Newsdesk – Commercial

Fokker Improves Turnover and Profit in 1981:

Fokker’s Board of Management announced in Amsterdam recently satisfactory financial results for the 1981 year. The turnover was 15 per cent higher than in 1980 and reached $A4,608. 5 million. A consolidated net profit of $A418,299 has been declared (1980 $A379,177).

The capital goods investments amounted to $A20. 9 million. Fokker’s personnel force was 9706 on December 31, 1981, compared with 8862 in the previous year

Canadians Support the Product:

The Canadian Armed Forces will replace their Dassault CC-144 Falcons with Canadair Challengers which will have a dual ECM training and VIP transport function. Canada will also buy up to 25 DHC Dash 8s for use in the maritime surveillance role. This aircraft will carry out a similar EEZ patrol role as the larger Dash 7 Ranger mooted a few years back but at half the cost. The Dash 8s will replace the Grumman S-2 Trackers with deliveries commencing around 1986. First flight of the Dash 8 is expected during 1983 with initial deliveries commencing in September 1984; a total of 115 Dash 8s have been ordered to date.

Long Range A310:

Airbus Industrie is expected to proceed with their long-range A310-300 project which will give the A310 a maximum payload range capability of 3500 nautical miles. This will offer many carriers a true 707/DC-8 replacement on the long haul sectors out of reach of rival 200/230 seaters. The long-range capability will be achieved by taking on an additional 10,000 lb of fuel which will be housed in a special tailplane tank. A computer will transfer fuel from the tail to the central wing and underbelly tanks as the flight proceeds, maintaining a c. g. close to the rear limit as possible. This reduces tail-down force which reduces drag, the result, actually a form of controlled artificial stability reduces sufficient drag to show a 5% to 10% saving in fuel consumption.

Boeing Posts 1981 Sales of $US9,788 Million:

Boeing has announced sales for 1981 of $US9,788 million and net earnings of $US473 million. Comparable figures for 1980 were sales of $US9,426 million and net earnings of $US600 million.

The decrease in earnings was attributable to reduced 727 and 747 deliveries, a continued high level of research, development and engineering expenses primarily related to the 757 and 767 programs, and lower interest income.

The total commercial and government firm backlog of unfilled orders at the end of 1981 was $US19,389 million, compared with $US20,032 million at the end of 1980. During 1981 two 707s, 94727s, 108 737s and 53 747s were delivered. Current schedules call for the delivery during 1982 of seven 707s, 26 727s 113 737s, 31 747s, two 757s and 24 767s. New orders were announced in 1981 for 224 jet transports valued at approximately $US6. 1 billion declined from the 361 ordered in 1980 at a value of $US10. 3 billion.

New Avionics Consultancy Service:

A new aviation consultancy firm has commenced specialising in avionics engineering requirements. The driving force behind the idea is Mr Len Heyward who has had more than 20 years’ experience in the industry as a LAME and also holds DOTA design approval for ANR 40 and 41. The idea behind the new consultancy service is to be able to provide expert advice to operators before they invest large sums of money in new avionic updates. Len can be contacted on (03) 848- 1559.

Vultures:

Many of the better-off American carriers are awaiting the major bankruptcy of a fellow airline in the hope of buying aircraft at ‘fire sale’ prices Trans World has already suggested it could utilise a large number of 727s similar to that operated by Braniff while Northwest is eyeing Republic’s DC-9 Super 80s which the latter carrier is unable to accept due to lack of funding. Such a climate bodes ill for companies trying to sell new airliners as is evidenced by the large number of Boeing cancellations of late.

Air Show Dates:

Dates for the 1983 Paris Air Show have been set for May 26 to June 5. This will be the 35th Paris Air Show and will be bigger than the 1981 show which featured displays by over 200 aircraft and 891 exhibitors from 25 countries. This year’s Farnborough Air Show kicks off on Sunday, September 5 and runs through to the 12th. Meanwhile, the McGraw Hill organisation, the publishers of Aviation Week & Space Technology, are lobbying for an American inter-national calibre air show to compete with both Paris and Farnborough. Suggested dates would be around April/May of 1984 running every second year and competing for funds against the established Farnborough Show. The reaction by almost every aerospace company canvassed (according to AWST reports) is against the show on the grounds of cost and necessity of another such Show. In the past Japan has declined to launch a rival Show for the same reasons while the bi-annual Hanover (held last May) event applies largely as a showpiece of European aerospace achievements.

