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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 0057.PDF
FLIGHT International, 8 January 1977 Japan pushes turbofan and Stol SIX prototypes of the seven-tonne FJR-710-600 and -700 experimental turbofans will be built over the next five years by Ishikawajima Harima, Mitsubishi and Kawasaki. Twelve pro totypes of earlier Japanese five-tonne engines have together run 380hr on the bench, and two of them are to be further tested in the high-altitude chambers of the British National Gas Turbine Establishment in late 1977. Though the FJR-710 has so far found no firm application, it now appears likely that it will power the four - engined upper - surface - blowing C-l transport conversion on which the Japanese National Aeronautical Laboratory is working. The Labora tory's former Vtol research pro gramme will be dropped on the com pletion of final investigations of exhaust gas/fuselage interaction this year. RAF to use laser-guided bombs ROYAL AIR FORCE strike aircraft are to be equipped for the first time with precision-guided munitions. After a long evaluation of both laser- guided and electro-optical weapons, the Ministry of Defence has con cluded that the former are more suit able for use in European weather. The laser guidance system selected has not been identified by the Minis try, but is probably the Paveway/ Pave Knife combination currently in service with the USAF and US Navy. Texas Instruments Paveway guidance and wing units are fitted to the front and rear respectively of existing con ventional bombs. Pave Knife is a Philco-Ford-built laser illuminator car ried by the attacking aircraft. A first batch of bomb-guidance and target- acquisition systems is to be bought from the United States but the Ministry hopes to purchase future units from British sources. MBB appoints international team GERMANY'S Messerschmitt-Bolkow- Blohm has appointed four senior managers to look after international co-operative business. They will re port directly to the company's chair man. More than 60 per cent of the company's business already comes from such co-operative concerns as Airbus Industrie, Euromissile and Panavia. Herr Franz Forster-Steinberg, formerly prominent in the Tornado programme, is to look after co-opera tion with the USA, Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand. Herr Gustav Bittner . will oversee Europe, the Near and Middle East, and Africa; Herr Goetz Mandel will cover Latin America; and Herr Josef Fuchshuber will handle East Asia. Dutch industry joins forces FOKKER-VFW and Hollandse Signaal- apparaten have formed a group called Netherlands Aerospace Industries (NAI) to promote their joint interests. NAI is to become the Netherlands member of Aecma, the European aviation industry organisation. Within Aecma it will be represented by Fokker-VFW chairman Gerrit Klap- wijk, who is also Aecma's vice-chair man. Next October's Aecma general assembly will be hosted by NAI. Airline accident AN EGYPTAIR 707 crashed on to a textile mill on December 25 while making an approach to Bangkok air port after a non-scheduled flight from Cairo. All 43 passengers and nine crew were killed and it is reported that among people in the mill there were 20 fatalities and 30 injuries. British Airways reorganisation IN THE report of the new British Air ways organisation (World News last week) Flight stated that head of industry affairs Mr Charles Stuart would report to marketing director Mr Gerry Draper. He will in fact report directly to the director of com mercial operations, Oliver Stewart FIRST WORLD WAR test pilot, jour nalist, aviation writer and broadcaster Oliver Stewart died on December 22 at the age of 81. He served as a fighter pilot, ferry pilot and test pilot during the Great War and recorded his wide experience of early aviation in The Clouds Remember. After the last war Oliver Stewart was editor of Aeronautics, the aviation monthly which brought humour and an aggres sive independence, plus an insistence on metrication, into fustian trade journalism. He wrote several books, including probably the first manual on aerobatics. His mellow voice was often heard on radio and he was for many years the resident Farnborough air-display commentator. Capt George Meager AIRSHIP specialist Capt George Meager died on December 7 at the age of 83. He served in airships in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War, later became first officer of the R33 and R100 airships, and took part in two Gordon Bennett balloon races. His books include My Airship Flights 1915-1930 and Leaves From. My Logbook. Hindustan Aeronautics has nearly finished the prototype HPT-32 basic trainer, to be powered by a 260 h.p. Lycoming engine. First flight may take place before the March target date SENSOR The Royal Air Force Regiment's 27 Sqn, deployed to defend the RAF air-defence Phantom base at Leuchars, is scoring hits with its first interceptions using Rapier surface-to-air missiles controlled by Marconi's DN181 Blindfire radar. The hits have been on Rushton tar gets only 9in in diameter. The Royal Artillery's No 22 Light Air Defence Regiment is now fully operational with Rapier in Ger many and No 22 LADR is forming. Each regiment has three batteries comprising three four-launcher troops. The British Army's total Rapier complement will be 72 launchers and the RAF Regiment will eventually have 40. A sixth eight-launcher squadron may yet be formed. Senior British engineers who have been close to the Russians in recent aero-engine negotiations feel that they are beginning to understand why the Soviet Union is still back ward in giant turbofans and indus trial turbines. Three causes are con sidered likely: (1) the lack of inter change of scientific and engineering information both with the West and domestically; (2) the tendency for decision-making to be right at the top, which has led to the evolution of an elite top status of design and engineering talent—as good as any thing in the West but lacking en gineers at its base; and (3) the heavy drain of both human and financial resources of the Soviet space and Tu-144 programmes. British Airways is confident that any shuttle linking Heathrow and Gatwick will use helicopters rather than light fixed-wing aircraft. Although a helicopter service could become viable, it would need sub sidising while it became established. One of the problems as yet un solved by transatlantic companies like CFM International is the ques tion of who will lead commercial policy when the production and marketing phase is reached. As the oil companies are becoming more knowledgeable about heli copters they am tending to specify the types which they prefer to charter.
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