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Aviation History
1981
1981 - 3243.PDF
facture for the A320 has not been settled, but it is the view of Airbus Industrie that the partners should take the decision purely on cost grounds, in the interests of delivering the aircraft to the customer as cheaply as possible. This would militate against the setting-up of a separate assembly and flight- test facility for the narrow- body jet in Britain. Toulouse has a trained final-assembly workforce and the expertise needed to set up such a facility, and unless British Aerospace can offer some very competitive costings it is not likely to take over production. On the other hand, it should be remem bered that under the Airbus production breakdown only some 4 per cent of produc tion man-hours are spent on final assembly, so the loca tion of the final line is not all that important. The A320 is conceived as a conventional aircraft in corporating all the tech nology of the A310/A300-600, together with some further advances. The aerodynamic design of the wing, for example, will take A310 ex perience as its starting-point and will progress further into the aft-loaded, "super critical" aerofoil regime. Composites will be used from the outset for secon dary structure and some flight controls; automated electronic systems monitor ing and associated CRT sys tems and flight-control dis plays will be standard. New technologies are expected to include relaxed longitudinal stability, using advanced flight controls to allow the fitting of a smaller and lighter tailplane, while load- alleviating active ailerons are planned for later ver sions. The A320 is planned to have a double-bubble cross- section, offering more space above and below the floor than the Boeing six-abreast section. In the passenger cabin, the A320 cross-section offers wider seats, a wider aisle, more headroom and larger overhead bins. At present, two versions have been planned: the A320-100, with 135 seats mixed-class and 154 single-class, and the A320-200, with 156 seats mixed and 172 seats one- class. These numbers and the corresponding fuselage lengths are likely to change during definition, but the basic two-type concept, with one version offering better aircraft-mile costs and the other offering better seat- mile costs, has generated a favourable response. FLIGHT International, 17 October 1981 TA9, TA11, XA12 Airbus In dustrie still plans firmly to add the stretched version of the A300, the TA9, and a long-range aircraft to its family of products. For the time being, however, activity on these aircraft is on the back-burner level as the con sortium concentrates on the market definition and launch of the A320. The consortium will continue to watch the market with a view to delivering the first of the new twin-aisle models around 1988-89. The TA9 is now envisaged very much as a replacement for the DC-10-10 and TriStar, offering greater passenger capacity (typically, between 310 and 330 seats), 50 per cent more containerised freight volume and compar able range on two more efficient engines. Its wing would be new, of greater span, area, and aspect ratio than that of the A300. How ever, the need for this air craft, like the need for more capacity among current A300 operators, will be timed by the growth of the air trans port market as well as by the obsolescence of the early examples of the trijets. The main competitors for the TA9 seem to be the proposed re-engined and updated ver sions of the DC-10 and Tri Star. One of the most significant results of work by Airbus Industrie's new-project task force was the confirmation of the theory that the long- range TA11 could be pro duced with basically the same wing as the TA9. This is most important for the Boeing 727-200 TA11, because its market is not as large as that of the TA9 and it would have been difficult to cover the launch ing costs on the basis of that market alone. At the Paris show, however, it was re vealed that Airbus is work ing on an alternative long- range aircraft, designated TA12, which would combine the fuselage of the A300-600 with the wing and engines of the TA9 to give a range of 4,500-5,000 n.m. (7,400- 9,300km). Although the TA12 would be limited in its appli cation to overwater routes by the need to stay within 60min or 90min (depending on local rules) of a landing field, Airbus points out that there are a number of regions where this limitation would not be too restricting in practice: North to South America, Europe to Africa, or Europe to the Far East are examples. The TA12 would also cost far less to develop than the TA11, while its higher commonality with the TA9 would benefit pro duction, acquisition and maintenance costs. Boeing PO Box 3707, Seattle, Wash ington 98124, USA «• (206) 237-2121 sV 32 94 30. 727 Production of the world's best selling airliner is run ning down, leaving the 737 and 757 as the mainstays of Boeing's Renton division. Output is planned to drop from 99 aircraft in the cur rent calendar year to just 25- 30 units in 1982, reflecting a virtual collapse in the mar ket; the total of orders quoted this year is in fact slightly lower than the figure used in last year's survey, largely as a result of the cancellation of 19 aircraft by financially troubled Braniff. Despite this decline in production, the 727 could be heading for a new lease of life in airline service. The appearance of Pratt & Whit ney's new PW2037 engine at the end of last year led American Airlines to investi gate the possibility of in stalling a pair of the new engines on existing 727-200s, yielding a quiet and com paratively efficient 150-seater at a fraction of the cost of an all-new aircraft such as the Boeing 7-7, Airbus A320 or MDF-100. Following pres sure from American, Boeing carried out its own studies and adopted the designation 727RE for the project. (727- 100s are not to be converted, and the -200 suffix has been dropped for the re-engined aircraft). Structural modifications would be confined to the rear of the aircraft, the most important being the installa tion of new engine mounts and the fitting of a new ver tical tail with the S-duct of the centre engine deleted. The horizontal tailplane would be retained with some modification. The change from three to two engines would require some flight- deck changes. The 727RE modification would cost less than $10 mil lion in 1981 values, compared with estimated price tags of $20-$25 million for any of the • •W:::.Si;p|j ''M^m 1155
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