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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 0003.PDF
FLIGHT International, 3 January 1974 3 summarised his company's outlook on the European aerospace industry at a press briefing last month in Bremen. Each country was producing its own aircraft, said Dr Knieper, glaring examples being the Fokker-VFW F.28, which was 50 per cent British, chal lenged by the HS.146: the VFW 614 challenged by the Mystere 30/40. "One can really and truly say that programme co-ordination could be more important than structural cor rections." On the military side, it was remarkable that the first common equipment choice by Nato's military co-ordinating Eurogroup was the American missile Lance. Observing that current co-operative programmes were "a patchwork of overlapping activities", which sapped the confidence of civil customers, Dr Knieper examined other possible branch of one company would form a joint subsidiary with the helicopter branch of another company, and so arrangements. Tn the "joint subsi diary" technique, the helicopter on for missiles, aircraft and other projects. The problem here was proli feration of companies and severe strain on management resources. Germany had firmly committed it self to conducting any future major programme only on international lines. Therefore, any notion of form ing monolithic national groups— French, British and German blocs— would see the small German entity invariably worsted. In any case, nationalised Aerospatiale was difficult to merge with and UK companies were too strong to be much interested in mergers. DC-9-50s for Spantax The Spanish charter and scheduled- service airline Spantax has ordered two DC-9-50s for delivery in late 1975, as well as two second-hand DC- 9-10s for delivery this month. All five aircraft will be used for services within Spain as well as internation ally. At present the airline operates two DC-8-61s, seven Convair 990s, six DC-7s, two DC-6s, two DC-3s and a Twin Otter. Spantax is the third carrier to buy the 139-seat DC-9-50; Swissair has ordered ten and Austrian Airlines has ordered two. First delivery of the type—to Swissair—will be made in August 1975. Gabriel Voisin We record with regret the death at Ozenay in central France on Decem ber 25 of Gabriel Voisin, an early pioneer of French aviation. He was 93. Gabriel and his brother Charles (who died in 1912) were numbered among the illustrious group of aero nauts which put France into the lead ing position in European aviation. Preceded by experiments with gliders which began in 1904, the two brothers flew their own design of powered aircraft for the first time in 1907. They founded the first air craft manufacturing company in Europe at Billancourt, Paris, in 1906, where they built aircraft for—among others—Henry Farman and Louis Bleriot. Up to the beginning of 1908, the Voisin-Farman 1 was the only European-built aeroplane which came anywhere near to being a practical flying machine. The basic Voisin was a box-type biplane with front ele vator and no lateral control; in this form it remained until about 1910, its designers steadfastly refusing to make any moves towards a more technically advanced formula. Subsequently the company built almost exclusively to military con tracts during and after the First World War, and later switched to the production of high-quality cars. Public transport accidents An Aerofiot aircraft, believed to be a Tu-124, is reported to have crashed some 150 miles from Moscow on December 16. The aircraft was on an internal flight from Vilnius to Moscow. No official statement has been issued and the number of casual ties is not known. • Lufthansa 707 D-ABOT struck an airport building some 2,500ft short of the threshold at Palam, New Delhi, on December 20. Twelve passengers and two crew were injured. The crash occurred at night in fog and the aircraft was completely burnt out. Reports suggest that the middle marker and locator were unservice able. The crash is the fourth major approach accident at New Delhi in the last 18 months, in which a total of 153 people have been killed. • Caravelle OO-SRD belonging to Sobelair, the Brussels-based subsidiary of Sabena, crashed in bad weather on Mount Mallaline 12 miles south of Tangier on December 22. All six crew and 99 passengers were killed. The aircraft was chartered to Royal Air Maroc and was on a flight from Le Bourget to Tangier. • A Caravelle 6R owned by Services Aeros Cruzeiro do Sul with 50 pas sengers and seven crew on board ran off the runway and caught fire at Ponta Pelada, Manaus, Brazil, on December 23. There were no fatali ties. The incident occurred after the pilot applied reverse thrust while landing in a tropical rainstorm after a scheduled flight from Belem. Flight next week will contain its annual survey of the world's turbine engines—this year even more comprehensive and signifi cant. Despite the industrial three- day week, fuel and materials short ages and distribution uncertainties, Flight's staff and its printers are continuing to produce the magazine weekly, complete with all regular features, although a reduction in the total number of pages is un avoidable during the coming weeks. SENSOR A project for a Rolls-Royce Small Engine Division 500-600 s.h.p. turbo- shaft engine for helicopter applica tion will be shared with MTU and Alfa-Romeo. Present discussions centre on the work-sharing ratio, which is likely to be about 40:40:20. The original designation Model 304 has now been dropped. M. Henri Ziegler, retiring director- general of Aerospatiale, is expected to be given an assignment by the French Government to promote European aerospace co-operation. The refanned Pratt & Whitney JT8D-109 is due to run next month and the engine is likely to fly for the first time in a DC-9 in January next year. Data collection from the test programme should be com plete by June 1975. The engine eventually might be fitted to DC-9, 727 and 737 production aircraft, but indications are that the last type will need a longer undercarriage to cope with the greater diameter of the new engine. The decision by the oil-producing countries to increase the price of crude oil by 120 per cent will hit commercial aviation particularly hard. Since the bulk of fuel used by airlines is untaxed, the producers' decision will mean that they will be faced with a larger price increase than will most other oil users, Although the Spey 67-powered One- Eleven 700 project has been described by British Airways Euro pean Division as the ideal aircraft for some of its routes, there is some reticence towards it because of possible adverse public reaction to the basic design. Refanning existing One-Elevens with the Spey -67 is considered too expensive. Hush-kitting of its One-Elevens is likely, but the airline is hoping to gain exemption from noise regula tions for its Tridents until they are retired. Trident Is may be retained longer than originally proposed for use as shuttle back-ups to the Tri dent 3s. The Indonesian Government is evaluating ways and means of ex panding its aircraft industry in collaboration with foreign com panies. The Polish Wilga utility air craft is already built under licence at Bandung, Java.
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