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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1272.PDF
;HT International, 30 April 1964 709 negotiations and with the wind-tunnel tests, at high Reynolds Number, planned for this summer, construction of a prototype may begin in September for a first flight in 1967. VFW have not had enough time to prepare a submission for the FAA's local-service airliner design competition, which is about to close; but it is under- stood the close liason which Weser have with United Aircraft over the Sikorsky WF-S-64A helicopter crane may work the other way to get the 614 into the United States. Following the profusion of projects announced by the German industry in the last year or so, there are signs of a move towards some rationalization of the country's effort to get established in the market. Two designs that seem doomed by this trend are the 22- seater butterfly-tail Heinkel 211 with twin CF700 turbofans, and the 54-seater Messerschmitt MeP160 now proposed with two civil versions of the 6,4501b-thrust Rolls-Royce/MAN RB.l 53. Although the latter project is being shown at Hanover it falls in a narrow gap, in terms of payload, between the Mystere 30 and the Fokker F.28— i two firm projects with German industry participation. It was two years ago, at the 1962 Hanover Show, that first details of the Fokker F.28 were announced. Last February the Netherlands Government decided to underwrite £10.3m of the estimated £12m needed to develop the design into a production aircraft; at the same time Fokker were in an advanced stage of negotiating a design and building, cost and profit sharing, agree- ment (like that which Douglas have arranged for the DC-9) with other continental airframe manufacturers; so a decision was made to go ahead and build. Although the final agreements have not yet been signed, work on the design is now building up towards a first flight in mid-1966. Partners with Fokker in the venture are, with their percentage participation: the German industry group of Hamburger and VFW, 23 per cent—rear fuselage, engine mounting, fin and tailplane; Sud Aviation, 14 per cent—the wing; and Fiat, 7 per cent—ailerons, flaps, and undercarriage doors. Although the F.28 design varied from month to month in the 18 months during which the manufacturers were trying to raise financial support, the basic specification has now been firm for over six months. In spite of the fact that the F.28 started life as a 40-seat Friendship replacement, the kind of powerplant efficiency needed was available only from engines too large for so small an aircraft. Consequently the F.28 was expanded to 60-seat size, bringing it into close competition with the 75-seat BAC One-Eleven and the DC-9. But prospects now look good for the F.28 at £735,000 for an equipped, ready-to-go aircraft. Fokker seem to have managed the difficult task of keeping price in proportion to size, so that, while the seat-mile costs are no higher than those of the larger aircraft, there is the obvious advantage of slightly lower aircraft-per-mile cost. For many years yet the F.28 is likely to share its production line with the Friendship. There is still no sign of any slackening of interest in the twin-Dart-powered 48-seaters from Fokker, Hawker Siddeley and Handley Page. Fokker expect that repeat orders could well take their Friendship sales to over 400; a total of 274 have been ordered by 84 customers, and very few of these aircraft have yet appeared on the secondhand market. Making its first public and international debut is the Short Turbo-Skvvan. The "Van" was brought from Belfast to Hanover by test pilots Don Wright and Jack Sherburn, whose spirited demonstrations early in the proceedings even outdid the gyrating box suspended below the enormous WF-S-64 helicopter. Interest in the Skyvan is now considerable, with development moving intot( >P gear. Displayed on Short's stand in the exhibition hall is a fuselage mock-up showing the modified cockpit arrangement of production aircraft. The much-talked-of rivals of the Skyvan are not greatly in evidence at Hanover. The comparable Bolkow-SIAT BS-210 and the slightly larger Messerschmitt MeP141 projects that were announced at Paris seem to be in abeyance while interest is concentrated on other Projects. In the smallest class of light utility ti<msport aircraft Dornier's project department is looking at a six/eight-seat develop- ment of the Do28 known as the Do28D, but no decision has been jnade to build a prototype. Using a traditional highly slotted and napped Dornier wing, the 28D has an entirely new fuselage, with a onger cabin, a tricycle undercarriage and wing-mounted engines. he well-known light twin piston-engined Do28A and B seriestove now been developed into the B-l and B-2, the latter with turbo- "Perchargers. Main improvements are to the controls and instru- ment layout. Addition of a stick-mounted flap-operating switch "1€ans tnat naps can now be raised simultaneously with the appli-a »on of full power for an overshoot in the landing configuration. Above, this Mystere 30 model appears on SIAT's stand, Dassault's German partner in the programme. Relow, the Messerschmitt Me308 jet Taifun project is now powered with Daimler Benz turbofans Executive Jets With the first flight of the Hamburger Flug- zeugbau HFB 320 Hansa on April 21 (happily just three days before the show started) competition became that little bit more intense between the eight or ?o manufacturers now doing battle for the sales honours in this world market, variously put at around 500 aircraft between now and 1970. Although it had not appeared at the show in the first three days, the Hansa was expected to n-ake an appearance by the end of the week. The first flight, lasting 73min, was from Hamburg, with the landing at Bremen; from photographs the Hansa looks smooth and efficient. The tail parachute fitted for stalling trials was used on the first landing. An extremely t'ght flight-test schedule calls for full German and FAA type certification by the end of this year, »o deliveries of production aircraft may begin in March 1965. So far nine 320s have been sold—three *.o the German and northern European distributor Travellair, ore to South Africa and five to the United States agents. Fully furnished, but without electronics, the HFB 320 costs £230,000 ex-Germany, a fairly high price which may therefore remain steady. The distinctive swept-forward wing of the Hansa has the principal advantage of leaving the cabin structure completely uninterrupted. Aerodynamically the company has drawn on experience of this layout dating back to the World War Two Junkers Ju287. A. small retractable leading-edge slat is fitted at the inboard end to smooth the flow over the wing in front of the engine intak es. No low-speed difficulties are expected: the company claim that the layout has good characteristics in this respect. Another important executive jet that was expected to arrive at Hanover later in the week was the Hawker Siddeley 125. The fifth aircraft—the first truly representative production model- recently started flying and the type C of A is expected to be awarded The HFB 320 Hansn eight-seat executive jet seen at a characteristic angle during its first flight on April 21
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