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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 1113.PDF
Weak ending 8 July 1978 > Number 3816 Volume 114 Published in association with Aeroplane Monthly and Airports International by IPC Transport Press Ltd, Dorset House, Stamford Street, London SE1 8LU, England. World's first and only complete aeronautical weekly (£) Copyright IPC Business Press 1978 Founded 1909 Second-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additional entries. Editor J. M. Ramsden Aaeoclate Editor Mark Lambert Assistant Editor Hugh Field Defence Editor Doug Richardson Production Editor Brendan Gallagher Assistant Technical Editor Mike Hirst BTech Air Photography Tom Hamlll Air Transport Bill Sweetman General Aviation Hugh Field Cliff Barnett Nigel Moll News Ian Goold Technical Artists Frank Munger John Marsden Pictures Stephen Piercey Publisher Bryan C. Cambray FIMI Deputy Publisher and Group Advertisement Manager David Holmes US Publishing Consultant Warren H, Goodman (telephone [914] 941-0805) Advertisement Representatives Jack Bush Clive Rigden Richard Chandless Advertisement Production Howard Mason ) Overseas advertisement representatives: at back of this issue Telephone: 01-261 8081 (Advertisement Sales) 01-261 8392 (Advertisement Production) 01-261 B070 (Editorial) Telegram/Telex 2S137 BISPRS G Subscriptions Manager B. F. J. Nason Telephone: England (0444) 59188 (UK and overseas subscrip tion rates at back of this Issue) ESI International Business Press Associates Egj3 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation NEXT WEEK T978SOMR e Though the approach and landing take up only a few minutes of the average air line flight, a disproportionally large number of accidents happen during this phase, when the aircraft is low, slow and, often, down in the weather. J. M. Ramsden leads off our half-yearly review of the airline safety record with a look at the flight-deck techniques now being used to minimise the hazards of the approach and landing, e David Baker describes Ariane, the Euro pean expendable launcher which could steal business from under the Shuttle's nose. Boeing's big WHILE Europe contemplates its next airliner, how certain is Boeing of the way to go? Europe is not alone in wishing that the market was clearer and the risk a little less possibly kamikaze. It has not always been true that what the Americans do, the rest of the world follows. Europe's One-Eleven and Trident designs were frozen and launched before America's DC-9 and 727. Boeing's biggest concern now is to avoid re-inventing the A300 and its A300-10 derivative. The paper 767 is being meas ured by Boeing against the metal, passenger-fledged A300. The big gest difference is the 767's seven- abreast body. As some airlines with five-abreast airliners have learned, rivals with an extra seat abreast have responded better to dollar demand for wall-to-wall passengers. Boeing's own 737 has this advantage, at least on heavy city-pairs, over the DC-9 and One- Eleven. The seven-abreast body is an elegant compromise for a 200- seater, avoiding the whip of six- abreast and the drag of eight- abreast. But is Boeing as sure as it seems about the seven-abreast airliner, the belly of which won't take LD3s side by side? The 767 and 777 certainly have enough wing—more, indeed, than that of the bigger A300B4. Both wing and body of the 767 and the 777 may still be going through the Boeing Field computers. Boeing wants to follow the 767 with the 777 trijet, but the 35,0001b cropped-fan RB.211 and CF6 are still a billion dollars from certification, and the 777 now appears to need more like 40,0001b of thrust. American Air lines would certainly like to introduce the 777 with the pro ven "cooking" 40,0001b turbo- fans, but Boeing would then be re-inventing the TriStar or the DC-10. The 757 is the lowest priority of the new Boeing family. The enormous design and stress-office load of doing three projects with in two or three years could be enough to make even Boeing hesi tate. And the 757's engines, like decision those of the 777, are still in the development stage, while its fuselage—a 1954 six-abreast de sign stretched to 180 seats—is starting life at the end of its growth. Strong nerves are needed in the airliner-manufacturing busi ness. Boeing has made all the right decisions in the past, as its 707, 727, 737 and 747 factories proclaim. If Boeing's European competitors are undecided too, they are in good company. Mc Donnell Douglas has just lost a launching customer for its Super 80 DC-9. The key to the success of every European airliner that has sold in America is clearly recorded: it hit the market first. And it hit the market first because it was frozen and launched first. The present indecision of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas gives the Europeans an open goal that American airliner-makers do not often allow their competitors. j.M.a. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Business Flight Private Flight Industry International Avionics Books HELP FOR THE AGED AIRLINER Letters Spaceflight WORLD'S AIR FORCES 1978 66 70 73 77 79 83 84 86 87 91 93 99 Front cover: Typical of the multi-role aircraft which will equip the world's leading air forces in the 1980s is the Dassault Mirage 2000, the prototype of which flew for the first time on March 10 this year
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