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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0526.PDF
Mm mMIMSm^mw Nepal looks to modernise fleet NEPAL'S FLEDGLING air line industry is looking for more modern aircraft, in response to market deregulation, growing competition and new regulations forcing the retirement of older equipment. The number of fixed-wing Nepali carriers has grown to four since deregulation ofthe country's domestic services in 1992. State- run Roval Nepal Airlines (RNAC) is now forced to compete with new comers Everest Air, Necon Air and Nepal Airways. While RNAC for now retains a monopoly on international routes, the Government is initiating moves to revise its bilateral air-services agreement with neighbouring India. Proposals include increasing capacity, adding new carriers and opening up regional destinations. Nepal's airlines are also being encouraged to re-equip their fleets by a Department of Civil Aviation order requiring the withdrawal from service of aircraft more than 20 years old. The age rule is due to come into force within two years. RNAC is planning to replace its last two surviving British Aerospace 748s over to next 18 months, according to corporate director T P Gauchan. The airline is looking for a medium-range 50-seat aircraft, offering high performance and the ability to operate from Nepal's 1,200m (4,000ft )-long airstrips. The flag carrier's more immedi ate priority is to find a replacement aircraft for its single leased Airbus A310-300, due to be returned to General Electric Capital in May. It has issued a request for tender for a 200-seat aircraft to be either wet- or dry-leased for a period of two and/or five years. Everest is negotiating with Saab to lease-purchase two 340As. The turboprops are needed to supple ment the carrier's unpressurised Dornier 228s and compete against 748s on lucrative scenic mountain flights. Everest wants the first air craft now and a second by August, says chief executive R P Pradhan. Necon will probably opt for sec ondhand Fokker 50s as replace ments for its three 748s, suggests chairman Anoop Rana. • US Air Force icing tanker test results with the EMB-120 were less severe than expected EMB-120 cleared for flight in icing EMBRAER'S EMB-120 Brasilia regional turboprop has been cleared for flight in supercooled large-droplet (SLD) icing, without modification, following a series of ground and flight tests. The tests were required by the US Federal Aviation Administration following the October 1994 crash of an ATR 72, caused by SLD icing. The FAA required manufactur ers of all regional aircraft with pneumatic de-icing boots and mechanical flight-controls to test for roll-control problems caused bv severe icing. High-speed taxi tests were required with ice shapes attached to the wing leading-edges ahead of die ailerons, but Embraer elected to flight-test, says engineering direc tor Luis Affonso. The test flight in October 1995 revealed aileron control-forces "slightly higher" than the 27kg limit set by the FAA, he says, although the aircraft was fully con trollable and was landed safely even after the wooden ice-shape on one side was jettisoned intentionally to simulate die worst icing conditions. Because of the control forces encountered, Embraer elected to conduct in-flight icing tests with the EMB-120, using the US Air Force's Boeing NKC-135A icing tanker. Whereas die exaggerated, 25mm-high, shapes used in die ini tial tests were "conservative", the Large-droplet icing causes ice formation at the blade roots icing tests would produce real shapes, Affonso says. Normal small-droplet and supercooled large-droplet icing tests were conducted and resulted in much less coverage of die wing span, widi "very few" 25mm peaks, he says. Using these results, new ice shapes were made and flight-tested and aileron forces of 18-2 7kg mea sured. "These were still very con servative tests," Affonso says. Tanker tests also enabled Em braer to identify visual cues to warn of SLD icing. In normal icing, Affonso explains, ice forms on the forward part ofthe propeller spin ner, while in SLD icing, the ice forms further back, near the blade roots. "If you see ice on the spinner, then it is on die wing," he warns. Affonso says that Embraer's EMB-110 Bandeirante was cleared for flight in severe icing after high speed taxi tests. • ARIA prepares to expand Shannon hub PAUL DUFFY/SHANNON THE AEROFLOT Russian International Airlines (ARIA) hub, set up at Shannon in the west of Ireland in 1995 to transfer Rus sian and CIS airline passengers to transatlantic services to the USA, is to be expanded to take in more air lines and routes. Set up last May, the hub had brought 20,000 passengers through Shannon from St.Petersburg, Minerane Vody and Minsk in the CIS and Bratislava in Slovakia to transfer to ARIA transatlantic ser vices by the end of 1995. The hub has enabled airlines such as Pulkovo Airlines of St.Petersburg to report that it had stemmed the flow of transatlantic Kavkazstse Mineralye Vody is one of several carriers using the Shannon hub passengers travelling via Helsinki. Belavia, Kavkazsktse Mineralnye Vody and Aeroflot also serve Shannon from the east. With all routes (except Min eralnye Vody's service) "profitable", other former Aeroflot carriers are planning to join the hub by the start ofthe 1996 summer season. These include Kaliningrad, Sibir (of Novosibirsk), Air Moldova and some airlines serving Ukrainian cities. ARLA's westward flights tied into the hub will include services to Havana from summer 1996. It also expects to begin a Shannon-Antalya (Turkey)-Moscow service shortly. Nikolai Lebedev, ARIA'S deputy commercial director, says that the success ofthe operation has led die airline to look at other hub prospects outside Russia. Q 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 6 - 12 March 1996
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