NewsCommercial Aviation
Alitalia Cash Call Falls Short
Alitalia received less than two thirds of the EUR€300 million (USD$407 million) it was seeking in an emergency cash call and said it expects to raise the rest from the state-owned postal service and other investors. The cash, part of a bigger rescue package engineered by the Italian government, is seen as a stopgap measure giving loss-making Alitalia a few months to find a strategic investor to help revamp the group and keep it flying.
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Lufthansa Cancels Paris Flights Due To Strike
Lufthansa will cancel around a hundred flights to and from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport over the next three days due to a strike by ground staff over cost cutting measures. Lufthansa would normally operate about 100 flights between German airports and Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe's busiest hubs, during the period of the planned strike. Around 155 workers are taking part in the stoppage from 04:30 on Friday to 04:30 on Monday, to protest against plans by Lufthansa to outsource ground operations at Charles de Gaulle to a third-party provider.
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Some EU Countries Want Weakened Aviation Emission Plan
Britain, France and Germany want to curtail further a European Union plan to regulate CO2 emissions from flights, setting up a clash with Brussels keen to maintain the bloc's climate policy which has sparked threats of a global trade war. The EU's three biggest economies want to regulate emissions from domestic EU flights only, scaling back a Brussels proposal that would charge any airline for emissions made over European airspace, British and EU officials said on Thursday.
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Thai Air Union Threatens Strike If Protestors Harmed
The union representing Thai Airways workers on Thursday threatened to ground the airline's fleet if any harm came to protesters rallying to oust Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. The union, which has 15,000 members, would stop work if police used force to break up protests and marches, which have been taking place across Bangkok for more than a month and intensified this week.
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Thousands Of German Workers Protest EADS Shake-up
More than 20,000 EADS workers took to the streets in Germany on Thursday to protest against restructuring plans they fear could cost thousands of jobs. Protests were held at about 30 sites, from the company's Airbus factories near Hamburg in the north to its Eurofighter jet assembly plant in Bavaria's Manching in the south. "This has been a clear warning that the employees of EADS will not accept decisions made to their disadvantage and over their heads," said Ruediger Luetjen, head of the company's European works council and an IG Metall union representative.
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Modification to correct Q400 nose-steering flaw
Canadian safety authorities have ordered modification of Bombardier Q400 nose-wheel steering systems after a latent design deficiency was discovered during a pushback incident.
The aircraft involved experienced an uncommanded, and unannunciated, steering of the nose wheel as it was pushed back from the gate.
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Bangkok Airways signs for nine ATR 72s
Bangkok Airways has signed an agreement for nine ATR 72-600s, sources close to the discussions say. The turboprops are expected to be direct purchases from the airframer as part of the boutique carrier’s fleet renewal plans.
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Turbomeca completes first ground run of Ardiden 3C
Turbomeca has performed the first run of its new Ardiden 3C helicopter engine which has been jointly developed with China's AVIC Engine. The milestone for the turboshaft powerplant was conducted at Turbomeca's Bordes plant in the south of France.
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CHC's S-92 order helps Sikorsky cement sales lead over rival
Vancouver, Canada-based CHC Helicopter has formalised its order, originally announced in September, for nine Sikorsky S-92 helicopters with a further 15 aircraft covered by options. The helicopters will be used for oil and gas transportation work as well as "possible search and rescue operations", says the manufacturer. Deliveries of the first five S-92s are scheduled for 2015 with the remainder following the year after. If the options are exercised the 12t-class rotorcraft will arrive in the 2015-2018 period. CHC already operates a fleet of 38 Sikorsky S-92s.
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Eurofighter flies with Storm Shadow missiles
MBDA’s Storm Shadow cruise missile has been flown with a Eurofighter Typhoon for the first time, with the combination having got airborne from Decimomannu air base in Sardinia on 27 November. Two of the roughly 1.3t weapons were carried by the combat aircraft, using hardpoints usually occupied by external fuel tanks.
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Israel considers lease model for KC-46A tankers
Israel's defence ministry is evaluating a plan that could allow it to lease Boeing 767-based KC-46A tankers as replacements for the converted Boeing 707s now used by its air force. The evaluation is the most recent development in an ongoing effort to provide the Israeli air force with a modern in-flight refuelling capability. This has also involved the US government offering to supply three surplus KC-135Es worth around $200 million: a proposal the service responded to by saying it would only consider more capable R-model examples powered by CFM56 engines.
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Grizzly end: First A400M flies into retirement
Airbus Military has reduced the size of its "Grizzly" development fleet of A400M tactical transports to three, after retiring its first-flight example and placing another aircraft into storage. First flown on 11 December 2009 (above), MSN1 - or Grizzly 1 - was the first of five test aircraft to be flown in support of the eight-nation A400M program. Registered as F-WWMT, the aircraft performed its final flight from Toulouse, France on 4 November,with the company saying the 1h sortie was intended "to validate procedures for landing with the ramp door failed in the open position". This brought the lead aircraft's total usage to 475 flights and almost 1,450h, Airbus Military says.
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Aviation Quote
If you're in a fair fight, you didn't plan it properly.
— Nick Lappos, Chief R&D Pilot, Sikorsky Aircraft.
On This Date
---In 1940…First flight of the Junkers Ju-288.
---In 1943…The Essex-class aircraft carrier USS Hornet is commissioned. Today she is a floating museum docked in San Francisco Bay at the former NAS Alameda.
---In 1945... A U.S. Army Sikorsky R-5 helicopter off the coast of Long Island, New York, makes the 1st air-sea rescue.
---In 1953…American Airlines inaugurates the first regular commercial service between New York and Los Angeles. , with the Douglas DC-7.
---In 1963…Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 831, a Douglas DC-8-54CF airliner (registered CF-TJN) enroute to Toronto, crashes after takeoff from Dorval Airport in Montreal, killing all 118 on board. Investigators would be unable to determine a cause due to the plane’s extreme damage.
---In 1979… an Air New Zealand DC-10 crashes on the Mt Erebus volcano, killing all aboard.
---In 1987…Korean Air Flight 858, a Boeing 707 flying from Baghdad to Seoul with a stop in Abu Dhabi, crashes off the coast of Burma, killing all 115 on board. The catastrophe would later be blamed on a bomb planted by agents of Kim Jong-il, then the son of the President of North Korea.
---In 1990…Finnair receives its first McDonnell Douglas MD-11.
---In 1995…First flight of the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.
---In 1996…First flight of the Tupolev TU-144LL.
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Airport Security
A stats professor plans to travel to a conference by plane. When he passes the security check, they discover a bomb in his carry-on-baggage. Of course, he is hauled off immediately for interrogation. "I don't understand it!" the interrogating officer exclaims. "You're an accomplished professional, a caring family man, a pillar of your parish - and now you want to destroy that all by blowing up an airplane!" "Sorry", the professor interrupts him. "I had never intended to blow up the plane." "So, for what reason else did you try to bring a bomb on board?!" "Let me explain.
Statistics shows that the probability of a bomb being on an airplane is 1/1000. That's quite high if you think about it - so high that I wouldn't have any peace of mind on a flight." "And what does this have to do with you bringing a bomb on board of a plane?" "You see, since the probability of one bomb being on my plane is 1/1000, the chance that there are two bombs is 1/1000000. If I already bring one, the chance of another bomb being around is actually 1/1000000, and I am much safer..."
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