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Aviation History
1972
1972 - 3226.PDF
FLIGHT International, 7 December 1972 799 decisions to be taken on the conflicting issues of European space co-operation. A Department of Trade and In dustry spokesman said early this week that intensive top-level discussions were being held in an attempt to re solve the issues before the meeting, but that it was still too early to judge the progress. It is understood that every effort is being made to reach a settlement on this occasion, the meeting already having suffered two postponements. UK aerospace minister Mr Michael Heseltine has been pressing for cen tralisation of all space activities in Europe. Germany's priority is for post-Apollo work, while France is still stoutly defending European launch-vehicle development as the dominant requirement. Maplin Bill published The British Government last week published proposed legislation which will authorise work on land reclama tion for London's third airport at Maplin and for associated projects. The Maplin Development Bill proposes the establishment of the Maplin Development Authority, which will reclaim land and eventually allocate it to the British Airports Authority, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Port of London Authority, and dispose of the remainder commercially. The authorised debt of the authority is put at £200 million, which could be extended to £250 million by a Govern ment order. The Bill contains pro visions for planning permission for the airport and seaport works. Capacity control "vital" The need for capacity control in air transport is vital to the survival of the industry, in the view of Mr Ross Stainton, BOAC chief executive. He told a recent Institute of Transport meeting in Glasgow that his airline hoped that new efforts to bring in low fares would stimulate traffic. The lower fares, he said, had to be offset by higher load factors. Criticism of the Civil Aviation Authority, which does not propose direct capacity con trol of the new advance charters, was implicit in Mr Stainton's comment that higher load factors would only be achieved "by the regulation of capacity. Only the Government can do this. We cannot." The same point was made recently in BOAC News by the airline's com mercial director, Mr Richard Hilary. Referring to part-charters, and to the difficulty which BOAC was having in persuading some lata members to accept the scheme, he said: "Our enthusiasm for the scheme is very far from blind, however, and we have urged on our own Government the need for definite control of capacity and price in the early stages of operat ing advance-booking charters, while the effect on the market is assessed." BOAC is trying to persuade the lata membership, said Mr Hilary, "to face up now to ten-abreast seating [on 747s] as an established fact by 1974-75." The airline's engineers, he said, were now working on plans for the higher-density seating. On cargo, Mr Hilary said that with the lack of lata agreement on much- needed rates for large shipments and contracts the situation was now be coming critical. He said that if no solution was found at the next cargo traffic conference in May, it was difficult to see how an agreement could be reached. "Perhaps we would do better without one," he added. Collaboration: a British view Speaking last weekend at a con ference organised by the Conservative Bow Group and the Business Graduates Association, Mr Allen Greenwood, deputy managing director of BAC, said: "We need in this country to undertake as many indigenous pro jects as possible so that we can retain a national capability and, at the same time, remain in the vanguard of tech nology, so that as we enter into inter national partnerships we still have much to offer our partners. But we will increasingly be involved in inter national collaborative programmes, and no doubt in the future we will be entering an era when the European multi-national company is the accepted industrial unit." fie told the conference, which was entitled "Funding the Future," that Europe should aim to increase its share of the available world market for aerospace products from the cur rent level of about 25 per cent to 33 per cent. Mr Greenwood believed that in the military field the use of com mon weapons had obvious advantages, and it was "ludicrous that in the Nato forces there is not yet a common bullet or common rifle, let alone a common aircraft." The recently formed Eurogroup of Defence Ministers was now addressing itself to this problem. He believes that the future pattern of the European aerospace industry should include at least two multi national aircraft and missile groups, two engine groups and a helicopter group, and that divisive nationalistic monopolies should be avoided. Collaboration: the Aicma view The president of the Association In ternational des Constructeurs de Materiel Aerospatial (Aicma), Sr Engique Maso, gave details when speaking in Geneva recently of the efforts being made by European aero space manufacturers to integrate the industry. During November a report written by Aeritalia, Aerospatiale, Dassault-Breguet, Dornier, MBB and Fokker-VFW was submitted to the Common Market Executive Com mittee. It recommended that financial measures should be taken by the Council of Ministers to aid the com petitive position of European products. The report also suggested that mer gers should be encouraged and anti trust laws relaxed; a common market for aerospace products protected by SENSOR The future of the VFW 614 feeder-liner will be settled in Bonn next Wednesday, December 13, when the West German Government is due to inform VFW-Fokker whether or not finance will be provided for series production. Flight-testing re sumed in August following the earlier loss of the first prototype. There are as many in the French Government in favour of the naval Jaguar M as those who prefer the Douglas Skyhawk. The British Government will insist that if the French Navy Jaguar order (be lieved to be for 40 plus 10 two-seaters) is not placed the total of 200 agreed in the Anglo-French Memorandum of Understanding must be made good and that the British research and development financial contribution to the M ver sion must also be reimbursed in the event of an A-4 order. Rolls-Royce is discussing with the Chinese the possibility of Spey maintenance and overhaul facilities and a possible longer-term agree ment for licence manufacture of the Spey and other civil aero and industrial engines. Rolls-Royce Motors intends to de velop the aviation piston engine side of its turnover above the present 6 per cent. As virtually the only Euro pean producer of light-aviation pis ton engines, R-R Motors is pushing hard to increase sales and overhauls above the current rates (500 and 300 a year respectively). The com pany has great hopes for the Con tinental IO-360, which it is adding to its range uprated to 230 h.p. Many parts which the company manufactures for the O-240 may be type-tested for use as spares for the 360. Biggest current demand for Rolls-Royce piston engines is from Reims, Cessna Brussels, Aerospatiale and Robin, mostly for O-200 and O-240, with the Australian market looking good- Some Rolls-Royce officials consider that the Delta order for six more TriStars is even more encouraging than the All Nippon order. Delta, one of America's most efficient and profitable airlines, is selling its DC-lOs to United and placing a re peat contract for the TriStar. Westland expects production go-ahead on the WG.13 Lynx from the British and French Governments by the end of the year. Both aircraft and engine are meeting specifica tions, and missile-firing tests should begin next spring. Modifications to MRCA to meet the new British air-defence require ment will be limited to the forward fuselage, an area for which BAC has responsibility. Agusta is confident that it has over come the resonance problem which caused the loss of the first proto type Hirundo helicopter. Two more prototypes are nearly complete and flight trials will restart within a few weeks.
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