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Aviation History
1974
1974 - 0987.PDF
FLIGHT International, 27 June 1974 847 laying down a second batch of about ten aircraft The new Buffaloes will be powered by General Electric T64-820-4 turbo- props, replacing the -Is and -3s fitted to earlier variants. US military developments of the engine for use in the GH-53 have been fed into the turboprop model and have produced significant improvements. Metallurgi cal changes in the compressor and power turbines allow higher turbine- inlet temperatures, in turn permitting the engine to be flat-rated to 92°F at sea level compared with the pre vious 59°F. The -4 also incorporates small but significant changes to ease maintenance. Gross weight of the new production aircraft has been increased from 41,0001b to 49,2001b. The improvements have produced an airframe weight penalty of only 2001b, and the maxi mum payload has been increased by 50 per cent from 12,0001b to 18,0001b. The remaining 2,0001b is devoted to extra fuel, improving payload/range performance without requiring addi tional tanks. Other alterations include replacing the Williams Research auxiliary power unit with a Solar APU which is used extensively by the US forces and which has a better TBO and lower operating costs. It is also slightly more powerful than is really needed and is therefore not worked as hard. Negotiations with the Indian Ministry of Defence are continuing, and uprating the. aircraft has obviously increased its chances. The original model was demonstrated from an Indian airfield at 11,000ft above sea level after flying down through the Himalayan range, and hot-and-high performance has now been signifi cantly improved. Details of possible licence production by Hindustan Aero nautics have not been finally settled and the type's prospects in India are likely to remain in a state of flux at least until the Dhawan committee makes its report on the future of the HS.748. DHC still receives about two serious Buffalo inquiries a year from various branches of the United States military and maintains a representative in Washington. The US Army and later the USAF have recorded good results with their Caribous and a Buffalo purchase cannot be ruled out, even at this late date. Buffalo development costs were shared equally by the Canadian Government, the US Army and DHC. Four evaluation aircraft were delivered to the US Army in 1965 but no order was placed, and the remaining 55 air craft of the original production run were sold to the Canadian Armed Forces (15), Brazil (24) and Peru (16). Lance for UK and Germany The United States Army announced on June 12 that formal contracts to buy LTV Aerospace MGM-52C Lance battlefield-support missiles have been signed by the governments of Great Britain and West Germany. These are the first overseas sales of Lance and follow signature in May 1973 by these two customers and Belgium of an agreement to buy the weapon, with common training, support and supply programmes. Britain has been nego tiating on behalf of her Eurogroup fellow-members; it is now unlikely that Holland will buy Lance because of the cost, and an anticipated $48 mil lion order by Italy has not yet material ised. Greece, Turkey and Israel are likely future customers. Lance will replace the Bundeswehr's 19 Sergeant missile launchers and the Honest John unguided artillery rockets operated by Germany and Britain. • The US Army Missile Command has also announced that two Lance terminally guided submissiles (TGSMs) were successfully dropped from a heli copter at the USAF's Eastern Test Range, Florida, on May 8 and 9. The tests demonstrated the TGSM infra red seeker's ability to carry out a programmed search for the simulated tank target, acquire the target and track until impact. These tests, the first using seekers, followed ejection and dispersion trials from a rocket-powered sled (see photo graphs in Flight for October 25, 1973, page 732) and a single flight test of unguided submissiles on an Honest John rocket. Dornier Viper abandoned Dornier has confirmed to Flight that development of the Viper air-to-air missile has been abandoned, following the German Defence Ministry's deci sion to evaluate an American weapon —believed to be AIM-9L Super Side winder—in its search for a Sidewinder replacement. It is likely that AIM-9L will be bought as an interim weapon, and Dornier is continuing to develop technology suitable for the next generation of air-to-air missiles. No prototype Viper will be fired, how ever. Viper has long been regarded as a vulnerable project, with the United States pressing for German acceptance of AIM-9L or Agile to help offset the cost of maintaining US forces in Europe. Viper was a collaborative German/Norwegian development under the auspices of Eurogroup, with Kongsberg Vapenfabrikk building the motor. It was to have entered service in 1975-76, initially arming F-104GS and F-4Fs, and later equipping Alpha Jets and MRCAs both as a bomber self- defence weapon and for the intercep tion/air-superiority role. This is the second time in six months that a European air-to-air missile has been reduced to technology-demonstra tion status or less—Hawker Siddeley .Dynamics' Sraam suffered the same fate in January. Israeli raids on Lebanon Israel last week stepped up her raids on Palestinian guerilla posts in Lebanon, attacking targets several times for three days running. On June 18, shortly after President Nixon had left Jordan, three attacks were made on sites in the foothills of Mount Hermon, in an area known as "Fatahland." The Israeli Defence Ministry said that several formations of Phantoms carried out the raids after penetrating Lebanese airspace at high altitude. The Palestine news agency warned inhabitants of the area against delayed-fuse bombs alleged to have been dropped by the aircraft. The raids were in reprisal for a guerilla attack on an Israeli kibbutz on the previous Thursday when three Israeli women were shot. On June 19 and 20 several more attacks in the same region were car ried out, killing at least 16 people and injuring at least a further 40 on the second day. The targets were mainly camps near the southern Lebanese cities of Tyre and Sidon, although a Tel Aviv military spokes man claimed that all were "definitely identified" as military installations. They included a PLF command post; a Fatah base; a garage used by several Palestinian organisations and hit twice during the past 18 months; and 3 command post of the Armed Struggle, the Fatah police and security branch. An Israeli spokesman said that SA-7s had been fired at the Phan toms, but that all aircraft returned to base. The attacks were preceded by artillery shelling by Israeli forces in the Mount Hermon area. SAM-D successful again The XMIM-104A SAM-D surface-to- air missile has completed its sixth consecutive successful test flight at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, and was for the first time acquired soon after launch by the phased-array fire-control radar. Three more firings in the present series are scheduled for next month and will be followed by a further 16-missile pro gramme later this year. These launches will demonstrate the effectiveness of the weapon's track-via-missile (TVM) guidance, in which ground-based digi tal computers issue missile steering commands on the basis of information from the missile-tracking radar. Oman orders One-Elevens The Department of Defence of the Sultanate of Oman has signed a con tract for three British Aircraft Cor poration One-Eleven 475s for SOAF, adding to the BAC Viscounts and Strikemasters already in service. The aircraft were the last aircraft of the most recent batch of One- Elevens and are to be the first fitted with a 120inX73in freight door in the forward fuselage. They will be con vertible for cargo or passengers. Delivery will begin late this year. JA37 financing approved The Swedish Parliament has ap proved the 1974-75 defence budget which includes SwKr775 million for initial production of the JA37 Viggen.
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