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Week ending May 17, 1998
+++ Singapore Airlines orders ten A340-500s +++ Lufthansa Technic increases sales and profits +++ President Clinton dedicates C-17 'The Spirit of Berlin' +++ Me 262 rebuilt at Texas Airplane Factory to resume +++ Two additional airlines to join Star alliance +++ F-16 choice announced by United Arab Emirates +++ RB211 beats world record +++ Central American airlines check Boeing 737s +++ Four US carriers to cooperate with Air China +++ News in brief +++
Singapore Airlines orders ten A340-500s
A340-500-Auftrag von Singapore Airlines
On May 15, Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it had signed a letter of intent with Airbus Industrie to purchase ten wide-bodied A340-500 aircraft, five on firm order and five on option. The purchase order is worth 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, including the cost of spares and spare engines. The four-engine aircraft will be powered by Rolls Royce Trent 553 engines. Deliveries will commence in 2002, SIA said, ending hopes of Boeing to get its super-long range 777 variants into service with the carrier.SIA wants to operate the A340-500 non-stop on routes such as Singapore-Los Angeles and Singapore-San Francisco, which are beyond the capability of existing aircraft types. Therefore, the A340-500's not-stop capability will enable SIA to take advantage of the open skies air services agreement between Singapore and the United States and further expand its operations to the United States, SIA said.
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Lufthansa Technik increases sales and profits
Gute Ergebnisse für Lufthansa Technik
With pretax earnings of 94.1 million DM the past year was another extraordinarily successful one for Lufthansa Technik AG (LHT), the company claims. Profits were up 53 percent over those of 1996. Other key data in the annual balance sheet were comparably favorable. The return on equity jumped 9.9 points to 28.5 percent. The profit on sales was up a full point to 3.1 percent. Cash flow reached 260 million DM. The volume of sales rose 5.8 percent to 3.03 billion DM. Member of the Executive Board Dr. Gerald Gallus stressed in this regard the disproportionately large increase in the number of new customers from outside the Lufthansa Group. That figure was up by 20.4 percent. Accounting for 43 percent of the total, the sales to those customers again hit a new high. "That is an impressive indication of Lufthansa Technik's success in the marketplace," Dr. Gallus declared.This was reflected also in the expanding customer base. Fourteen additional airlines were gained as new customers; a total of 50 new contracts were signed. The number of orders received was record-breaking on all fronts. An example: 72,000 components and instruments were overhauled, an increase of 6 percent over 1996. More than 500 engines were repaired (up 12 percent) as well as 5,000 engine modules (up 25 percent). At aircraft overhaul in Hamburg and Berlin, major work was done on 91 aircraft (up 7 percent). In the world's most modern painting hangar in Hamburg, a model of environmental protection, 81 aircraft were completely painted or repainted (up 13 percent).
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President Clinton dedicates C-17 'The Spirit of Berlin'
US-Präsident Clinton tauft C-17 auf den Namen "The Spirit of Berlin"
With German Chancellor Helmut Kohl at his side, President Bill Clinton dedicated "The Spirit of Berlin," a new U.S. Air Force/Boeing C-17 cargo plane, during a morning ceremony today in Tempelhof, Germany. The event marked the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, the historic effort to defeat the Soviet blockade of the city of Berlin. "The constant drone of an airplane every 90 seconds became a symphony of freedom," Clinton told the crowd of 7,000 invited guests at Tempelhof airfield, the site he called the first battlefield of the Cold War. "The airlift was no flight of imagination, this was our best investment." The Berlin airlift was the first large-scale, peacetime use of airlift in executing national policy. The first missions were flown to Berlin on June 26, 1948, airlifting 80 tons of milk, flour, medicine and other cargo - the payload equivalent of one Boeing C-17 -- on 32 Douglas C-47 flights. "The experience of the airlift caused us to join together as allies, and we still are today," said Chancellor Kohl. Kohl went on to give special mention to the airlift veterans in attendance and the families of those who did not return. "Millions of Americans have been stationed here since then to defend our freedom," Kohl said. "The Americans got rid of the barbwire and created the climate for our reunification." The Berlin Airlift proved enormously successful. Crews delivered a total of more than 4.4 billion pounds of food, fuel and supplies to Berlin in 15 months and transported a total of 227,655 people into or out of the city. At the height of the airlift, aircraft were flying 3-4 minutes apart, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Planes were so closely spaced over Berlin that they resembled a flying freight train. Approximately 75,000 Americans, British, French and Germans participated in the effort. The airlift also demonstrated the peacetime utility of transport aircraft, unlike fighters and bombers that could only be used during time of war. Also present for the ceremony was Gail Halvorsen, a U.S. Air Force pilot who became known by grateful Germans as "The Candy Bomber" for his unauthorized airdrops of sweets via mini-parachutes. "My first flight in 1948 carried 20,000 pounds of flour, but I learned that freedom was more important than flour," he said.
