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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 0125.PDF
FLIGHT International, 18 January 1973 75 SENSOR Pan American's financial turn- round, and returns due by May on its $150 million bank loans, depend on a new shares issue of $75 million due to be offered soon. The air line's option to purchase Concordes expires on January 31, but may be extended. Britain's Civil Aviation Authority will not require BOAC or BCAL to submit advance passenger check lists for "Earlybird". Some airlines consider that Earlybird is unen forceable even with advance listing. Rolls-Royce and Snecma are talk ing together about joint future en gine projects, including the ten- tonne engine and a new RB.211 first discussed last October. There are signs of a new and warmer relation ship following a number of high- level meetings in recent weeks in Paris and London. . . Although British Airways has not finally formulated its "200-seat short-range airbus" requirement, influential opinion within the group is beginning to emerge. The num ber of seats most mentioned is 180,' and in-service date 1978-80. Reduced take-off and landing (i.e. 4,000ft) is thought desirable, higher operat ing cost being offset by lower taxi and ATC times at existing airports and by take-off stretch for longer ranges. At the moment shorter take-off does not in itself appear to enhance quietness because of the higher thrust required. Minds are still open on body width, ter minology now being "two-aisle" or "single-aisle". Manufacturers appear to favour two-aisle, for long-term stretch reasons, though a 180-seat 8-abreast body might be aerody- namically inelegant. Air Holdings, former owner of British United before its merger with British Caledonian, is planning air cargo operations from Stansted with a Merchantman. This aircraft is one of the company's ex-Air Canada Vanguards, 16 of which have been sold or leased by Air Holdings to other operators. It has the cargo conversion by Aviation Traders, an Air Holdings company. The necessary licences are being applied for and operational target date is the end of February. The French Aeronavale will be told that, for reasons of cost, it will not be possible to put the Etendard back into production. The choice before the French admirals now will be between the Jaguar M and the McDonnell Douglas A-4 Sky- hawk. A decision is being delayed until after the March elections. Whatever the outcome of these, cancelling a European project and buying American will be extremely delicate politically. There is a growing feeling in the Aeronavale that insistence on a few knots' less approach speed could jeopardise the future of the French carriers. It is felt by industry that the Jaguar M is still very much alive. Seaboard World is likely to decide in mid-February whether to specify General Electric CF6s or Pratt & Whitney JT9Ds for the 747s it is likely to order. The 50,000lb units under study are the CF6-50D and the JT9D-56. There is a growing feeling in Britain's aircraft industry that the French are being slow to let by gones be bygones, but that their possible isolation and the forth coming elections may result in a new atmosphere of co-operation. The trend at some high levels in the British aircraft industry is to look towards Germany in the hope that France will'join later. This is already apparent in Turbo Union, space policy (Britain and Germany opposing the independent Euro pean launcher) and in the Euro pean Qtol airliner consortia which the French have so far declined to join. CAAC's order for Tridents could eventually run to a total of 50 air craft. The Chinese airline is parti cularly interested in further Trident 3Bs, of which two have so far been bought. Europlane's thesis "Quietness, economy and airline acceptability are the axioms of Euro- plane's thesis," according to Mr Kenneth Bentley, chief executive of the company. "In the new:found ecology, the noise pollution created by aircraft will have to be improved," he said. "The problem is by how much." Mr Bentley was addressing a convention on the objectives for European air transport operations held in London last week by the Royal Aeronautical Society. Increasing congestion in the air and on the ground, and sharpening com petition from improved surface trans port, were pointed out by Mr Bentley as factors which highlight the need for a new conception of quiet short/ medium-haul airliners for the late 1970s, especially in Europe. The big question mark was, he said, just what the noise requirements would be. Further research was still required in optimising the aircraft configuration, from which there was evidently a substantial benefit to be obtained in addition to reducing the noise of the engine, he said. Europlane had identi- •—— * ... nlMIlM <r - • • ;. " , . - „ fied the mission requirement, said Mr Bentley; now came the physical definition of the best vehicle for the job. Icao disagrees on hijacking The legal committee of Icao which is meeting in Montreal (Flight January 11, page 47) has so far failed to agree on measures which should be taken to prevent hijacking. Warning that pilots might take action themselves if governments failed to agree, the president of the Inter national Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations told the meeting that "the buck must stop here." The United States and Canada have called for the imposition of sanctions, including suspension of air services, against nations failing to abide by three previous Icao agreements. A commission would be established to determine whether a nation had ^placed civil aviation in jeopardy by refusing to extradite or prosecute hi jackers. The United States proposed that Concorde 02, the second pre-production aircraft, made a successful Ihr 46min maiden flight from Toulouse on January 10. This is the first Concorde to be fitted with Olympus 602 engines with no-smoke annular combustion chambers. The aircraft reached Mach 0-92 at 36,000ft over the Mediterranean. Pilots were Jean Franchi and Jean Pinet
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