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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 3246.PDF
DUBAI SHOW REPORT Westland will take a look at resurrecting Egyptian Sea Kings GKN WESTLAND will send an evaluation team to Egypt in the first quarter of 1998 to exam ine grounded Sea King helicopters with the aim of bringing them hack to a flyable state. Egypt has some 30 Sea Kings, a mix of Mk47s, Mkl and Mk2 Commandos, VIP and electronic- warfare variants. It is not known how many are not airworthy. In the wake of the settlement of the dispute over die Arab Industrial Organization (AIO) - an abortive attempt to set up Lynx manufac ture in Egypt - Westland is again involved in supporting the Egyptian fleet and is beginning to provide maintenance and spares support. During the dispute between Westland and the MO, mainte nance for the aircraft was provided by the USA, with the Naval Air Station Pcnsacola carrying out the support work. The study will determine whether it is viable and affordable to put the helicopters back into the air. The UK manufacturer is also discussing with Egypt a variety of limited upgrade options for its Sea Kings, including avionics and nav igation updates. As well as its business with Egypt, Westland also continues to harbour ambitions of selling an anti-submarine-warfare (ASW) helicopter into the region to meet Saudi Arabian requirements. The Saudis, however, appear to have moved away from a possi ble purchase of the Kill01 Merlin derivative from EH Industries, a Wcstland-Agusta joint venture. The EH 101 offer has been under consideration for several years, but die Saudis are thought to have concluded that the capabili ties of the aircraft were consider ably more than its requirement. As a result, Westland has shifted its focus away from the Merlin, and is instead looking to address the ASW need with the Super Lynx 300. This variant is fitted with a digital cockpit and the LI ITEC T- 800 engine instead of the Rolls- Royce Gem. • Pakistan will press China on commitment to FC-1 and K-8 PAKISTAN'S PRIME minister will use a a forthcoming visit to Beijing to press the Chinese Government to make a firm com mitment to the planned new Chengdu FC-1 fighter and jointly developed Nanchang K-8 trainer. Islamabad is making an order for the FC-1 and K-8 conditional on the PLA Air Force (PLAAF) also committing to buying the two air craft in large numbers. The two programmes have suffered delays and are now in a state of limbo pending any firm development or production go-ahead from China. According to defence sources in Beijing, the two military pro grammes will be high on the agen da of Pakistan's prime minister, Nawaz Shariff, during his sched uled trip to China. The Pakistan air force has identified a clear require ment for both aircraft and wants to protect the two programmes from any further delay, but cannot afford to proceed with either without PLAAF support. Development of the AlliedSignal TFE731-2A-powered K-8, in which die Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) has a 25% stake, is complete. The Pakistan air force has finished evaluating six pre-pro duction series aircraft and is using them for training at its Risalpur academy. It hopes to order up to 100 jets to replace Cessna T-3 7 trainers. Nanchang, however, has been forced to re-engine the proposed Chinese K-8J version of the trainer with the Progress DV-2 turbofan, following the US Government's refusal to allow local licence pro duction of the TFE731. The modified Chinese K-8J ver sion has a wider and extended aft fuselage to accommodate the larg er Ukrainian powerplant, as well as a metric scale Rockwell Collins EFIS-86 cockpit display. China has already spent six months evaluating the K-8J, but has yet to order the aircraft beyond the initial pre-production batch of 15 aircraft. "A PLAAF decision is a very important factor and as soon as they decide on it, the pro gramme can take off," says PAC K- 8 director Jalal-ud-Din Sadiq. "Production of 200-250 jets would be a good number to break even." Pakistan has also been negotiat ing to take a 25-30% stake in the development of the single-engined FC-1 fighter, with China to pro vide the balance. It is planned to develop two versions of the fighter, with Pakistan wanting to equip the aircraft with a yet-to-be selected Western radar and avionics suite. The PLAAF variant would be fit ted with locally sourced systems. The FC-1 faces competition for Chinese funding from the more advanced Chengdu F-10 fighter and Xian FB-7 strike aircraft now under development, as well off- the-shelf purchases and planned licence manufacture of Sukhoi Su-27/Su-30MK Flanker. • Dubai joint venture is the first set up solely to operate Bell Boeing Tiltrotor aircraft Tiltrotor will be used to support oil-production operations DUBM IS TO play host to the first company in the world set up solely to operate the Bell Boeing 609 Tiltrotor aircraft. The company, Petroleum Tilt- rotors International, is a joint ven ture between Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Sheikh and an unnamed Dubai oil and gas sup port company. The Sheikh bought his first 609 at the Paris air show in June and has added a second aircraft at Dubai. The first delivery is set for the sec ond half of 2001. Bell Boeing now has 45 an nounced purchasers of the 609, which is due to have its first flight in mid-1999 and the first delivery about two years later. Petroleum Tiltrotors plans to acquire up to 15 aircraft by 2010. Aerogulf Services of Dubai will provide engineering support. • 34 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 26 November - 2 December 1997
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