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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 2808.PDF
GENERAL AVIATION Grab seeks partner to finance GF200 launch ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI/MUNICH GERMAN COMPOSITE air craft manufacturer Burkhart Grob says that it may announce an investment partner to help launch its GF200 tourer this year. The company does not have the financial resources to proceed alone with the programme. While declining to name potential investors, small-aircraft develop ment manager Heinz Micheler says that an international partner ship is now under discussion, with the partner having design and production influence, depending on its share. Micheler says that certification and subsequent production are now likely only some two years after the aircraft's formal launch. Grob has been testing various propeller configurations on the four-seat, all-composite, pusher- driven aircraft and recently tested a three-blade propeller of its own design. According to Micheler, the new propeller has improved aerodynamics, with thicker blade- roots than conventional pro pellers, and reduces noise while increasing thrust. Ground tests are now under way on a 230kW (3 lOhp) water- cooled Teledyne Continental TSIOL-550 Voyager engine as an alternative to the 20SkW air- cooled Textron Lycoming TIO- 540 used in test flying to date. Micheler says that the water-cool ing system is easier to locate in the airframe than the air-cooling sys tem, which had been the source of some problems, leading to an intake redesign. Fuel consumption is marginally better than that of the TIO-540, says Michele, with a weight penal ty of "only" 20kg. Grob is proposing a family of four variants of the GF200: the basic, unpressurised, four-seater is to be joined by the pressurised, six-seat GF2S0 with a 260kW engine and a 2,000kg maximum take-off weight — 300kg heavier than its stablemate. The GF200 has a listed cruising speed of 226kt (420km/h), with the GF2S0 pre dicted to cruise at 232kt. The proposed GF300 and GF350 are pressurised, six-seat, turboprop variants of the aircraft to be powered by 313kW Allison engines. The GF300 will have a maximum take-off weight of 2,000kg, cruising at 240kt, while the twin-engined GF350 — with the engines mounted side-by-side in the fuselage, aft of the passenger compartment — is predicted to have a 2,400kg maximum take-off weight and cruise at 3 OOkt. • Micro wins Chieftain deal MODIFICATION KIT spe cialists Micro Aero- Dynamics has won US Federal Aviation Administration supple mentary type approval for a set of vortex generators on the Piper PA-31 350 Chieftain, which will allow gross weight to be increased by 167kg. The kit consists of 164 vortex generators mounted on the wing, just aft of the de-icing boot line, on both sides of the fin, and on the underside of the tailplane. It also includes four strakes mounted on the engine nacelles and provides better nose-up pitch audiority, says company president Charles White. The Anacortes, Washington- based company is also flight testing "Micro VG" kits on two other twins which White declines to identify. Since obtaining its first STC for a VG kit on a Beech Baron 55 in 1986, the firm has developed almost 20 kits for aircraft which range from the Piper J-3 Cub to the all the Cessna twins. As well as improving, or in some cases virtually eliminating minimum control speed (Vmc), Micro AeroDynamics says that the kits provide "a dramatic improvement in characteristics, reduced stall speeds and improved safety". • Hartzell provides step-up for Cessna 206 FLOATPLANE OPERATORS will be major beneficiaries of a Hartzell three-blade-propeller conversion which has been made available throughout the Cessna 206 range. The $6,995 kit helps floatplanes onto the "step" more quickly and improves initial climb performance, while also maintaining or improving cruise performance. A new supplementary type certificate adds all those 206 versions not covered by the initial certification. German budget delays police Huey upgrade BUDGET RESTRICTIONS are blocking the German bor der police, the Bundesgrenzschutz (BGS), from carrying out essential upgrades to its fleet of Bell Helicopter Textron UH-1D Huey helicopters. The BGS says that it needs to upgrade an initial batch of 13 of its 21 UH-lDs to UH-1HP Huey II standards by 1998, to meet European Joint Aviation Reg ulations (JARs) due to come into force that year, with the remain ing aircraft possibly to be refitted between 1998 and 2000. Officials say, however, that they have been unable to persuade the Gov ernment to make money available for this work in the BGS 1994 or 1995 budgets. The Huey fleet is used for a combination of border patrol and emergency-medical-service (EMS) duties, with eight UH-ls fitted as dedicated EMS aircraft. The force's future EMS role is in question, however, as the Federal Ministry of the Interior considers handing over all such duties to pri vate operators. Even if the BGS maintains its EMS role, the JARs' requirement that EMS helicopters should be twin-engined after 1998 will subsequendy exclude the Huey from this role. Each upgrade would cost around $2 million, and would provide the aircraft with a Textron Lycoming T53-L-703 engine, offering 28% additional take-off power and increasing payload by 309kg. A main-rotor system, simi lar to that of the Bell 212, is also part of the package, along with uprated transmission and a strengthened tail boom. The upgrade boosts the heli copter's hover ceiling at 4,763kg by 275% to 5,325ft and offers a 12-15% increase in maximum speed. Bell says that increased reliability and times between overhaul cut operating costs by 38%, and it predicts that opera tors will break even on the con version within five years if they fly 40h a month. The BGS will also shortly need to replace its fleet of 32 Aerospatiale Alouette training helicopters and its 2 3 Eurocopter BO. 105s. Under consideration as replacement for the BO. 105 are the BO. 105 CBS and the new Eurocopter EC. 135. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 16 - 22 November 1994 21
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