Pessimistic President:

Ian Gray, president of CP Air, believes that the ‘golden age of airline passenger business is over. Gray was addressing a large audience of airline employees shortly before announcing an $8. 9 m loss for the carrier in 1981. The entire DC-8 fleet has been mothballed while selective schedule cutbacks will be enforced through 1982 in addition to across-the-board fare increases in an effort to increase yield. Gray believes that in ten years there will be only two types of airline service- first class with all the trimmings for the corporate and expense account business market and a no-frills second class. First-class travel will also suffer at the hands of electronics and the ever-declining costs of utilising electronic information transmission in place of personal visits to business associates in other cities. We mentioned this point in our March edition of 1981 and received an immediate inundation of information from Telecom regarding how they could save the businessman many an inter-state journey. Shortly thereafter TAA launched a series of special-purpose press adverts along the lines of how important it was to maintain personal contacts in business. Certainly, THIS is a big problem for the airlines in the coming years, how they choose to combat it will be interesting to observe.

British Aerospace Report Excel- Lent 1981:

BAe has reported a pretax profit of $130 m for the year ending December 31, 1981 this is despite writing off $90 m in development expenditure on the A310 and 146 projects. Sales for 1981 totalled $2. 99 bn, a 170/o increase over 1980 while year-end order backlog was a healthy $7 bn.

Boeing 737 Orders Hit 1000 Mark:

An announcement by TAP-Air Portugal that it would take delivery of seven Boeing 737s has raised announced orders for the type to an even 1000 aeroplanes. The only other Boeing jetliner to reach that mark is the 727 trijet with orders for 1825. The 737 has been the bestselling commercial airliner in the world for several years and has the widest customer base of any commercial aeroplane. Air Portugal becomes the 109th customer.

Ten Million Fokker F27 Flights:

An important milestone in the Fokker F27 programme has been reached, now that all Fokker-built F27 Friendships have together logged a total of ten million flights. Together with the three million flights made by F27s built under licence by Fairchild of the US, this makes a grand total of no less than 13 million. Fokker has so far sold 534 Friendships, whereas Fairchild’s production ended after a production run of 205 aircraft.

The F27 with the largest individual number of flights in its logbook is the F5, owned by Air New Zealand. The aircraft entered service in 1958 and has so far made some 60,000 flights. The highest number of flying hours can be claimed by the F39 operated by Ansell in Australia. The aircraft, delivered in late 1959, has up to now logged almost 59,000 hours.

Worldwide the Friendship has an average daily utilisation of 4. 5 hours with an average flight duration of 55 minutes. Fokker has produced a Structural Integrity Program covering an F27 service life of 90,000 flights. This programme was officially accepted last year by the British Civil Aviation Authority.

Talking Planes:

DC-9 Super 80 airliners and Air Force F-4 Phantom fighters are talking to their aircrews these days, issuing crisp and clear warnings of danger. The device that makes such speech possible is called CAW, or Central Aural Warning System, and it is made by McDonnell Douglas Electronics Company in St Charles, Missouri. CAW monitors up to 22 critical aircraft functions. Should something go wrong in those systems, the aircrew hears a distinctive one second sound followed by a spoken message. The type of sound depends upon the problem. For example, should an aircraft’s landing gear fail to extend and lock prior to landing, the crew would hear a horn followed by a spoken ‘Landing Gear Landing Gear’. For an engine fire, it is a bell followed by ‘Fire, Engine, Left’ or ‘Fire, Engine, Right’ The verbal messages are generated electronically within the small, lightweight box. Along with a choice of messages, CAW customers also can select the degree of urgency in the voice – from a calm comment to an urgent command. Aboard the Super 80, CAW holds 22 voice warnings and the system can accommodate twice that number On the F-4 Phantom, two warnings are used, alerting the pilot of insufficient altitude or an unlocked canopy.

TAA flight Advisory Service Cuts Fuel Bill:

TAA has introduced a special advisory service for pilots to help in the battle to cut fuel consumption. The advisory service was devised by TAA using the advanced technical capabilities of the inertial navigation systems installed recently in part of the fleet It will allow crews flying INS-equipped aircraft to pass on information to their counterparts in aircraft not fitted with the equipment that will provide a further fuel cost saving of around $340,000 a year. The airline has installed triple inertial navigation systems in all its Airbus aircraft and is retrofitting the Boeing 727s with dual INS. The service is based on wind gradient information provided by the INS which allows the flight crew to select the correct altitude for minimum fuel consumption.

