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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 2409.PDF
• ]*J\-£JUN23 USAir talks -95s MD-ll freighters have already been successfully used by other airlines the first new MDC aircraft for Lufthansa since it bought DC-lOs in the 1970s. Firm MD-ll orders stand at 180, with 154 delivered. The freighter version is increasingly popular, with orders now totalling 3 8 from operators such as EVA Air of Taiwan and US paresis-carrier FedEx. • Scientists lose faith in Ariane 5 managers after 'betrayal' TIM FURNISS/FARNBOROUGH EUROPEAN SPACE Agency (ESA) scientists have been "betrayed" by management mis takes which resulted in the failure of the first Ariane 5 launch in June, according to Roger Bonnet, the head of the agency's space-pro grammes office. Bonnet says that the official enquiry board into the accident shows that programme manage ment was faulty. "We have lost faith in the Ariane 5. If the processes dic tated by the board are not correct ed, we will not launch on Ariane 5 again," he says. The launch failure resulted pri marily from the Ariane 5 being flown with an Ariane 4 dual iner- tial-reference system which had not been not tested for use on the new booster. Four ESA Cluster sci ence satellites worth more than $500 million were lost in the Ariane 5 accident. John Creland, the Cluster pro ject manager, says that manage ment refused to sanction a system test when it was decided to use the Ariane 4 equipment. Jean Marie Luton, ESA direc tor-general, says that a third Ariane 5 demonstration flight will now be needed before the vehicle is declared operational and handed over to Arianespace for commer cial use. Only two flights have been fund ed by ESA, and a third was to have been the first official Arianespace mission. As Arianespace has or dered the booster and ESA mem ber countries are balking at paying for another flight, the funding of the third ESA flight has become a controversial issue. • Augustine delivers anti-trust warning KEVIN O'TOOLE/FARNBOROUGH LOCKHEED MARTIN chief executive Norman Augustine has warned that rising prices and anti-trust barriers may begin to act as a drag on future consolidation in the US defence industry. "Consolidation of the defence industry is not yet over in the USA or in Europe," says Augustine, but adds that there are good opportu nities which are not being pursued because of rising acquisition prices. Prices are creeping back up above the level ofthe 1980s, when the defence build-up instigated by President Ronald Regan sent the value of US defence companies soaring. Companies are being sold at more than 100% of their sales revenues, while at the depth ofthe recession in the early 1990s the ratio had fallen to 25-50%. Augustine believes that there is still room for another couple of major mergers among the leading US groups, however. He also stands by earlier predictions of a visible upturn in US defence pro curement budgets by 1997/8. Lockheed Martin will now con centrate on consolidating after its own unprecedented merger and acquisition activity, he says. That will include the disposal of more than $1 billion worth of non-core businesses. The group has already announced the sale of its sizeable materials unit, which produces aggregates. The merger of Lockheed and Martin Marietta, which was announced at the time ofthe 1994 Farnborough air show and com- Augustine: ponders over consolidation pleted in March 1995, is close to securing the promised annual cost savings of $1.8 billion, says Augustine. The group is also more than half-way through its plan to integrate the Loral units acquired earlier this year. That should add another $800 million in savings. The savings are largely being passed on to customers, says Augustine. That translates roughly into a 10% price-saving across the $2 7 billion group. The cash coming into the group will initially be used to bring down debt levels, but Augustine says that Lockheed Martin may look to make investments in smaller de fence companies, or possibly make acquisitions or alliances with larger corporations which can take the group into new business areas. • Cruise-missile strikes on southern Iraq satisfy US officials PENTAGON officials say that they are "satisfied" with the success ofthe air and cruise-missile strikes carried out on 3 September in the southern Iraq no-fly zone, which -followed Iraqi military action against Kurdish safe havens in the north. Fourteen Hughes Tomahawk land-attack missiles (TLAMs) were fired from the destroyer USS Laboon and cruiser USS Shiloh in the Gulf. Two Boeing B-52Hs from the 2nd Bomb Wing were flown on a 34h round-trip mission from Guam to launch 13 Boeing AGM-86C conventional air-laun ched cruise missiles against 14 tar gets considered threats to the enforcement ofthe southern no-fly zone, which has been expanded. A second phase of Operation Desert Strike was initiated because battle-damage assessments of ini tial attacks were inconclusive. The second launch of 17 TLAMs from three Navy surface warships were against four ofthe original targets. Coalition aircraft, including US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16s and French air force Dassault Mirages, resumed their patrols. An F-16 was "painted" by a surface-to- air missile site, and attacked with a Texas Instruments high-speed anti-radiation missile. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11 - 17 September 1996 5
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