News
Turkish Air Seals $5 Billion Boeing 777 Deal
Turkish Airlines has firmed up an order worth USD$4.7 billion at list prices for 15 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, marking the biggest order by value in the airline's history, Boeing said on Monday.
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Diamond tests fly-by-wire on DA42
Diamond Aircraft has tested on the DA42 what it considers the first fly-by-wire system for an aircraft in the general aviation category.The four-axis fly-by-wire system was flown on the twin-engine aircraft as part of a European Union funded research project called small aircraft future avionics architecture (SAFAR), Diamond says.
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Airbus pitches SIA A340-500s for VVIP customers
Airbus is in talks with potential customers in the Middle East about offering the Singapore Airlines Airbus A340-500s that it is buying back as reconfigured VVIP aircraft. The European airframer bought the five aircraft back as part of a deal that saw SIA order additional A350-900 and A380 passenger aircraft. The first SIA A340-500 will come back to Airbus in the fourth quarter of 2013, giving the company enough time to talk to potential customers about the aircraft, which is likely to include the new Gala cabin concept.
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Virgin America to serve Newark
Virgin America will begin flights to Newark Liberty International airport from 2 April 2013. The Burlingame, California-based low-cost carrier will offer three daily flights between Newark and both Los Angeles and San Francisco, according to a source familiar with the situation. The service will complement Virgin America's existing flights to New York's John F. Kennedy airport from Los Angeles and San Francisco.
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Lithuanian start-up aims to be ready for EU presidency
Lithuanian authorities are aiming to establish a new carrier to serve the Baltic state as it takes over the presidency of the European Union next year. Air Lituanica will be based in Vilnius and intends to open services initially to around five destinations, including Brussels. It has also tentatively selected Amsterdam, Kiev, Moscow and possibly Paris or London. Lithuania will preside over the European Union for the second half of 2013.
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Virgin Atlantic to wet-lease A320s from Aer Lingus
Virgin Atlantic has tentatively agreed to wet-lease four Airbus A320s from Irish flag-carrier Aer Lingus. The twinjets will be painted in Virgin Atlantic livery and used to operate domestic UK routes from London Heathrow to Manchester, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
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Virgin, Delta Planning Transatlantic JV
Virgin Atlantic will form a joint venture on transatlantic flights with Delta Air Lines if the US carrier buys Singapore Airlines' 49 percent stake in the UK airline, a source close to Virgin said.
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Branson Plans To Keep Control Of Virgin Atlantic
Richard Branson said he planned to keep control of Virgin Atlantic and IAG boss Willie Walsh was misguided for saying the brand would be ditched by US suitor Delta Air Lines.
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Iberia Unions Call Off December Strike
Unions at Iberia on Monday called off a six-day strike planned for December, despite their continuing disagreement with the management of the company over massive job cuts.
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Ryanair Offers More Concessions For Aer Lingus
Ryanair has offered more concessions to EU antitrust regulators after earlier proposals by the airline failed to soothe competition concerns over its third bid to buy Irish rival Aer Lingus.
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US Navy starts X-47B taxi trials on carrier
The US Navy has started taxi trials of the Northrop Grumman X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D) onboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman. The USN started ship-board testing on 9 December. Sailors onboard the massive 104,000t warship are controlling the X-47B on the flight deck using an arm-mounted control display unit (CDU). "With the CDU, we followed the aircraft director's signals to move the aircraft left or right, over the arresting wire, to and from the catapults and to various spotting positions," says Gerrit Everson, one of the X-47B operators. "These tests proved that we can taxi the X-47B with the precision that an aircraft carrier's flight deck requires."
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A400M powers through reliability test campaign
Airbus Military has completed its critical function and reliability (F&R) test activity using A400M development aircraft "Grizzly 5", during which the production-standard transport was flown for an average of 15h per day. Originally launched around mid-year but interrupted by several months due to a now-resolved fault with Europrop International's TP400-D6 turboprop engine, the F&R process accumulated a total of 300 flying hours.
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Other News
American Airlines chairman, president and CEO Tom Horton said parent company AMR Corp. will “soon” make a decision on whether to emerge from bankruptcy protection as a standalone entity or as part of a merged carrier with US Airways. In a message to workers, Horton noted American’s pilots, represented by the Allied Pilots Association, approved a new collective bargaining agreement Friday, ending a contentious process of negotiating new labor deals with unionized employees. That allows the airline to prepare to emerge from Chapter 11, which it entered in November 2011.
