Royal Jordanian renovates cabin of first Airbus A340

Royal Jordanian (RJ), the national airline of Jordan, has completed a comprehensive cabin modernization to the first of its four Airbus A340s serving North American destinations.

Royal Jordanian is the first airline in the world to equip its aircraft with Seat Integrated Technology (SiT), the new, state-of-the-art audio video on demand (Avod) in-flight entertainment system developed by Zodiac Aerospace.

RJ president/CEO Hussein Dabbas said the renovation included aircraft cabin modifications to provide premium services to the passengers on long-haul flights, the most important being the new in-flight entertainment system that provides a personal touch screen to all passengers on board the aircraft.

He added that the 229-economy class seats were replaced with new seats and equipped with the SiT, whereas the 24-Crown class seats were modified to suit the SiT product, as well as modifications carried out to the aircraft cabin.

Dabbas pointed out that the airline will start with the cabin re-configuration for its second A340 aircraft on November 2. It is expected to conclude renovating all four Airbus A340 fleet by mid December this year. 

"Royal Jordanian is glad to cooperate with Zodiac Aerospace, one of the most renowned, leading companies in the air transport industry," said Dabbas.

He mentioned that the revamping of the aircraft on these routes comes after the airline concluded the modernization of its medium- and short-haul fleet of aircraft. It reflects RJ's keenness to invest in its fleet and to offer its long-haul route passengers distinguished amenities, he added.

Dabbas pointed out," the four Airbus A340 aircraft that are being renovated will continue their operations to New York, Chicago, Detroit and Montreal until the 11 Boeing 787 Dreamliners start being part of the fleet, by the end of 2013. RJ had decided to introduce 7 Dreamliners on capital lease and the other 4 on operational lease basis."

On this occasion, Royal Jordanian organized a two-hour inaugural flight on November 1, in the Jordanian skies. On board the inaugural flight were Minister of Transport Alaa' Batayneh, Deputy Chairman of RJ's board of directors Sharif Faris Sharaf, RJ president/CEO Hussein Dabbas, travel agents and representatives of the local press and media. The flight aimed at introducing the details of the comprehensive cabin modernization to those on board.

Director SiT Operations Eric Cornilleau expressed satisfaction with the fact that RJ is the first airline on the globe to choose the SiT.

He said that "SiT offers a wholly new “simplified architecture” yielding reduction of the overall IFE system weight, measured with gains of approximately 35 per cent, lowering ownership cost and limiting integration costs, and dramatically improving system reliability, assuring system availability for passengers at nearly 100 per cent."

According to Cornilleau, SiT also eases installation while using available and fully mature and tested information technologies. This innovative system design will optimize maintenance operations by allowing simple and rapid tasks that lower operation costs. – TradeArabia News Service

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.tradearabia.com
View Model Aircraft

French aircraft carrier set to defend Britain breaks down

As President Nicolas Sarkozy prepares to use a historic London summit to announce the use of RAF jets off the Charles de Gaulle, his naval chiefs have told him she is no longer seaworthy.

"She's meant to be heading to Afghanistan to support the war there but is instead in home port with a faulty propulsion system," said a French Navy source.

"This is a carrier which is meant to be defending not only France but also Britain over the next decade. As far as the London summit is concerned, her breaking down could not come at a worse time."

Following Britain's strategic defence review last week, it looks certain that the UK and France will each have just one operational aircraft carrier each towards the end of the decade.

But Britain will have to rely solely on the Charles de Gaulle until at least 2020 while the Queen Elizabeth, a new carrier, is being built.

This follows the announcement of the scrapping of the carrier Ark Royal and its Harrier Jump Jets.

In the meantime, the Charles de Gaulle will be reconfigured to carry British planes, including the new Joint Strike Fighter jets.

But the French carrier's captain, Hugues du Plessis d'Argentré, confirmed that the 16-year-old vessel was not as efficient as she used to be, despite a three year refit.

He said "common sense" had forced him to temporarily abandon his latest mission to Afghanistan.

His ship's nuclear reactor would have to be given time to "cool down" before vital repairs were carried out, said Captain Du Plessis d'Argentré.

He added: "We're looking at between three, four, five weeks," suggesting that it might even be Christmas before the carrier could resume its mission.

