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Aviation History
1979
1979 - 0068.PDF
66 FLIGHT International, 13 January 1979 W rid news Concorde certificated in United States CONCORDE'S US certificate of air worthiness was expected to be for mally issued to the manufacturers last Tuesday (January 9) at ceremonies in London and Paris. This clears the last obstacle to Concorde's interchange services to Dallas/Fort Worth, oper ated jointly by British Airways, Air France and Braniff, and scheduled to start on Friday (January 12). Certifi cation had been effectively achieved BRITAIN has publicly announced its intention to supply Harrier V/Stol fighters to China—provided that the deal can be made part of a larger non-military trade package. The decision, announced at last week's Guadeloupe summit conference by Prime Minister James Callaghan, fol lows months of behind-the-scenes con sultations with Britain's Nato allies and could clear the way for further arms sales. Mirage 2000 has been suggested as another possible Chinese buy. A British Aerospace sales team will visit Peking within a month to discuss China's requirement in detail. Although most observers consider the likely numbers involved to be a first batch of around 100 followed by some 200 examples assembled or even licence-built in Chinese factories, this remains tentative until Anglo-Chinese discussions establish exactly what the customer wants. Until the exact avionics fit can be specified, unit cost and total contract PHNOM PENH, capital of Cambodia (Kampuchea) fell to an invading army on January 7 for the second time in three years. Forces of the Cambodian United Front for National Salvation backed by regular divisions of the Vietnamese Army and sup ported by air strikes, artillery and armour are reported to have cap tured the capital in a two-way attack from the north-east and south. The only Cambodian fighters able to oppose the invaders were a hand ful of Chinese-supplied Shenyang F-6 (MiG-19 copies) based at Kompong Chrrang, 50 miles north-east of the capital. Some of these aircraft may have been included in the three which rebel forces claimed to have shot just before Christmas, but the US Federal Aviation Administration wanted additional noise data which delayed final certification until this week. The ceremonies in London and Paris were attended by representa tives from the FAA, the manufac turers (British Aerospace and Aero spatiale) and the airlines. • French Transport Minister Joel le value can only be roughly estimated. China could ask for RAF-standard aircraft, or a variant with simpler or even more sophisticated nav/attack systems, but the export of some equipment could be barred for politi cal or security reasons. If the eventual programme runs to hundreds of air craft and a licence-building pro gramme, the deal could be worth around £2,000 million over the next decade. Chinese Vice-Premier Teng Hsiao- ping, the man responsible for drawing up plans for the modernisation of China's defences, is due to arrive in the USA for a three or four-day coast-to-coast tour. Defence talks seem conspicuously absent from his official itinerary but could take place behind the scenes now that the two nations have restored normal diplo matic relations. Teng's political posi tion at home was strengthened last week by the appointment of his close colleague Hu Yao-pang to the position of Party Secretary-General. down (see page 73). Following a series of incidents on the Vietnamese/Chinese border, the Chinese Air Force has moved addi tional Shenyang F-6 and 11-28 Beagle units to the border provinces of Yun nan and Kwangsi Chuang. Last October, the People's Liberation Army stationed a second artillery unit at Kunming in Yunnan province. According to US intelligence sources this unit is equipped with tactical surface-to-surface missiles. China is a supporter of the ousted Cambodian Government (which was led by Premier Pol Pot) and probably intended the move to divert Viet namese attention away from the Cambodian battlefield. Theule has said that he will be meet ing British Industry Minister Eric Varley in March to discuss the future of Concorde. Speaking in a radio interview, M le Theule said that France hoped to build a second-gen eration Concorde in collaboration with Britain and the US. In London, the Industry Department was unable to confirm that a meeting had been arranged. Heathrow snow: BAA attacked THE COLD weather which hit Britain last week paradoxically raised tem peratures at Heathrow airport as air lines attacked the British Airports Authority for failing to clear snow and ice from apron areas. British Air ways was the worst-affected airline and cancelled 150 out of 180 sched uled flights on January 4, and nearly threequarters of its services on January 5. Although runways had been cleared early in the week, apron areas outside passenger terminals were covered with compacted snow and ice up to Friday and airlines com plained that the conditions made it impossible for pedestrians and vehicles to move safely around parked aircraft. British Airways virtually ceased operations after several members of staff sustained broken bones from falling on the ice. The airport's snow committee (comprising the BAA and 75 airlines using Heathrow) met on the Wednesday and airlines demanded that the Army be called in to help clear apron areas. This was rejected by the Authority, and British Air ways then called outside contractors to do the job. BA, Pan Am and TWA were the Authority's most vocal critics last week. Although the US carriers did not cancel any flights, management staff had to clear ice with shovels before ground handling staff would work on the apron. TWA called the BAA's snow-clearing efforts "pathetic" and Pan Am is consider ing legal action against the Authority because of delays to its flights. Air craft could not be manoeuvred up to piers and passengers had to be taken by bus to aircraft waiting on taxiways. The British Airports Authority tells Flight that, although it keeps specialised equipment for dealing with snow, clearing compacted ice is a slow and labour-intensive job. Callaghan approves Ghinese Harriers Vietnam captures Phnom Penh
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