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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0055.PDF
A new civil Pratt Week ending 10 January, 1981 Number 3740 Volume 119 ISSN 0015-3710 Published in association with Aeroplane Monthly and Airports International by IPC Transport Press Ltd, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England. World's first and only complete aeronautical weekly © Copyright IPC Business Press 1981 Founded 1909 Second-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additional entries. Editor J. M. Ramsden Defence Editor Graham Warwick BSc Defence editorial Mike Gaines Chief Sub-editor Philip Jarrett Sub-editor Graham Cowell Technical Editor David Velupillai BSc Technical editorial Richard Whitaker BSc Air Photography Tom Hamilt Air Transport Editor Bron Rek BA Air Transport editorial David Learmount General Aviation Cliff Barnett, Ian Parker BSc News Ian Goold Art Editor Colin Paine Layout/Sub-editor Dennis Baldry Technical Artists Frank Murtger, John Marsden Keeper of Records Chris Kjelgaard BSc Pictures Stephen Piercey US Publishing Consultant Warren H. Goodman, Spring Valley Road, Ossining, New York 10562. Telephone: (914) 941 0805. Publishing Director Martin Morgan Group Advertisement Manager David Holmes Advertisement Representatives Jack Bush, Michael Elmes Advertisement Production Howard Mason Overseas advertisement representatives: at back of this issue Telephone: 01-661 3320 (Advertisement Sales) 01-661 3267 (Advertisement Production) 01-661 3321 (Editorial) Tel eg ram /Telex 892084 BISPRS G US Advertisement Sales Manager Herb Salazar, IPC Business Press, US Advertising Sales, 205 East 42nd Street, New York 10017. Telephone: (212) 867 2080. Telex: 238327. Subscriptions Manager A. Walden Telephone: England (0444) 59188 (UK and overseas subscrip tion rates can be found In this issue) Q*S*l international Business Press Associates IABC] Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation NEXT WEEK • Our annual turbine engine directory, compiled by Mike Hirst, surveys the many and varied powerplants of more than 10,0001b thrust/2,000 s.h.p. This year we introduce a new section devoted to Soviet engines • J. M. Ramsden takes a further look at the increasing use of composites such as Kevlar in aircraft. COMPLETELY new engines are nowadays few and far be tween, for with them may go a manufacturer's net worth. The PW2000 (new simplified family nomenclature for the JT10D) will probably cost Pratt & Whitney $1,000 million up to certification. The launch is secured by big Delta and American orders, but the con tractual reliability and fuel-burn "small print" are surely the toughest in Pratt's long tale of JT8 and JT9 troubles and triumphs. The full significance of Delta's order, namely the birth of a new Pratt & Whitney engine, has been obscured by its effect on Rolls- Royce, dislodged from two big orders for the Boeing 757, on which it is gambling so highly. Two of three major US domestic airlines, one a big and satisfied RB.211 operator, have now chosen PW2000-powered 757s as their 727 replacement, raising Rolls-Royce's stake even higher. Too late now to wonder, as many did at the time, whether re inventing the RB.211-22 for £250 million and "going Boeing" was the wise option. The other, power ing a European new-technology 757 competitor (then called Jet 2) with a new-technology engine, re mains relevant in a market which today is going to the 757. Rolls's big markets are still in the USA, but so are those of Pratt and GE. Meanwhile Airbus con tinues to show, as it has for some years now, that it can produce mounts for Rolls-Royce engines as good as those in Seattle and Cali fornia. To be blunt, Rolls-Royce needs a European airframe indus try as much as it ever has, and more so now that both the PW2000 and the CF6-32 have contained the RB.211-535's 757 bridgehead. There is not enough money for Rolls-Royce, or for any engine manufacturer, to be all things to all manufacturers, American and European; but policy does not have to thrust so exclusively towards the USA. The best immediate hope for Rolls-Royce's European future —and Europe needs at least one engine manufacturer of Pratt and GE stature—is the A300-600 fleet of Saudia. This is an order which Rolls-Royce must win if it is to gain the long-awaited foothold in the European civil-aircraft in dustry of tomorrow. The past is done, and Rolls- Royce will make the -535 a for midable member of the family. Though heavier than the PW2000, and not as fuel-effective as the later all-new design, the RB.211 will have the prime advantages of reliability, maturity and—being at least two years ahead of the com petition—availability. The airlines and manufacturers have never been so spoilt for engine choice. The birth of a new civil Pratt is a momentous event, and the American manufacturer's biggest task—which in the light of JT9D and F100 early histories it will not underrate—is to deliver the reliability and maturity which, perhaps as much as fuel con sumption, the marketplace now demands. J.M.R. IN THIS ISSUE World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Business Private Spaceflight Letters Industry International TRANSALL BACK IN BUSINESS MOTORGLIDING IN AMERICA AEROSPATIALE TWIN SQUIRREL Technical description LEARFAN 2100—FIRST REPORT Avionics SO 52 56 59 60 61 67 69 70 75 81 89 93 Front cover: The Transall C.160 is due to enter service in January 1982. Graham Warwick's feature on this military transport begins on page 70.
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