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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0001.PDF
|*M| International Business Press Associates IXBCI Member ot the Audit Bureau of Circulations © IPC Business Press Ltd 1977 Founded in 1909 First aeronautical weekly In the world Official organ of the Royal Aero Club Published by IPC Transport Press Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 BLU Telephone: 01-261 8070 (Editorial) 8397 (Photographic Library) 8031 (Advertisement Sales) 8392 (Advertisement Production) Telegrams/Telex: 25137 BISPRS G Publisher Bryan Cambray FIMI Editorial Director IPC Transport Press Maurice A. Smith. DFC Deputy Publisher and Group Advertisement Manager David Holmes Senior Advertisement Representatives Jack Bush, Clive Rigden US Advertisement Sales Manager Jack Vleira, IPC Busi ness Press Ltd. Suite 1705. 205 East 42nd Street. New York. NY 10O17. Tel: (212) 867 2080 Telex: 421710 Other advertisement representatives: see back or this issue USA news-stand distribution by Eastern News Distributors, 14th Floor, 111 Eighth Avenue, New York 10011. USA mailing agents: Expediters of the Printed Word Ltd, 527 Madison Avenue, Suite 1217, New York, NY 10022, 2nd-class postage paid at New York, NY and additional offices. US Direct Air Mall. 191 00 pa. Air-speeded to US $60-20 o.a. Editor J. M. Ramadan Assistant Editor Hugh Field International Editor Mark Lambert Technical Editor Michael Wilson BSc. CEng, FBIS, MRAeS Chief Sub-editor Brendan Gallagher Editorial Staff Cliff Barnett Ian Goold Mike Hirst BTecli Nlgal Moll Stephen Plercey Doug Richardson Bill Sweetman John Wilkinson Air Photography Tom Hamltl Chief US Correspondent Warren H. Goodman, Spring Valley Road, Osslnlng, New York 10582, USA Telephone (914) 941-0605 Subscriptions Manager B. F. J. Nason Telephone 0444 59188. UK and overseas subscription rates at back of issue. need to sell 600 before the French and German investment shows any commercial return. The other prob lem is political and is easily if bluntly defined: should the civil airliner capacities, skills and destinies of Am sterdam, Bremen, Hatfield and Wey- bridge be controlled from Toulouse? There are many French friends of British, German and Dutch aerospace who ^realise that this would be the meaning of putting all European air liner activity into Airbus Industrie. Eighty per cent of the world airliner market was won not by one American company, but by at least three. Why only Airbus for Europe? NEXT WEEK We present our annual international business-jet and turboprop directory and look at airborne navigation systems. Flight- colour No 128 features an early test-flight air-to-air portrait of the Confederate Air Force's restored F-82 Twin Mustang. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Business Private Avionics Industry International Letters Spaceflight A300's ATLANTIC BRIDGEHEAD INTERNATIONAL TURBINE ENGINE DIRECTORY Straight and Level 2 5 7 9 11 12 13 14 16 19 29 72 Front cover: an F-1S takes off for a dusk sortie under the thrust of its two afterburning P&W F100 turbofans. It sets the scene for our survey of the world's aircraft turbine engines beginning on page 29. The new European airliner The most important aircraft decision of 1978 is the launching of a new 150- seat airliner. Military programmes are fairly settled, with exceptions like Europe's "Spitwulf 190", and military factories are reasonably busy. But who will build replacements for more than 3,000 old-technology, short-haul air liners by the end of the 80s, worth perhaps £18,000 million? The Americans — sponsored by United, American and Delta—will certainly build new aircraft to catch this market. McDonnell Douglas has already launched the DC-9-80 with Pratt & Whitney's refanned JT8D-209, and Boeing seems likely to respond with a similar 737 variant. European industry, possessing all the resources and with a big home market, has decided in principle to go for the 150-seater business. There are other types of airliner to build, too, notably a 200-seater (likely to be a B10 derivative of the A300) and a 70-seater high-efficiency feederliner and military transport in the HS.146 class. But Europe's priority decision for early 1978 is the 150-seater: what to build, how to build it, and whom to put in charge. The Germans have given the clearest market lead. Lufthansa wants two body-lengths (one for 120 passengers and one for 160), one wing and one type of engine. Neither Air France nor British Airways (though helpful at the technical level) has given much of a lead. Indeed, both airlines have said they want American aircraft to replace their existing European-built short-haul fleets. The French have the engine, the 12-tonne CFM56, having upstaged both Rolls-Royce and Pratt and Whit ney in their 1971 gamble with US Jeneral Electric. The French have made clear also that any new Euro pean airliner should be built by Air- )us Industrie, rather than by another minfully constructed multinational :onsortium. Europe has made progress, particu larly at Weybridge where the British- led "Jet" team of HSA, BAC Aero spatiale, MBB and VFW-Fokker engi neers have been at work for several months. The French have agreed to British Aerospace technical responsi bility for design, testing and produc tion. But this leads straight into the major unresolved question: is BAe leadership compatible with Airbus Industrie? This question would be more easily resolved if the British Government were inside rather than outside Airbus Industrie. There is another big question. The partners now appear to agree that an airliner saleable into the 21st century cannot be a derivative. Advances in subsonic aerofoils and high-lift de vices offer more than "brochure" pay- load and fuel-efficiency improvements. The structural engineers, with 25 years' experience of jet airframes, have major efficiency contributions to make with new techniques and materials. The CFM56 turbofan offers a 20 per cent or greater improvement in fuel economy over fifties tech nology, and is truly new-generation environmentally. Avionics, on which aerospace now marches, have greatly limited the extent to which old air frames and engines can take advan tage of the new digital systems, espe cially in active flying controls. The lighter airframes and vitals which the new avionics make possible offer economies in operations, weight and maintenance which are probably underestimated. In reaching for a clean sheet of paper the problem, as always, is cost. The French, as they did with the A300, characteristically say "Let's press on within technical reason—it will sell if it is the best; if we hesi tate the Americans will take the mar ket and we shall lose all anyway for sure." The British want to build another success like the Caravelle, Viscount or a One-Eleven, not a VFW 614, Van guard or Corvette. Technically, as the A3Q0 has shown, Europe can do it. But the A300 will
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