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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 3263.PDF
INTERNATIONAL Week ending 14 December, 1985 Number 3990, Volume 128 ISSN 0015-3710 World News Air Transport Defence General Aviation Propulsion Simulation 2 4 9 14 19 20 ELECTRO-OPTICS: IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT 24 Thermal imaging will enable military pilots to fly and fight by night as they would by day. Graham Warwick looks at the US and Euro pean approaches to the technology. TUPOLEV AND THE NEW GENERATION 30 Peter Skipp outlines Alexei Tupolev's Tu-154 replacement, BALCONIES. POOLS, AND HEART ATTACKS 34 The peculiar demands and problems of oper- , ating an air ambulance service are described by Ian Goold. CANARD MIRAGE ON TEST 38 ' Switzerland's test programme to evaluate the fitment of canards to its Mirage INS inter- ceptors is described by Walter Spychiger. DANGER—DEREGULATION 41 Is deregulation threatening airline safety standards? J. M. Ramsden reports from the Right Safety Foundation's Boston seminar. Spaceflight 43 Industry 48 Letters 49 Straight and Level 50 Published 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 © Copyright Business Press International Ltd 1985 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 Chris Birkett Defence Editor Mike Gaines Defence editorial Simon Beavis, Karen Walker Technical Editor Graham Warwick. BSc 'Technical editorial Julian Moxon BSc General Aviation editorial Ian Goold Photographer Janice Lowe Production Editor Philip Jarrett , .Sub-editor Graham Cowell Art Editor Colin Paine Layout Rita Molineux Technical Artists Ira Epton, Tim Hall, John Marsden ,.Paris correspondent Gilbert Sedbon 825 5261 US West Coast correspondent Norman Lynn (213 377 8485 Group Advertisement Manager Trevor Barratt Assistant Advertisement Manager Carol Eaton Senior Advertisement Sales Executive Robert Hancock Advertisement Sales Executive Mike Spray "Advertisement Production Howard Mason Advertisement Sales—France Pierre Mussard. 18,20 Place de la Made leine, Paris 75008, France. Telephone Paris 2655014. Telex; 215334F BISPRSF. ^Advertisement Sales—USA (East Coast) Clive Richardson, Classified Advertisement Sales—USA, Business Press International Ltd, 205 East 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017 Telephone: (212| 868 2080 Telex: 238327 Advertisement Sales—USA (Mid-West) & Canada Gene Glendinning, 'Business Press International (USA), Cahners Piaza, 135 East Touhy Avenue, PO Box 5080, Des Plaines, Illinois 60018 Advertisement Sales—USA (West Coast) John Tidy, Business Press International (USA), 4300 Campus Drive, Suite 204, Newport Beach. CA . 92660. Telephone: (714) 756 1057. 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 3805 (Classified Supervisor) 01-661 3267 (Advertisement Production) 01-661 3321 (Editorial) Telegram/Telex 892084 BISPRS G Access code: (TRP) Facsimile (Group Ill/Ill on request. Telephone 01-661 3321 £80 Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations Front cover: Its snout bristling with sensors, the US Army's AH-64 is the first attack helicop ter able to fight by night as well as by day. LIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 14 December 1985 EDITORIAL Confusion over Westland One has to sympathise with people who work, and have worked, at UK helicopter manufacturing company Westland. Their troubles have been growing over the past year-and-a-half and none of the available solutions, one of which will almost certainly prevail in the course of the next few days, offers a completely satisfactory future to those workers. The dilemma for Westland people is simple. Nobody has ever told them whether they work for a private company obliged to survive in the commercial world, or for a govern ment supplier in an industry which forms part of the network of vital stra tegic assets. The consequences of the failure to resolve this dilemma are now emerg ing in the form of a serious case of confusion all round. Had it been a purely commercial company, Westland could and should have merged its interests with other manufacturers in order to be less vulnerable to competition—either from the big US companies, or from the State-supported European companies. One of its solutions, apparently favoured by the company's new management, is for a minority shareholding to be taken up by a Sikorsky-Fiat partnership. Evidently this has not pleased the UK Ministry of Defence, and Mr Heseltine has lost some friends by scouring Europe for support for his plan for a pan-European helicopter consortium, based on a minority shareholding in Westland being taken up by an MBB-Aerospatiale- Agusta partnership. That plan has displeased some British members of parliament, who accuse Heseltine of selling out Westland to its own competitors. It has not pleased the Department of Industry either, where it is argued with some justification that it is not the Defence Ministry's province to take responsibility for restructuring a British company, still less for rationalising the entire European helicopter industry. Whichever way the solution is found, it will have a seriously unset tling effect on the helicopter industry as a whole. The involvement of Fiat in a Sikorsky-Fiat rescue of Westland will produce embarrassment in Italy, where the state-aided loss-making Agusta has ties with Westland on a number of programmes. Most notably the agreement would jeopardise the European NH.90 project because Sikorsky presumably anticipates access to the Royal Air Force's market with the Black Hawk as a quid pro quo for its involvement in Westland. A European solution to the West- land problem would also lead to some difficulties. Aerospatiale and MBB would have to resolve a serious conflict with Agusta, because PAH.2 and A.129 are competing battlefield helicopters. Worst of all, there is still a possi bility that none of these solutions would entirely solve the Westland cash crisis, and the British Govern ment would still have to step in with aid if Westland were to survive. That would seriously test its resolve to allow companies to find their own salvation. Westland has gone through unbelievable traumas in recent months—a hastily aborted rescue attempt by the Bristow consortium; the crash of its share price and value on the London stock exchange; the replacement of most of its board members; and the announcement of 742 redundancies, many of them among the technically qualified people whom no company in aerospace can afford to lose. Westland may have deserved more clear-sighted management in the past, and more clearly stated policies from the governments which have been its main customers. But clarity is not a quality in abundant supply. If it were, Westland's troubles would have been seen and solved months ago, without any need for the panic measures which are being taken today.
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