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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0338.PDF
WORLD NEWS Hornet is threatened again WASHINGTON D.C. ~ The Pentagon says that McDonnell Douglas F-18 Hornets will not be ordered into full production until further US Navy studies, ordered by Congress, have been completed. Dr Mac Adams, the Pentagon's Tactical Warfare Director, says: "We don't want to make a commitment now to buy the 1,366 planned". The Navy study will assess different mixes of the A-6 Intruder, F-14 Tom cat, and the F-18. Particular attention will be paid to how many of each type, in varying mixes, can be spotted on a carrier deck, and the mission effectiveness of the different mixes. Flight understands that the US Navy will deploy four F-18 units on USS Coral Sea and USS Midway as part of its assessment of Hornet's attack performance. But Adams defends the Hornet, pointing out that it was known from the start that Hornet would not have the attack payload/radius of either the A-6 or A-7, "as Hornet is a multi-role com promise". With external tanks the Hornet "comes close to meeting the contract specifications". Adams ex pects tu? outcome of the review to be favourable on attack-Hornet production, but the question remains as to how many Hornets will even tually be ordered. Thai may put off order BANGKOK ~ The Board of Thai Airways International is expected to decide this week whether to postpone a controversial order for medium-to-long range twin-engined aircraft. The airline's long-range planning committee has recommended that the airline defer its purchase for at least several months. Last autumn Thai announced that it was Bell's 222UT and wheeled 214ST were both new to the Helicopter Association International convention held last week in Anaheim, California. Our report starts on page 514 dropping an order for two Airbus A300-600s and replacing it with an order for two Boeing 767ERs, but the airline never gained formal Government approval and did not close on the deal. Now the Board has to decide on the committee's recommendation that neither company wins a contract now, but that both should submit proposals again to be con sidered at leisure. A300-600 nears completion TOULOUSE Final assembly of the first A300-600, Airbus Industrie's advanced long-range 285-seat A300 variant, is now under way at Toulouse, with maiden test flight scheduled for July. The first aircraft's centre section upper shell, which was manufactured at MBB's Hamburg plant and trans ferred to St Nazaire for further work, has been flown from St Nazaire to Toulouse by Super Guppy. The first A300-600 cockpit, built at Aerospatiale's Toulouse factory, was completed early last month. The wing box, built at British Aerospace Chester and at MBB's Bremen plant, has also arrived in Toulouse. The third A300-600 will be delivered to launch customer Saudi Arabian Airlines in 1984. Syrian SA-5s operational WASHINGTON D.C. ~ Syria has received 13 Soviet SA-5 Gammon long-range SAMs and two are already operational, Pentagon reports suggest. The USA confirms that the missiles are manned by Soviet personnel. Two SA-5 sites have been identified, at Dumeir near Damascus and at Homs, and a third site may be under construction near the Jordanian border, east of Galilee. Each site will receive at least six missiles. Israel faces US arms delay TEL AVIV ~ Israel is in the ironic position of being unable to spend military aid funds authorised by US Congress. Israeli military sources say that the Reagan Adminis tration is delaying some arms deals and consequently the money cannot be spent. One contract subject to delay is the purchase of an additional 75 General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcons. The delay is causing concern in Israel as inflation has already pushed up the price by $250 million, and Israel must foot this part of the bill. The USA is also continuing to veto co-operation between US companies and Israel on the Lavi fighter project. Some American companies want to tender for production of Lavi's carbonfibre wings and other components. But the US Government is blocking the transfer of advanced tech nology to Israel and refuses to authorise $75 million in advance funding for the US companies' participation in the project. BA unifies marketing LONDON ~ British Airways has set up a new central marketing team with the aims of unifying the airline's image throughout its , separate divisional opera tions, and of increasing its business-gathering efficiency. The new team will advise the airline's three divisions— ' Intercontinental, European, , and Gatwick—on strategic marketing considerations. ' One of its prime objectives is , to achieve a consistent corporate and service image ' for BA. The divisions retain responsibility for tactical ' marketing, but the new four- man team will recommend policy where it sees possible areas of inter-divisional con flict or where the airline's overall efficiency may be affected adversely by a division's marketing efforts. 506 FLIGHT International, 26 February 1983
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