Kuban Airlines will cease operations Dec. 11 due to financial difficulties. Also, the airline said it could not meet new requirements that took effect last month requiring Russian airlines using aircraft with larger than 55 seats to have at least eight aircraft of the same type. Kuban’s fleet included 11 Yakovlev Yak-42s, three Boeing 737s and three Airbus A319s. At the beginning of last month, Kuban stopped using its Soviet-built fleet. The carrier had to return three Airbus A319s to its lessors due to its inability to pay.
About 1,000 of 15,000 German airport security workers on Monday took part in token strikes, disrupting flights at nine airports in Germany. The Verdi union unexpectedly called for the action late Sunday to press demands for better working conditions, which include fewer limited-term contracts and unified working conditions at all German airports. The strikes affected airports in Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, Hanover, Stuttgart, Dusseldorf, Bremen, Cologne/Bonn and Baden-Baden/Karlsruhe. Frankfurt Airport reported minor disruptions; however, there were massive delays with long waits at security check-in points at Cologne/Bonn Airport. Berlin Tegel Airport reported 33 flights were cancelled.
Brussels Airlines, a Lufthansa subsidiary, is targeting a €100 million ($130.9 million) cost reduction in its top-down restructuring plan called “Beyond 2012-2013.” Brussels Airlines CEO Bernard Gustin told ATW he hopes to speed up the restructuring process. “Our airline has a good strategy, especially our well-established market Africa; the new route to New York JFK is doing well. But we also having problems in Europe like other carriers,” Gustin said. The carrier employs 3,500 staff, including 900 cabin crew and 500 pilots. The carrier is working to bring in more job flexibility and increase productivity to avoid staff cuts.
Lufthansa will introduce a new premium-economy class on its long-haul fleet as first-class demand weakens. Lufthansa said the gap between economy and business class has become too big.
Air France will launch daily Paris Charles de Gaulle-Tokyo Haneda service from the summer of 2014, when new slots will be released for international flights.
Germanwings will base three aircraft at Hamburg for seasonal summer service to Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Nice, Palma de Mallorca, Dubrovnik and Vienna from March 31.
Aigle Azur launched weekly Paris Charles de Gaulle-Algiers service Dec. 2, increasing to 2X-weekly Dec. 7 and 3X-weekly Dec. 18.
ANA Group will suspend Tokyo Narita-Seoul Incheon service March 31, citing a decline in demand.
Aviation Quote
"There are a thousand things that can happen when you go light a rocket engine, and only one of them is good."
— Tom Mueller, SpaceX propulsion chief, Air and Space magazine article, January 2012.
On This Date
---In 1917... Katherine Stinson flies 606 miles from San Diego to San Francisco, setting a new American non-stop distance record.
---In 1961… The first American military aircraft are based in Vietnam, as the U.S. Army's 8th and 57th Transportation Companies (Light Helicopter), arrive at Saigon, South Vietnam. They are equipped with 32 H-21C Shawnee transport helicopters.
---In 1968…First McDonnell Douglas DC-9-20 delivered to SAS.
---In 2009…First flight of the Airbus A400M in Spain.
Daily Video
Editor’s Choice
Humor
Flying With A Blonde
There were two blondes going to California for the summer, they are about two hours into the flight and the pilot gets on the intercom and says we just lost an engine but it is all right we have three more but it will take us an hour longer.
A half hour later he gets on the intercom again and says we just lost another engine but its all right we have two more it will take us another half hour though.
One of the blondes says, "If we lose the two last engines we will be up here all day"
Trivia
AIRCRAFT/ENGINE COMBINATIONS
1. Republic F-105 Thunderchief
J-57
J-75
J-79
J-52
2. Boeing 727
JT3
JT4
JT8
JT9
3. McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62
JT4
JT3C
JT3D-7B
JT8D-219ADV
4. Canadair CL-600 RJ
CF-34
CF-36
CF-43
TF-41
5. Cessna C182
O-320
O-470
IO-320
GTSIO-540
6. Chance Vought F-4U Corsair
Wright Cyclone
Junior Wasp
P&W R-2800
Allison D435
7. Lockheed C-130 Hercules
RR Dart
SNECMA CFN-34
P&W R2800
Allison T-56
8. Aeropspatiale-British Aerospace Concorde
Trent
Thames
Avon
Olympus
9. Dehavilland Canada Dash 8-100
P&W PW-120A
P&W PT6
P&W R2800
P&W 4000
10. Boeing 757-223, N626AA
PW 2040
RB.211-535E4
PW2043
CF-6-80C
