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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0185.PDF
HEADLINE® Pentagon blow to Sikorsky RAMON LOPEZ/WASHINGTON DC SIKORSKY'S AMBITIONS of selling UH-60 Black Hawks to the US Marine Corps, in a deal worth as much as $1.5 billion, have been dealt a serious blow by a rec ommendation from a senior De partment of Defense official that the USMC modernise its existing helicopter fleet instead. An aide to Paul Kaminski, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, rec ommends that the USMC stick with plans to modernise in-service Bell Helicopter Textron UH-lNs. George Schneiter, the Pen tagon's director for strategic and tactical systems, tells Kaminski in a memorandum seen by Flight Inter national that preliminary cost esti mates for the UH-60 and UH-1 utility helicopter options favour the UH-1N rebuilds. Schneiter says that he sees no reason to change the USMC's heli copter-modernisation plan. "I also do not feel it is necessary for you to be briefed further on this," Schneiter tells Kaminski. A briefing document on the Marine H-1 Upgrades Programme lists total procurement costs of as much as $1.55 billion for Black Hawks, against $912 million for the UH-1N upgrade project. Kaminski must soon determine the future of planned near-term US military procurements of UH- 60 Black Hawks, UH-lNs and AH-lWs. As part of die fiscal year 1997 defence budget, he must decide whether to tell the US Navy, US Air Force and USMC to join the US Army in procuring more UH-60s. USMC involvement is critical to die unsolicited proposal made by Sikorsky, but the USMC prefers a plan to modernise its fleet of age ing UH-1 Ns. 3 NEWS IN BRIEF • RYBINSK SALE Managers at Russia's Rybinsk Motor have suffered a set back in their legal battle to prevent a privatisation auc tion of the engine plant. Russia's supreme court has dismissed their argument that a Government order to float a 37% share in the plant was illegal because Rybinsk was still on the list of protect ed military industries. The managers plan to appeal. • BEA BUYS BURNS BE Aerospace has complet ed the acquisition of US air craft seating rival Burns Aerospace for $42.5 million in cash. Learjet chief quits Barents: departs LEARJET president Brian Barents has resigned unexpectedly. He has been replaced by Jim Robinson, the former president of AlliedSignal Engines, who joined Learjet in 1995 as exec utive vice-president, overseeing the business-jet maker's operations. Barents had been with Learjet since 1988, when the company was owned by Integrated Resources, and remained president after the company was acquired by Bom bardier in 1990. Learjet declines to comment, except to say: "He chose to resign." Bombardier acknowledges that Barents has played a "...major role in the revitalisation of the Learjet product line" since its take-over, with the launch of the Learjet 60 and 45. Learjet says that Robinson's focus will be on improving the company's competitiveness. Bar ents says: "It's now an appropriate time for others to take die company to die next plateau." The Canadian parent company is known to be concerned about delays in developing the Learjet 45. Learjet says that the programme is now making progress, with 75h fly ing accumulated on die first aircraft and a second expected to be flown in mid-February. US certification has been rescheduled for De cember, still enabling Learjet to meet its commitment to deliver air craft before January 1997. • GECAS may order up to 100A320s JULIAN MOXON/PARIS AIRBUS INDUSTRIE is set to secure between 60 and 100 orders and options for new nar- rowbody aircraft from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), ac cording to sources close to the negotiations (Flight International, 17-23 January). The order would follow on the heels of the huge deal with Boeing announced on 22 January, under which GECAS will buy up to 259 aircraft, including 20 current- model 737s and 82 next-genera tion 737s, with options for 76 fur ther 737-600s, -700s and -800s. In addition, the agreement gives GECAS the flexibility to buy another 76 new-model 737s. Added together with a deal for five GE90-powered 777 widebody twins, the potential value of the deal exceeds $4 billion. Reflecting on the GECAS com bination order for 737s and 777s, Airbus leasing markets vice-presi dent Christian Scherer says that the consortium is "very hopeful" of securing an order for four- engined A340s as well. "It's fair to say the order focus is on the A320 range, but we expect GECAS to follow the market trend." This could result in an order for between ten and 12 air craft, he says. Scherer throws cold water on speculation that the GECAS deal will spark a round of orders of a similar size from rival leasing companies, although he says that he expects several smaller deals to be signed in the near future. He adds that Airbus is unlikely to suffer from its lack of a com petitor to the Boeing 747, as it has in recent major airline orders. "The 747 is a very risky invest ment and has been disastrous for leasing companies," he says. About half of the forthcoming GECAS narrowbody order will be for 150-seat A320s, the rest being divided evenly between the A319 andA321. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 31 January - 6 February 1996
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