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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 3775.PDF
HEADLINES USA pulls back from advanced avionics project BY DOUGLAS BARRIE The USA has refused to go ahead with a $148 million programme with its three main European allies to establish a military-standard advanced avi onics architecture. The project comes under the auspices of the Allied Standard Avionics Architecture Council (ASAAC), set up largely at the behest of the USA in 1987. France, Germany and the UK are also members of ASAAC. The three European countries recently signed a memorandum of understanding covering the development of a set of pro posed NATO standardisation agreements (STANAGs). The USA has so far refused to sign, however. One official close to the ASAAC programme says the US decision was unexpected and adds that the other nations in volved are still keen for it to stay with the project. Several reasons for the US turnaround on the ASAAC pro gramme are being suggested. The ASAAC itself had to spend . considerable time on the sensi tive issues of intellectual prop erty rights and security. Much of the US contribution to the ASAAC programme would have grown out of its own Pave Pillar/Pave Pace pro jects to develop an advanced, integrated avionics architecture. A considerable amount of the technology developed by the companies working on Pave Pil lar — Lockheed, Boeing, Gen eral Dynamics' Northrop and McDonnell Douglas — is now being included on the YF-22 and YF-23 Advanced Tactical Fighter programmes. Concern over security issues surrounding some of these technologies may be behind the US decision. The ASAAC project will ini tially fund an $8.4 million feasi bility study to define an ad vanced architecture, followed in about two years time by the launch of a $140 million dem onstrator programme. • Airbus to replace Super Guppys Airbus A300-600R Super Airbus Transporter -HMDSlJ Reed Business Publishing Group BY IAN GOOLD Airbus Industrie is soliciting bids to modify four new- build A300-600Rs as Super Air bus Transporters (SATs) to re place its ageing Super Guppy Boeing C-97 conversions. The aircraft will be used to transport 40-50t Airbus sub assemblies from consortium- partner factories to Toulouse for final assembly as Airbus pro duction grows by 50% from the current 14 aircraft a month over the next five years. The first aircraft could be in service as early as 1995, and Airbus will need three further A300-600R SAT conversions by 1998. Airbus plans to certificate the conversion. Potential contractors must submit "pre-selection" propos als to Airbus by the end of the year. The manufacturer expects to choose a short-list within about a month for final selec tion of a contractor early in the new year. Bidders for the conversion contract are expected to include Marshall of Cambridge and Tra- cor Aviation. Airbus proposes lowering the cockpit to below cabin-floor level, rather than adopt the Super Guppy swing nose. This permits roll-on/roll-off loading. The forward-fuselage roof would comprise a pair of clam shell-type doors. Loading the SAT is expected to be an in- factory operation. Airbus says that the A300- 600R provides "...the most promising" base for conversion, rather than the A300B2/B4 pre viously considered, its longer fuselage permitting carriage of larger loads. The largest assem bly flown in the Guppy is the A300-600R rear fuselage. Four new SATs will be suffi cient for projected Airbus pro duction requirements, although Airbus believes other operators may wish to buy SATs for simi lar work. Preliminary studies suggest that Ariane 5 first-stage sections or fully assembled ultra-high-bypass jet engines could be carried. Airbus' own needs have driven the size of the SAT. • Israel's Soviet upgrade threatened An Israeli plan to upgrade Soviet airliners with West ern-built engines, avionics and interiors has been thrown into jeopardy by a failure to find funds to start the project and the death of one of the pro gramme's main backers. Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) has also refused to help fund the project. The scheme was initiated ear lier this year by. a group of entrepreneurs led by 92-year- old billionaire Armand Ham mer, who died on 11 December. The project was based on use of the Ilyushin 11-96 or Tupolev Tu-204 as the basis for an ad vanced airliner, fitted v» ith US engines and avionics, but at a cost greatly below similar West ern aircraft. IAI engineers vis ited both production lines. Certification of the upgraded aircraft would cost some $50 million. Estimates show that an other $150 million will be needed to bring the project to a point where the Soviet aircraft could be flown to IAI in Tel Aviv to begin the upgrade. • N EWS IN B RIEF SOVIET ON BOARD The USSR's First Deputy Minister of Aviation Industry, Alexandr Gerashchenko, has become the first Soviet Gov ernment official to join the directors of an air show out side the USSR by accepting a position on the board of Air Show Canada 1991. Air Show Canada president Ron Price says it is an important step in its determination to become North America's international aerospace trade show. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 December, 1990 - 1 January, 1991 7
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