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Aviation History
1976
1976 - 0039.PDF
FLIGHT International, w/e 10 lanuary 1976 is hardest hit and its workload in 1976 is reduced by some 20 per cent. The Bristol division, by contrast, is expecting a 22 per cent workload in crease. Its employees number 20,000. Rolls-Royce meanwhile announced that its engine exports in 1975 had totalled £300 million, some 40 per cent of the national aerospace export total. Of this, £95 million came from RB.211S for Lockheed, £60 million from Speys, £13 million from Olympus for Concorde and industrial uses and no less than £15 million from the Dart turboprop, a clear indication of the longevity of a successful engine programme. Although deliveries of RB.211s for TriStars have been stretched out, those of the RB.211-524 will get under way and Rolls-Royce expects to deliver about 60 RB.21 Is of both types in 1976. But the RB.211 is responsible for only part of the 20 per cent drop in workload. The Derby engine division produced spares worth £140 million during 1975 and this repre sents less than half its total turnover. Israel seeks 1976 exports Having achieved a 50 per cent in crease in turnover compared with 1974 during the 1975 financial year, Israel Aircraft Industries looks for a big increase during 1976. Aerospace exports totalled $33 million during 1975 and are expected to rise to $55 million this year. Net profits improved from I£12 million, about £1-7 million, to I£20 million, about £2-8 million. Much of the progress made, however, is being negated by the steadily de clining rate of exchange. It is now clear that the forecast 3,000 redundancies (from a labour force of 18,000), threatened some weeks ago, have been averted. While civil sales are relatively slow, military business—particularly the Gabriel missile—is going well. A ship instal lation costs between $4 million and $7 million, and the Mk 1 missile sells for $120,000. The longer-range Mk 2, not yet exported, costs $240,000, Major efforts are to be put into export sales of the Kfir, of which there are several versions, according to IAI president Al Schwimmer. Export de liveries are allowed for in the Israeli Air Force delivery schedule. Not all of the J79 engine is made in Israel yet, but it eventually will be. Of the $33 million exports, $9 million came from modification and resale of Boeing airliners; $4 million came from sales of other equipment, including electronics; $8 million re sulted from sales of Gabriel; and $12 million from West wind and Arava. IAI employs 500-600 foreigners, in cluding 50-60 of graduate standard. The Boeing 707 rework and resale business is being slowed down because its profitability is difficult to assess. CFM56 passes l,000hr mark Total bench-running time of the GE/ Snecma CFM56 development engines has now passed the l,000hr mark, some 200hr more than originally scheduled for the end of 1975. The 22,0001b-thrust engine is due to be certificated in 1978 and will first fly in 1977 on one pylon of the four- engined Douglas YC-15 AMST proto type. Of the four engines now in the pro gramme (three of which were assembled in the USA), the first is at Saclay, France, and has run 335hr (of which 299hr were completed in the USA); the second is at Villaroche, France, and has run 255hr (15hr); the third is at Evendale, Ohio, and has run 306hr, all in the USA; and the fourth is at Villaroche and has run 147hr, all in France. Tests carried out so far have in cluded mechanical verification, noise measurement, endurance cycles, high speed stall testing, ice and foreign- object ingestion and transient run ning. Two further engines are being assembled for the development pro gramme. Lockheed still in payments trouble The ripples from the investigation in the USA of illegal payments— described by Lockheed as "kick-backs" —are spreading steadily through Europe. While the direct effects of this are imponderable, a tangible result is the continued postponement of Lockheed's financial agreement with its lending banks. The deadline dates on which certain loans are converted into various types of share have now been put back until next autumn, leav ing Lockheed liable to continued and heavy loan interest. The company also lost its battle with the Securities Exchange Commis sion (the Government shares watch dog) to retain documents detailing the "kick-backs". These must now be sur rendered to the SEC, which cannot make them available to a third party without further court action. Meanwhile, the New York Wall Street Journal has published a long, circumstantial report by a well known investigative staff member, Jerry Landauer, revealing diary notes and other recollections made by Ernest Hauser, Lockheed's external-relations employee in Germany during the 1960s European sales campaign for the F-104G. Although the evidence is not in controvertible, it mentions by name people supposedly involved in pay ments from Lockheed designed to act as inducements to buy the F-104G and to accept expensive engineering changes after the initial purchase. The names include Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands; Col Stockla, then head of the Nato Starfighter Management Organisation (Nasmo) office; Gunther Rail, later inspector-general of the German Air Force; and the German Christian Social Union, headed by the then Defence Minister, Franz-Josef Strauss. In Italy, official judicial inquiries have been launched following allega tions of payments made to military 51 SENSOR India should decide by April on a new combat aircraft. The Jaguar is still favourite. France, which has not necessarily stopped backing the F.l, has shown considerable acumen in the kind of financial arrangement which will be a key factor in the eventual sale. Sweden is still backing the AJ37 Viggen, though the recent wing problem has affected its prospects. Concorde flight-development staff at the British Fairford base are concerned about the future of this centre and its employees now that the main Concorde certification pro gramme has been completed. There is still a great deal of Concorde flight-development work to be done —on reliability and efficiency rather than airworthiness — and BAC staff fear that this will be handed over to Toulouse by the politicians, possibly "in exchange" for final assembly centred at Bristol. Senior Royal Air Force officers are concerned not only about the growing numbers of Russian com bat aircraft, and the rate at which old types are being replaced, but about the prospects of big Russian military technology surprises likely to be sprung in the near future. The political explanation of Russian rearmament, that it is against the threat mainly from China, is difficult to reconcile with the number of Soviet attack sub marines being built and their presence, together with that of in creasingly powerful Soviet fleets, in the vast sea areas for which the British are responsible, and which are Nato's first line of supply. Shorts is charging against 1975 profits some £4li million invested in the SD3-30. The market pros pects remain good long-term, but short-term prospects are slow and in any case the company does not want to take orders too far ahead of delivery. The Short Skyspy is likely to cost £17,000 less sensors. Development is being concentrated on control rather than on payload. FoUr vehicles could maintain a 24hr surveillance of an area like the Ulster border. The US requirement is likely to be for operation at 18,000ft, speed range 0 to 120kt, and reaction time 3min. British aerospace executives who have close dealings with the Chinese find that their attitude to wards war with the Russians now seems to be more "when" rather than "if". Final balance sheet of MRCA development costs will be adjusted by the British, Germans and Italians in the production contracts now being negotiated. The order- book still appears stable at RAF, 385; German Air Force and Navy, 320; Italian Air Force, 100.
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