Newsdesk- Commercial

First Boeing 767 Jetliner in Debut:

A key part of air transportation’s future made its debut on August 4 as the first Boeing 767 airliner emerged from its factory birthplace at Everett in the State of Washington, USA. About 15,000 people watched the rollout. (Ansett has ordered five of the new jets with first deliveries scheduled for November 1982. )

The 767 design effort became a full-fledged program in July 1978 when United Airlines placed an order for 30 aircraft. It is the first all-new Boeing airliner since the 747 made its appearance in September 1968. United will receive its initial 767 in August 1982.

BAe to Upgrade 748:

Following a resurgence of the market demand for the upper limit of turboprops, particularly in the US commuter market, BAe has decided in principle to develop their proven 748 design. There are two design options. Firstly BAe could go for simply re-engining the basic 48-seat aircraft with the proposed Rolls-Royce RB. 506 or a version of the Pratt & Whitney PW100 series. This aircraft would feature a slightly raked tail, would use composite materials and would feature a completely updated avionics fit including fitment of CRTS. The second option would be to stretch the current airframe by six feet, allowing accommodation for a maximum of 60/64 passengers; this model would be powered by General Electric’s CT-64. Obviously, the use of a North American engine would help promote the aircraft in that part of the world. Studies are continuing.

Strathallan Collection Largely Stays in England:

The good news for UK aviation buffs is that the prestige Strathallan Collection will largely remain in England. Much interest was exhibited in the Christie’s organised auction from overseas including a last-minute Australian effort to purchase the de Havilland Mosquito. This in fact was the only aircraft to leave the UK following its purchase for $160,000 by American aerobatic champion Kermit Weeks. Top price was gained by a Hurricane IIIB which fetched an incredible $420,000 – even allowing for inflation the RAF could probably have purchased an entire squadron for that sum back in 1940!

GE Powered Tristars:

General Electric are breaking the ten-year hold that Rolls- Royce has had on the Lockheed TriStar. Up until now you could order your TriStar with any engine so long as it was a Rolls. General Electric are now able to offer the CF6-80A as an alternative to the RR RB211-535F4 and will be pressing hard for a future retrofit market. Major TriStar operators are Delta with 36, TWA with 30, Eastern with 31, All Nippon Airways and British Airways with 21 each.

Fokker Doing Well:

Fokker has declared a 1980 net profit of $4m, double that of the previous trading year. Executives of the Netherlands aerospace group expect a similar 1981 result and point to strong demand for both the F-27 and F-28 aircraft in addition to long-term work from the NATO F-16 offsets. Fokker estimates that they will sell 57 aircraft this year as against 47 in 1980 and plan to produce the F-28 Fellowship till 1990 and the F-27 till at least the mid-nineties. Plans for a twin-turboprop 80/90-seat short-haul airliner are proceeding with a prototype flying by 1989. This aircraft will ultimately be offered as a replacement for both current Fokker types, particularly where passenger demand has exceeded the capabilities of the F-27 and relatively short hauls nullify the higher cruise speed of the F-28 Fellowship.

Aviocar Production Increases:

While Australia is labouring away building two Nomads each month and knocking back prospective sales worldwide due to the inability to deliver the product in a reasonable timescale CASA and Nurtanio of Indonesia have just recorded the 280th order for the C212 Aviocar utility transport. Currently monthly production rate is four from CASA’s Spanish facility and two from Nurtanio at Bandung, Indonesia. Nurtanio are presently building around three-quarters of the airframe from local materials and it is their intention that this will grow to 100 per cent by early next year. So far Nurtanio has delivered 40 aircraft and has confirmed orders on 100 units providing a guaranteed longevity of production that would have been helpful occasionally at Fisherman’s Bend. Nurtanio is currently building a new factory, 12 times larger than its present facility while employment has grown from 800 to over three and a half thousand since its formation in 1970. Nurtanio plans to employ around 10,000 employees by 1990 and are currently building under licence the BO. 105 and Aerospatiale Super Puma helos. The fledgling company has the complete backing of the Indonesian Government and is certainly eyeing the success of Embraer, a company that followed a similar route of development during the sixties. Local distributor for CASA is Schutt Aviation who recently took delivery of their first C212. All locally distributed aircraft will be Spanish-built.

