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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 1576.PDF
878 FLIGHT Internationa/, 7 June 1973 PARIS SHOW REVIEW AROUND THE 144 Below, "Flight" artist Mike Badrocke persuaded the Russians to extend the canard moustaches of the Tu-144 to allow him to make this sketch. Below right, the undercarriage retraction sequence EUROPLANE DETAILS GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES from Britain, Sweden, West Germany and Spain have all been to the Weybridge headquarters of the Europlane consortium for briefings on the 200-seat short/medium-range Qtol project (see Flight for May 24, page 765, and last week, page 822). The consortium of BAC, MBB, Saab and Casa needs to raise £200 million from the governments and banks to get the project off the ground. All the governments will be sounded out for support individually at politically opportune moments, rather than en masse. The idea is to try for equal shares, but this will depend on the division of work within the programme. It is hoped to avoid as much as possible the "A does the wing, B does the fuse lage" type of split. For the final definition phase now being entered, Euro- plane needs less than £1 million to keep the project going. This month 25 airlines are to be visited, and from their comments on the capabilities of the aircraft any final design changes will be made. Boeing has talked to all the partners in Europlane except Saab, but at the moment no definite proposal on collaboration has come from Boeing which is capable of acceptance or rejection. Suitability for the European market is stressed by John Prothero Thomas, marketing director of Europlane. The 600 or so DC-9s, 737s and One-Elevens operating in Europe will need replacement by at least 300 to 400 Europlane- type 200 seaters. The US market depends very much on how the economic and tariff position develops—the big market is not with the trunks but with the regional car riers. Target economics are to match what a refanned 727 could do. Aircraft-mile direct operating costs will be better than those of the A300B; seat-mile costs will be slightly worse. The T-tail and rear mounting for the engines are designed around the fact that fan noise on the approach is the most difficult aspect of the noise problem to tackle. Boeing thinks fan noise can be reduced adequately with acoustic linings, so an over-wing, forward-slung layout is suitable. The Europlane view is that such a layout would require concentric intake splitters to give acceptable fan noise, leading to icing problems. Europlane is also not sure what happens to the core noise—maybe it goes round the flaps with the airflow and gets directed down wards. Coanda-type flaps, with a slot opening in the event of an engine failure, could also be difficult to certificate, thinks Europlane. Also, with an over-wing mounting, there is the problem of integrating the fuselage and nacelle shock waves. The layout is, however, flexible—it allows a trijet or four-jet family to be developed. The Europlane view is that it is not the optimum for a twin. On the Europlane layout, in which the wing shields fan noise, there is plenty of back-end noise to be taken out before the fan noise could become critical and in need of further treatment should further noise reduction be needed. Having discrete pods rather than nacelles integrated with the airframe should make any cowling changes associated with additional noise treatment reason ably easy. Cold-stream thrust reversers will be used. With a Stol background the Europlane Qtol is optimised for a high lift/drag ratio for take-off and high lift co efficient on landing. The lg CLmax with 50° of flap will be 3-5. The triple-slotted flaps with 25 per cent Fowler motion will have an aft tab, rather like those of the A300B. The full-span leading-edge slats or Kreuger flaps will occupy 15 per cent of chord. The approach will be made at about 120kt or HOkt on shorter runways. Terminal guidance will involve area navigation based on VOR/DME to minimise track dis persion, but with inertial probably required for en-route assistance. Europlane has so far examined four terminal areas to assess the air-traffic-control environment in which the aircraft will operate—London, Munich, Chicago and Stockholm. A US Government task force has recommended that area navigation should become the standard above 18,000ft and in terminal areas between now and 1978, and below 18,000ft after that date.
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