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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 2438.PDF
1382 A300s for Aer Lingus? THE Irish flag carrier, Aer Lingus, is fast approaching crucial decisions on new aircraft types for the 1980s. The most immediate need is for a type to replace the airline's four Boeing 707- 320Cs, which will be affected by im pending noise legislation in the US and elsewhere. Almost as urgent is the need for more capacity on dense European routes, especially Dublin- London. Aer Lingus tells Flight that the Air bus A300 has figured prominently in the airline's calculations (the type has been demonstrated at Dublin), and the A310 is also being considered seriously now that it has been launched. The Boeing 757 is also a strong contender, thanks to the fact that Aer Lingus has traditionally been a Boeing operator. British Airways' 757 order will make this type even more attractive! to the Irish carrier because of the possibility of pooling spares holdings and maintenance. Boeing is not as well placed to meet the Aer Lingus requirement for a 707 replacement. Although its 707 capacity is adequate at present, the airline is looking for a larger type offering capacity in between 707 and 747 levels. This points to the TriStar 500 or DC-10-30, although Aer Lingus has considered the CFM56-powered 707-700, which seems too small to cope with future traffic growth. Meanwhile, the airline is increasing its existing fleet. Two. more Boeing 737s have been ordered, to add to the ten already in service, and further ex pansion to 14 is planned by 1981. Aer Lingus plans to double its 747 capa city next year, when the aircraft leased to British Airways will be re^- turned and added to the one in ser vice already. Hope for more information on costs THE public does not realise the extent of overmanning in British Airways, compared with American airlines. British Airway's staff should be reduced to about 60 per cent of the present figure, according to Sir Archibald Hope, chairman of the UK Air Transport Users' Committee. He defines the problem as the need "to find a means whereby the consumers' interests can be adequately protected in the absence of competi tion." While complete protection is not possible, "I believe strongly that the publication of full information re garding costs and operating data by the European airlines would go a long way towards helping consumers to judge whether they are getting a fair deal, and hence to protest if they are not." Current British Airways annual re ports, compared with those published by BEA 20 years ago, are "totally inadequate for any real analysis to be made of operating costs and effi ciency," Hope says. Even the infor mation given by BEA had not been adequate for users to discover what was really going on. "What we need is the same sort of informa tion which all airlines in America are required to provide each month to the Civil Aeronautics Board. This information is available to any mem ber of the public." Describing the detailed data which US airlines have to publish, Hope says: "Clearly, if any of the figures get badly out of line they are going to stick out like a sore thumb and questions are going to be asked by the owners of the airline why its per formance is so bad." The plea that to publish such in formation would give competitors a commercial advantage, makes him wonder why American international carriers like Pan American and TWA had never been heard to complain that their published data gave the European airlines a competitive advantage. "One is left with the sus picion that nearly all European air lines have something to hide. Let us bring it out in the open and we can see what the true facts are. This is the only fair substitute for the normal discipline of price competition from which airlines are exempted. Hope recommends the renaming of the economy fare as the "business- class" fare, set 30 per cent below current economy levels in Europe. Airliner market British Airways has announced a £70 million order for two Boeing 747s for delivery in early 1980. The aircraft will be powered by the Rolls-Royce RB.211^524C, rated at 51,5001b thrust. VTA has placed a $55 million repeat order for a single 747F all-freight ver sion, for delivery in August next year • Rotterdam Airlines has signed a contract for two Fokker F.28 Mk 4000s, to be delivered next year. This brings total F.28 sales to 137. The order is provisional, depending on the successful outcome of Rotterdam Air lines' application for scheduled routes in Europe Q Hawaiian Air has ordered two McDonnell Douglas DC-9 Super 80s for delivery in 1980, with options on another two, and has plans to buy two further aircraft by 1982. So far McDonnell Douglas has sold 45 Super 80s and has options on a further 23. FLIGHT International, 14 October l<?78 Condition monitoring explained BRITAIN'S Civil Aviation Authority is preparing the ground for changes to British Civil Aviation Requirements which will reflect the move towards more sophisticated management of airliner maintenance. The CAA has now issued an introduction* to "con dition-monitored" maintenance which is intended for training as well as industry use. Condition monitoring is one of three complementary maintenance pro cesses recognised by the CAA; the two older techniques are hard-time maintenance, under which action is directly related to time in service, and on-condirion, under which action follows tests carried out at prescribed intervals. Condition monitoring is different in that it is not a preventative process, but is rather intended to relate main tenance action to operational experi ence. It is thus only applicable to sys tems which are backed up by duplica tion or other means. The process has already been applied to the wide>- bodies and Concorde, through inter- airline Maintenance Steering Groups, but the CAA anticipates that it will be applied to future types and sug gests that condition-monitoring tech niques can also be applied to other types in service. The latest CAA hand book is intended to help operators to establish condition-monitoring pro grammes and to demonstrate compli ance with CAA regulations. "Condi tion monitoring," the handbook notes, "is not a relaxation of maintenance standards or airworthiness control." *Condition monitored maintenance—an explanatory handbook (CAP 418). Price 80p plus postage from CAA, PO Box 41, Cheltenham, Glos. Do yo PILOTS often feel that controllers are less than sympathetic to their problems. One of the perennial human-relations difficulties in air transport, this emerges from the J latest extracts from the National [ Aeronautics and Space Administra tion (Nasa) "confidential reporting" scheme*. Weather hazards, such as thunder storms and windshear, and the dangers to large and small aircraft of jet wash and vortex turbulence are highlighted in the Nasa document. The reports, if representative, seem to indicate that US controllers are often unwilling to disrupt traffic in order to allow aircraft to avoid rough weather or to increase clearances. Sometimes the lack of vital infor mation is obvious. After an airline jet touched down 12kt fast in heavy rain, the crew found that the wheel brakes were totally ineffective. "We had no /•
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