Winglets Pay Off:

Results of the recently completed NASA research program using a KC-135 employing winglets indicate a fuel saving of 5. 5 per cent. This, coupled with a CFM-56 engine retrofit, would reduce per flight hour fuel consumption of the USAF KC-135 tanker fleet by as much as 40 per cent. McDonnell Douglas is also to investigate the use of winglets on its DC-10 airliner. A Series 10 aircraft will be used next year for testing while such findings will apply to all future MDC projects. Both Lear and Gulf- stream are finding winglets most beneficial on their Series 55 Longhorn and G-111 respectively.

Non-stop to Perth:

Ansett certainly has a winner in their new non-stop Sydney to Perth service using the 727-200LR. It is small-scale moves of this nature that can effectively alter domestic market share by that crucial 1 per cent which today is the difference between market leadership and net profit and being second best. Similarly, the A300 is bound to have considerable novelty value during its first year of operation and this could just as effectively earn TAA the extra revenue it requires to maintain traffic leadership. Without a doubt, this will be the most exciting decade in Australian civil aviation as both TAA and Ansett saddle up for an entirely new form of competition, the established carriers sell off minor F-27 routes to the smaller carriers and the bigger commuters and a new generation of true DC-3 style replacements enter the second and third level market place.

Air Wisconsin Orders British Aerospace 146:

Leading US commuter carrier, Air Wisconsin, has ordered four BAe 146 Series airliners and taken options on four more.

Delivery of the first 100-passenger aircraft is scheduled for March 1983 and this will be among the first Series 200 aircraft to be delivered in the United States.

RJ500 to Run Next January:

Rolls-Royce and Japanese Aero Engines Limited, are finalising the design of the RJ500, a new technology and energy-efficient turbofan to power the next generation of the 150-seater airliners. It is planned to enter service in 1986.

The high-pressure core section of the engine will be tested in October this year and work in Japan and the UK to produce the first two bench demonstrator engines is on schedule.

The first, designated RJ500-01, is planned to begin test running at the end of next January at Rolls-Royce’s Bristol plant. The second will run at Ishikawajima-Harima’s Mizuho plant near Tokyo by mid-March.

Engine tests will begin only two years after the first Japanese engineers and designers arrived in Bristol to join their counterparts from Rolls-Royce in the task of designing an engine for short to medium-haul aircraft for service from the mid-1980s.

The new 150-seater airliners are expected to need engines of around 25,000lb thrust and the RJ500 has been designed to meet these needs. The core is also suitable for an engine of lower thrust for possible new 130-seater airliners.

The engine is being considered as the powerplant for these aircraft both by potential airline customers and the airframe makers. It is expected to become a major Anglo-Japanese program and one which will last well into the next century.

Turboprops for G-111?:

Detailed in our March edition, the refurbished Grumman Albatross amphibian is beginning to make sales with the first aircraft now in service with Chalks International in the Caribbean. P. T. Pelita Air Services of Indonesia have also put into operation their first G-111 on the oil support role while Resorts International, marketers of the G-111, are studying the feasibility of retrofitting Garrett TPE-331-16 turboprops to increase fuel efficiency and provide additional mission flexibility over the piston-powered aircraft. The study is continuing and a decision will be made by year-end on whether or not to proceed with an engine retrofit program.

Powerplant Battle Intensifies:

Today when an airline decides to purchase a new jet airliner it generally takes almost as much time investigating the choice of power- plant as it does the airframe. Probably no clearer example of this will be the battle for powering the coming generation of fuel-efficient 150-seat airliners. Rolls-Royce has teamed with a consortium of Japanese aero-space manufacturers to field the RJ. 500, formerly known as the RB. 432. This engine has grown progressively over the years in its eternal search for an airframe. Current thrust ranges from 20,000lb to 28,000lb while primary marketing for this engine will be aimed at the European Airbus A320 100 and 200 Series aircraft and the Fokker/McDonnell.

