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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 3596.PDF
HEADLINES UK MoD blunder reveals new Gulf weapon for RAF Jaguars Finnair delivery launches MD-11 McDonnell Douglas has de livered the first MD-11 to launch-customer Finnair — marking the initial step towards recouping its massive invest ment in the new trijet. In addition to the $700 mil lion spent on its share of MD-11 development costs, Douglas has invested a further $2.8 billion in building up inventory on the production line, and on the certification programme. Although Douglas now has a firm backlog of orders worth $17.8 billion, the company has not yet seen any return from the programme. Douglas president Robert Hood says that the company expects to break even on the MD-11 within three years, and adds: "We will see a considera ble profit from this pro gramme". Douglas now has 375 "commitments" for the trijet, 174 of them firm orders, from 32 customers. Hood says that he expects firm orders eventually to top 400, and adds: "We have options coming up all the time — American Airlines has four coming up next week'". Finnair intends to put its new MD-11 into service before Christmas, according to chair man Antti Potila, and will re ceive a second aircraft next year. The airline has ordered four MD-1 Is, with two on op tion. Douglas expects to deliver four more aircraft by the end of the year — two to Delta Airlines (leased from Mitsui) and two to Korean Air and has set a target of 38 deliveries next year. • NEWS IN BRIEF WISCONSIN DASH 8 United Express regional car rier Air Wisconsin has or dered eight Boeing de Havil- land Dash 8s, five of them series -100s plus three series -300s. They are all scheduled for delivery between June and September next year and will operate from Washington Dulles. There are now 245 orders for Dash 8-100s and 104 for -300s. BY SIMON ELLIOTT RAF Jaguar strike aircraft de ployed to the Gulf are to carry a long-range, high-velocity unguided rocket capable of being used for maritime-strike missions and attacking hard- Canadian CF-18 looses off a test salv LAH collapse BY DOUGLAS BARRIE The widely predicted collapse of the European four-nation light attack helicopter (LAH) programme has left the procure ment policies of three of the participating nations — the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain — in a state of disarray. The British requirement is being pushed back while the Netherlands and Spain are un derstood to be reviewing their need for an attack helicopter. Italy is likely to buy more Agusta A 129s. Spain and the Netherlands are looking at the Franco-German Tiger and the US Apache — as will the UK, which is also likely to consider the US LH light helicopterprogramme. The collapse of LAH, which finally foundered on the Nether lands abandoning the project, was blamed on excessive devel- ened aircraft shelters and tanks. Procurement of the system —Canadian contractor Bristol Aerospace's 6.5km-range CRV7 rocket — was revealed by a UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) blunder. The stores "... will be pur- •o of CRV-7s at Cold Lake leaves nation: opment costs and the easing of East/West tensions. The Netherlands Ministry of Defence (MoD) says that it will look "very seriously" at Tiger and Apache, to meet its 40- helicopter requirement. It also admits that "..the need for armed helicopters is becoming smaller all the time". Within the UK Army, the Longbow Apache variant is the preferred choice. The UK went cold on the LAH earlier this year. The Army attack heli copter requirement is for 150 Under the "Options for Change" defence study this number is being re-examined. In the light of the UK's dimin ishing role in Germany this number may be reduced al though, at least at present, an attack helicopter is understood to feature in the various force mixes being considered. In a guarded warning over chased in two production buys", says the MoD, in the 21 Novem ber issue of its fortnightly con tracts bulletin. It says that the first purchase "...will be to enable the RAF to assess the safety and suitability of the store for service use". The second acquisition, "...if the store is accepted bv the RAF". in disarray the emergence of a replacement Alan Clarke, UK Minister of State for Defence Procurement says: "We are continuing to evaluate other options ... but it is likely to be some time before I am able to announce our conclusions". The UK MoD says that, with the cancellation of LAH, the helicopter requirement "...has slipped down the urgency list for decision making. A require ment won't exist until the latter half of the decade." If, as seems possible, the in- service date of a UK attack helicopter slips beyond 1996, this will prove problematic for the McDonnell Douglas Apache since production is due to end in 1993. If an Apache variant were ruled out because of timescale problems, the UK requirement for a "heavy attack helicopter", would favour Tiger over LH. • will be a "production buy". The bulletin concludes: "The re quirement is considered to be a one-off buy". Aside from admit ting that details in the bulletin are correct, the MoD refuses to comment further. A small order for the rockets, split into two parts, is under stood to have been received by Bristol Aerospace from the MoD. The first part has been expended in trials carried out in Scotland by a Boscombe Down- based Jaguar. The firing trials are understood to have been successful. The second part of the order 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 December, 1990
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