With a wind advantage of one knot on 50 per cent of flights, the saving per aircraft would be around $26,000 annually. The savings already provided to INS-equipped aircraft by the wind gradient information will reduce the fuel bill by about $600,000 per year. Using the INS, crews can quickly establish the wind gradients on which to select the optimum cruising altitude. This is then relayed to operational ground staff by company frequency to insert in a pre-determined program in the computer. Crews operating non INS aircraft can then consult the computer terminals prior to flight planning to determine the most fuel-efficient altitude. Crews operating INS-equipped aircraft will note the ‘wind on the nose’ readings at each successive flight level through to cruise level, to determine whether or not the headwinds increase or tail winds drop off beyond a certain level. All wind gradient information will be erased from the computer at the end of each operating day and started afresh the next.

The Last 707:

At a time when used 707s are being sold for a song it seems unusual to find a brand new unit going out at a relatively high price. The final 707 to be built was delivered recently to the Moroccan government for VIP use where its military registration will ensure it is able to operate into civilian airports despite the relatively large noise footprint of the 707. This takes total of 707/720 airliner production to 916 units.

US Tour on Again:

Mike Clayton tells us that he will be conducting another interest packed aviation tour of the US around October this year. Tour will be of around four weeks and will cover every major aviation exhibit and point of interest in the US. For more information contact Mike at Aeronaut1ca, 452 Princes Highway, Rockdale 2216.

Jobs Go as Aerospace Industry Nosedives:

It is now estimated that one-third of all aviation· industry employees are employed in alternative trades in the United States. Pratt & Whitney has laid off 2300 employees this year due to declining sales of the JTB and JT9 engines while Pratt & Whitney Canada have been forced to trim their workforce by 500. Rolls Royce are planning to shed 5000 employees through 1982 and this may even increase with the long term falloff in sales of the 747 and cancellation of the L. 1011 Tristar. Cessna will be losing more than 2000 employees through ’82 while even Beech are letting go 500 in an effort to reduce overheads and production in a tightening market. This is in direct conflict with the situation as late as 1979 when the large American manufacturers were even providing lucrative transfer packages for experienced aerospace industry workers from Europe. Let’s hope they got a return ticket!

Re-Inventing the Viscount:

It is interesting to note new aircraft projects like the Commuter Aircraft Corp CAC-100 and the proposed stretched version of DHC’s successful Dash 7. The CAC-100, a new project emanating from California, is a four-engined 50-seat short-range airliner powered by four Pratt & WhitneyPT6A-46R turboprops. The proposed stretch version of the Dash 7 will be designated Series 300 and will seat 60 passengers. It is interesting to note that, except in maximum cruise speeds, these two aircraft come very close to emulating the specifications of the old V700 Viscount way back in the early fifties. It is a shame the Viscount became taboo in Australia; only recently did I have the opportunity to fly a sector on a V800 operated by Arkia that in Australia would have been F-27 territory. The Viscount was not only appreciably quieter, it flew higher, climbed quicker and completed the flight much sooner than a Friendship or 748 ever could. The large seats and little oscillating fans mounted above the parcel shelf added a nostalgic touch that I thought had been lost in modern aviation.

All-Cargo Operations Find Hard Times:

The operation of pure freight aircraft has fallen on hard times. Such aircraft were always marginal in view of the necessity to carry large payloads to maintain an advertised route schedule. Over the past two years freight volume has not declined like it has in the passenger market yet profit yield has deteriorated due to the fierce state of competition largely introduced by scheduled passenger carriers hoping to fill their aircraft underbellies with freight to augment sagging passenger loadings. “A 747 with only two hundred passengers on a four thousand mile sector can carry a lot of freight” stated a 747 Captain recently. Most carriers have withdrawn from service their all-cargo 707s and DC-8s with the exception of Air New Zealand which has met with encouraging success on their new service to the US. Oddly enough, in Australia, import and export by air freight is growing in popularity due to the increasingly bad situation on our waterfronts which is forcing businessmen to consider air freighting consignments not normally considered viable by air transport.

Japan First With Moscow 747:

Though the Boeing 747 entered airline service thirteen years ago the type has never been permitted to use Moscow airport. This situation has now come to an end with the April introduction of Japan Air Lines 747s on the London/Moscow/ Tokyo and Paris/Moscow/ Tokyo routes. The JAL 747s will replace DC-8-62s.

Lufthansa Likes the TA 11:

Lufthansa, one of the original launch customers for Airbus so many years ago, looks set to be a big eventual customer for the proposed TA 11 aircraft The TA family are further outlined in this issue but briefly, the TA 11 is a long-range 200-seat four-engined aircraft that Lufthansa feels Airbus should be placed ahead of the A320 in project development. Meanwhile, the A320 will definitely be the next firm Airbus project with perhaps a launch announcement at the Farnborough Air Show if Air France can gather sufficient government support. The French carrier has already evinced interest in an initial order for fifty A320 aircraft.