Douglas MDF-100. General Electric and Snecma have spent much time and effort refining their “already in operation” CFM56 while GE’s smallest example of the CF6 family, the -32, at 30,000lb thrust, may be a little too excessive for the requirements of most true 150-seaters. Pratt & Whitney are offering a scaled-down version of their PW2037 (formerly JT10) specifically the PW2025 which, as the designation indicates, produces 25,000lb thrust. Aircraft projects for these engines include the Airbus A320 (100 and 200 Series), the MDF-100 and the proposed Boeing 7X7 which will be a shortened-fuselage version of the 757.

Bush Pilots, Talair Double Dash 8 Options:

The Cairns-based airline, BPA, has doubled its option of de Havilland Cana- da’s 36-seat Dash 8 airliners to six. , simultaneously, the Papua New Guinea operator, Talair, has increased its options for the new aircraft, due to fly in 1983, to four.

This brings to 114 the number of options with deposits for the Dash 8 worldwide.

Further sales in the region are expected, following the visit earlier this year by Dash 8 program manager, John Shaw, according to the local distributor.

Don Newson of Australian Aerospace said pre-production confidence in the Dash 8 by the airline industry worldwide was almost unprecedented. It reflected DHC’s ability and record of producing reliable and durable aircraft that met specific operator requirements. He said the confidence was especially gratifying as the first Australian Dash 8 delivery was due in 1985.

In DHC’s line-up the Dash 8 fits between the short take-off and landing (STOL) 50-seat Dash 7, to be introduced into Australasia by Air Nuigini in September and the ubiquitous 20-seat Twin Otter which is still winning sales in its class.

More than 800 have been sold, including 34 in Australasia and the Pacific.

Three Twin Otters were delivered to the Newcastle operator, Aeropelican, in June to increase its capacity on Australia’s highest-density commuter route between Sydney and Newcastle.

Australian Aerospace is a subsidiary of Hawker Pacific represents the manufacturers of more than 80 aviation, defence and advanced technology products in Australia, Asia, the Pacific and the USA.

Bigger Boeing:

Boeing has reported sales of $US5190. 8 million for the first half of 1981. The comparable figure for the first six months of 1980 were sales of $US4558. 8 million.

During the first six months of 1981, Boeing delivered one 707, 63 7278, 57 7378 and 34 747s for a total of 155 aeroplanes compared with 157 for the same period last year.

Current schedules call for the delivery of one 707, 33 7278, 54 7378 and 24 7478 during the remainder of 1981. Based on current orders, options and proposal activity, deliveries in 1982 are projected to include approximately seven 7078, 25 7278, 115 737s, 28 7478 and 28 7678.

The 757 and 767 programs were meeting or exceeding technical expectations and were proceeding on schedule with the 767 rollout August 4, 1981, and the 757 approximately six months later.

Fuel Improvements for F-27 and F-28 Engines:

More than 2000 Rolls-Royce turboprop and turbofan engines have been sold to power over 900 Fokker F-27 airliners. Rolls-Royce is continuing to develop engine improvements in cooperation with Fokker to improve fuel consumption and to reduce engine noise.

Sales of the F-27 and F-28 have been increasing to meet world-wide demand, particularly following the deregulation in the US market. Two US regional airlines, Altair and Empire, recently increased their Fokker F-28 order to a total of 24 aircraft including options. Production rates of both the F-28 and F-27 are being increased to 24 and 30 aircraft a year respectively with higher output rates in prospect.

The Fokker F-27 Friendship turboprop and the Fokker F-28 Fellowship turbofan have demonstrated the company’s fuel conscious- ness from the day the aircraft were introduced into airline service. On a 300nm trip the 85-seat F-28 Mk4000 burns 642 US gallons, whereas other single-aisle twin-jets use between 855 and 915 gallons. This means that the competitor aircraft consumes between 33- 43 per cent more block fuel than the Fokker F-28.

On a typical 200nm flight the 44-seat F-27 Mk600 needs 228 gallons of fuel, which is some 10 per cent better than its direct competitor. The F-27 Mk500, having 52 seats, consumes 237 gallons on the same trip, beating its closest competitor by some 5 per cent.

Further improvements developed by Rolls-Royce for Fokker airliners include an RB 183 hushkit which cuts the F-28’s noise footprint by up to 50 per cent as well as reducing engine fuel burn by 5 per cent or more over typical ranges.