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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 3774.PDF
HEADLINES Korean order saves P-3C Orion production BY JOHN BAILEY IN LOS ANGELES Lockheed is to keep open its P-3C Orion production line, following a $600 million order from the Republic of Korea (RoK) for eight of the maritime- patrol aircraft. The decision caused bitterness among French officials offering the competing Dassault Atlantique 2. The US company had an nounced its intention to close The line next year, after delivery of the final aircraft on order, a CP-140A Arcturus destined for the Canadian Armed Forces. The South Korean order was crucial to Lockheed's efforts to keep the aircraft in production. The decision to re-open pro duction will revive Lockheed's hopes of capturing new orders from one or more of the Euro pean nations which had been expected to sign up for the cancelled P-7. The South Korean deal will cost $840 million, including en gines, training and spares. The aircraft will be equipped to Up date HI standard. Lockheed will receive around $600 million, which apparently includes the start-up costs associated with transferring tooling and person nel from Palmdale, California, to Marietta, Georgia, and re activating the supplier network. Assembly is expected to start in early 1992, and the first aircraft will be delivered in 1995. The South Korean decision to Pilatus now claims 30 options on the PC-12 Flying doctors to operate PC-12s Australia's Royal Flying Doc tor Service (RFDS) has be come the first identified opera tor to choose the Pilatus PC-12 utility turboprop single, taking options on two aircraft for its Central Section based at Nor wood, South Australia. The Swiss manufacturer is now claiming options on almost 30 aircraft. The RFDS Central Section flies seven Piper Navajos which could be replaced by six PC-12s under a re-equipment program med for 1993-5. Conversion of the options to orders is dependent upon the PC-12 "...performing to expec tations", says Central Section general manager Peter Dossett. Provisional selection of the PC-12 was based on predicted performance and operating cost. Pilatus values the RFDS "pro visional selection" at $3.5 mil lion, excluding spares. RFDS must convert its $25,000 depos its into a firm sales agreement 12 months before scheduled de livery. Until then Dossett says that "...all suitable aircraft con tinue to be in the running". At least four operators have taken options on two PC-12s. Pilatus expects to fly the PC-12 before next June's Paris Air Show. The company is negotiating with two potential partners for the programme and has established a US sales office in Florida. It predicts a market for about 130 military PC-12s over the next 12 years account ing for 20% of production. The RFDS provides airborne medical services in inaccessible regions of Australia. • opt for the Orion caused a bitter reaction from France. Emerging from a meeting in Seoul with defence minister Lee Jong-Koo, French Secretary of State for Defence Gerard Renon com mented: "We are more than surprised, we really do not un derstand this decision". Lee said that the US offer had been $32 million cheaper than Dassault's and the choice of the Orion would promote South .Korean-US operations. French officials retaliated, saying that Lee Jong-Koo had been in Washington two weeks earlier and could not resist US "pressure" to buy from Lock heed. Dassault said the com pany thought it had clinched the deal a year ago and claimed that the P-3 failed to satisfy maintenance requirements. The US Navy, which cancelled the development con tract for the P-7A in July, has still not announced any deci sion on how it will replace the P-3's successor. Lockheed had Soviets make MiG-31 offer The USSR is to offer the MiG-31 Foxhound for sale to "friendly countries", accord ing to Anatoly Belosvet, deputy general director of the Mikoyan design bureau. The aircraft was to have been demonstrated at the now- postponed Dubai Air Show. The two-seat twin-engine MiG-31 was derived from the MiG-25 Foxbat and is a high- altitude, long-range interceptor with look-down, shoot-down capability, designed to counter cruise, missiles. Belosvet says the MiG-3Ts radar can track ten targets and engage four targets simultane ously, above and below the air craft at the same time. The Foxhound has a 720km (390nm) radius of action, 1,400km with drop tanks. • Mikoyan says it has sold a total of 250 MiG-29 Fulcrums to foreign customers at $30 million each. • proposed a prototype re-work of the P-7 design by its Advanced Development Company, better known as the Skunk Works (Flight International, 19-25 Sep tember), but the Navy is ru moured to have rejected this alternative. Lockheed chairman Daniel Tellep said last week that the Navy appeared to be leaning towards a "re-manufactured" version of the P-3, featuring new engines and possibly a fu selage stretch. The service has a requirement for up to 125 long- range patrol aircraft to replace its ageing fleet of P-3As and Bs, but although the re-worked P-3C would go some way to wards meeting the P-7's range and payload requirements, it would have a shorter fatigue life than a new aircraft. According to industry ex perts, the UK and Germany have indicated that they would be unwilling to take re-worked P-3Cs to meet their require ments. This may present an opportunity for Lockheed to offer an upgraded and re- engined version of the Orion from its own production line, in return for a share of the devel opment costs. Germany had already signed a memorandum of understand ing for 12 P-7s to fill its MPA- 90 requirement, while the RAF requires around 28 aircraft to replace the Nimrod MR.2s, al though the service had not named the P-7 as a definite successor. Lockheed estimates a world wide market for around 170 maritime-patrol aircraft over the next 20 years. • NEWS IN BRIEF DUBAI DATE CHANGE Dubai '91, the international aerospace and defence show scheduled for late January, has been postponed until 3.-7 November. Organiser Fairs and Exhibitions says "...a number of companies had requested the new date after the United Nations 15 Janu ary ultimatum to Iraq". FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 December, 1990 - 1 January, 1991
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