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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0974.PDF
PROPULSION Rolls-Royce orders surge ahead LONDON Rolls-Royce is predicting a bumper year following a strong first quarter which raised £300 million of new civil engine orders. The company is confident that the performance signals a general upturn, and speculates that civil engine orders for 1986 could amount to £900 million —over twice the total for last year. "We are seeing an upturn in all market areas," says Rolls- Royce managing director Ralph Robins. "Civil orders are now coming in (quarterly) at almost the previous annual rate," he says. The first three months of 1986 saw orders for 200 Tay engines for the Gulfstream IV business jet, a number of RB.211-524s for Boeing 747s operated by British Airways, Qantas, and Cathay Pacific, and RB.211-535s for BA and Royal Nepal Airlines, says the company. Rolls-Royce now considers it possible to take a 30 per cent share of the world market for civil engines, up from the 25 per cent it now claims. "We now have a range of engines that puts us in almost every market sector," says Robins, who is confident that moves begun five years ago to reshape product development are paying off, giving the company a reduced entry cost to new markets. Among those new markets are a pair of engines under study for 150-seat aircraft (the prop- fan), and for large 747-sized aircraft (the contra-fan.) The slump in fuel prices has increased Rolls-Royce's cau tious scepticism of the prop- Flight-testing of the Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca RTM322 aboard a Sikorsky S-70C begins in June and lasts two years. Note helicopter registration fan. With fuel costing just 55 cents per gallon, the fuel- efficiency of the propfan is now a weaker selling point, according to Robins. And even though Rolls-Royce engineers have managed to trim 92in off the length and 1,5001b off the weight of their "paper" propfan, the company admits there are technical problems that remain to be solved. Any market entry by a propfan will be "later rather than sooner", according to the company. The proposed contra-fan is a much bigger engine, which would develop more thrust than the current widebody turbofans. Because large engines account for more than half of worldwide powerplant sales, Rolls-Royce is carrying out its own studies into a contra-fan/ultra high bypass ratio engine—which it says is likely to be the last all-new engine to be developed this century. If the contra-fan studies succeed, Rolls-Royce would look for a partner with whom it could share development of the engine as a collaborative venture. The agreement with General Electric on the 535E4 and CF6-80C2 foresaw the two companies working together within the power ranges of these two engines, and the contra-fan would fall into that category. Rolls- Royce says, however, that neither company is near to a formal decision to launch a development programme. Rolls-Royce's share of the CF6-80C2 now stands at 15 per cent, and will be increased to 25 per cent by the begin ning of 1989. The first CF6-80C2 is now being built at Rolls-Royce, Derby, and will run at the end of April. The first engine in which Rolls-Royce will share the revenue will be despatched (from GE) in June. Rolls-Royce predicts that civil sales will outstrip military within a few years. The predicted world market for military engines (exclud ing spares) for fixed-wing air craft between 1985 and 1999 amounts to £62-6 billion, according to John Wragg, Rolls-Royce's director for mili tary engines. A new US Air Force trainer is one possible market, through sales of the Adour-poweredT-45 versionof the British Aerospace Hawk. Another is the possibility of equipping a more powerful version of the Sikorsky BlackHawkwiththe RTM322 turboshaft, which Rolls-Royce and French manufacturer Turbomeca are developing. AVIONICS SERVICE-SALES-SPARES CALL OUR MODERN WORKSHOPS AND STORES ADJACENT TO HEATHROW WITH YOUR REQUIREMENTS WE ARE CAA, FAA & MOD APPROVED We can service or supply BENDIX, KING, COLLINS, GABLES, MARCONI, NARCO, SUNDSTRAND, FAIRCHILD, RCA/SPERRY, MEL (EKCO) RADAR, DELTA, TRACOR (OMEGA), COSSOR ETC. ETC. Test Equipment FACILITIES FOR CALIBRATION AND REPAIR OF ALL TYPES OF ELECTRONIC TEST EQUIPMENT AIR TRANSPORT (CHARTER) (CI) LTD. 7-9 WILLOW ROAD, POYLE TRADING ESTATE, COLNBROOK, BUCKS SL8 OBX Tel: SLOUGH (0753) 682654 Telex 849211. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 26 April 1HH6
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