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Aviation History
1991
1991 - 2038.PDF
HEADLINES SIA orders A340s and abandons MD-11 purchase Singapore Airlines (SIA) has abandoned a plan to buy up to 20 MD-lls from McDonnell Douglas (MDC), and has or dered the Airbus A340-300. The airline's unprecendented move will wipe over $3 billion from MDC's order book. The first aircraft were sched uled to come into service with the carrier in 1993. Problems with the perform ance of the airframe and the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 en gines selected for its use (Flight International, 12-18 June) led the carrier to switch its order, even though MDC has in the last few days offered a large-scale pack age of improvements to range and payload, including an extra 5,700 litre belly fuel tank. Singapore Airlines says: "The intended purchase of the MD-11 was predicted on the aircraft's ability to perform certain long- haul sectors — Singapore-Paris for example — with defined payload capabilities. While the aircraft is excellent for shorter- range requirements, it has not to date been able to meet SIA's long haul demands." McDonnell Douglas says: "SIA believes that they needed a dif ferent aircraft for the Singapore- Paris route. That route is 11,500km and is one of the longest non-stop routes in com mercial aviation. "We continue to believe that we could have met that route with the P&W-powered MD-11. Because of the unique geograph ical location Singapore's per formance requirements were uniquely demanding. We believe that we and the engine manufac turer could have satisfied those demands by the first delivery in 1993." The carrier placed the MD-11 order for five firm and 15 options in January 1990. The CFM56-5C4-powered A340-300 will be delivered be tween 1995 and 1998, at a cost of $3.35 billion including spares. The agreement is for seven firm orders, plus seven orders subject to reconfirmation and six options. D Update fails to save SIA MD-lls BY GUY NORMS IN LOS ANGELES McDonnell Douglas (MDC) offered Singapore Airlines and its other customers a series of aerodynamic modifications to the MD-11 which it claims will meet and, in some cases, even exceed the aircraft's original pay- load/range guarantees when added to engine improvements. However the package was not sufficient to stop Singapore Air lines from dropping its order for up to 20 aircraft. The modifications, collectively called the Model A-1, build on earlier drag reduction studies, but do not include the proposed wing-span stretch, which has been dropped by the company. Model A-1 has been devised to combat higher-than-expected fuel burn, described by MD-11 product definition vice-president George Field as the aircraft's "one major technical problem". Serious range penalties re sulted on MD-lls powered by Pratt & Whitney (P&W) PW4460 and General Electric (GE) CF6-80C2 engines. Figures revealed exclusively to Flight In ternational show that, based on pre-flight estimates, the P&W- powered MD-11 should have been capable of a 12,950km (7,000nm) range with a 27,680kg (61,0001b) payload. However, even with the current Phase 1 drag reduction in place, the aircraft can achieve full range only with a 22,000kg pay- load, or a reduced range of 12,025km with a full payload. "GE and P&W have had prob lems from day one, as we discov ered from flight tests," says Field. J5oth engine companies have epbarked on major im provement programmes but, as Swissair recently took delivery of the 21st MD-11 off the production line Field explains: "We were not satisfied with P&W or GE: both their schedules (for improve ments) are in late '92 to late '94." MDC studied its own im provement plan, starting with a 3.2m (10ft) increase in wing- span (Flight International, 29 May-4 June). MDC dropped the wing stretch because it could not be introduced on the production line until 1994 and could not be retrofitted. Also the aircraft would have been too wide for many DC-10 departure gates. The A-1 package which super sedes it has undergone more than 300h of testing on over 60 Dornier Seastar CD2 plant closes Dornier Composite Aircraft has closed down after being declared bankrupt at the end of last month. The company, owned by Conrado Dornier, was rescued from a similar fate last year. The company's factory at Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich produced two Seastar CD2 am phibian and had an order for a single aircraft. Dornier Composite closed after it failed to receive loans from the Federal Ministry of Economics because it could not meet several requirements laid down by the authorities — pri marily the involvement of Deutsche Aerospace (DASA). Nevertheless, Daimler Benz, DASA's parent company, is the guarantor to Dornier Compos ite's bank loans made to the company. This is believed to make it the major creditor. • Bankruptcy leaves Seastar CD2s high and dry NASA pressed BY GRAHAM WARWICK IN ATLANTA Scientists are pressing NASA to bring forward its Hubble Space Telescope in-orbit servic ing mission from late 1993, be cause of problems with the spacecraft's gyros and solar ar rays. Two of Hubble's six manoeu vring and pointing gyros have already failed, and on 26 July a third began drawing a higher- than-normal motor current. The gyro continues to operate nor mally, according to NASA, which has activated a spare gyro for redundancy. Hubble is now operating on four gyros, but can function fully on three, says NASA. The US space agency is not planning an early Shuttle repair mission, but John Campbell, who is re sponsible for Hubble at Nasa's Goddard Space Flight Centre 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 August, 1991
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