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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3051.PDF
Magellan arrives at Kennedy by Tim Furniss Magellan, America's first plane tary spacecraft for 11 years, has completed the first stage of its journey to Venus by arriving at the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) on October 8, in prepara tion for its launch on Space Shuttle Atlantis STS 30 next April. The spacecraft, built by Martin Marietta in Denver, was taken to the planetary spacecraft checkout building in the KSC industrial area on Meritt Island. Magellan will be assembled and taken to the nearby Shuttle payload vertical processing facility in January, for mating to its Boeing IUS solid-propellant upper stage the following month. After mating and checkout, Magellan and its IUS will be placed vertically in a payload canister and transported to Shuttle launch pad 39A, where Orbiter Atlantis will be waiting. The 3,600kg spacecraft will be despatched to Venus between April 29 and May 28, a fairly comfortable launch window which will accommo date any problems Atlantis might encounter within the constraints of new, stricter launch rules. Magellan is intended to enter orbit around Venus in August 1990, to conduct a minimum 243-day radar-mapping mission. The STS 30 mission will be the third since the resumption of Shuttle flights as STS 28, a military mission by Columbia, has been delayed. The next Shuttle mission, STS 27, is likely to be pushed back at least a week from November 17, says Nasa. Orbiter Atlantis is scheduled to be rolled into the vehicle assembly building on October 22, and rolled out to pad 39A in late October, in preparation for the all-military mission. STS 29, by Orbiter Discovery, will deploy another TDRS satellite in February, and will be followed by Magellan's mission. Minerve si The decision of French charter airline Minerve to buy eight McDonnell Douglas aircraft has been seen by the French press as a direct snub to Airbus Indus trie. Minerve has purchased two long-haul MD-lls and six medium-range MD-83s. The decision not to buy from Airbus has been attributed to Minerve chairman Fernand- Rene Meyer's disappointment with the treatment his company has received from Airbus. Meyer said that his company was offered A320s at $42 million each. "I knew that Air Canada and other Canadian carriers bought it for $30 million," he said. The second affront, accord ing to Meyer, came when Airbus secured Minerve as a launch customer for the A320 by Emma Stynes Air Europe has launched a busi ness class and reduced fares at a time when its competitors on the London-Paris route are seeking fare increases. Air Europe's new business class will be introduced later this month to coincide with an increase in its scheduled services to Paris and Brussels. The airline has introduced a £92 one-way fare for business- class trips to Paris, and reduced fares to Brussels have also been approved. Negotiations are taking place over Munich fares. Air Europe chairman Harry Goodman expresses his amaze ment at British Airways, Air France, and Dan-Air deciding to increase their fare prices to France. He finds it extra ordinary that, in the face of Air Europe's reduced business-class prices, competing airlines have all applied to the UK Civil Aviation Authority to increase their fares from £105 to £109 for business passengers. "At a time when fuel prices are low and we have brought out a reduced fare price, it is amazing that these airlines have applied for an increase, especially since Dan-Air has not even run its first business-class flight yet," he says. Dan-Air says that it was not a matter of applying for the increased fare. The two major Libs Airbus then dropped the French carrier in favour of UTA. These grievances had prompted his decision to "buy American," he said. Minerve has plans to double its fleet to 30 US aircraft within five years. Meyer said that the expansion plans were a result of the planned liberalisation of European air transport in 1992. The $100 million MD-lls will be delivered in April 1992 and March 1993, while the MD- 83s, at $28 million each, will all be delivered by the end of 1989. Two more MD-lls are on option, and a new DC-10 is also due for delivery in April 1989. Minerve charter routes have been extended, and the carrier will expand into the freight business with the purchase of a Boeing 747 freighter. carriers had increased their fares by 3 or 4 per cent and Dan- Air simply followed suit, the airline maintains. "The cost of living in the past year has risen at the same rate, if not more, and we see no reason why we shouldn't attract the passengers at this price. We are going all out in our business class and believe it will be attractive to the businessman," says Dan-Air. Air Europe has increased the number of flights on most of its existing scheduled routes out of Gatwick. From November 1 flights to Munich will be stepped up and a new daily service to Geneva will be intro duced. There will also be increased winter frequencies to Palma and Gibraltar. From early 1989, Air Europe will be running new scheduled routes to Oslo, Stockholm, Rome, Barcelona, and Malaga. By early 1990, Air Europe hopes to operate more than 30 scheduled services a day from Gatwick, where two gates have been dedicated to Air Europe business-class passengers. The 54-seat business class is the latest step in the airline's policy to take on the "fat cats" of Europe's scheduled routes, he says. "We are still not happy with the situation. We want to see unrestricted, lower fares," Goodman added. Air Europe targets business travellers FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 October 1988 9
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