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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0176.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT NEWS IN BRIEF • ALLIANCE LAUNCHED Austrian Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Sabena and Swissair, will start their Atlantic Alliance programme on 1 February, harmonising reservation, sharing income and streamlining fare poli cies. On 15 May, Sabena will inaugurate codeshared scheduled services from Brussels to Cincinnati, Ohio. Delta will restructure its operations at Frankfurt (Germany), and add services to six European cities by the end of June. Delta will dis continue inter-European services from Frankfurt to six cities and stop transatlantic service to Frankfurt from three US cities. • AIR TRANSAT L-1011-500S The second of two ex-TAP Air Portugal Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 500s was delivered in mid-January to Canadian-based charter operator Air Transat under a deal brokered by Fortis Aviation. Air Transat oper ates services on behalf of tour company GlobeSpan and will use die TriStars on non-stop services to Europe alongside its fleet of ten shorter-range TriStars and seven Boeing 757-200s. TAP is phasing out its TriStars and introducing Airbus A340-300s. • AVTECHMD-95 Seattle-based Avtech has been selected by McDonnell Douglas to supply a digitally controlled audio system which will manage flightdeck communications. The Av tech system uses the compa ny's proprietry databus for control functions between the audio control panels and a remote mounted audio man agement unit. • TAIWAN FREIGHT FedEx has reached agree ment with Taiwan to build its own express freight tranship ment centre at Taipei's CKS International Airport. An-38 production at Novosibirsk THE SECOND AND THIRD OF Antonov's 26- seat An-38 regional airliners are in final assembly at the Novosibirsk plant in southeastern Russia. The second aircraft (pictured) is the first to be equipped with the Russian Omsk TVD-20 turboprop engines, and is expected to join the flight-test pro gramme this year. The first An-38 was flown in June 1994, equipped with AlliedSignal Engines TPE331 engines and is now undergoing cold- weather trials in northern Russia. Options have been received from an undisclosed Indian airline. MDC/NASA pursue X-plane GRAHAM WARWICK/WASHINGTON DC MCDONNELL DOUGLAS (MDC) and NASA are working on a proposal for an X- plane programme in which a manned, quarter-scale model of the company's blended wing-body (BWB) airliner design would be flight tested. Officials say that the project is continuing, although it is not known whether it will survive Boeing's acquisition of MDC. MDC senior fellow Dr Robert Liebeck says that company presi dent Harry Stonecipher has a "handshake agreement" with NASA Administrator Dan Goldin to pursue the blended wing-body X-plane programme, struck before MDCagreedtoBoeing's$13.3 bil lion take-over bid. The programme, costing about $100 million, would involve two quarter-scale models of MDC's BWB-1-1 design. The full-scale airlinerwould carry 800 passengers 13,000km (7,000nm) atMach 0.85, powered by three 275kN (62,0001b)-th'rust very-high-by pass turbofans, and would have a wingspan of 85.3m and a maximum take-off weight of 3 73,300kg. Liebeck says that plans call for a first flight within 30 months, with external lines and aerodynamic loads defined by the end of the year. Low-speed vvindtunnel test ing is to begin in February, and high-speed testing in April, both at NASALangley. A 5.2m-span remotely piloted model of the BWB-1-1 is sched uled to be flown by Stanford University in March. To reduce costs, MDC is proposing using the cockpit tub and systems of a two-seat F/A-18, including fly-by-wire flight con trols, as the basis for the blended wing-body X-plane. The primary engine candidates are three 30kN Pratt & Whitney Canada PW306 turbofans, Liebeck says. The X- plane will have a range of 20,500km, and xMDC is proposing using the aircraft to set a one-stop round-the-world record. The aim of the programme will be to demonstrate the Blended wing- body design's transonic perfor mance and flying qualities, he says. Before the Boeing take-over bid, Liebeck says, Douglas Aircraft had asked whether service-entry of a blended wing-body airliner could be accelerated from the planned 2010-2020, to 2005, but the pro ject's future is now uncertain, he admits. MDC's three-year NASA- supported study has shown that the BWB-1-1 would be 27.5% more fuel-efficient than a conventional 800-seat design. MDC is now working on an 82m-span, 600-seat blended wing- body airliner. Although the design range is 13,000km, Liebeck says that the aircraft "can make money" at 3,700km range, and 400 seats, which could allow one airframe size to meet the requirements of today's stretched and "shrunk" ver sions of conventional aircraft. • British Mediterranean continues partner search BRITISH Mediterranean Airways (BMed) is working to overcome the failure of its planned franchise agreement with British Airways by instigating the expan sion plans originally envisaged as part of the link-up Flight International, 18-24 September 1996, P9), and is continuing its search for a new airline partner. Des Hetherington, BMed's chief executive, refutes suggestions that there was a hidden agenda behind BALs on-off courtship, say ing that time constraints only pre vented the airline meeting all the standard BA franchise conditions in time for it to link up on BAs win ter 1996/97 schedule. Lord Hesketh, the airline's chairman, believes that the only sensible way for a small airline to grow is to link with a major carrier. Hesketh does not indicate in which direction BMed's search for a part ner is headed, but there are indica tions that the door has been left open for new discussions with BA. BMed intends to initiate its pre viously proposed expansion in the coming months, either with or without a partner. These plans include additional destinations in the Middle East, and the acquisi tion of a second Airbus A3 20. New routes are expected to include Bishkek in Kyrgyzia, Tbilisi in Georgia, Alexandria in Egypt and the Uzbekistan capital Tashkent. The airline is also still planning to serve points in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. • 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 22 - 28 January 1997
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