FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1988
1988 - 3604.PDF
Syrian ban costs BA £ 3 million a year Airways having to fly around Syria, instea [6 million since 1986 by Alan George British Airways ..has so far lost £6 million in extra fuel and crew costs from having to fly around Syria, which closed its airspace to British carriers two I years ago. The airline has been pressing the authorities in London and Damascus to take ' action to ease its plight. Damascus closed its airspace I to British aircraft in October 1986, after London severed diplomatic relations and barred Syrian Arab Airlines from flying j to the UK. The British action came after the trial of Nizer Hindawi, a Jordanian national who was found guilty of attempting to bomb an El Al Boeing 747 departing from London's Heathrow Airport. Strong evidence of official Syrian involvement in the plot emerged during the trial. Damascus denied complicity, and claimed it was the victim of an Israeli plot to blacken its name. With Syria lying under major air routes between Europe and the Gulf and Far East, BA has had to reroute its flights around the country, making them longer and more expensive to operate. Last April two senior BA executives visited Damascus to explore the possibility of a change in Syria's stance. They were also seeking settlement of a Syrian debt to the airline Israel tests t Israel Aircraft Industries has completed test flights of a new Boeing 707 tanker. The first prototype is already being used to demonstrate the three-point boom/drogue tanker to poten tial customers. IAI has turned an Israeli Air Force 707 tanker from a boom- only aircraft into a combi version with two hose-and- drogue pods under the wingtips, in addition to the tail boom. Yitzhak Qeva, general manager of IAI's Bedek division, says that the capability of the combi tanker was demonstrated in a series of day and night refuelling flights. According to Qeva, the new 707 combi aerial tanker will be offered either with the US Sargent Fletcher drogue system or the UK Flight Refuelling system. If the US system is ! I The extra costs associated with British the nation, has cost the airline about 1 totalling several hundred thousand pounds. BA also made representations to the UK Department of Trade and, through it, to the Foreign Office, urging steps towards an improvement in British-Syrian relations. The airline was told that there was little prospect, in the short term at least, of any change in the situation. Syrian Arab Airlines has now quietly reopened its London sales office. In April last year the airline decided that its lack of representation in London was counterproductive, and two company officials were sent from Damascus to take up posts at the Syrian interests section in selected, IAI will have to seek US permission to export the aircraft. The flying boom was developed in Israel. The 707 combi tanker carries 3,800 to 4,500 US gal of fuel in special tanks in what was once a passenger cabin. The hydraulic fuel pumps have a combined output of 1,200 US gal/min. A closed-circuit TV camera system allows an operator to direct the boom with great accuracy. In June 1988 Bedek signed a $33 million US contract with the Royal Australian Air Force for the conversion of four 707s into aerial tankers. The drogues-only tanker will be used to refuel the RAAF F-18. In total, 844 Boeing 707s were built, and 238 still operate in various roles throughout the world. the Lebanese embassy. In March this year they moved back into the West End office. It is thought that the decision might have been prompted by fears for the security of the premises following a burglary last December. The airline office director, Munir Haddad, said that the office was mainly concerned with routine administration, and that permission to reopen had been unnecessary since the original decision to close had been taken by the airline itself, not by the British authorities. The Foreign Office said that the British authorities "were aware that this office had USAF picks Allied-Signal and Raytheon have been selected by the US Air Force as the winning team for the full-scale development phase of the Mk.15 identi fication friend or foe (IFF) system. The team beat a rival bid from a team led by Texas Instruments, which included Hazeldene and Teledyne. The contract is going through various layers of red tape at the moment, and the team anticipates that it will receive it in January. Until that time, the team will not reveal the value of the contract. It claims that the total potential value of the whole programme and related activities will be worth more than $4 billion. It is intended to fit the IFF tran sponders to thousands of airframes. The Mk.15 is intended to be of using the air routes directly over reopened", but noted that "EC restrictions on Syria concerning aviation security, imposed after the Hindawi affair, remain in force". This is understood to mean that the British security services keep a close eye on the office. However, it is doubt ful whether it could have reopened if the Government had been strongly opposed to the move. A delegation of two Labour and two Conservative members of Parliament has travelled to Damascus for talks with Syrian officials and parliamentarians, the first such trip since diplomatic relations were severed. IFF winner less prone to jamming. The interrogation signal will be encoded and spread out in both time and frequency. The response will be treated in a similar fashion. In this way not only should the interrogation be secure, but an enemy aircraft should remain unaware that such an interrogation has occurred. The Mk.15 is the US/element of the Nato Identification Sys tem. As a result, Allied-Signal will work closely with Cossor and Plessey in the United Kingdom, Italtel in Italy, LMT in France, and West Germany's Siemens. Full-scale devel opment and low-rate initial production option contracts will last approximately five years, followed by a ten-year international production programme. 18 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 17 December 1988
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