The French Navy has, like Britain's, been subjected to savage cuts, with Captain Du Plessis d'Argentré admitting that the cost of the Charles de Gaulle's repairs would be well into eight figures.

British and French TV crews were originally meant to broadcast from the carrier on Tuesday, when David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy meet at Lancaster Gate for their first bilateral summit.

But on Saturday a French Navy spokesman admitted: "Unfortunately the Charles de Gaulle is no longer available for broadcasters. This is of course embarrassing, but repairs will soon be under way."

The countries are set to embark on an unprecedented level of co-operation over the use of aircraft carriers and other military hardware.

Confirming the sharing of carriers, France's defence minister Hervé Morin said: "The idea is an exchange of capacity and an interdependence. It's a new approach."

Critics have slammed the plans, however, suggesting that Britain should not be partly placing its defence capability in the hands of the French, who do not share the same record for military efficiency.

Policy splits could also threaten British defences. When Tony Blair and Jacques Chirac last launched an Anglo-French defence initiative in St Malo in 1998 it came unstuck when France refused to back the invasion of Iraq.

Britain's defence review cut the Royal Navy's surface fleet to just 19 ships, with Mr Cameron now resigned to sharing equipment with the French.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said earlier this week: "The UK and France are facing the realities of the tough financial climate and it is in our best interests to work together to deliver the capabilities that both our nations need. Closer co-operation is in both our countries' interests."

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
View Model Aircraft

U.S. wants own aircraft carrier in the Thames Estuary during Olympics

The White House has offered to send a U.S. aircraft carrier to be stationed off the British coast and boost security during the London Olympics, Ministry of Defence sources claimed last night.

The suggestion is said to have been rejected by No10 because it would make the UK look ‘weak’. And last night Downing Street was silent on the claim.

But a well-placed source, with knowledge of international discussions about security for the 2012 Games, said the MoD had been offered a U.S. carrier, based in the Thames Estuary, to help defend the skies over London and eavesdrop on any terrorist ‘chatter’.

It is believed the Americans offered a 40,000-ton Wasp class amphibious assault ship, which carries up to 40 Sea Knight helicopters for the ship-to-shore ferrying of marines and equipment, as well as up to 20 Harrier II attack aircraft. It boasts a formidable battery of missiles capable of shooting down airliners in the event of an attempt to copy the 9/11 atrocities.

The source said the ‘main motivation’ for the offer was felt to have been American self-interest.

If the Olympics were the object of a terrorist attack U.S. special forces could launch operations from the ship to airlift American citizens to safety.

In the past the Olympics have been a target for terrorists. In 1972 Israeli athletes were massacred at the Munich Games.

‘This idea was raised by the Americans over the summer,’ said the source. ‘The MoD put it up the chain and word came straight back from No10 - “No thanks, we don’t need the help”.’

The claim comes at a sensitive time for Britain’s Armed Forces. Cuts announced by David Cameron in the Defence Review this month will lead to the axing of our Harrier jump jets and the decommissioning of the Ark Royal carrier.

That means that no British planes will be available to fly from our sole aircraft carrier, Illustrious, in 2012.

Discussions about security at the London Games are already well-advanced, involving extensive liaison between Scotland Yard, the military and the major intelligence services - MI6, the CIA and Mossad.

Last night an MoD spokesman said that plans were being drawn up for a naval vessel to offer ‘aerial defence’ in the Thames Estuary during the Games, but it was likely to be a British ship.

He said: ‘We haven’t made final decisions yet. There are a lot of options available, including Special Forces. But we are certainly capable of protecting ourselves. The Royal Navy can provide a Type 45 destroyer for aerial defence.’

Under current plans, one of the Navy’s three Type 45 destroyers - likely to be HMS Dauntless, which will come into service next year - would be moored in the estuary. It will be armed with the Principal Anti-Air Missile System, said to be capable of tracking and destroying a moving target the size of a cricket ball at a distance of 19 miles.

The ship could provide a secure, independent radio network linked to a military satellite if civilian radio communications collapsed during a terrorist incident.

The U.S. Navy sent a frigate to patrol the Greek coast during the 2004 Athens Olympics. But Greece had admitted it needed help with security. It is ranked 27th in the list of world economies - Britain is sixth.

