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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0010.PDF
10 FLIGHT International, 7 January 1978 NBAA refines planning guidelines "IN some cases the changes were sub stantive to reflect the way things look to us now, as opposed to the way they looked a year ago," says John Winant, president of America's National Busi ness Aircraft Association, commenting on a review of the association's plan ning assumptions. The NBAA board sees fuel shortages worldwide for most of the five-year planning period; these, it says, may be "an inhibiting factor, on the use of business aircraft for international flights." The fuel situation could affect sales and use of business aircraft abroad, but dollar devaluation coupled with rising labour costs in countries outside America may help sales of American aircraft. NBAA has changed the wording of its assumption on the significance of the scheduled airlines. Instead of the reference to air carriers as constitut ing the largest segment of the avia tion, community, the board has substi tuted "so long as air carriers are perceived as the largest segment . . . they will have the greatest1 impact on government policies." Commenting on this apparently small change, Winant says: "If we accept the fact that the air carriers are the largest users of Federal services we pattern our plans one way. We are not certain that this is true today, nor are we quite certain that it will be true at the end of our five-year planning period." The association predicts strong pres sures for imposition of local restric tions or curfews on aircraft operations and considers that environmental con siderations or land shortage will deter airport development and will result in the closure of a number of existing airports. Turbine for a single Otter DUE to be moved to Edmonton in pre paration for its first flight, the Cox Turbo Otter should fly before the end of this month. Powered by a single PT6A-27 engine driving a Hartzell four-bladed propeller, the Turbo Otter will weigh 7001b less than the standard piston-engined aircraft. It will be certificated to the same gross weight, 8,0001b, but will have refine ments to the fuel and electrical sys tems. Designer Cox says that there are still 270 Otters in service, 130 of them in Canada. The conversion offers the buyer "practically a new aircraft," says Cox; it is provisionally priced at $200,000. Work is proceeding on the Cox Turbo Otter conversion, due to fly shortly (see news item, above) Grumman has pat v new Gulfstream II demonstrator into service to show the latest build standard of hush-kitted Spey and the new tip tanks. The cabin is furnished with a /"2-seot executive interior, and the flight- deck appointments include duplicated Collins radios, Sperry flight systems and Litton INS. In anticipation of new legislation, the aircraft has a flight-data and cockpit voice recorder. Will Midair win approval? INTENSIVE advertising may have run ahead of events for a proposed new French business-travel organisation, Midair. Having generated interest from about 1,000 customers, the organisation is now awaiting the decision of Transport Minister M Cavaille which will allow it to start operating. For some months Midair has been advertising that it will provide an air- taxi service on demand to subscribers willing to buy a membership card for Fr3,000 (about £350), and that the cost will not exceed that of an equiva lent first-class airline fare. The opera tor's intention appears to have been to buy aircraft after customers signed up and it has only been since gaining the 1,000 customers that any orders have actually been placed—for four Merlins and two Turbo Commanders. Midair is reported to have based its economics on an aircraft utilisation of 280hr per month. A report prepared for the minister suggests that "this is not realistic for both technical and commercial reasons," adding that "the same optimism influences the financial plan." The report recommends that Midair should be given the go-ahead but only when it can show Fr30 mil lion capital. At the moment the capi tal is Fr5 million. Bristow continues Puma expansion BRISTOW Helicopters has received a contract from Shell Expro to operate a Puma from Sumburgh—the first time the Westland/Aerospatiale heli copter has been used by this oil com pany. Bristow has opted for two more Pumas (above the order reported on page 1418 of Flight for November 12), and these are likely to be employed on inter-platform work. Delivery is planned for summer 1978. Bristow has 180 helicopters in service, 89 of which are twin-engined IFR-equipped types. Islander crashes in Caribbean ISLANDER N862JA of Vieques Air Link, carrying one pilot and nine pas sengers, crashed on December 19 while on a scheduled flight between St Croix and Vieques in the Caribbean. Five survivors, including the pilot, have been picked up and as we close for press the search for the other five occupants is continuing. The crash occurred four miles from land and the wreckage is reported to lie in deep water.
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