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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0031.PDF
'UJ12!iJ\3'f3 customers come forward. To date, only a handful of airlines, with British Airways at the fore, have expressed an interest, but in the long term, the auguries look good. Around 40% of expenditure over the next 20 years is expected to be on aircraft of 747-400 size or above. Airbus continues to study the A3XX large airliner. As a new project, the A3XX should be able to offer the advantage of direct oper ating costs, although development costs will force Airbus to think hard about a launch. Boeing will also step up studies into possi ble derivatives of its 757 and 767 during 1996. These will focus principally on stretched ver sions of both aircraft, but with a longer- ranger version of the 757 another possibility. Whether Boeing commits to full-scale development of these derivatives in 1996 seems less likely, at least until the new 737, 777 and 747 products are safely in service. Airbus has scheduled a stretched and pos sibly re-engined version of its A340, the -400, to become available to airlines around the year 2000, and this derivative is now the project most likely to be launched by the four-nation consortium in 1996. McDonnell Douglas must win new business for its MD-11 during 1996 if me type is to stay in production, and the company is studying stretched and longer-range versions to increase sales. Whether MDC can capitalise on its ini tial sales success with the just-launched MD-95 will also become evident in 1996. While airframe manufacturers study a host of new derivatives, the engine makers too will fol low with a range of new prospective products, possibly through industrial alliances. • Airline navigation KIERAN DALY/EDITOR AIR NAVIGATION INTERNATIONAL THEOPERATOR- 1 community will see only a little more of the future air-navigation sys tem (FANS) turn to reality during 1996, but, across the globe, a vast amount work will take place. That has to happen target dates for variou FANS are to be achie 1998. During those tw is due to see most of tl tures come to frui approaches and widespre navigation using satelli reduced separations; i dent surveillance (AJ and the extension of n services into remote ; oped airspace. In 199( amount of work is req putting the necessary i procedures into place. In North America, t wide-area augmentath is required to bring Ca approaches to most oi enhancing the global-p (GPS) in 1997. Clos< search on the propose mentation-system; an determining what the and little-understood cept should consist of .4 i 1 M • 1 MKT -T-JrJB W of development Waiting for satellites to come if the numerous Elsewhere in the world, civil-aviation s elements of the authorities (CAAs) will have to acceler- ved in 1997 and ate their progress towards specifying o years the world procedures for those uses of GPS which te FANS' key fea- can be rapidly implemented. There is a tion: precision- gap between the capabilities of the GPS :ad primary-means and the legislation governing its pro- te-based systems; posed uses. lutomatic depen- Satellite-based procedures over the )S); datalinking; Pacific will become increasingly robust lodern air-traffic as more and more of the FANS gaps are md under-devel- plugged — with consequent reductions >, however, a vast in separation. aired to continue On the North Atlantic, however, a nfrastructure and tough task faces the regulators and oper ators if their target dates for reduced he priority is the vertical separation and ADS implemen- in-system, which tation are to be met. tegory I precision In China, there is a clear determina- the continent by tion by the authorities to press ahead ositioning system with airspace modernisation, and rapid ; behind are re- progress is expected there in 1996. The d local-area aug- same could be true of Russia where i the vast task of much hinges on the issuance (or not) of much-discussed the long-awaited tender for the mod- 'free-flight" con- ernisation of the Russian Far East, which in the real world, is due in the first quarter of the year. Defence DOUGLAS BARRIE/DEFENCE EDITOR EUROPE'S CLUTCH OFNEW-gener-ation fighter-aircraft programmes had less than a vintage year in 1995. Dassault's Rafale and the Eurofighter EF2000 have struggled with both technical and political concerns, while only the Saab Gripen, it seems, had a better year. Dassault starts 1996 still anxiously awaiting the outcome of the French Government's defence review, which could stretch, cut or delay the air force's Rafale procurement. The four nations involved in the EF2000 — Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK — appear to have put the worst of their funding battles behind them, however, having finally signed the re-orientation memorandum of under standing, albeit after 12 months of bickering. The programme starts the new year with the way clear for production investment, once the issue of workshare is resolved. At a techni cal level, the EF2000 flight-test programme is beginning to gather pace, with the results so far deemed to be favourable. Looking east, serious question marks remain over Mikoyan's fifth-generation fight er, the Article 1.42. While both the Rafale and EF2000 are likely to survive their political and funding battles, it is possible that the Russian offering may end up only as a tech nology demonstrator, should it ever be flown. USA FORGES AHEAD Meanwhile, in the USA, Lockheed Martin is pushing ahead with the F-22 programme, with manufacture of the first development aircraft now under way. The USA's other main fighter manufacturer, McDonnell Douglas, flew the first F-18E/F in late 1995. This programme will provide a stable produc tion run for the company over the next two decades. It also received a badly needed fillip when the US Department of Defense recom mended that more C-17s, rather than a com mercial airframe alternative, be purchased to meet military-lift requirements. Boeing, Lockheed Martin and McDonnell Douglas are now focusing their efforts on the Pentagon's Joint Advanced Strike Technology demonstrator project. With an eventual requirement of about 3,000 aircraft, the prize is enormous. Two concept-demonstrator contracts are due to be let in 1996. In their wake, it will be no surprise to see the team compositions change. Lockheed Martin and Boeing, for instance, have already opened and closed talks on teaming. If one of the two is not select ed to go forward, then discussions are like- • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 January 1996 29
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