A Pentagon source said last night that it was ‘very possible that there will be a U.S. naval presence’ at the London Games, although he claimed it would merely ‘fly the flag’.

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
View Model Aircraft

Airline parcel bomb drama

WASHINGTON: US authorities are trying to ''understand who is behind'' two packages from Yemen that contained explosives and ''the scope of the threat that we might face'', White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan says.

The packages were destined for synagogues in Chicago and were a ''credible terrorist threat'', President Barack Obama said.

The discovery of the suspicious packages on cargo planes in transit for the US - one in Dubai and the other at East Midlands Airport, England - sparked an international security alert.

Advertisement: Story continues below <iframe id="dcAd-1-4" src="http://ad-apac.doubleclick.net/adi/onl.smh.news/world;ctype=article;cat=world;pos=3;sz=300x250;tile=4;ord=3.0717961E7?" width='300' height='250' scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0"> </iframe>

The White House said Saudi Arabian officials had tipped it off about the threat and said Washington was ''grateful … for their assistance in developing information that helped underscore the imminence of the threat emanating from Yemen''.

Informed late on Thursday, Mr Obama immediately ordered cargo planes at Philadelphia and Newark international airports to be towed to isolation and checked because they were thought to contain further packages from Yemen.

US and Canadian fighter jets were scrambled to accompany an Emirates plane into New York but Emirati authorities later said it was not carrying cargo from Yemen.

Mr Obama told a news conference at the White House: ''We will continue to pursue additional protective measures as long as it takes to ensure the safety and security of our citizens.''

Officials reassured the public that the threat level to the US was unchanged, although the Department of Homeland Security said it had boosted security measures.

Mr Obama made it clear he suspected al-Qaeda's Yemeni-based affiliate of being behind the plot, which could have severe ramifications for the global cargo industry.

''Although we are still pursuing all of the facts, we do know that the packages originated in Yemen. We know that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the terrorist group based in Yemen, continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens and our friends and allies.''

Yemeni officials said their government had begun an investigation and were working closely on the incident with international partners, including the US.

''It does appear there were explosive materials in both of the packages,'' Mr Brennan said.

''They were in a form that was designed to try to carry out some type of an attack. The initial analysis [is] that the materials that were found and the device that was uncovered was intended to do harm.''

US media reported that the packages, which held a wire-rigged ink toner cartridge and suspicious powder, might have contained the explosive PETN, the substance allegedly used on Christmas Day last year by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab on a Detroit-bound flight and by the attempted shoe-bomber Richard Reid in 2001.

British authorities were looking at whether the package contained a ''viable'' bomb, Home Secretary Theresa May said.

''At this stage I can say that the device did contain explosive material but it is not yet clear that it was a viable explosive device,'' she said.

Mr Brennan said all packages originating from Yemen would now be ''carefully screened''.

In the hours after the the packages were found the US authorities warned Jewish leaders in Chicago of a threat against synagogues in the city.

The cargo scare offered a new twist, as Western authorities have usually focused on dangers posed to passenger airliners since the attacks of September 11, 2001, when al-Qaeda hijacked planes and struck targets in New York and Washington.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, faces a growing threat from the local branch of his global terrorist network.

Over the past decade it has become a haven for violent extremists. It is the headquarters of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the hiding place for radical US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who has been linked to terrorism plots in the US.

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.smh.com.au
View Model Aircraft

Forty planes and six armoured cars: Obama visit to India the 'biggest ever by a US President'

Barack Obama's trip to India next month will be the biggest by any US President - with a staggering 40 aircraft and six armoured cars.

Details of the elaborate arrangements for the tree-day presidential visit on November 6 were leaked to Indian newspaper earlier this week.

Forty aircraft - including the Air Force One military plane - and six heavily armoured cars will follow the president around the country.

The huge security operation comes days after a suspected bomb was found on a cargo plane at East Midlands Airport.

The entourage will be the biggest ever in terms of logistics and manpower for any US president.

The president himself will be ferried around in a black Cadillac - dubbed 'Barack Mobile' - which has its own built in communications centre - to enable Obama to be in touch with the White House, US vice president and the US strategic command

The car also has the US nuke launch codes and the nuclear switch for the president. It can also withstand a chemical or germ warfare or even a bomb attack.

