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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 1375.PDF
MR TRANSPORT Regional recession hits Saab BY FORBES MUTCH IN LINKOPING Up to 1,600 workers at Saab Aircraft have been put on a reduced working week as orders for the company's Saab 340 slump in the growing depression of regional airliner markets. Final discussions are still being conducted between Saab management and the unions, but it is thought that staff on the Saab 340 assembly-line at Linkoping will have their work ing week cut from five to four days. The move is not expected to affect production of the new Saab 2000 50-seat regional tur boprop, which is carried out at the same factory. The 300th Saab 340 was handed over in May to Express Airlines, a Northwest Airlink op erator, leaving a backlog of 66 Saab 340s still on firm order. The last of these will not be required until 1994, however, and Saab-Scania president Lars Kylberg says that 20 to 25 new Saab 340 and Saab 2000 orders are needed this year to cover manufacturing capacity in 1993. The Saab 2000 flew for the first time in March, and is ex pected to be in full production by October 1993. The company has 46 firm orders for the 2000, Saab needs 25 new orders to cover manufacturing capacity in 1993 with another 148 on option, although it is unlikely that any of the options will be converted before the aircraft is certificated towards the end of 1993. The latest cutbacks have come at the same time as production at Saab Aircraft undergoes a radical streamlining designed to halve lead times and cut costs. The new concept, which the company describes as "lean pro duction", should see throughput times for the Saab 340 and the 2000 fall by 50% through a mix of more efficient assembly rou tines, increased flexibility and "the elimination of non-value- adding activities", says produc tion manager Hakan Andersson. The number of assembly sta tions at the Linkoping plant will be cut to four, and the produc tion time for each aircraft will fall from 32 to 20 days initially, before dropping to 16 days by the end of 1994. Despite the streamlining, the company hopes to be producing 80 com mercial aircraft a year by 1995. Meanwhile, the cost-reduction programme continues. Another 500 jobs are to go over the next six months, mainly from the commercial aircraft operations, following the pensioning off of 232 employees during 1991. Saab has divided the aircraft manufacturing group into three autonomous divisions — Saab Military Aircraft, Saab Aircraft and Saab Service Partner — to gether employing about 6,900 people. The military aircraft di vision will be largely unaffected by the changes. • APU makers line up for MD-12 bids Two auxiliary power unit (APU) makers, Allied Signal Aerospace's Garrett APU divi sion and Pratt & Whitney Can ada (P&WC), expect to bid for the next major air transport competition, the McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-12, during the third quarter of 1992. Both are preparing to offer variants of existing high-power units: Garrett has a development of the GTCP331-500, which will fly on the Boeing 777, and P&WC a variant of the PW901A used on the Boeing 747-400. Garrett vice-president of sales and marketing Steve Loranger says: "MDC is under way with the product definition process, and we expect that to continue into the third quarter of 1992, at which point the competition will begin- and a deadline will be set for around December." Loranger adds that Garrett is focusing attention on the -331- 500 [which was also proposed to MDC for the trijet MD-12 ver sion]. "For the baseline configu ration there's no change, and as far as the growth is concerned we're looking at possible materi als and cooling changes and a different output from the load compressor," he says. P&WC is studying major de sign changes to its 901A design for the MD-12 proposal. APU products vice-president Bill An derson says: "The gas generator (of the new APU) will be ex tremely close in design to the A. We're doing a unit in the third quarter which will pull together elements of our research pro gramme, and some of these ele ments will be to demonstrate concepts that fit into the MD-12. "In general, we expect the MD-12 to need a smaller APU than the 747-400; on the other hand, the power requirements are growing as theN aircraft grows. We can provide 20% more power without any strain." Proposed changes outlined so far include a direct drive J. from the shaft, which eliminates the gearbox, and a reverse to the rotational direction of one of the spools so that both shafts spin in the same direction. • Irish Government asks EC to fund aircraft purchase The Irish Government has asked the European Com munity to use structural funds to grant aid for the purchase of new aircraft. The proposal, re cently submitted to Brussels, in volves using European Commu nity money to provide grants of up to 50% of the cost of new aircraft being bought by Irish- based companies. Community members are not allowed to use structural funds to buy mobile assets, but Dublin is arguing that an exception should be made because of rela tive remoteness of Ireland from the rest of Europe. A similar Irish proposal was refused by Brussels in 1991, but Irish Government sources are confident that they can over come European objections this time. The sum requested has not been revealed. The move follows suggestions by Guiness Peat Aviation (GPA) chairman Tony Ryan that Shan non Airport should establish a link with Europe. Ryan says that it would help counter Ireland's isolation from Europe if an airbridge was estab lished with a location within 3h driving distance of the major European markets. The service, which would cost about Ir£60 million ($99 million) a year to run, could be set up "within a couple of months", he claims, adding that GPA aircraft would be available at "bargain cost". • NEWS IN BRIEF IRISH INTERIORS The US company C&D Interi ors is investing $11 million in a new site at Shannon Airport on the west coast of Ireland. The programme is being sup ported by Irish Government aid. The company, to be known as C&D Ireland, will take over two contracts from its parents: the manufacture of Airbus A330/A340 over head storage bins and of side- wall, floor and ceiling panels for the BAe 146. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 June, 1992 11
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