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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0002.PDF
2 HJGHT International, 7 January 1978 W rid news Finland buys Hawks . . . THE Finnish Government has announced its intention to purchase 50 Hawk trainers \and associated equipment. During the past 12 months Finland has negotiated contracts with British Aerospace, Rolls-Royce and other suppliers, but the December 29 announcement in Helsinki gives the final green light to the deal. Four aircraft will be built at British Aerospace's Kingston - Brough and Hamble plants, but the remaining 46 SCANDINAVIAN AIRLINES SYSTEM is to buy two Airbus Industrie A30OB2s and has taken options on ten more A300s, either B2s or B4s. The airline has not yet made a final choice of engine for its A300s, but expects to decide between the Pratt & Whit ney JT9D-59A and the General Elec tric CF6-50 within the next two months or so. Unless the CF6 shows substantial operational advantages, commonality considerations will prob- First F-16 section completed at Fokker FOKKER-VFW has completed the first Of 617 F-16 centre fuselages at Ms Brechtsteden factory, and has commissioned a large new machine shop at Schiphol. Of the 617 units, 174 are for Netherlands and Nor wegian F-16s and the remainder will be delivered to the USA at a peak rate of 13J2 a month. Final assembly of complete F-I6s will start on April 1, 1978, in a new assembly shop now being completed. Fokker-VFW has in vested $8-5 million in the F-16 programme. HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS' trad ing results for the 1976-77 financial year were slightly better than the pre vious year. Sales remained virtually static at Rsl,153 million (£73-5 million), and the workforce was less than one per cent down at 40,059. Profit after tax increased from Rs26 • 1 million to Rs53-2 million (£3-4 million). A company delegation has been to Russia to discuss local manufacture will be assembled at the Valmat fac tory 100 miles north of Helsinki. The Finnish company will also participate in production of the Hawk fin, tailplane and rudders as well as assembling the Adour Mk 851 engines. Finland decided after an 18-month evaluation. Other trainers considered were the Alpha Jet, Saab 105, Macchi 339 and Aero L-39. Total value of the Hawk deal is £100 million plus £24 million for the Adour engines. ably favour the JT9D powerplant. The first order is reported to be worth $80 million, presumably includ ing a substantial package of spares for the eventual 12-aircraft fleet. The first two aircraft will be delivered in November and December 1979. The SAS A300s are covered by a letter of intent placed by the airline in June. The firm order was announced on December 30, one day before the dead line set in the June agreement. S-76 sold out until mid-1980 WITH 123 firm sales booked to 37 customers, Sikorsky has now commit ted all, production of its new S-76 until mid-1980. Second buys have been announced already, including one more in addition to the five already ordered by Offshore Logistics of Louisiana, and three more to Manage ment Aviation in Britain. Sikorsky has now completed 850hr of running, including 203hr by the ground-test specimen at Stratford, Conn. Deliver ies are to start in July and the first aircraft will be IFR certificated. of MiG-21 components. Production of the Soviet aircraft is reported to be the only activity that is doing well, and now accounts for about 50 per cent of HAL turnover. The Kanpur factory has run out of work since HS.748 and Rasant production was completed, and Ajeet production is said to be experiencing difficulties at Bangalore, where late equipment deliveries are being blamed for a two- year slip in production. Britten- Norman denies excessive Islander stocks "OUR total stock of aircraft is less than 90," a Britten-Norman spokes man tells Flight, commenting on the suggestion in a recent issue that the company had more than 200 Islanders and Trislanders on hand when its parent Fairey Group went into re ceivership. Production in Romania is continuing at the planned four per month; these aircraft are delivered to Bembridge as soon as they are com pleted. The Belgian Government has effectively nationalised Fairey's Gos- selies factory to safeguard Belgium's commitment to the Nato F-16 pro gramme. No new aircraft are being started in the main sub-assembly jigs, and the factory is currently complet ing final assembly of 22 Islanders and 11 Trislanders. Bembridge and Gos- selies have successfully agreed terms for delivery of these aircraft to Britten-Norman. Belgian claims to manufacturing and sales rights to the Islander and Trislander are rejected by the B-N receiver. Britten-Norman has 25 Islanders in storage at Thorhey Island and about the same number at Bembridge, most of them committed to customers. There is no other stockpile, says the company, and there is no large dis tributor holding. British Aerospace subsidiaries in America merged BRITISH AEROSPACE INC is the new product - support organisation formed by the merger of British Air craft Corporation (USA) Inc and Hawker Siddeley Aviation Inc. The parent companies in Britain, BAC and HSA, also drop their former names, as reported opposite. BAC (USA) has provided spares support for US operators of the HS.125 since 1973, and the new mer ger will not result in any physical changes to the organisation. British Aerospace will be based in the new support facility built by BAC (USA) and Rolls-Royce Inc at Washington Dulles. British Aerospace Inc will provide product-support services for 231 cor porate and six airline operators of One-Elevens, Viscounts and HS.125s, provide a US purchasing service for UK production lines and assist the parent company with sales in North America. . . and SAS buys A300s Hindustan profits doubled
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