Airbus, 4 years in service

In recent years a big jump in the price of fuel has added to the problem of continuing inflation in other costs. This has made the introduction of new fuel-efficient aircraft essential to economic survival.

Still the airlines find it hard to make a profit on short routes. It’s not surprising. Landing fees, handling charges and other terminal costs take a large bite out of revenue.

As regards fuel, more of the total is burned during taxy­ ing, on take-off and in low altitude manoeuvres. In contrast relatively little time is spent at cruise altitude.

Utilisation

Another problem with short flights is low aircraft utilisa­ tion. This means that capital costs have to be amortized over a relatively small number of flying hours. Consider a route where average flight time is 45 minutes and turn-around time also 45 minutes. If first take-off is at 8 am and last landing before 9 pm, it means a maximum of nine flights. This provides no slack at all in the schedule and a delay to one flight, due to air traffic or weather, would mean also delayed flights throughout the rest of the day. In practice, flights would be limited to seven or eight per day, which means an­ nual utilisation of around 2000 hours.

Economics

The A300 is the newest of the wide-body aircraft to enter airline service. As such it embodies the latest in technology and significant advances in “the state of the art” relative to earlier types. Improvements in aerodynamics, structures and systems result in lower fuel consumption per seat place, better reliability and lower operating costs.

But the biggest advantage of the A300, relative to other wide-bodies is that it is purpose-built for shorter routes.

Like most airliners designed for short to medium range operations, the Airbus A300 has two engines, for sound economic reasons.

On shorter stage lengths the influence of engineering costs is high compared with other factors and over 40 per cent of these engineering costs are attributable to the propulsion system.

In addition aircraft with more than two engines designed for longer range have a higher gross weight per seat place and therefore penalised br higher landing fees, handling charges, crew salaries and fuel consumption; as well as maintenance and servicing costs.

Reducing the number of engines reduces both invest­ment costs and maintenance costs as well as simplifying sup­port equipment, tooling and procedures.

Nor has the revenue side of the picture been forgotten. At the same time as reducing costs and hence break-even load to a minimum, design of the A300 provides for maximum profit potential.

Capacity

A wide variety of possible cabin layouts allows seating to be varied to suit market demands. The aircraft is certified for up to 345 passengers in a high density layout, while normal mixed class configuration is around 250 seats. Under the floor, three separate holds provide over 3200 cu ft of usable volume. This means that the A300 can carry big cargo loads in addition to passengers, thereby taking full advantage of the continuing growth in air freight. The forward cargo hold will carry four standard 88 x 125in pallets, identical to those carried on freighter aircraft. Both forward and centre holds are designed for the LD3 standard interline container; up to a total of 20 may be carried. The rear hold provides 565 cu ft of bulk load­ ed space.

With average densities total underfloor capacity is around 16½ tonnes. Even if half of this is taken up for baggage, with full passenger load there will always be at least four pallets or 12 containers available for cargo. At rates current in most parts of the world, this eight tonnes of cargo capacity means extra earning power equivalent to about 40 seats.

This means that an airline can streamline its fleet and reduce costs by cutting out specialist freighter or combina­tion passenger/freight aircraft. It means too better service to the shipper. Instead of infrequent freighter schedules he can plan on regular shipments with every passenger flight. And it means more fast connections with long haul flights.

Turnaround

Fast turnaround is an essential part of efficient and profitable short haul operations. So too is a high level of air­ craft reliability. Both of these have been achieved in the design of the A300 and well demonstrated in service. Wide doors and two aisles make for rapid passenger boarding and exit. Absence of triple seats also speeds up the boarding process, since no passenger is more than one seat away from an aisle.

Large standard containers and pallets for baggage and freight, together with a powered roller conveyor and locking system, provide fast loading and unloading of the underfloor holds.

The aircraft can be refuelled from a single point on either wing, whichever is most convenient. Engines can be checked and serviced at ground level. Design for systems redundancy and rapid troubleshooting together with Airbus lndustrie policy of using service proven equipment has paid off in ex­cellent dispatch reliability from the word “go”.

Structure

But design for short haul is only the start.

Airbus lndustrie is concerned that its customers should go on reaping the benefits of the A300s unique profitability. This is why the aircraft has been designed for long life and serviceability under the punishing conditions of frequent short flights.

Like most modern aircraft the A300 is designed on well known “fail-safe” principles. The “fail-safe” nature of the A300 design has been proved in static tests of a complete air­ frame deliberately weakened with saw cuts. On top of this, the entire structure is being fatigue tested to at least twice the number of flights that the aircraft is expected to make during its entire life in airline service.

Further fatigue tests are then being made with both natural and artificially produced cracks to see how they spread and to assess the dar:nage tolerance of the structure. This knowledge is also used in the design of repairs either to extend service life still further or to increase maximum operating weights.

Corrosion Protection

Corrosion resistance is another aspect to which very careful attention has been paid. It would have been very easy to have saved weight and cost by providing a minimum of protective treatment and leaving the airlines to deal with whatever problems arise in service. The A300 was not built this way.

Great care was taken, first of all, to select materials as much for their insensitivity to corrosion as for their strength of stiffness. Again, storage and manufacture were carefully studied from a corrosion viewpoint. Handling of raw materials is kept to a minimum and great care is taken in com­ ponent fabrication and assembly to avoid built-in stresses which could lead to corrosion and eventual failure in airline service.

Every care is taken to see that risk of corrosion is minimal. This involves pretreatment of metal surfaces, application of epoxy primer to all detail parts before assembly, sealing of joints and protection of the sealants themselves.

LONG RANGE SERVICES WITH THE A300

Everything that has gone into making the A300 a highly profitable short haul aircraft naturally enhances its economic appeal over long distances. With very few changes to the basic design, Airbus lndustrie was able to certificate a longer range version, the A300B4, less than one year after the initial, A300B2, version had gone into airline service.

Payload and range capabilities of both versions have since been extended to the benefit of present and future customers. Range of the B4 version with full passenger payload and airline reserves is now 2700 nautical miles.

This obviously adds considerably to the operational flex ibility of the A300. With its wide body passenger appeal, fuel economy and ability to carry standard interline cargo pallets and containers, the A300B4 is being seen more and more as the natural replacement for the ageing B707 and DCB.

Since wing span and maximum gross weight are not very different from these older aircraft the A300B4 fits very smoothly into existing terminals. It does not need more than one loading bridge or stairway, nor does it require the big ex­pensive tractor tugs needed to move other wide-bodies.

Current operators of the A300B4 have not been slow to exploit the aircraft’s potential. Korean Air Lines flies twice weekly to Bahrain with stops in Hong Kong or Manila, Bangkok and Bombay. Air France flies non-stop Paris-Dakar, a distance of 2354 nautical miles, Charter companies make regular flights between Europe and the Far East with the A300B4 for both passengers and cargo. Both Air France and Lufthansa have plans to extend their A3oo·routes eastwards to India and beyond. Airbus industrie is looking at possible further increases in range as part of a vigorous program of product improvement to ensure that the capabilities of the basic A300 design are fully realised.

Future

Most forecasters agree that the next 10 to 15 years will not see any major breakthrough in aircraft technology. Rather it will be a period of painstaking step by step incorporation of technology which is all available today.

This is the reason why the interval between new aircraft programs is becoming longer. This too is a reason why the so­ called “X” projects have been so long in the project office, going around in ever decreasing circles and today coming to a point where they look like reinventions of the A300. In short, inflation has outstripped technology.

As a result we shall see long production runs of current aircraft and their derivatives. Among them the A300 series of aircraft will continue to set the standard for comfort, reliabili­ ty and profitability for many years to come.