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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 0008.PDF
Sikorsky may accelerate S-92 HEADLINES NEWS IN BRIEF • TURKISH UPGRADE Turkey has selected a consor tium of Elbit, Israel Aircraft Industries and Singapore Aerospace to upgrade 48 Northrop F-5s. • KOREAN DOWNTURN Asiana Airlines and Korean Air are cutting over 20 inter national passenger and cargo services and reducing fre quencies on a number of domestic and international routes. South Korea's wors ening financial woes have also resulted in Air New Zealand and Qantas stopping services to Seoul. • EMBRAER ORDERS Trans States Airlines has firm orders for seven Embraer RJ145 regional jets and options on a further 18, an .application by the airline for slot exemptions at Chicago's O'Hare Airport has revealed. The St Louis-based carrier wants to serve three Ap palachian region cities from Chicago. First delivery of the aircraft would be in April. Meanwhile, Portugalia is increasing RJ145 orders from four to six. It also holds two options. • MALEV SALE Hungarian banks OTP and MKB have stepped in to acquire Alitalia's 30% stake in Malev for $65 million, the sale was a condition of Euro pean Commission approval of the Italian airlines recent state-aid injection. GRAHAM WARWICK/STRATFORD SIKORSKY IS coming under increasing pressure from potential customers to launch pro duction of its private-venture S-92 medium helicopter. The current plan calls for a production decision after the first flight, scheduled for September, but increasing interest in the aircraft could lead to a deci sion early in 1998, allowing deliv eries to begin in 2001. The S-92 programme was launched in 1995 as a five-aircraft development effort involving Sikorsky and risk-sharing partners Aero Industrial Development (Taiwan), Embraer (Brazil), Gam- esa (Spain)Jingdezhen Helicopter Group (China) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan). As sembly of the first two airframes at Sikorsky is well advanced. Although formal marketing has not begun, an unsolicited offer of the larger S-92 was presented as part of Sikorsky's H-60-based Maplehawk bid for Canada's search-and-rescue (SAR) heli copter contract. Portugal has a similar requirement and has been The S-92 ground-test vehicle (foreground) will be ready in March supplied with information on the S-92, says programme vice-presi dent Kenneth Kelly. Denmark has already expressed a preference for the S-92 to replace its Sikorsky S-61 SAR helicopters, he says. Sikorsky has provided S-92 briefings to the US Marine Corps squadron, which operates the US Presidential-transport S-6 Is; to the US Coast Guard, which is drawing up its long-range fleet will take delivery of two 380-seat, Pratt & Whitney PW4168A-pow- ered A330-200s in the first quarter of 2000. These will replace the smaller 767s on services to the Caribbean and the USA. The airline says that the 767s - which are leased by LIA's parent, Unijet, from ILFC - will be returned to the lessor when the A330s are delivered. LIA says that plan and to the US Air Force, for possible special-forces use on long- range combat-SAR missions. Kelly says diat die US Army has been briefed on S-92 im provements which could be used to upgrade its UH-60 Black Hawks. These include more-powerful General Electric CT7-8 turbo- shafts, uprated transmissions and all-composite rotor blades. Together, these would give the UH-60 a true 4,500kg hot-and- high lift capability, he says. The S-92 is being developed as a commercial 19-passenger heli copter, as well as a military utility- transport, and there is increasing interest in the aircraft from North Sea offshore-support operators, Kelly says. Together, these emerg ing requirements are increasing pressure on Sikorsky to accelerate a production decision, he believes. The first S-92, the ground-test article, is scheduled to be delivered to Sikorsky's West Palm Beach, Florida, flight-test centre in March. The following four aircraft will be used for flight testing, and commercial type-certification is planned for mid-2000. Q the A330s will be ordered directly from Airbus. Canada's Air Transat, based in .Montreal, has concluded a deal with ILFC for two Trent 772-powered A330-200s to be taken on five-year leases from February and April 1999. The aircraft, to be configured with 362 seats, will supplement and eventually replace the airline's Lockheed L-101 Is. • The country's currency has lost Charter airlines sign up A330-20I THREE LONG-haul charter airlines will introduce the Airbus A330-200 in 1999 and 2000, including UK carriers Air- tours International and Leisure International Airways (LIA), and Air Transat of Canada. Airtours, which selected the A3 30-200 some time ago to supple ment its Boeing 767-300ERs on long-haul charters (Flight Inter national, 24 December, 1997-6 January, P8) has concluded a deal to lease two Rolls-Royce Trent 772- powered A330-200s from Inter national Lease Finance (ILFC), for delivery in April and June 1999. The aircraft will be flown on routes from the UK to Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico and the USA. LIA, which, like Airtours, uses the 767 on its long-haul network, A330-200s to use on long-haul services Economic crisis delays Thailand F/A-18 purchase T HAILAND PLANS TO delay its purchase of eight Boeing F/A-18C/Ds by three years because of the country's economic crisis. A team from the Royal Thai Air Force plans to visit Boeing in mid-January in a bid to re-negoti ate the $392 million contract, signed in 1996, which now calls for delivery by 2000. Thailand wants to delay delivery to 2003. The country's currency has lost 45 % of its value against the US dol lar since July 1997, effectively dou bling the cost of the aircraft and forcing the air force to examine three options: cancelling the con tract; selling the aircraft to a third country; and delaying delivery. Air force commander-in-chief ACM Thananit Naimchin is reported as saying that cancellation would incur a termination penalty of $250 million, while no potential buyers for the aircraft have been identified. This leaves delaying delivery as the only option. Thailand wants to delay delivery so as to spread payments. The air force has paid almost S7 5 million so far, and is scheduled to pay $93 mil lion in 1998, but is reportedly seek ing to reduce that to $40 million. Production of the aircraft has begun and they are due for hand over to the US Navy in 1999. Q 6 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 January 1998
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