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Aviation History
1979
1979 - 0471.PDF
HS.125 delivered to Yemen SHAHER Trading of Sanaa, Yemen, has bought a new HS.125-700. The company already operates a -400 and chose the new model because of the performance improvements available. The Shaher aircraft is one of the first to be delivered with Automatic Per formance Reserve (APR), a form of thrust augmentation for the live engine in the event of engine failure during take-off. Availability of the reserve power allows take-off to be scheduled at higher gross weight, per mitting fuel for up to 800 n.m. addi tional range to be carried. British Aerospace says that HS.125 sales now stand at 423 to 29 countries. The North American market has taken 244, and 61 of the fan-powered -700 have been sold so far. Challenger set for Paris CANADAIR decided last week that it would definitely take a Challenger to this year's Paris Show. Chief test pilot Doug Atkins tells Flight that he hopes to use the fourth aircraft, which under current plans will have flown for about lOhr before setting off for Paris. The aircraft will take part in daily demonstrations, though the flight-test programme is too tight to permit a European demonstration tour. Canadair is still aiming to obtain partial certification around August (without approval for thrust- reverser operation or flight in severe icing, and with limited hot-and-high clearance) so that "green" airframes can be delivered by Canadair and furnished for customers when full certificates are obtained late this year. The first aircraft is having ALF502L engines and shorter-span elevators fitted at Mojave, and ground-reson ance tests will be completed next week. The aircraft was limited to 250kt/Mach 0-6, or Mach 0-7 at high altitude, during the 49-7hr flying com pleted before the present three weeks of ground testing, but the full flight envelope will be explored when the current tests have been completed. The automatic flight-control system will be activated for the first time when flying resumes. Two engine shutdowns have been experienced to date, the first caused by an auxiliary gearbox driveshaft failure (see Flight, December 16, 1978).The second was a precautionary move following the appearance of above-normal oil temperatures in one engine. The second aircraft is ex pected to join the flight-test pro gramme next month, and the third and fourth should both fly before mid- June. These aircraft will be used for all certification flying. This pro gramme was moved from Montreal to Mojave in search of better winter weather, only to run into an un expected snowfall in California which caused a temporary check. The second Challenger was in final assembly at Montreal early this month and should fly before the end of March, according to Canadair officials Business AND LIGHT TRANSPORT Symposium foresees rotary boom SIX per cent or 12,000 of the world's fleet of 200,000 civil aircraft are heli copters. Some 20,000 helicopters will be built during the 1980s, according to the British Helicopter Advisory Board, and no fewer than 12,000 of these will be civil, reversing the usual balance. Sixty-three per cent of civil helicopters are used for aerial work, the largest single activity. These were the thoughts expressed at the opening of a Royal Aeronautical Society sym posium on new helicopters in London last week. Boeing has discovered that the new plastic blades on the CH-47C Chinook reduce the noise of a fly-past at 500ft and 90 per cent of maximum cruising speed by no less than 13EPNdB, a very pleasant surprise for all con cerned. The Chinook plastic blades give a 6-4 per cent payload increase and a nine per cent fuel saving for the same power. But Boeing is wor ried that civil noise limits for heli copters will be set at an unrealisticaUy low level. Noise is now agreed to be the helicopter's main problem, but the industry needs time to define noise characteristics and to take steps to meet new rules. Hughes has already announced a new four-blade scissor- shaped tail rotor to quieten the 500D. Bell expects to fly its first produc tion 222 in June and to deliver the first machine to Britain in February 1980. The first S-76 may not now reach Britain until June, six months later than originally stated. Aerospatiale Ecureuil/AStar deli veries are being held up by a shortage of both Arriel and LTS101 engines. Bell has successfully completed emergency flotation model tests in the British Hovercraft tank, demon strating the 222's ability to survive sea state 6. The Agusta A. 109A Dutch-roll prob lem at over 125kt, long since over come by fitting Sperry IFB system as standard, was partly solved by the "empirical" measure of setting the tailplane halves at different incidences. Agusta is not sure why it worked, but it says that the full cure, to reshape the rotor pylon fairing, would have been impractical.
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