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A Virgin Atlantic 787 has collided with a British Airways Airbus A350 while pushing back from the terminal building at Heathrow airport causing minor damage to both aircraft. The Virgin jet was being guided by a tug when its winglets struck the tail of the neighbouring BA jet. Emergency services raced to the scene following the low-speed impact. A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: 'We are aware that the wingtip of one of our empty aircraft came into contact with another aircraft whilst being towed from the stand at London Heathrow Terminal 3. 'The safety of our customers and crew is...

About a year ago, a Boeing 747 operated by Delta Air Lines DAL, took off from Atlanta for a three-hour flight to Pinal Airpark, a boneyard for unwanted aircraft in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert. The once celebrated giant of the sky, which had transformed international travel with its size and range, had flown its last flight for a U.S. airline. Delta has replaced its fleet of jumbo jets with Airbus A350s, one of a new breed of smaller, ultraefficient long-range airliners. Nearly every other airline in the world is doing a version of the same thing, replacing huge jets with smaller...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates purchased 40 American-made Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners on Sunday at the start of the biennial Dubai Air Show, a $15.1 billion deal certain to please U.S. President Donald Trump who has touted the plane's sales as a job creator in America. The deal appeared to surprise Boeing's archrival Airbus, whose staff had attended a long-delayed news conference and left the room just moments before the announcement. Airbus has pinned hopes of continuing production of its double-decker jumbo jet on Emirates, the world's largest operator of the aircraft which took delivery of its...

Airbus settling on wider fuselage, composite wing as it nears A350 revamp decision Tuesday May 9, 2006Stung by vocal criticism of its A350 offering from ILFC, Emirates and Singapore Airlines, Airbus is close to announcing a radical revamp of the aircraft, according to insiders in Toulouse.CEO Gustav Humbert told reporters two weeks ago that the airframer would make some sort of decision by summer (ATWOnline, April 26).Airbus is striving to match Boeing's 787 and 777 while addressing Emirates' disappointment in the A340-600IGW's performance (ATWOnline, March 13). Key to the new variant is a wider Al-Li fuselage, up to 14 in....

PARIS (Reuters) - The president of European planemaker Airbus said on Saturday he hoped to win around 50 orders for the new wide-body jet A350 by next June. The four-billion-euro A350 -- a spin-off of the earlier A330 -- is Airbus's response to Boeing's first all-new plane of the 21st century, the efficient 7E7 which is due in the air in 2008. "I hope to get in some 50 orders for the A350 from now till the Salon du Bourget (plane fair), in June 2005," Noel Forgeard told Le Monde daily in an interview. Airbus, 80 percent owned by European...