FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1989
1989 - 1628.PDF
TECHNICAL: AIR TRANS PORT Airbus Industrie's Super Guppy may soon carry A320 fuselages of two different flavours Airbus offers A320 stretch Douglas studies composite transporter Douglas Aircraft is to develop techniques for manufactur ing transport aircraft wings and fuselages from lightweight materials under NASA's Advanced Composite Tech nology (ACT) programme. The work will be part of a $24 million contract, awarded to McDonnell Douglas by NASA's Langley Research Center, to develop "innovative composite primary aircraft structures" for transport and fighter aircraft. Under the contract, Douglas Aircraft will study transport aircraft, while McDonnell Aircraft will demonstrate the use of thermoplastic materials in fighter aircraft. The five-year contract has two major stages, says MDC: concept development to be completed within 30 months followed by technology verification involving development of transport and fighter aircraft generic primary structures. In addition to requiring that MDC provide a high level of technical confidence and demonstrate acceptable cost- effectiveness, NASA has set specific goals. These include reducing structural weight by 40 to 50 per cent, acquisition cost by 20 to 25 per cent, and parts count by 50 per cent over present metal primary structures. Douglas will develop generic structures for a high-aspect-ratio wing with integral fuel tanks and a pressurised large-diameter fuselage, both for a transport aircraft. McDonnell will build a fighter aircraft fuselage structure, includ ing wing carry-through, fuel tanks, and bulkheads, using thermoplastic materials and manufacturing techniques in place of the present thermoset composites used in combat- aircraft primary structures. The NASA study parallels work performed by other US com panies, such as Boeing and Lock heed, under US military research contracts, extending it to encom pass transport aircraft. BY GILBERT SEDBON IN TOULOUSE Airbus Industrie hopes to announce 40 orders for its stretched A320-300, if not during this month's Paris Air Show, then by early autumn. On May 20, the European consortium's supervisory board authorised the Airbus manage ment to enter into firm negotia tions with airlines concerning the aircraft, which will seat between 35 and 49 more passengers than the present 150-seat A320-200. Early targets include Luft hansa, Alitalia, and even British Airways in Europe, and Trans World Airlines and Northwest Airlines in the USA. Airbus fore sees a market for 400 A320-300s, added to 1,200 of UK and Dutch ai UK and Dutch civil aviation authorities have successfully completed evaluation of an offset microwave landing system (MLS) at London Gatwick Airport. Preliminary results from the Gatwick trial suggest at least Category I approaches can be achieved using offset MLS. The initial findings are being presented at an International Civil Aviation Organisation the basic aircraft. The 1,600- aircraft total represents one-third of the estimated 4,800-aircraft single-aisle market to 2006. The 185/199-seatA320-300is scheduled to enter airline service at the end of 1994, in direct competition with the Boeing 757 and McDonnell Douglas MD-91. Airbus claims that the aircraft will have direct operating costs per seat 11 per cent lower than both the 144-seat Boeing 737-400 and 192-seat 757-200. The A320 Stretch will have a range of about 2,500 n.m., 500 n.m. less than that of the current A320-200, and a maximum take off weight of 178,6001b, up from 162,0001b. Two fuselage plugs with enlarged emergency exits will be inserted forward (162in) and aft (147in) of the strength- meeting in Canberra, Australia, this week. The project was jointly funded by the UK and Dutch CAAs, with British, Dutch, and American pilots flying 72 approaches to Gatwick's runway 26L using the MLS. The Dutch National Aero space Laboratory's Fairchild Metro II was used in the evaluation to determine the accuracy of MLS-computed ened wing. Other changes include the introduction of double-slotted flaps, the adop tion of a stronger main landing gear, and uprating of the engines by about 10 per cent. Engines available will be the 29,0001b-thrust General Electric/Snecma CFM56-5B and the 28,0001b-thrust International Aero Engines V2500-A5. Airbus will use a pair of CFM56-5Bs for flight-test and certification of the A320 Stretch, which is to be completed by late 1993. Development will cost only "a few hundred million dollars", which the Airbus partners will raise privately, say Aerospatiale chairman and chief executive officer Henri Martre. The consortium claims that the aircraft is a "minimum change". ;et MLS centreline approaches. The trials used Plessey MLS ground equipment which has been tested previously at Manchester Airport. It was moved and made operational within 24 hours and was installed on runway 26R with approaches being made on 26L, 200m away laterally. Bendix airborne MLS equipment and ILS distance measuring equipment were used. ithorities test off: 22 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 June 1989
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