Obama will be accompanied on the trip by US first lady Michelle Obama and their daughters Malia and Sasha, according to Indian newspaper Headlines Today.

Earlier, Obama's daughters Sasha and Malia were not to be part of the trip. But Michelle's opinion prevailed and now the girls will accompany the first American couple to India, according to the paper.

It is hoped that the trip will  build important economic links between the US and India. The county has become one of the fasted growing economies and some experts predict that it could rival China in the coming years.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister David Cameron took a group of business leaders on a UK trip to India.

US officials also hope that Obama's trip will breath new life into his presidency after a drop in support ahead of the mid-term elections.

Political commentators claim that many poorer white American's feel alienated by Obama's failure to deliver promises two years after his rip-roaring election win.

But the extent of the trip to India - which could run up a bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds - is unlikely to win over hard-up swing voters in the US.

The president has booked the entire Taj Mahal Hotel for two days of his visit and the property will be a no-go area for non-hotel staff while he is staying.

A heavy security cordon will be in place around the hotel and  there will be strict restrictions on vessels near the plush building.

Obama will visit the historic Taj Mahal with wife Michelle and their two children.

The secret service will set up two command posts in Delhi and Mumbai which will act as the communication nerve centres. These centres will keep an eye on each movement by the president with real time satellite monitoring.

Three Marine One choppers will be reassembled in India to ferry Obama and his family.

Thirty sniffer dogs will also be put on service to boost the security arrangements during Obama's visit.

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
View Model Aircraft

Vietnam Airlines signs deal for eight Boeing Dreamliners

HANOI: Vietnam Airlines on Saturday signed a deal to buy eight Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners in a ceremony witnessed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The national flag carrier will take delivery of the first aircraft in 2015, Vietnam Airlines president and chief executive Pham Ngoc Minh was quoted by Dow Jones Newswires as saying.

He said the airline was also in talks to buy a further eight of the aircraft.

"Today marks the continuation of a 15-year relationship between Boeing and Vietnam and represents the introduction of the next generation of flight," the US aircraft maker said in a statement on the signing.

"With this agreement, Vietnam Airlines shows its growing leadership in Southeast Asia by making the 787 Dreamliner the backbone of their twin aisle fleet."

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com
View Model Aircraft

Delta Air Lines keeps 787 aircraft, defers deliveries into next decade

Delta Air Lines Inc., the world’s second-largest carrier, reaffirmed its order for 18 Boeing Co. 787-8 jets, while deferring deliveries into the next decade.

Delta and Boeing reached the agreement to defer the planes until 2020-2022 in the quarter that just ended, the airline said today in a regulatory filing.

Northwest Airlines Corp., which Delta bought in 2008, was to take deliveries of the 787 Dreamliner planes between 2008 and 2010, and Delta has repeatedly said it was in ongoing discussions with Boeing about the matter, leading some analysts to speculate that it might cancel the order.

“I’m kind of surprised” Delta kept the order, said Richard Aboulafia, a fleet analyst at consulting firm Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia. “Then again, how meaningful is a 10-year deferral? A lot can change in 10 years. Maybe Delta did this for contractual reasons. Maybe they didn’t have walk-away rights. Maybe they’re still examining the issue and had to say something by a certain time.”

Boeing has delayed the plastic-composite Dreamliner’s entry into commercial service six times, until 2011’s first quarter, after planning a May 2008 debut. The first U.S. customer for the 787 is scheduled to be United Continental Holdings Inc., which plans to begin flying its first plane in November 2011. AMR Corp.’s American Airlines expects deliveries of the 787-9 version in 2014.

Delta is pushing out the delivery schedule of the wide-body jets because it already has 180 planes capable of ocean-crossing flights, with an average age of about 11 years. Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson said as recently as April that the company is “in good shape in terms of trans-ocean airplanes right now.”

Trebor Banstetter, a Delta spokesman, declined to comment on the Atlanta-based company’s order beyond the regulatory filing.

“We are pleased that Delta Air Lines has reaffirmed its order for 18 firm 787 Dreamliners,” said Jim Proulx, a Seattle- based spokesman for Boeing. He declined to comment on delivery schedules or other terms of the Delta discussions.

-------------------------------
Read more Aviation News  http://www.mb.com.ph/
View Model Aircraft