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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0007.PDF
HEADLINES Citation X (top) and JPATS Citationjet debuts rounded off Cessna's year Cessna notches up first-flight double Cessna flew not one, but two, new aircraft in the closing days of 1993. The com pany's contender for the US Air Force/Navy Joint Primary Air craft Training System (JPATS), Model 526 JPATS Citationjet, was flown for the first time on 20 December. A day later, the first prototype Model 750 Cita tion X high-speed business jet had its maiden flight. Cessna's JPATS contender is based on the Citationjet small business jet and shares the aircraft's Williams Rolls-Royce FJ44 (military designation F129) turbofans and natural- laminar-flow wing. The aircraft has a new tandem-seating fuse lage and revised tail with low- set horizontal stabiliser. Cessna plans to certificate the aircraft to civil Federal Aviation Rules Part 23 by mid- May, in time for the JPATS fly-off evaluation. The JPATS Citationjet is the only US de sign — and the only twin- engined trainer — among seven confirmed contenders for the 766-aircraft, $6-7 billion contract, expected to be awarded by early 1995. The Citation X is Cessna's largest aircraft and the fastest business jet yet designed, with a projected maximum speed of Mach 0.9 based on the power of two Allison Engines AE3007 (formerly GMA3007) turbo- fans. The first flight had been delayed, and the aircraft was flown unpainted to get it air borne by the end of 1993. • Martin Marietta to buy GD Space Martin Marietta has signed a definitive agreement to buy the General Dynamics Space Systems division for $209 million in cash. The sale has been approved by the boards of both US firms, but it still faces a US Government anti-trust review. Martin Marietta expects it to be com pleted by 30 April, however. The acquisition does not include real estate, worth about $50 million. If the sale does not win federal approval, Martin Marietta will pay $10 million to GD in lieu of completing the transaction. Norman Augustine, Martin Marietta's chairman and chief executive, says that the deal allows his company to enter the intermediate-launch-vehi cle market, with GD's Atlas booster, and the high-energy upper-stage market, through the Centaur programme. Mar tin Marietta builds the Titan rocket and refurbishes Titan 2 missiles for US Air Force and NASA launches, but pulled out of the commercial launcher business in 1992. It also builds the external tank for the Space Shuttle. The GD space unit recorded sales of $500 million in 1992, with a backlog of about $2.5 billion. It employs 3,700. Martin Marietta's strategy is to grow, despite Pentagon cutbacks, while GD has adopted the opposite strategy. It has sold its tactical-aircraft, missile, electronics and com mercial-aircraft operations, leaving only armoured-vehicle and submarine production. • Maersk to launch 737-X in Europe Maersk Air is to become the first European operator of the Boeing 737-X, after signing a memorandum of understand ing (MoU) with the US firm. The MoU covers six 737- 300Xs (the middle-size mem ber of the next-generation 737) plus six of the same type, subject to re-confirmation. The Danish independent air line says: "The MoU will serve as the outline for a definitive agreement expected to be signed early next year [19941". The first aircraft is scheduled to be delivered in late 1997. Maersk has also ordered two 737-300s, for 1995 delivery, in a deal worth $72 million. The 737-X was launched in November, with an order from Southwest Airlines for 63, with a further 63 on option. • DASA baulks at Eurofighter split BY DOUGLAS BARRIE As part of a controversial re-jig of management re sponsibility on the Eurofighter 2000 digital flight-control sys tem (DFCS), GEC-Marconi may take a share of the finan cial risk of the development. It is understood that the move would see British Aero space, Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) and GEC-Marconi sharing DFCS management equally, as well as the financial risk should there be over spending. The change is being strongly resisted by DASA. The German company has system-design responsibility (SDR) for DFCS development, with GEC-Marconi Avionics (GMAv) as a prime subcontrac tor. Serious problems have been the main contributory fac tor in a two-year delay to the Eurofighter 2000 first flight. To retain control of DFCS development, DASA is offering to relinquish equipment-design responsibility on the ECR90 multi-mode radar. DASA claims: "There will be no shifting of the flight- control-system SDR to any body." While a DASA technical director may still sign off the SDR-clearance document, Eurofighter and GMAv officials say that managerial authority will not remain with DASA. GEC sources suggest that, while it is interested, the "...legal and contractual impli cations are a bit tricky. We've got grave reservations about how this split will be done. There are parts of the system which GEC is not involved in, so the whole thing has got to be looked at very carefully." Such a move would almost certainly require the approval of GEC chairman Arnold Weinstock. Even if GEC does not become involved, a 50-50 split between BAe and DASA will still be.pushed through, sources say. • See feature, PI 9. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 January, 1994 5
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