FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1983
1983 - 0738.PDF
WORLD NEWS New orders as Dash 8 rolls out TORONTO New firm orders for eight Dash 8s are announced: US carrier Rocky Mountain Airways has converted options on six Dash 8s, and South African operator Magnum Airlines options on two. Dash 8 sales total 53 and de Havilland Canada has given options on a further 66. Cana dian carriers have ordered 16 Dash 8s (and hold options on ten), and US operators have bought 31 (options 19). Six Dash 8s have been sold (and 37 options given) to airlines outside North America. The April 19 rollout was attended by about 2,000 guests, with employees given a preview three days earlier. Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau was the guest speaker. The first Dash 8 registration (C-GDNK) honours retiring chairman Douglas N. Kendall. Mooney pressurised single flies TEXAS ~ Mooney's new pressurised single-engined prototype made its first flight from the company's base at Kerrville on April 21. The six-seat 301, previously known as the M30, has an advanced laminar-flow wing. Fowler flaps contribute to a claimed ratio of 5:1 between maximum and stall speeds, compared with 3 • 5 for contemporary light aircraft. A 225kt cruise and 1,000 n.m. range are predicted. Cabin altitude should be equivalent to 8,000ft at 25,000ft. The 301 has a 360 h.p. Lycoming piston engine, although a turboprop unit might come later. Com parisons will inevitably be made with Piper's piston pressurised Malibu, but a 301 will probably not be delivered until 1986, almost three years after the first expected Malibu shipment. Mooney's newcomer is the fourth new pressurised single to have flown in the past 12 months, following the Malibu, Beech Lightning, and Smith Prop-Jet. The first de HauiUand Canada Dash 8 was rolled out on April 19 (see news item) Alia continues to prosper AMMAN ~ While Middle Eastern airlines had a poor 1982, Alia Royal Jordanian Airlines announces an operating profit nearly double that for 1981. The operator confirms its tenth successive year in overall net profit. Operating profit is nearly JD18million (£32 million), up 87 per cent on 1981, according to the preliminary report. Net profit was down almost a quarter at JD1-4 million, but the airline has bought another TriStar and has increased its working capital by more than 250 per cent. Overall load factor was down 1 • 4 per cent, but yield was well up (figures not yet all available). The Jordanian flag-carrier has claimed for many years to have the best productivity of any Arab carrier; last year revenue/employee increased by 3-2 per cent, despite the workforce growing by 8 • 2 per cent. • King Hussein of Jordan will open Amman's new Queen Alia International Airport on May 25. The build ings, facilities, and fittings are almost complete; the main problem, it seems, will be to finish the new 28km, two- carriageway road from Amman in time. • To get the greater trading freedom its airlines seek in regions such as Europe, the USA should consider trading cabotage rights within its own boundaries, says James Attwood, a former transport- affairs deputy assistant secre tary at the US State Department. Other radical and unusual proposals at this month's Amman conference on regionalism in air trans port will be in a Flight report, scheduled for the May 21 Fail child cuts first T-46A metal MARYLAND ~ First metal for the US Air Force's Fairchild T-46A Next Generation Trainer has been cut. The parts, which will form the fuselage keel beam, were produced on a two- and-a-half-axes digitally con trolled router. Operating from data provided by a computer aided design and Manu facturing system, the router will eventually cut more than 1,000 parts for each T-46. The T-46A will replace the Cessna T-37B from late 1986, the first example flying in early 1985. Up to 650 T-46s could be bought, ensuring production at Hagerstown (Maryland) and Farmingdale (New York) until 1992. MDC proposes co-production partnerships with Japan TOKYO ~ McDonnell Douglas has proposed joint production with Japan of new passenger aircraft. The US manu facturer's Japanese company names prospective partners as Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, and Fuji. Any final production share-out details remain to be discussed; MDC suggests risk- sharing production of the DC- 9 Super 83 and Super 90, which it intends to have on the market by 1985. According to McDonnell Douglas, fiscal-management and new commercial programmes director Mike Favier has suggested revenue- sharing production of the 270-seat MD-100, a devel opment of the DC-10. The" partners would jointly sell the , 150-seat D-3300, which would not appear before about 1990. * McDonnell Douglas might ^ have approached at least one Japanese company with> advanced proposals, believe Flight sources, who say that the prospect is attractive to allr three. Their operations have+ been hit by the recession, but none has commented on the*- idea. Mitsubishi supplies the^ tail cone for the DC-10. FLIGHT International, 30 April 19$3 1
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