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Me 262 rebuilt at Texas Airplane Factory to resume
Texas Airplane Factory baut an Me 262 weiter
After a "re-structuring" of financial commitments and ownership rights with Classic Fighter Industries, the Texas Airplane factory has announced that it will restart work on the Messerschmitt Me 262 programme to build five new examples of this famous WWII jet aircraft. According to a joint statement by the two companies, overall management of the programme has been assumed by Texas Airplane, while Classic Fighter will just reman on board as the owner of one of the machines. The other four are to be sold by Texas Aircraft to any interested individual, private group or organization. Two (a single and two-seater) remain available, and as soon as these are sold, work will start again at the hangar in Fort Worth, Texas. According to company owner Herbert Tischler, no reasonably prediction for the first flight is possible right now, but it is hoped that as more info becomes available il will be disseminated by a new web-site currently under construction.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
Two additional airlines to join Star alliance
Zwei neue Partner für die Star Alliance
Airline network Star Alliance announced plans to add two more members. Air New Zealand and Ansett Australia have signed memoranda confirming their intent to join the alliance in 1999. The two airlines will begin work immediately to implement the Star Alliance customer benefits required for membership. Star Alliance currently comprises Air Canada, Lufthansa German Airlines, SAS Scandinavian Airlines System, Thai Airways International, United Airlines and VARIG Brazilian Airlines. With the addition of Air New Zealand and Ansett, Star Alliance customers will have improved access in the Pacific with 84 destinations in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific and throughout the region. Together, the member airlines of Star Alliance currently serve more than 640 destinations around the world. On average, a Star Alliance flight takes off every 15 seconds, around the clock. With the addition of Air New Zealand and Ansett, Star Alliance will serve more than 700 destinations worldwide.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
F-16 choice announced by United Arab Emirates
VAE entscheidet sich für Lockheed Martin F-16
On May 12, the government of the United Arab Emirates announced that it has selected Lockheed Martin's new "Block 60" F-16 as its advanced fighter aircraft. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the U.A.E. Armed Forces, in ceremonies attended by President Clinton, Vice President Gore and other administration officials and key congressional leaders, announced today that the U.A.E. will order 80 F-16s. The total program including weapons and support is valued at approximately $7 billion. A contract with the U.A.E. is expected to be signed later this year. Aircraft deliveries are expected to begin in 2002. The U.A.E. fighter decision ends an intensive evaluation process that originally included the F-16, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 and several other advanced fighters, including the French Rafale and the Eurofighter. The U.A.E. is the launch customer for the newest version of the F-16, which incorporates a number of new systems and technologies for the multirole fighter mission. The development of new features that make up the Block 60 will ensure the F-16 remains the world's most capable multirole fighter until the next- generation Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) enters service. The upgrade package consists of a range of modern systems including conformal fuel tanks for greater range, new cockpit displays, an internal sensor suite, a new mission computer and other advanced features including a new agile beam radar.
