All Systems & interiors articles – Page 814
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News
No short measures
Peter Henley/MOSES LAKE, WASHINGTON Embraer's RJ-135 is a logical and economical derivative of its successful stablemate - the 50-seat ERJ-145 - with the fuselage shortened to reduce the capacity to 37 passengers. The ERJ-145 has taken the regional airline market by storm. Following the trail blazed by Bombardier's Canadair ...
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Seeking quiet
Paul Seidenman/SAN FRANCISCO Airport noise regulations worldwide are becoming ever stricter, putting airframe and engine manufacturers under increasing pressure to deliver quieter aircraft. In the USA, NASA's Advanced Subsonic Technology (AST) programme is a joint government-industry research effort which names aircraft noise reduction as a primary objective. Running since ...
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Sensing safer skies
Guy Norris/SEATTLE The aviation industry's continual search for safer skies is reaching "crusade" status as the chilling implications sink in of predicted traffic growth on accident rates. The US Federal Aviation Administration, for example, expects "a serious accident" every week by 2015 unless some radical changes are made. That ...
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Report weakens airport campaign
First, the good news. According to an official report, most of the runways in the US national airport system are in good to excellent condition. The bad news is that this may not be good for the airports. It will not be good news if the report, compiled by ...
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Argentinian airport fray
Airlines are stepping up their campaign over rising charges in Argentina's recently privatised airport system but some believe this is flying in the face of standard airport practice. Iata led a high level delegation to the Argentinian government and regulators in early August to seek a revision of the ...
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Pilots fear US alliance
Concern over job security in light of the proposed alliance with Continental Airlines has emerged as the key issue that could lead Northwest Airlines' pilots to strike from 29 August. The pilots' union says that, contrary to company statements, the dispute is about protecting jobs, not pay. The Air ...
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US alliances meet silence
A Wall Street analyst is predicting that none of the proposed US domestic airline alliances will be approved by the Department of Transportation because of the unfavourable environment in Washington DC and concerns about competition. Candace Browning, an analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York, points out that the ...
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North America: communication lines are open
If the millennium bug decides to take a bite out of the US airline industry, it will not be through lack of dialogue on the subject. Perhaps characteristically, Americans see communication as the primary frontline weapon in the war against potential computer chaos at the birth of the new century. ...
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United's answer to Travelocity
UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, is somewhat belatedly taking a more aggressive tack in selling its online services. For several months United has been offering tickets on its world wide web site including weekly deeply discounted, Internet-only fares, actions most of its competitors took months ago. More ...
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Startup fills Vegas niche
A planned new Las Vegas-based airline differs from previous contenders in that its backers, two of the largest casino companies in the US, have a strong vested interest in its success. National Airlines expects to begin operations in early 1999 and has already raised more than US$50 million in ...
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Two set for Tokyo launch
Japan has taken several more steps towards deregulating its skies by liberalising overseas fares and licensing two new domestic airlines. The Ministry of Transport is promoting fares competition by allowing higher discounts on international tickets. From October, fares for overseas tours may be 35 per cent below International Air ...
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AlliedSignal studies enhanced ground proximity warning
Guy Norris/Redmond An advanced ground proximity warning system for general aviation applications is under study by AlliedSignal and could be given the go-ahead by the end of the year. The system would take advantage of packaging features of the Mk VI enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) now ...
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AlliedSignal tunes in to datalinks
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES A full high-frequency datalink (HFDL) service for the North Atlantic is expected to begin operating this month, leading its designer AlliedSignal to predict significant new business in its battle with dominant supplier Rockwell Collins. The company's confidence stems from the certification of its XK516 HFDL ...
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Boeing burgers
Boeing is reshaping the way it produces airliners to reduce costs and speed up deliveries Guy Norris/Seattle To most, burgers and airliners do not readily mix. Yet, as Boeing fights hard to reduce costs, cycle times and defects, the fast-food production concept is exactly the sort of philosophy it is ...
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Slimming down
Assembly times are under attack on British Aerospace's regional airliner production line Ian Sheppard/Woodford While Boeing struggles to stay profitable producing hundreds of airliners a year, British Aerospace Regional Aircraft (BARA) faces a different challenge - how to make money producing a handful of aircraft each year. Based at Woodford, ...
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Sikorsky sizes up emergency medical market
Sikorsky is to supply two S-76C+ emergency medical service (EMS) helicopters to Florida's Palm Beach County. Under the deal, the helicopters will be available for use by Sikorsky as demonstrators as the manufacturer's S-76 completion and delivery centre is located in the county, at West Palm Beach. The helicopters ...
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Managing safely
Australasia hopes to lead by example with its candid approach to safety measures in the cockpit Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Has cockpit resource management (CRM) delivered the safety outcomes projected when the concept was launched in the early 1980s? Not universally, admit specialists such as Robert Helmreich, Ashleigh Merit and John ...
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WAAS funding freeze
The US Senate Appropriations Committee has blocked further funding for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), and seeks Federal Aviation Administration reassurance that the WAAS is guaranteed as a sole means of navigation, that the signal continuity issues have been solved and that the cost-benefit ratio of the programme exceeds ...
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FAA turns safety spotlight on 747 fuel pumps
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Boeing 747 fuel pumps are to be subjected to additional compulsory checks because excessive wear, which could cause arcing leading to fire, has been discovered. The US Federal Aviation Administration is taking a rigorous view of the issue in light of the July 1996 Trans ...
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Wicat adds Boeing to training device portfolio
Wicat Systems has seen sales of its flight training devices increase as airlines move to reduce the amount of expensive full-flight simulator time used for transition and recurrent training. Recent sales of flight management and guidance system trainers (FMGST) for Airbus types include six to Northwest Aerospace Training (NATCO, A320), ...