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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0124.PDF
WORLD NEWS 74 Aerospace exports at record level November was the fourth month of 1972 in which British aerospace ex ports set a new record (March £38-4 million, September £38-9 million, October £39-5 million and Novem ber £50-5 million) and the total for the year—with the December return still to come—has already reached £390 million. According to the SBAC it seems likely that the total for 1972 will exceed the previous peak of £328 million, set in 1971, by over £100 million. The United States, France and West Germany continue to be Britain's leading export customers. November's total included a contribution of £22-8 million from sales of aircraft and parts and £21-5 from engines and parts, of which £12-1 million- worth were exported to the United States. Sales of guided weapons were also at a record level with the total up to November of £13-9 million al ready exceeding the previous annual record established during 1970. While the United States continues as the largest market for engines and parts, with sales of the BB.211 making an important contribution, during the first 11 months of 1972 exports of aircraft and parts to France totalled £36 million, compared with £32 million to the United States. Total sales to the United States exceeded those to the EEC. Exports now exceed imports by a large margin and in the first ten months of the year (the latest for which figures have been published) imports of aircraft and parts amounted to £84 million, while en gine imports reached £94 million. The latest figures show the impor tance of parts and overhauled engines to exports and, in the 11-month period, sales of new aircraft totalled £49-2 million, while parts contributed £130-8 million. Exports of 377 en gines were valued at £65-1 million, "other than new" engines at £48-7 million and parts £64-5 million. These figures emphasise the need for new aircraft projects and the importance of spares to exports. Minister in United States In his address to the World Affairs Council of Los Angeles on January 10, Mr Michael Heseltine, British Minister of Aerospace and Shipping, stressed the opportunities and ad vantages of closer co-operation between the new enlarged European Economic Community and the United States. The Minister was continuing his visit to America, details of which were given in Flight last week. The United States could not have made clearer its desires for partnership in the post-Apollo programme, "but we in Europe had simply not been equipped to respond to such an offer as effectively as we ought to have been," the minister noted. "I very much hope that the decisions of prin ciple now taken in Europe will lead to the establishment of a single European space agency." He contin ued: "It certainly is in Europe's inter ests that it should; but it is in your interests as well." He believed that the American and European govern ments would have to face the question of whether they should com mit taxpayers to the costs of duplicating technological programmes, which were getting progressively more expensive, when the same re sults could be achieved with only one set of bills to pay. While the co-operation between Bolls-Boyce and Lockheed had demonstrated that Britain and America could successfully work to gether, the disparity in size would frustrate attempts to create a partner ship on a transatlantic basis, and in Mr Heseltine's opinion the UK needed to be a part of a united Europe to maintain an advanced industrial base. He pointed out that he could claim to have flown further at super sonic speed in a civil aircraft than any other politician in the West. The Skylab orbital workshop was mated with the Saturn V launch vehicle in the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Centre recently. The launch into Earth orbit with a three-man crew is planned during April; details of the orbital workshop were given in "Flight" for November 9 FLIGHT International, 18 January 1973 Europe was justifiably proud of the Concorde and he believed that the advantages in terms of time served would prove as irresistible as, histori cally, had every other step forward in human travel. RB.211 fan failures Following two total fan failures on RB.211s in service, fans are now being removed for inspection after every 150 aircraft cycles. The incident which prompted the US Federal Aviation Administration to instruct the two airlines involved (Eastern and TWA) to take such a step occurred on January 10. TWA TriStar Flight 117 was flying from Chicago to Los Angeles when the complete fan was lost from number one engine. A precautionary landing was made at Las Vegas and there were no injuries. TWA put out a state ment saying that a section of the engine cowling had disengaged from the aircraft. On December 28 an Eastern Air Lines TriStar suffered a similar fan failure, again causing no injuries. After that incident the airlines and the FAA agreed to make visual inspec tions primarily of the fan hub (which is suspected of cracking) in com pliance with a Rolls-Royce alert bulletin. The British Civil Aviation Authority has been advising the FAA on suitable action to be taken. The fan on the Eastern aircraft had com pleted about 300 cycles. Neither of the failed fans had been recovered as we went to press—the Eastern one fell into the Atlantic, the other into desert country. In the absence of the primary piece of evi dence it is not yet clear what caused the failures. They are being classed as accidents and are being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board. A Rolls-Royce- team is in the United States helping with the investi gations. By last Monday at least nine of the 19 TriStars so far delivered had been re-fanned with zero-life components and were back in service. Bolls-Royce was this week sending more fans out to the United States from Derby. All Nippon: 21 TriStars With knowledge of the two RB.211 incidents, All Nippon Airways last week formally signed the contract for the six TriStars it had previously ordered and took options on another 15. The eventual value of the options and orders is likely to be about £200 million, including spares. Of that total some £45 million will be accounted for by engines and spares. TriStar firm orders now stand at 117, plus 82 options or, as Lockheed calls them, second buys, giving a total of 199.
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