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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0135.PDF
FLIGHT Internationo/, 13 ]ahuary 1969 such difficulties—or mistakes—as may occur the occasion for exaggerated and general attacks which have the effect of holding up to public ridicule and contempt engineers and scientists, mana gers, technicians and workers who are coping with problems that are far more complex and difficult than those which confront most of the rest of us, what ever our work may be." XB-70 Programme Ends The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration last week an nounced the termination of the joint NASA/DoD XB-70 flight research pro gramme. The XB-70 was built by North Ameri can Rockwell Corp for the USAF as a high-speed borrtber prototype. Only two were produced and it was decided to use them for research. The second one was destroyed in a mid-air collision on June 8, 1966. The first XB-70 flight was made on September 1, 1964, and during the four- year programme, for which NASA assumed management responsibility in March 1967, a top speed of Mach 3 and a peak altitude of 74,000ft. have been attained. On its last flight, due to take place this week from Edwards AFB to Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, a distance of 2,000 miles, NASA plans to gather research data on the aircraft's handling qualities and its structural response to tunbulence. The XB-70 is then being handed over to the USAF museum. Superior fighter brand-new military-aircraft designs are becoming increasingly rare; the appearance of this one is therefore all the more exciting. This artist's impression of the USN's VFX air-superiority fighter, now designated F-I4A, shows the design submitted by the winning contractor, Grumman. The configuration is unusual, with twin fuselage-mounted fins and canard foreplanes. The latter may be used to augment directional stability by shifting the wing leading-edge vortex pattern out from the wing root; adoption of two fins further improves stability. Programme cost will be about £.4,800 million Skyvan for Loganair Loganair, the Glasgow-based operator, has ordered a Short Skyvan for delivery by the end of March, and will thus become the second British operator of the type (South West Aviation was the first). World Light-aircraft Race A 40-day race round the world for single- and twin-engined light aircraft, flying west to east, is (planned to start from Paris on August 3. Organisation and regulations are to be in accordance with FAI rules, and the national aero SENSOR First flight of the Concorde is now sei for February 15. plus or minus five days. France and Germany are planning lo go ahead with the A-300B before the end of February. Sud and Deutsche Airbus want Hawker Siddeley as a subcontractor, and also Fokker and Fiat. The Dutch and Italian Govern ments may put up 10 per cent each. Fiat building the JT9D-15 pods. The loss of A-300B business to Rolls-Royce is estimated at £0.9 million per aircraft, with £0.3 million lost to British equip ment manufacturers, who may now he pushed out on some big items, and £2 million to Hawker Siddeley. One possibility for retaining British Government participation in the A-300B now being considered by Bonn is a German loan to assist the British share in the partnership. BAC's position on the Three-Eleven j A-300B conflict is that, airlines, and US airlines in particular, are not inclined to buy aircraft from a political con sortium. They believe that because of BAC's big-league Viscount and One- Eleven record, the airbus must be BAC-led for success in world markets. A total of 200 design staff at Hatfield have been working on the A-300. about 30 of them commuting regularly be tween Hatfield and Toulouse. It is feared that the collapse of the pro gramme would have a serious effect on morale, with almost certain tosses of design staff to France. Germany and the USA. A-300B production start-up or learning cost is estimated to be £60 million over and above R&D and prototype launching cost of £130 million. The cost "premium" due to initial collab oration learning is reckoned to be 25 per cent for R&D and ten per cent for production, the latter due mostly to the higher Continental wage' rates. One of BEA's main worries about the A-300B is Sud's unfamiliarity with their requirements. This has been made clear to Sud, who are assigning an engineer to Hatfield with special re sponsibility for liaison with BE A. An announcement that the USAF will take up its option on 300 more let- streams in the 1969-70 fiscal year is expected at the end of March. The US Army is also interested in the air craft, and joint procurement for the two Services, will ease the spares problem. One of Sud's reservations about the Three-Eleven design is the French com pany's experience with rear engines on the Caravelle and the difficulty of stretching the design compared with the underwing layout. One of a number of projected new British airlines is Midland Air Cargo, which plans to start freight-charter operations with a Bristol Freighter based on Coventry in the spring. Launching the project is Lord Tref- garne. American Airlines are planning to replace their 40 One-Elevens from next year. The airline is more than satisfied with the technical performance of the type, but now needs a bigger capacity aircraft. RAF purchase of five Galaxies is a very real possibility, and a C-5A will be demonstrated in Britain after the Paris show. This quantity is considered too small to justify fitting Rolls-Royce RB.211s. which would have an initial thrust rating identical with that of the GE TF39. The Russians will send the Tu-144 to Paris Salon in June. The show authori ties have been notified that this is their firm intention.
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