Budget airline Ryanair caused an outcry five years ago when it cheekily suggested its airplanes might forgo seats to cut costs, obliging weary passengers to stand instead. In the wake of the troubles at Zodiac Aerospace, a French supplier of aircraft seats, airlines and aircraft manufacturers must be starting to regret the idea didn’t catch on. Zodiac shares plunged 25 percent on Thu...
Bell have provided details on the helicopters they will be showing at Heli-Expo 2016, which runs next week in Louisville, Kentucky. As usual, the major OEMs will each take huge amounts of floor space, and are spaced out to encourage Expo visitors to walk throughout the massive halls. Bell is in the North Wing and has more space than Airbus and Finmeccanica, while Sikorsky has the smallest area...
British Airways owner IAG SA said it’s making progress in talks to add more wide-body jets at the U.K. carrier in order to tap surging demand after profit across the group jumped 68 percent in 2015. Chief Executive Officer Willie Walsh said Friday that he’s in detailed discussions with potential suppliers of used Boeing Co. 777-300ER aircraft and is continuing to look at leasin...
France’s DGA defence procurement agency predicts that the nation’s military exports will have nearly doubled in 2015, thanks in no small part to its first international orders for the Dassault Rafale. Although exact figures for export sales will not be confirmed until May, the DGA estimates that some €16 billion ($17.8 billion) will have been made in 2015, which would almost do...
Marenco Swisshelicopter’s second flight-test SKYe SH09 prototype, dubbed P2, made its maiden flight today from the company’s headquarters at Mollis Airport in Switzerland. The helicopter took off at 5:24 p.m. local time with chief test pilot Richard Trueman at the controls and flight-test engineer Peter Wittwer analyzing real-time data. “This first fli...
Federal investigators say pilot error was the "probable cause" of an aborted takeoff that collapsed a jet's nose gear in Philadelphia. The National Transportation Safety Board says US Airways Flight 1702's pilot and co-pilot chose to take off rather than ensure its computer was properly configured. The NTSB's final report was released Thursday. It says the first officer...
A rat found scuttling around the cabin forced a Chinese airliner to return to an airport shortly after takeoff on Friday morning. The rodent was found shortly after the Loong Air flight left the eastern city of Hangzhou for the southwestern resort city of Xishuangbanna, the airline said on its official microblog. It wasn't clear how the rat gained access to the plane, although the offici...
Boeing Co said on Friday that it is considering layoffs of airplane engineers, a plan that it said may cause it to reorganize or consolidate its engineering teams, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Boeing said in a memo to employees that the company is deciding whether to make voluntary layoffs available to those workers, according to the document. The company also said it does...
Meet the newest plane in the United States Air Force, the B-21 Long Range Strike Bomber. It's so new that it exists only as an artist's rendering; a prototype has yet to be built. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James unveiled the highly anticipated design today at the Air Force Association’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida. The plane is designated right now as the &q...
A British Airways jet that was damaged by fire during an aborted takeoff in September flew from Las Vegas to a California airport on Friday after six months of repairs including an engine replacement and fuselage patch. The Boeing 777 took a circuitous route over the Mojave Desert to Victorville, where it will be repainted before being flown back to the United Kingdom, airline spokeswoman...
She was asked to move seats. An elderly woman is suing the Israeli airline El Al for gender discrimination. Renee Rabinowitz was asked to give up her seat on an El Al flight home to Israel at the request of an ultra-Orthodox man, who did not want to sit next to her. She’s being represented by the Israel Religious Action Center, a liberal Israeli group that has previously fought against...
Once N7001U takes off from Paine Field in Everett, Washington next Tuesday, the crew won't even retract its landing gear. Makes sense. It'll only be airborne for just over 10 minutes. The first 727 ever built rolled off the line in 1962 and hasn't flown in 25 years. But it's about to make a trip to Boeing Field (King County Airport), where it will become a permanent exhibi...
