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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 0171.PDF
HEADLINES DASA woos American regional partners Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) is looking for a North American partner to take a 15% stake in its proposed 100 -130- seat regional jet. The share will come out of DASA's 50% stake in the planned aircraft programme. The remaining 50% is to be split evenly between Aerospatiale and Alenia (the recently merged Aeritalia and Selenia). Discus sions with several US manufac turers are underway and DASA says that an agreement is ex pected soon. Launch of the new regional aircraft is expected in the sec ond half of this year. The prior ity, says DASA, is to tie up a marketing and product support agreement with Aerospatiale and Alenia covering the entire 19-seat to 130-seat range that will, after the launch of the new aircraft, be produced by the three companies. In the marketing arrange ment, each manufacturer would have a one-third stake. Aerospatiale is pushing for the new marketing venture to USAF seeks 1 NATO assumptions about its air-defence capability are being threatened by the US Air Force's decision to cancel devel opment of a crucial identifica tion system. The airforce has recom- . mended cancelling the MkXV identification friend or foe (IFF) system because of high costs. The recommendation, part of long-term budget cuts, has been submitted to Donald Atwood, deputy defence secretary. Al though Atwood has not an nounced his decision, indica tions are he will support the USAF view. Without MkXV the USAF will not be compatible with the NATO Identification System (NIS) now under development. The air forces' ability to engage targets by radar acquisition only — beyond visual range (BVR) combat — is heavily dependent on reliable identification. Airbus raises prospect of 130-seater be called International Com muter, and to have Paul-Henri Puel, at present general manager of the French-Italian ATR con sortium, as chairman and chief executive officer. The concern would be based in Munich. International Commuter, which would also be open to the Spanish aircraft manufac- One official close to the pro gramme says: "If MkXV is cancelled, the NATO view is that its BVR effectiveness will be impacted." A BVR capability is also an important part of the RAF's and Luftwaffe's operational require ment for the European Fighter Aircraft (EFA). Besides IFF, EFA will be fit ted with other sensors to give it a BVR capability. The AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to- air missile is designed for BVR engagement. The NIS project is intended to provide NATO with a stan dard IFF system: currently a number of incompatible systems are in use. NIS is being developed by Germany, France and the UK to NATO standard 4162. The MkXV would also have met this standard. NIS will be "backward interoperable" with the current rsion of A320 turer CASA, would pool the partners' technological re sources, products and market ing networks, says Henri Mar- tre, chairman and chief execu tive of Aerospatiale. This would include the ATR family of tur boprop aircraft ATR42 and ATR72, jointly built by Aero spatiale and Alenia; Dornier's USAF system, the MkXII, al though the lack of reliability and security surrounding the latter will remain. Officials also suggest that cancellation of MkXV could threaten NIS itself. A less pessimistic view is that in the wake of MkXV cancella tion the USAF may purchase the NIS system, at least for its European-based aircraft. The USAF says that the MkXV "...has been cancelled because of the price of the programme". If the USAF is unwilling to fund a local development, however, it will not be likely to buy an alterna tive European system. One official says thai J the USAF still has a nationals- need for IFF and there are reports that there may be a "black" programme to develop a satel lite-based IFF system, although the airforce denies this. • Do228 and Do328 and de Havil- land Canada's Dash 7 and Dash 8 if the French-Italian consor tium completes the acquisition of the Canadian company. International Commuter, or possibly a separate company, would build the proposed 80- 130-seat jet. The new consor tium would compete with Brit ish Aerospace and Fokker. British Aerospace is looking for partners to share in the $1 billion development costs of a two-engined, 130-seat version of its 146 airliner. Fokker is planning a 130-seat derivative of its twin-engine Fokker 100. Airbus chairman and chief executive officer Jean Pierson has also indicated that Airbus Industrie could produce a 130- seater at considerably less in vestment, by reducing the size of its Airbus A320 and calling it A319 — much the same way that the A320 has been stretched into the A321. A 130- seat Airbus had been on the drawing board in the mid-1980s but was abandoned in favour of A330 and A340 development. "We can do that by spending only $400 million instead of the $2 billion or so needed to de velop a brand new aircraft," says Airbus' Pierson. Airbus Industrie's current stated policy is that it will not build aircraft which com pete with those made by its consortium members. Those members include both DASA and BAe. • See Business P13 NEWS IN BRIEF ANSETT PROBLEMS Ansett New Zealand, wholly owned by its Australian par ent Ansett, has disclosed technical insolvency to the New Zealand Stock Ex change, with a negative net worth of $13.7 million. The carrier has reported net oper ating losses totalling $57 mil lion over the past year and will be relying on further support from its already struggling parent. See Business P13 riend-or-foe cancellation FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 23 - 29 January, 1991
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