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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0964.PDF
ROMANIA Romaero aims for FAA approval for its maintenance centre he adds. Romaero will become a Lockheed- Martin authorised repair station, and Dini- schiotu hopes that it will also interest Middle Eastern customers attracted by Romaero's rela tively convenient location. MAINTAINING HOPE Romaero says that it also intends to push for the contract to maintain the Romanian air force's new fleet of Lockheed Martin C-13 0 Hercules transport aircraft. The air force has already taken delivery of four ex-US Air Force C-13 OBs and the defence ministry says that it is planning a follow-on order for an unspecified number of C-13 OHs in tanker and transport roles, and pos sibly an airborne-early-warning version. Romaero already maintains Boeing 707s and 727s for international customers such as C-S Aviation, Omega Air and Tarom; BAC One- Elevens for Jaro International, Romavia and Tarom, and it still carries out maintenance on Soviet-built Antonov An-2 4s and An-2 6s oper ated by the Romanian military. Key production programmes include wing and fuselage subassemblies for the Boeing 737 and 7 5 7, which the company has been manufac turing since 1994. Romaero expects more 737 work once Tarom places an expected order for four 737-700s and four -800s, now awaiting Government clearance. The company also hopes that its manufactur- The company wants to draw more international customers to its Bacau base ing work for Canadair will eventually include die entire CL-415 fuselage, ratJier than just die cockpit section now being built in Bucharest. Dinischiotu adds that the company also has an agreement with Israel Aircraft Industries for the manufacture of jigs and tools for the Israeli Astra Galaxy business jet. Having manufactured 540 Islanders for Pilatus Britten-Norman since 1969, Romaero believes that there is still potential for a further 160-200 aircraft over the next decade, boosted by the new Defender 4000 surveillance and patrol version of the aircraft, which won its first sale - to the Irish police - in December. Dinischiotu predicts that this version will account for 12 to 15 out of about 18 aircraft expected to be produced annually from now on. Until now, Romaero has been producing sub assemblies for the Defender 4000, but is due to move to full production in September. CHANGING FORTUNES As recently as 1993, 80% of Romaero's work was for the domestic market, with 20% for export. Now, the situation has been reversed, with 78% of Romaero's work going abroad. It claims "with some pride" that it has no debts, and has been modestly, but increasingly, profitable for four years. According to Dinischiotu, 1996 turnover amounted to about $55-60 million-22% upon 1995-with a prof it margin of 7%, compared with 5.2% in 1995. Romaero is now aiming to achieve ISO 9000 certification in the third quarter of this year, and the company hopes it will be an increasingly attractive potential partner and subcontractor, combining quality with low labour costs. It believes that it will be able to keep this edge over other Eastern European manufacturers for at least a decade as the Romanian economy develops. By this time, it should have estab lished itself in long-term international partner ships, and found a niche in what will no doubt be a radically changed global industry J Fishbed facelift Romania, in a partnership with Israel, is upgrading its MiG-21 fleet ANDREZEJ JEZIORSKI/BACAU AFAMILIAR, DELTA-WINGED dart descends to a smooth landing at Aerostar's Bacau base, with the Carpathian moun tains forming a hazy backdrop to this once improbable scene. It would have been unthink able as recently as seven years ago that a Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (NATO code- name "Fishbed") - the most widely-used fight er the Soviet Union ever produced - should be fitted with state-of-the-art avionics and weaponry from Israel. Yet this has become the Romanian air force's way of maintaining a cred ible, affordable, fighter force into the 21st cen tury, and it is Romanian manufacturer Aerostar's way of striking up industrial links which could prove the key to its own future. Aerostar was established in 1953 as the URA - a repair and overhaul base for Romanian air force Yakovlev Yak-18s and Yak-23s, and later also for the MiG-15 and MiG-17. Other types still maintained by the company include the Ilyushin 11-28 and its Chinese-built equivalent, the Harbin H-5, and the Czech-built Aero Vodochody L-29 and L-39 jet trainers. The company says that it has also manufac tured some 1,700 Yak-5 2 primary trainers since licensed series production began in 1979. In 1989, over 150 were produced in Bacau: orders for this year are down to a little over 20. Plans for a Lycoming engine-powered version aimed at the Western market have been abandoned as too expensive, and Aerostar says that produc tion of the aircraft is now coming to an end. FISHBED-FRIENDLY The key programme at Bacau is that of the MiG-21. Aerostar technical director Grigore Filip claims that the company is the only one in the world which offers overhaul services for all variants of this aircraft type and, as such, is in a strong position to take on upgrades. There certainly seems to be strong potential for work: about 12,000 MiG-2 Is were manu- 28 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 9 - 15 April 1997
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