Avia Blog

Good week – Delta cabin crew Bad week – SAMA

In a much-anticipated move, Dubai lessor DAE Capital has slashed $8 billion worth of Airbus and Boeing orders from its backlog. The leasing company has dropped 50 orders, split equally between Airbus and Boeing, although the latter is the worst affec…

Virgin Blue’s decision to exit the New Zealand domestic market comes after it lost “millions of dollars” since starting operations three years ago.

“The…

Oneworld member LAN and Star Alliance partner TAM have not yet decided on an alliance strategy once they merge and create a new holding company.

LAN…

Two Asian airlines have chosen to equip their new Boeing aircraft with blended winglets.

Russian PowerJet partner NPO Saturn is determined to receive certification for…

What a quiet propeller sound, great plane!

Tests of the first full General Electric (GE) GE90-115B engine are progressing rapidly at Peebles, Ohio, where around 40 test hours have been completed. The engine, which reached a record thrust level of 120,316lb (535kN) within 24h of its first run on 18 November, will be joined by a second engine in December.

Flight tests on GE’s Boeing 747 flying test bed are set to begin in February, with around 250h of flight tests planned. US certification of the engine to FAR Part 33 is planned for the third quarter of 2002, with first flight on the 777-300ER due in January 2003.

London Heathrow airport handled 64 million passengers and 460,000 aircraft movements last year, and the new Terminal Five (T5) will provide an additional throughput capability for 30 million passengers when it is fully developed. Taking environmental considerations into account, however, the UK Government has promised an airport capacity cap of 90 million passengers and 480,000 aircraft movements annually.

When it opens in 2007 or 2008, the terminal will have only one of its planned two satellite buildings, with around 30 stands and a passenger processing capacity of 20 million a year. When both satellites are operational they will add 60 stands to Heathrow’s capacity, and T5 will process 30 million passengers annually. Heathrow owner BAA says about one third of the stands will be able to handle double-deck Airbus A380s.

Surface transport provision will consist of a two-lane dual carriageway spur connecting directly to the nearby M25 motorway – which itself is to b

There are no recorded events in which wake vortices from aircraft have resulted in any aircraft structural failure, according to UK consultancy Airclaims. But wake vortices have caused de-stabilisation to aircraft close to the ground which has resulted in several crashes following loss of control, even to large aircraft.

The most dramatic event recorded in which a tail fin separation started a sequence of events leading to aircraft breakup – including engine separation – during descent was the 1966 British Overseas Airways Boeing 707 which was caught in severe mountain wave clear air turbulence in the lee of Mount Fujiyama after climbing away from Tokyo airport, Japan.

The American Airlines A300-600 in this latest case (N14053) was delivered to the airline in July 1988. It had encountered severe turbulence in 1994 in an incident in which 40 people were injured, but an inspection after the flight revealed no damage. The NTSB, however, confirmed that one of the fin-f