FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0099.PDF
Super80 production rate increased LONG BEACH ~ As the lOOthMcDonnell Doug las Super SO nears delivery, and with the orderbook 160 firm or over 200 including conditional orders, Long Beach has decided to increase production rate to live a month. Long-lead items are already being purchased with this output in mind, which is an increase of two units above the present rate. Production is assured well into 1985. including the con ditional orders which Alitalia have placed; but slots are available lor significant new- customers. All eyes now are on British Airways (see page 3, January 1 issue). The ques tion is whether McDonnell Douglas will offer the sort of five-year lease deal (extend able to 18 years) it has done with the 20 and 15 aircraft for American and TWA res pectively (the manufacturer rather than a bank retains title to the aircraft and fin ances the aircraft through production and into service). McDonnell Douglas' military, space, and KC-10 work has put the company in a strong financial shape, but a spokes man parries the question: "No company can finance the lease of every sale. We try to meet every customer's require ments as best we can." Also projected is the smaller-capacity Super 90, a 110-seater for which CFM56s are being considered. Launch decisions on this and on the MD-100—the 5.300 n.m. 270-seat DC-10 develop ment with PW2000s or RB.211-535H4s-is due in the second half of the year, together with a decision on a higher-weight. Super 83 with uprated JT8D-217s. An MD spokesman, asked why the name DC-9 is being displaced after 1,100 sold, says: "It's the market's deci sion. The airlines say that the Super 80 is a new aircraft—the promised i50-seater here today—so it should have a new Hughes opens Apache plant Production of AH-64 Apache helicopters will be under way in March at Hughes Helicop ters' new Mesa, Arizona, plant, the first part of which was opened in December. The company is building 11 AH- 64s in fiscal year 1982, and 48 in 1983. First delivery to the US Army is scheduled for February 1984, and the Ser vice's requirement stands at 515 helicopters. Unit cost of the AH-64 is put at $15 • 1 mil lion; funding for the 48 air craft for 1983 is to be $913 million. The Mesa facility com prises a 243,000ft main assembly building and a 23,000ft central services building at Falcon Field. July should see the completion of the remaining 266,000ft2 While hopefully nobody's runway looks quite as bad as this, it might be worth checking on Dings' new 12-page Sweeper Guide No 7 (Dings Co Magnetic Group, 4741 W Electric Milwaukee, Wis 513291, USA; lei (414) 672-7830) * W ' '-' < . •• . •• •. . :•"•• ••• :.'•. .•••.• ••• i> ,T L^iife paint-shops, hangars, and warehouses. Total cost is $40 million, and the number of employees is expected to rise from 400 to 2,000 to cope with the planned production peak of 12 aircraft a month during the mid-1980s. At Mesa AH-64s will be assembled from their con stituent parts arriving from subcontractors including Teledyne Ryan (fuselage), General Electric (engines), TRE (rotor-blades). Bendix (drive-shafts), Aircraft Gear (gearboxes), and Menasco (undercarriage). The helicop ters weapons comprise Rock well Hellfire laser-guided anti-tank missiles, 2 • 75in air- to-ground rockets, and the Hughes 30mm chain-gun. The Martin Marietta target- acquisition and designation sight and pilots' night-vision sensor (TADS/PNVS) pro vides the main sensor, while Teledyne Systems makes the fire-control computer. New European anti-tank weapon contract expected British Aerospace Dynamics Stevenage Division expects to start serious work this spring with its German and French partners on what could be come one of Europe's biggest industrial programmes. A project definition contract is likely to be signed in the next few weeks enabling Euro- missile to move ahead on a family of anti-tank weapons, for service in the 1990s, to replace the medium-range Franco-German Milan and the long-range British Swing- fire and Franco-German Hot. Industrial workshares have been roughed out, and it is now probable that two ver sions of the Milan replace ment will be started, with a fly-off to select the develop ment weapon. Three infantries use Milan—British, French and German—and orders for more than 200,000 rounds have been placed to date. Its replacement, and probably two versions of a new weapon to replace Swingfire and Hot, ground-launched and heli copter-launched, will be known as the TGAT (Third Generation Anti - Tank) INDUSTRY weapons. British Aerospace Dynam ics continues at Stevenage to produce one-third of every Milan delivered, and this share is guaranteed to con tinue until production gives way to the TGAT in the 1990s. Tracked Rapier goes into service with the British Army in a few weeks' time and the first production units are about to be delivered. The Swiss Army is also soon to take delivery of its first Rapier batteries. Rapier's per formance in the Falklands, most recently reviewed in Flight for December 25, quali fies it as ''the guided-weapon success story of the Western World in " the last 30 years—there is no doubt about it," according to BAe Dynamics Stevenage Division managing director John Parkhouse. Operated visually or with Blindfire radar, and next with unjammable Pass advanced heat-detection and laser- ranging, Rapier has an order- book which now stands at £1,200 million for about 500 systems, of which 360 have been delivered. More than 5,500 rounds have been fired, 500 by operational units. Plans may soon be in hand for Sea Skua, the air-launched anti-ship missile, to be fitted with an active radar in future versions. Sea Skua has a place in history as the first British missile to score in any con flict, incidentally with eight hits out of eight firings. Another new programme for British Aerospace Dy namics guided-weapons team is a vertical-launch version of Seawolf. When perfected this technique will greatly increase the aiming flexibility of the missile. Vertical-launching techniques were explored by BAC, BAe's predecessor, with a programme called Confessor in 1967. What's new Wheel and bearing protectors designed to prevent damage during delivery and storage are being marketed by Bill Thomas Associates. The poly ethylene discs come in various aircraft-wheel sizes. (Bill Thomas Associates, 7505 Woodley Ave, Van Nuys, CA 91406, USA; tel (213) 782-2123). FLIGHT International, 13 January 1983 131
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