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RB211 beats world record
Weltrekord für Rolls-Royce RB211
A Rolls-Royce aero engine has set a new world record by completing 31,000 hours on the wing of a Boeing 757 which has been in service for seven years. The RB211-535E4 on an Icelandair Boeing 757 twinjet has broken the record previously hold by a CFM56-3 by over 600 hours and is still flying. The engine is still in service operating on scheduled flights from its Iceland base to the east coast of North America, and several European destinations.Sigurdur Helgason, President and Chief Executive Officer, Icelandair said: "Operating from our island base, the reliability of our engines is of particular importance. We are proud and delighted to hold this record which further demonstrates that the RB211-535E4 was the right choice for our company." Renowned for its reliability and long life, the 535E4 currently averages more than 15,000 hours on wing before a first maintenance shop visit. The RB211-535 family, ranging between 37,4001b and 43,100lb thrust, has accumulated more than 18 million flying hours at the highest reliability levels in its thrust range.
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Central American Airlines check Boeing 737s
Zentralamerikansiche Airlines überprüfen Boeing-737-Muster
The Central American aviation consortium TACA has inspected fuel pump cables on eight Boeing 737 airliners, finding fatigue problems in one Costa Rican plane, an aviation official told Xinhua news agency. Miguel Cerdas, head of the Civil Air Force Department, said that a Boeing 737 owned by the Costa-Rican company Lacsa, a member of the TACA group, was discovered to have fatigue problems in electrical cables. Cerdas said the plane had recorded 53,951 flight hours. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered that every Boeing 737 aircraft having more than 50,000 flight hours must be checked, suspecting that fatigue of insulating materials could cause explosions and fires. FAA believes fatigue of cables connected to fuel pumps could be the cause of the TWA 800 crash, which killed all 230 people on board while flying from New York to Paris. TACA, a Salvadoran carrier, has bought controlling stocks in Guatemalan, Honduran, Nicaraguan and Costa Rican airlines, becoming a major player in Central America. TACA currently uses various Boeing 737s, the majority of them having not reached the critical mark of 50,000 flight hours.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
Four US carriers to cooperate with Air China
Vier US Arlines wollen mit Air China kooperieren
Four US carriers have signed cooperative agreements with China's largest airline. The agreements between Air China and the U.S. carriers--Northwest, Continental, America West and Alaska Airlines--are designed to improve passenger service by coordinating flights, reservations, frequent flyer programs and marketing. Terms of the deals were not disclosed. Northwest, the world's fourth-largest airline, and Air China, that nation's only flag carrier, said their agreement allows the U.S. carrier to feed passengers into Air China's domestic system. In addition, Air China will sell seats on Northwest's Beijing-to-Detroit nonstop flights. By flying between Detroit and Beijing five times a week, Northwest is the only U.S. carrier with nonstop service between North America and China. Air China currently operates round-trip service from Beijing and Shanghai to San Francisco and New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. It plans to begin nonstop service between China and Los Angeles in June.Back to the top of the page / Zurück zum Anfang der Seite
NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN
Just before the ILA show at Berlin, the Eurofighter prototypes have now reached 700 flights with 600 flight hours. German test aircraft DA 5 will perform at Schönefeld and after that will go to Norway for some days of presentation to the Royal Norwegian Air Force, one of the prime export hopes of the fighter.+++
Helicopter operator IFA (Internationale Flug-Ambulanz) has got a five-year contract extension for the "Christoph 61" EMS helicopter, which is stationed at Leipzig-Halle airport since 1990. In that time, the Bo 105CBS has been called to 7500 rescue missions.
+++
On May 14, Bombardier Aerospace announced it has selected North Bay as the location for the final assembly operations of its Canadair 415 firefighting aircraft. Bombardier Aerospace officials said North Bay was the final choice because it has good quality facilities with Air Base Property Corporation, it has availability of quality human resources with the Canadore College School of Aviation and it has local specialized suppliers. Bombardier Aerospace operations will create approximately 50 new jobs.
