All Safety News – Page 1419
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Feel free
The end-of-term report on air-transport liberalisation, for the period 1993-6 from the European transport commissioner Neil Kinnock is full of praise for, and pride in, achievements and future plans. Liberalisation, it says, has worked well, with few major upsets, but, to be completed successfully, needs a little more effort in ...
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Northrop Grumman aids Russian ATC
Northrop Grumman has participated in a Russian air-traffic-control (ATC) demonstration in which remote radar data were digitised and transmitted via satellite to the Vladivostok area control-centre. The October feasibility demonstration was conducted by Primoraerocontrol, the ATC organisation for the Primorski Krai region, in conjunction with Japanese authorities and ...
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CAE Electronics prepares to equip India's FANS centre
CAE Electronics is preparing to deliver a future air-navigation system (FANS) workstation to India, for installation in the Calcutta air-traffic-control centre. The workstation will enable India to offer fuel-saving routes over the Bay of Bengal to airlines operating Boeing 747-400s with FANS-1 avionics. The workstation is similar to ...
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Key free-flight tool evaluated
Evaluation of a conflict probe which, promises to be a key element of the future US "free-flight" air-traffic-management system is under way at Indianapolis. The prototype conflict probe, named the user-requirement evaluation tool (URET), has been developed for the US Federal Aviation Administration by Mitre's Center for Advanced Aviation System ...
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Lancer flare
Rockwell B-1B bombers are being cleared to fire newer-model countermeasure flares with no restrictions, but are still constrained to Mach 0.85, with no rolling or yawing, if using older flares. The flare firing envelope has been restricted since 1995, when aircraft began suffering tailstrike damage after dispensing countermeasures. The damage ...
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Maersk begins overhaul of Estonian Air
Max Kingsley-Jones/BILLUND MAERSK AIR has set about ploughing its airline expertise into Estonian Air, following ratification of its agreement to take a 49% stake in the privatised Baltic carrier. In May, the Danish airline, in partnership with investment consortium Baltic Creco, was chosen by the ...
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Frontier dips
Frontier Airlines is the latest of the US start-ups to warn of a likely dip in its fortunes in the September quarter. The Denver-based carrier says that it expects to post a loss over the three months, blaming sluggish traffic, rising fuel costs and rising lease rates. The loss would ...
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Manufacturers' forecasts chart bright future for cargo aircraft
BOEING AND McDonnell Douglas (MDC) are forecasting strong growth in the air-cargo market, with the world's freighter fleet expected to double over the next 20 years. MDC's predictions are slightly more optimistic than Boeing's, with an annual growth rate in air cargo of 7.9%, compared with Boeing's assessment ...
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'Outrageous' ATC charges anger European regionals
Julian Moxon/HANOVER THE EUROPEAN Regional Airlines Association (ERA) is complaining bitterly about the "outrageous" air-traffic-control (ATC) charges being imposed on its members. At its annual general meeting in Hanover, Germany, earlier in October, ERA director-general Mike Ambrose said that landing and navigation charges account for ...
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US airlines voice concern despite records
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON LATEST RESULTS coming in from the major US airlines point towards another round of record profits in the third quarter, but beneath the headline figures there is growing concern in the industry over how much longer the boom will last. Continental led off the ...
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Kiwi International forced to suspend operations
KIWI International suspended flight operations on 15 October after failing to gain a cash infusion from investors. The US airline had filed for bankruptcy protection two weeks before, and cut services, blaming high debts and the fall-out on other low-cost start-ups from the ValuJet crash. Kiwi has struggled ...
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NTSB urges 737 rudder changes
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is urging the US Federal Aviation Administration to require that Boeing make various changes to the design of 737 rudder-control and system components. Three of 14 NTSB recommendations would require Boeing 737 design changes, and ...
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Inchon incoming
Seoul is struggling to meet targets for its new airport. Paul Lewis/SEOUL THE GROWING IMPORTANCE of Asia as a world economic powerhouse is best illustrated by the fact there are no less than four major new international airports, either being planned or built in the ...
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747 conversions
Boeing has received a contract from All Nippon Airways of Japan for the conversion of one 747-200 to full-freighter configuration - the second of the airline's 747s to be modified. The aircraft will be delivered to Wichita in April 1997 for the conversion work, and is scheduled to be handed ...
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LF507 reliability levels 'not acceptable' says Crossair
Julian Moxon/HANOVER LOWER-THAN-expected despatch reliability of the AlliedSignal Engines LF507 turbofan powering Aero International Regional (AI(R)) RJ100 Avroliners has forced the engine manufacturer to spend $30 million on developing solutions. Crossair president Moritz Suter criticised the engine's 99.3% dispatch reliability during the recent European Regional Airlines ...
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Lockheed Martin pushes C-130J flight envelope
Testing of the Lockheed Martin C-130J Hercules II is catching up on its delayed start, with rapid expansion of the flight envelope to all-new limits. The first four test aircraft have amassed more than 220 flight hours on 60 sorties. Eventually, nine aircraft will be involved in the ...
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IPTN makes changes to N-250 after early flights
Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) is making minor changes to the fly-by-wire (FBW) flight-control system (FCS) of the N-250, Indonesia's first fully indigenously designed airliner, following early flight tests. IPTN test pilot Erwin Danoewinata says that the general handling characteristics are "very satisfactory", and that the FCS is ...
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NASA looks at ways to save PCA during crises
NASA is studying a potential application of its recently completed Propulsion Controlled Aircraft (PCA) system, which would allow a twin-engined aircraft to survive a catastrophic engine and flight-control failure. The PCA was developed following the 1989 crash of a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 with disabled flight controls. The crew ...
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Helicopter medevac will be aided by GPS
STAT MEDEVAC, a Manassas, Virginia-based helicopter emergency medical service (EMS) operating in western Pennsylvania, has signed a deal with Satellite Technology Implementation to set up a network of 13 global-positioning-system (GPS) approaches at remote hospitals. Installation of the US Federal Aviation Administration approved GPS approaches will allow helicopter ...