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Aviation History
1983
1983 - 2189.PDF
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Week ending 10 December. 1983 Number 3892, Volume 124 ISSN 0015-3710 IN THIS ISSUE World News 1510 Air Transport 1512 Defence 1516 General Aviation 1520 Propulsion 1528 A BUYER'S GUIDE TO GA AVIONICS 1532 Avionics for the general aviation user are listed in David Velupillai's quick-reference survey. TURBINE MENTOR—BEECH'S 1546 TRUSTY TRAINER Cliff Barnett gets to grips with the T-34C, Beech's contender for the worldwide military trainer market. Avionics Industry Letters Straight and Level 1552 1554 1558 1560 Published in association with Aeroplane Monthly and Airports Inter nationa! by Transport Press; a division of Business Press International Ltd, Quadrant House. The Quadrant. Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England World's first and only complete aeronautical Weekly (tj 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 Hamiil Air Transport Editor David Learrnount Air Transport editorial Alison Chambers, Chris Kjelgaard BSc Defence Editor Graham Warwick BSc Defence editorial Mike Gaines Technical Editor David Velupillai BSc Technical editorial Julian Moxon 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, Pans 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 Lrd, 2656 Vista del 0rar 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 Ill/If) on request. Telephone 01-661 3321 1A&C1 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Front cover: Flight photographer Stephen Piercey photographed Cliff Barnett in the front seat of Beech's T-34C over Kansas during the flight-test featured in this issue. FLIGHT International, 10 December 1983 EDITORIAL Air Superiority Now that five defence staffs have agreed on a common requirement for an air-superiority fighter, European industry has perhaps its great est opportunity to collaborate on a programme which could rival those of the United States in the size both of its domestic and export markets. European combat aircraft production has succeeded so far, largely despite the lack of unanimity among air staffs, who have often not only disagreed at the start of a programme, but (as with the abortive Anglo-French Variable Geometry Aircraft of the mid-Sixties) even switched sides to diametrically opposed disagreement dur ing project definition. The very name which Tornado carried for years—Multi-Role Combat Aircraft- is testimony to differing needs and time- scales. Now, after several years of concentra ted lobbying for a new fighter programme, European aerospace has what it has never had before—a common statement of oper ational requirements and a timescale. But the apparent ease with which the air forces of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain have combined their future fighter requirements is unlikely to be matched by the efforts of politicians and industry to agree a five-nation collabo rative framework. For a start, the 1995 in-service date sought by the air forces is not what British Aerospace, for one, was looking for. Tornado production, on which three of Europe's major aerospace manufacturers depends, runs out in 1989, perhaps exten ded to 1991 if additional orders can be secured. If the Future European Fighter Aircraft (FEFA), as it may be called, does not enter production before 1995, there will be a slump in workload at BAe and MBB. At least Aeritalia has the AMX light fighter to fill the gap. 1995 is too late for another reason. BAe sees an export market for 350 agile fighters, predominantly in the Middle East. This market will emerge in the late Eighties, and will be filled by US F-16s and F-18s unless a European alter native is available. The air forces seem to regard a five- nation 800-aircraft requirement as suffi cient and, despite public avowals that attention will be paid to export potential when specifying new weapons, the UK Ministry of Defence, for one, seems to be paying little attention to the market ability of an agile fighter. Secondly, there is a fear within industry that the customers will specify an all-new aircraft—airframe, engines, and systems. A new engine, jointly developed by Turbo- Union and Snecma, is unlikely to be ready for the 1995 deadline, let alone the 1990 production start-up which industry seeks, and it would be unexportable for several years after that. British Aerospace has been arguing for an incremental application of technology, first developing a vehicle—powered by Turbo-Union RB199s and using devel oped versions of existing Tornado systems —which could be ready for export and initial deliveries to the five customer air forces in the early Nineties. This vehicle could later accept new engines and systems with modifications as they become available. But all this pales against the problems represented by five-nation industrial collaboration. It took several years to make the trinational Panavia organisation work. Used as the basis of a future fighter programme, the bureaucratic albatross of the Namma Government organisation could be dispensed with, BAe believes. But now France must be included in the calculations. Spain is a minor partner and, like Italy, should prove the least troublesome. In Europe, only Britain and France have the total capability to produce combat aircraft, but only France has the political backing for its aerospace industry that makes it almost invincible. Dassault demands design leadership as the price for European co-operation. When five nations have to work together and produce results without delays, that may be the answer. And who could argue that Dassault does not have sufficient fighter design experience? But Dassault's decisions could be regarded with mistrust. After all, until FEFA appears, the Mirage 2000 will be the only European contender on the inter national fighter market. And production of the Mirage 2000 is only just beginning, with at least 250 to build for France, and more than 100 export orders already. If democratic co-operation is to be achieved—and Flight is not convinced that this is the best answer, given the potential for delays—then the industries involved must receive the strongest possible back ing from their respective governments. The bargaining will be hard, and perhaps acrimonious, but the payoff is a united Europe. We make one plea to all concerned. Although it is now technically possible for an air-superiority fighterto excel at ground attack, do not be diverted into discussing ways of hanging bombs on the new air craft. This has hampered European fighter design ever since the Me262. ACA and ACX must fly as pure air-superiority demonstrators, and so must whatever production aircraft emerges from the collaborative cauldron. As the political "g" forces build up, resort to tunnel vision. An air superiority fighter lies at the end of that tunnel. Do not compromise it. 1509
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