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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0871.PDF
compatibility with existing airport hand ling capabilities. The major problem areas are expected to be runway, taxi-way and apron sizes. Meredith adds: "Environmental problems are becoming an increasingly important consideration for virtually all airports to take into account as they develop and implement their plans for dealing with expanding capacity. Legitimate environ mental concerns must be balanced against the need for greater capacity if there is to be any possibility of expanding existing airports, let alone building new ones." . Some airports are already stretched to the limit, operating the 64.31m span of the Airbus is examining several plans, one of which is a "double-bubble" 600-700-seater Boeing 747-400 which, for that reason, added winglets to its wingtips in preference to increasing the span when it upgraded from the -300. Having to cope with the flow of 400 arriving and departing passengers per flight also imposes a burden on the airport infrastructure. FOLDING WINGS Boeing offers its 60.25m-span 777 twinjet with folding wings, making it compatible with existing medium-capacity widebody ramps, although none of the carriers which have ordered the aircraft to date has opted for this. Folding wings are under examina tion as part of the 747X study. Richard Everett, director of strategy of BAA, the owner of London's and Scotland's major airports, says: "Clearly, from the airports' point of view the wingspan is the key issue. We've got 85m [span] contin gency plans at Heathrow and at Stansted we've got 85m as well. In terms of the desirability, a solution which puts passen gers onto existing wingspans would be the best solution." Airport compatibility is thus a major factor in the design of the new aircraft. Airbus says: "In an ideal world, airlines would like the UHCA to be the same physical size, or not much bigger than, the Boeing 747, so as to ensure airport compat ibility. This implies either more seats abreast than in current designs, or some kind of double-deck arrangement. Airbus discussed several possible fuselage cross- sections with airlines, without proposing specific aircraft configurations." Airlines have shown definite interest in buying an aircraft seating 700 passengers in a three-class cabin, according to research by Airbus Industrie into carrier needs early in the new century. Deutsche Airbus forecasts that "...the trend towards widebody aircraft .will con tinue. The average size of aircraft, which is 185 seats today, will grow to -250 seats at the end of 2011. The large, twin-aisle aircraft will make up 45% of the 13,400 deliveries in numbers of aircraft but 65% of the total $770 billion potential sales value." The successors to the current or almost- ready Airbus A330/340s, Boeing 747-400s and McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-lls will seat between 350 (747 size) and possibly as many as 1,000 passengers. Possible methods available to the manu facturers are stretches or double-deck ver sions of current designs, vertical or horizontal "double-bubble" cross-section fuselages (Airbus is even investigating the feasibility of a "clover-leaf fuselage cross- section), or a flying-wing-type design. Aircraft concepts and designs under eval uation include: Airbus' UHCA, dubbed the A350; three designs under study by Boeing as part of the 747-X programme (a 747-400 stretch, -400 double deck and a new dou ble-deck design); and several widely varied possibilities for MDC's MD-12. Airbus is examining innovative aircraft designs, such as a partial or true "flying wing". With such a design, the ratio of internal volume to external dimensions is higher than that on more conventional aircraft. All three manufacturers are exam ining the double-deck concept. Senior sources on MDC's still closely guarded MD-12 programme say of their double-deck studies: "It's quite serious. Again, it is part of the final evaluation that we are going through. We are looking favourably at a double-deck aeroplane, be cause it is very efficient. It's shorter in overall length than the 747, and therefore would be operationally easier to accommo date at airports." Increased size will reduce the manufac turing cost per seat of the new aircraft, and the operating cost per seatAm. Airbus says it has "...set the target of 15% better direct operating costs per seat/km than [those of] the 747, which would be achieved through advances in airframe and engine technology." An all-new Boeing double-deck widebody would have di- Continued on P 26 Ovoid Circular Horizontal double-Bubble Clover-leaf Deutsche Airbus A2000 © Reed Business Publishing Medium-haul business class Potential Airbus UHCA cross-sections FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1- - 7 April, 1992 23
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