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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0289.PDF
I M T E RNATIONAL Editorial Enquiries +44 811 661 3842 Editorial Fax +44 (81) 661 3840 Display Advertising +44 (81) 661 3315 Display Advertising Fax +44 (81) 661 8981 Classified Advertising +44 (81) 661 6373 Classified Advertising Fax +44 (81) 642 4431 Telex 892084 REEDBP G Subscriptions +44 (81) 649 7271 Back issues (recent copies only) +44 (81) 661 3315 Picture Library +44 (81) 661 3427 Flight Directories +44 (707) 46952 USA Newstrade Sales Enquiries +1 (718) 392 7477 LONDON Quadrant House, Trie Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK Editor Allan Winn Editor's PA Jacqueline Worsley Deputy Editor Forbes Mutch News Editor Andrew Cnuter Features Editor David Learmount Business Editor Kevin OToole Military Editor Mite Gaines Air Transport Editor Ian Goold +44 (81) 661 3882 +44 (81) 661 3882 +44 (81) 661 3852 +44 (81) 661 3843 +44 (81) 661 3845 +44 (81) 661 3835 +44 (81) 661 8809 +44 (81) 661 3834 Technology/Industry Editor Simon Elliott +44 (81) 661 3838 Databases Editor Tom Hamil Editorial Assistant Kate Sarslield Design Editor Mike Wells Layout Sub-editor Annabel Goddard Layout Sub-editor Jenny long Technical Artist Tim Halt Technical Artist David Hatctard Technical Artist John Marsden Spaceflight Correspondent Tim Ftimiss Photographer (Europe) Mark Wagner +44 (81) 661 3096 +44 (81) 661 3842 +44 (81) 661 3828 +44 (81) 661 3848 +44 (81) 661 3847 +44 (81) 661 8047 +44 (81) 661 8047 +44 (81) 661 8054 +44 (237) 451756 Fax +44 (237) 451600 +44 (272) 358200 Fax 444 (272) 358290 Display Advertisement Sales Sales Manager Clive Richardson +44 (81) 661 3315 Assistant Sales Manager Nick Wilcox +44 (81) 661 3892 Regional Display Manager, North and North-east Europe Mark Jannaway+44 (81) 661 3317 Senior Sales Executive Janice Lone +44 (81) 661 3316 Advertisement production Howard Mason +44 (81) 661 3267 EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST European Editor (Brussels) Julian Moxon +32 (2) 657 9689 Fax +32 (2) 657 5260 Munich Correspondent Douglas Barrie Paris Correspondent Gilbert Sedoon Israel Correspondent Arte Egozi +49 (89) 689 1041 Fax +49 (89) 689 1045 +33 (1) 4825 5261 +972 (3) 967 1155 Sales Director (France) Pierre Mussard +33 (1) 40 93 01 02 Representative (Italy) Romano Ferrario +39 (2) 58084 302 AMERICAS American Editor Graham Warwick Washington Correspondent Kieran Da USA West Coast Correspondent (Los Angeles) Guy Norris Photographer (USA) Craig Schmitman +1 (404) 587 2927 Fax +1 (404) 594 1534 r +1 (703) 836 7443 Fax +1 (703) 836 8344 +1 (714) 252 8971 Fax +1 (714) 252 8972 +1 (310) 452 4464 Fax +1 (310) 452 3515 President RBP (USA) Ray Barnes Traffic Manager JoAnn tips. +1 (212) +1 (212) Fax +1 (212) Vice President US Sales John Tidy +1 (714) Sates Director Fax+1 <714' (Mid West and Canada) Gene Gtendinning +1 (708) Sales Director (East Coast) fa +1 W Robert Hancock +1 (703) Business Development Director fa* +1 '7B3' Sheena Bobbins +1 (703) Fax +1 (703) 867 2080 687 6604 756 1057 756 2514 635 9920 635 0602 836 7444 836 7446 836 7444 836 7446 ASIA/PACIFIC Asian Editor (Singapore) John Bailey +65 226 3188 Fax +65 227 1769 Australian Correspondent Paul Phelan +61 (70) 532 791 Fax +61 (70) 532 791 Sales Director Mike Hancock (Singapore) +65 226 3188 Account Manager Fiona Barlholomeusz +65 226 3188 Fax +65 223 6960 Regional Representative (Japan) Shoicbi Maruyarra +81 (3) 3234 2161 Fax +81 (3) 3234 1143 Publisher Les Edwards +44 (81) 661 3436 For full advertisement information see page 46. Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation COMMENT POSITIVE THINKING D efence contractors worldwide are fac ing the task of converting at least some of their research, development and production capacity to civil pro jects. The governments which built them up seem reluctant to assist in the conversion process by identifying and supporting civil technology initiatives. In case there is any lack of ideas among governments as to which avenues to promote, Flight International would like to take this opportunity to outline just a few of the more promising commercial concepts which have yet to leave the drawing board. North America, where inconvenient airport loca tions and frustrating flight delays often conspire to make air travel unattractive and uncompeti tive with surface transportation. To fight back, airlines must reduce the passenger's door-to- door travel time. The best way is to move the airport closer to the customer and the best way to do that is to establish community vertiports serviced by civil tilt-rotors. What is needed, rather than yet another regional turboprop or regional jet to add to airspace and airport congestion, is a quiet, cost-competitive tilt-rotor that the public will like and that most airlines will want. If the world air-travel market develops as pre dicted, airlines will have to increase capacity to cope, sooner or later. Today, the only answer to increased capacity is more aircraft; tomorrow, there is likely to be the option of bigger aircraft. There is another answer and that is fewer, smaller aircraft flying much faster. Industry seems intent on developing subsonic aircraft capable of carry ing 600, and one day 1,000, passengers. This will serve to shift the congestion problem firmly from the air, where fewer aircraft will be needed, to the ground where more passengers will arrive en masse. The only prospect for the passenger seems to be a long flight followed by. a long wait at immigration. The high-speed civil transport offers the potential to be as productive as a future large airliner by flying 300 passengers to their desti nation in a third of the time it takes a subsonic 600-seater. Oversimplified mathematics suggest a Mach 2-plus airliner could complete three return trips in the time it takes a subsonic transport to complete one — for a total of 1,800 seats available compared to 1,200. Supersonic airliners would arrive at their destinations more frequently, but disembark no more passengers than the average 747 — easing the peak strain on airport infrastructure. What is needed is a quiet, fuel-efficient, environmen tally friendly supersonic transport which can be produced and operated cheaply enough that airlines can avoid charging premium fares. * * * High-speed trains pose a serious threat to regional airlines in Europe, and potentially in Cjovernments seem reluctant to identify and support civil technology." Aviation is all about fly ing, but the cost of learn ing to fly will increase greatly when schools have to replace their 1950s-designed, largely 1960s-built, training air craft with 1980s-de- signed, 1990s-built aer oplanes. There is a des perate need for a training aircraft designed in the 1990s that sells for 1960s prices and will fly into the 2000s. Despite near-critical demand for new aircraft in the USA, certification costs and product-liabil ity laws in that country are keeping new designs off the market. That might change in 1992, if new airworthiness rules emerge and liability legislation is reformed. What is needed is an aircraft that is cheap to buy and safe to fly, and more economical to operate and easier to maintain than today's trainers. * * • Public support for space could be generated more easily, and paid back much earlier, if automatic orbiting factories were producing drugs and electronics for everyday use, Earth- observation platforms were policing the environ ment and pocket telephones were linked by satellite. What is needed is a trucking service using reliable rockets to boost customer pay- loads, "big or small, at affordable prices. • * * This is not just an idle exercise. There is a common theme running through these projects and it is that government support — financial or political, direct or indirect — could make it a great deal easier for industry to pursue any one them. Judicious use of tax-payers' money today could help ensure that there are wage-earners — and tax-payers — tomorrow. D FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 12- 18 February, 1992
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