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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 2155.PDF
EDITORIAL Week ending 3 December, 1983 Number 3891, Volume 124 ISSN 0015-3710 World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Avionics Propulsion Industry 1454 1457 1460 1464 1469 1473 1474 AEROSPATIALE'S NORTH SEA 1478 CATS Ian Parker reports from Aberdeen, Scotland, on the AS.332L oil-rig operations of Bristow and North Scottish Helicopters. FUNCTIONAL FELINE 1481 A North Scottish Helicopters' Super Puma forms the subject of Johnny Johnson's flight- test report. Spaceflight Letters Straight and Level 1489 1490 1492 Published in association with Aeroplane Monthly and Airports inter national by Transport Press; a division of Business Press International Ltd. Quadrant House. The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5-AS, England World's first and only complete aeronautical weekly © Copyright Business Press International Ltd. 1983 Founded 1909 Second-class postage paid at New York, NY, and additional entries- Editor David Mason Associate Editor Peter Middleton Assistant Editor Tom Hamill Air Transport Editor David Learmount Air Transport editorial Alison Chambers. Chris Kjelgaard BSc Defence Editor Graham Warwick BSc Defence editorial Mike Gaines Technical Editor David Velupillar BSc Technical editorial Julian Mox.on BSc General Aviation Editor Cliff Barnett General Aviation editorial Ian Goold, Ian Parker BSc Production Editor Philip Jarrett Sub-editor Graham Cowell Art Editor Colin Paine Layout Rita Molineux Photography Stephen Piercey Technical Artists Frank Munger, John Marsden Paris correspondent Gilbert Sedbon 825 5261 US West coast correspondent Norman Lynn (213) 377 8485 Publishing Director John Crookshank Editor-in-Chief J M Ramsden Advertisement Manager Trevor Barratt Assistant Advertisement Manager Give Richardson Advertisement Sales Executives Sarah Beck, Robert Hancock Advertisement Production Howard Mason- Advertisement Sales—France Pierre Mussard, 18,20 Place de la Madeleine, Paris 75008, France. Telephone Paris 2655014. Telex: 215334F BISPRSF. Advertisement Sales—Italy Romano Ferrario, Etas Kompass Periodici Tecnici Sp A, Via Nuova Rivoltana, 95. 20090 Limito—Milano, Italy. Advertisement Sales—USA (East Coast) Dean Kelly, Classified Advertisement Sales—USA Joe Connors, Business Press International Ltd, 205 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 Telephone: (212) 867 2080. Telex: 238327 Advertisement Sales —USA (West Coast John Tidy, Business Press International Ltd, 2656 Vista del Oro, Newport Beach, CA 92660 Telephone: (714) 760 9438. Telex: 238327 Subscriptions Manager A. Walden Telephone England (0444) 459188 (UK and overseas subscription rates and agents can be found in this issue) Telephone 01-661 3315 (Display Advertisement Sales) 01-661 3274 [Classified Advertisement Sales) 01-661 3267 (Advertisement Production) 01-661 3321 (Editorial) Telegram/Telex 892084 BISPRS G Facsimile (Group lll/ll) on request. Telephone 01-661 3321 IASCI Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Front cover: Stephen Piercey's study of one of North Scottish Helicopters' Super Pumas was taken at the company's Longside base. FLIGHT International, 3 December 1983 Nobody has When the United States Secretary of Defence sends out an invitation, you would do well to look very carefully at it before turning it down. When that invitation is followed by another on similar lines from a United States Senator and the US Ambassador to Nato, it has some powerful force behind it. And when the president of a significant defence contractor draws your attention to these two initiatives, and adds his own voice, it is time to take notice. Secretary Weinberger's initiative appeared in a memorandum in September to US defence agencies and military departments. It concerned the partici pation of Nato members and other Allies in Department of Defence conferences and seminars. Weinberger restated the principles of the Memoranda of Under standing, signed between the US and its Allies, which aimed to foster open and fair competition between the signatories' industries, to ensure that the best equip ment was secured at the most reasonable cost. Weinberger instructed DoD departments to make sure that other countries were allowed to participate in pre-award conferences. He urged them not to hide behind "No Foreign" restrictions, unless intelligence was likely to be divulged. In early November, a meeting took place at which several US senators and Defence and State Department personnel discussed the possibility of increasing defence/industrial co-operation between the USA and European countries. The meeting recognised that Nato's European partners were becoming unhappy about the imbalance of US equipment over European equipment in Nato procurement. European governments, the meeting recognised, are keen to preserve their own defence programmes, even if they are more expensive than buying US equipment off the shelf. Doing so keeps design skills honed, preserves jobs, and keeps money in the countries concerned. It is also a natural response to dis appointments and distrust generated by broken promises over "dry" Hawk, strategic metals bans, and senatorial obstructions to UK ejection seats. Unfortunately, it is less economical than long single-source programmes would be, and can put severe strain on national budgets. To solve this problem Senator Roth has control proposed a task force to foster co operation between Nato countries, with one eye on deep interdiction as a produc tive place to start. Senator Roth's belief is that the answer lies in industry-to- industry co-operation, going hand-in- hand with inter-governmental agree ments. More recently, at a basic industrial level, Grumman International president Mike Pelehach has lamented to Flight the lack of effort among Europeans to sell components into United States pro grammes. Components are not subject to Congressional approval, so they would escape the political perils that bedevil weapons systems sales into the United States. Regrettably, Pelehach has recently seen few salesmen from Britain, and, surprisingly, even fewer from France. He wants and expects more initiative from the Europeans. Now there's an invi tation! What does all this add up to? Experience teaches that the US Government is not disposed to suggest these moves out of altruism. More prob ably, it is worried that ejection seat, trainer, and missile lessons will prompt the disenchanted Europeans to unite, build co-operative projects, and squeeze American equipment out of a large segment of the inventory. With the politi cal will ignited following a succession of bloody noses, Europe can apply its tech nology and skills effectively. Where Airbus Industrie, Panavia, and Turbo- Union have led, other major military projects can follow, and the Americans will have to demonstrate a more reliable attitude if Europe is to overcome its distrust and refrain from exercising its new independence. But there is a deeper, hidden, and disturbing significance to these moves. All the parties to these deliberations acknowledge that industry itself has to lead the way towards co-operation. In other words, governments are proving to have no influence on the two-way street; the services have achieved no significant consensus; and Nato itself has proved powerless in solving co-operation prob lems. Industry has been doing a reasonably good job in developing co-operative programmes. If that co-operation is to continue, the authorities behind industry, right up to government level, will have to get control and cease standing in its way. 1453
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