 1994, has the airline on course for a record performance ...
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Certification delayed for Cessna Citation X
Graham Warwick/WICHITA CERTIFICATION OF the Cessna Citation X high-speed business jet has been pushed back from August to November, but the manufacturer still plans to deliver the first customer aircraft in April 1996. Flight-test hold-ups will delay delivery of the first two Citation X demonstrators to late November or ...
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Learjet may add aircraft to reach model 45 schedule
LEARJET IS considering adding a fifth aircraft to the Learjet 45 flight-test programme, to ensure that it meets the December 1996 deadline for certification of the new business jet. The manufacturer has promised to deliver eight aircraft to customers by the end of parent company Bombardier's 1996 financial ...
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McDonnell Douglas calls MD-11 axe the 'worst-case' option
McDONNELL DOUGLAS is examining ways of keeping MD-11 production profitable through to the end of 1996 but says that one option - temporarily halting the line for much of 1996 - is considered "the worst-case scenario". "It's definitely a far-out option," says the company, which still hopes to ...
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MDC and JAA in MD-90 confrontation
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES McDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) and the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) are at loggerheads over changes to the MD-90 stall-recognition and recovery system which the JAA wants before granting European certification. The MD-90, like the MD-80, has a stick-shaker to warn the crew of ...
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Alitalia continues to make losses
ALITALIA MANAGEMENT has disclosed that the airline made further heavy losses during 1994, as it continues to fight a wage dispute with its pilots. Management revealed the extent of losses during talks with pilots' unions which are seeking wage rises in exchange for increased productivity. The loss is ...
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Glimmers show through the gloom
Russia's aviation industry remains in crisis, but could be getting over the worst. Paul Duffy/MOSCOW Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Given the fragile state of its economy, it comes as little surprise that Russia's aviation industry had another tough year in 1994. Traffic continued a steady downward drift, which has already ...
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Dassault expects to keep combat-aircraft share
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS DASSAULT AVIATION hopes to retain a share of at least 10% in combat-aircraft export markets, averaging sales of up to 30 aircraft a year over the next decade. The group also hopes to keep a 40% share of the business-jet market sector in which it is ...
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US military spending continues to decline
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC US DEFENCE procurement expenditure will fall to its lowest level since 1950 in fiscal year 1996. Procurement should begin a slow rebound in 1997, however, if Congress passes the Clinton plan. The Administration's request for $246 billion for the Department of Defense (DoD) ...
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New rotor reduces UH-60 vibration
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES INITIAL FLIGHT TESTS of a new wide-chord rotor blade on a Sikorsky UH-60L testbed show that the design produces substantially lower vibratory hub loads, in addition to other hoped-for improvements in payload, speed and manoeuvrability. The "growth" main-rotor blade now being tested on ...
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Germany plans airborne A3XX simulation
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH THE GERMAN Aerospace Research Establishment (DLR) is developing an in-flight simulation of an A3XX-type large commercial transport under contract from Airbus Industrie. Airbus wants the establishment to develop a reference model of an aircraft, based on the expected dimensions, weight and inertia of the ...