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Aviation History
1971
1971 - 2375.PDF
M-»!"j.i:.f-',i*.iJ.'*11l*^i\|*# : . .•••••••; lift engines (in model form) to radar and airport equipment. Canada, Ger many and Holland were also repre sented. The British industry took over a complete hangar for its exhibition, and the show was visited by Mr Frederick Corfield, Minister for Aero space. US firms, many of them repre sented by distributors, elected to exhibit in the general exhibition areas. Seen in public for the first time was the Japan National Aerospace Labora tory's Vtol flying test rig. A full report from Nagoya will appear in Flight next week. Japan: Jet Development Cost A total of Y3,323 million (£4 05 mil lion) has been asked for initial re search and development on the new medium-range airliner proposed as a joint US (Boeing)/Japanese venture. The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) has accepted the recommendation of its Aircraft Industry Council for Japanese co-operation with Boeing (see Flight last week, page 717). Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is planned as the prime Japanese contractor. Of total funds sought for inclusion in the next fiscal year's Government budget, Y2,443 million (£2-98 mil lion) would be spent on development, design and technical research, Y747 million (£910,000) on experimentation and Y133 million (£162,000) on market research. Preliminary studies would be under taken by the Nihon Aeroplane Manu facturing Co (Namco), which currently produces the YS-11 turboprop in a co-operative five-company production arrangement. All development costs, however, would be defrayed by the Government. Such costs, with esti mates changing daily, are now put at Y200,000 million (£244 million) to Y300,000 million (£366 million) in the reseai eh and development stages, Boeing is expected to share in the costs. FaircbJJ-,1 io Acquire Swearingen Faircuid Industries is to form a subsidiary to acquire the assets of Swearingen Aircraft and will provide Nagoya 2 The Harrier created a profound impression among spectators at the Nagoya show (see news story) up to $3 million working capital. De pending on the volume of aircraft sales achieved by the new company, a sum between $13-8 million and $16-5 million will be paid to Swearingen Air craft over a ten-year period. The major creditors of Swearingen have agreed to the terms of the acquisition and repayment will be im plemented by proceedings to be filed under the Federal Bankruptcy Act. Production of the Merlin and Metro is planned to continue at the San Antonio plant but AiResearch Aviation will sell only the Merlin, sales of the Metro being undertaken by the new company. It is apparent that the design work already completed on the deltajwing SA-28T executive jet has influenced the Fairchild decision, but the com pany was already heavily committed to the production of wings and nacel les for the Merlin and Metro. The MRCA Radar Award One effect of awarding the MRCA radar contract to the American firm of Texas Instruments (announced in the House of Commons on October 21) will undoubtedly be a substantial re duction in the cost of the flight- development programme. System com mands and data associated with vir tually every other major item of nav/ attack equipment on the aeroplane are processed by the attack radar. Be cause of this, and the authority vested in the equipment (particularly during the terrain-following mode), safety aspects are of paramount importance, and selection of equipment already in use in America's F-lll should sub stantially reduce the amount of flight testing needed for statistical assess ment. Selection of this contractor in preference to Ferranti is understood to have been almost entirely influenced by financial considerations—the American equipment costs about half as much as that of the European sub mission. Even so, the cost of the SENSOR The British Department of Trade and Industry is now confirming that there is in fact a departmental com mittee under Sir Robert Marshall inquiring into the future of the British aerospace industry, and that it has been under way since May. The department has now agreed to invite industry comment, though it is now pointed out that there have been prolonged informal discus sions between the department and leading industry personalities. The department is also acknowledging the existence of a special Concorde review being prepared for the Cabi net by a team under Lord Roths child. Ministers are saying only that they have been unaware of adverse comments. An MRCA engine monitoring group is now operational in the British Ministry of Defence in London. Its purpose is to supervise the techni cal administration of the Turbo Union RB.199 engine without con flicting with Namma, the tri-govern- rnent MRCA agency quartered in the Panavia offices in Munich. Ger man and Italian experts based in Whitehall are included in the new group. The British Government is deter mined that under no circumstances will BOAC be given an advance subsidy for operating the Concorde. If an excess operating cost is con vincingly estimated by the airline, ex post facto discussions will be considered. The attitude in White hall is that both BOAC and BEA owe the British taxpayer a lot of money for the subsidies given for the VC10 and Trident. BEA has an option on three Tri- slanders to replace Herons on Scot tish Highlands and Islands ser vices. Withdrawal of transatlantic ser vices, and possibly also of Singa pore-London services, is being considered by Qantas as a possible move in present poor economic circumstances. Some opinion in the airline would like to see it con centrate on Pacific operations. A more comprehensive avionics in stallation is planned for the RAF's Jet Provost 5, to enhance its utility particularly in conjunction with the Hawker Siddeley 1182. attack radar will represent between one quarter and one third of that of the entire avionics system. This is not the end of the road for Ferranti's radar development, however, since the future RAF intercepter ver sion will need an air-to-air radar. It does mean, however, that Britain's stake in attack radars, begun around a decade ago with the TSR.2 require ment, has now come to an end, since there is no other aircraft planned for Europe which would use a system of this nature.
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