+++
The latest US advanced weather satellite, was launched successfully aboard a Lockheed Martin Titan II rocket from Vandenberg AFB. NOAA-K was built by Lockheed Martin Missiles & Space, headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif. NOAA-K is the latest model in four generations of TIROS satellites that have been designed and built for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) by Lockheed Martin heritage companies since 1960. Most of the spacecraft in this series have operated far longer than originally expected, earning TIROS its reputation as the workhorse of the civil space Earth-imaging inventory.
+++
Under the aegis of the NATO Air Defence Committee (NADC), a seminar will take place at Bled, Slovenia from 18 May to 21 May 1998 hosted by Slovenian Authorities. The seminar is organised in the context of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC)/ Partnership for Peace (PfP) Programme and the NADC's Cooperative Air Defence Programme. The theme of the seminar is "AEROSPACE POWER DOCTRINE". Experts from eleven NATO nations, fourteen Partner nations and associated military and civilian agencies are scheduled to participate in the seminar.
+++
The Boeing 717-200 has successfully completed ground vibration and pneumatic testing of the first airplane in development, and continues on its path toward a rollout ceremony June 10 and first flight this summer at the Douglas Products Division. Ground-vibration testing (GVT) was finished in fewer than four days -- sooner than expected. "GVT usually takes about 10 days to complete," said Mike Delaney, head of 717 Testing and Validation. "Fortunately, we've experienced a leap in software technology since we last conducted a GVT in 1992. We've benefited by getting a great return on our investment."
+++
On May 14, the French government made its primary step of merging the two French plane-makers, the Aerospatiale and the Dassault Aviation, by transferring 46 percent of state-owned capital of Dassault to Aerospatiale. The French Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Economy announced in a joint communique that the decision is aimed at encouraging a complete merger of the two plane companies, one private and one state-owned. It is also in the perspective of an overall restructuring of the European aeronautics industry as was decided by France, Germany and Britain last autumn,
it said.
+++
On May 9, a Lockheed Martin-built Titan IV B/Centaur rocket thundered into space at 09:38
EDT carrying a classified payload. The launch was from space launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Station (CCAS), Fla. This was the first of three Titan IV launches from Cape Canaveral planned for this year. Last October, a Titan IV B/Centaur launched the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Cassini spacecraft from Cape Canaveral on its mission to Saturn.
+++
On May 15, Russia has launched a Progress cargo supply ship toward the Mir space station. Russian Mission Control says the Progress M-39 blasted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early in the morning and is due to reach Mir on Sunday morning. The Progress, an unmanned freighter used for regular supply flights to the 12-year-old Mir, is carrying fuel, water, medical supplies as well as personal mail and items for the three-man Mir crew.
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Malaysia's Foreign Ministry advised Malaysians on May 15 to cancel trips to Indonesia. The national news agency Bernama quoted Mohamed Arshad Hussain, the ministry's undersecretary for Southeast Asia, as saying the situation in Indonesia "is cause for concern," and people should avoid the country.Earlier, Malaysia's Ambassador to Indonesia asked Malaysians in Jakarta to remain calm and stay clear of areas targeted by rioters. Flights from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian Airlines System (MAS) are already fully booked until the end of the month, a MAS official said. MAS runs a daily flight to the Indonesian capital as well as flights to Medan and Surabaya. Those flights are also fully booked as many Indonesian Chinese and Malaysians leave the country.
+++
SAS has reported profits of 613 million skr for the first quarter of 1998, a big improvement over the 269 milliion skr. loss of the year before. Turnover increased from 8,3 to 9,5 billion skr.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen ist nach wie vor abrufbar:
May 10, 1998
May 3, 1998
April 26, 1998
April 19, 1998
April 5, 1998
January to March 1998
January to December 1997
September to December 1996
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Last updated May 15, 1998
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