Bicentennial Air Show Report

Indeed, the event was primarily designed to be a historical showcase of Australian aviation, what it was, what it is nowadays and what it can offer to the world for the future. The full details of how effective this was are provided elsewhere in this edition in the AAAl’s Aerospace Industry News page, suffice it to say though that a great number of international aerospace executives left Australia with a far greater appreciation of our industrial capabilities.

Also leaving Australia were around 9,000 overseas visitors who attended ABAS in addition to any one of up to ten conferences and seminars specially timed to coincide with the show. The money spent in Australia by these visitors, and indeed Australians using ABAS as an ‘excuse’ to spend their 1988 holiday at home, served to boost our economy in a positive way.

With around 350 aircraft present it wasn’t hard to find an aircraft type that would satisfy even the most pedantic aviation buff. From the smail Australian built and designed single seat Maverick to the massive Antonov Ruslan and its American counterpart the C-5 Galaxy, aviation enthusiasts and the general public were catered for in a way never before seen this side of the equator. In fact there had probably never been an air show exactly like ABAS anywhere in the world before, with its unique combination of trade expositions and hard nosed business sector, civil and military aircraft involvement and warbird, classic aircraft and General Aviation participation.

The only disappointments were that many of the initially hoped for US military aircraft did not eventuate while our northern neighbours in SE Asia were also noteworthy by their absence. Apparently, the American situation was simply a matter of not enough sincere interest being generated from the powers that be in Washington DC. Perhaps, as one show spokesman suggested, we have simply been a loyal ally for too long and consequently now largely get taken for granted! A situation that parallels the plight of the Australian primary producer of recent times at the hands of official US Government trade policy. Whether this was the case is not in our domain to question though it certainly would not have been unduly difficult to assemble a few more USAF and USN aircraft from the vast pool of such types based to our immediate north.

The Asian states, of course, have a vested interest in ensuring that nothing ever comes along to challenge the now very successful biannual Singapore Air Show. One can understand that attitude to an extent though it would still have been a fitting gesture if our ASEAN partners had been able to publicise their own nations via the medium of visiting aircraft, etc. Australian Aviation believes that when the ABAS was initially officially launched back around 1986 that the Australian embassies in the region did not take the show seriously enough at an early enough stage to ensure an active presence from the Asian air arms. By the time the RMF had intervened to get things moving, it was generally too late.

Two countries that were not missing though were Britain and the Soviet Union. The latter brought its air show special – the immense Antonov An-124 Ruslan (NATO codename Condor), the unusual Kamov Ka-32 helicopter and the spirited Sukhoi

Su-26M aerobatic aircraft. The Ruslan without doubt was the star of the show, putting on a flying performance that easily excelled those seen at Farnborough and Paris for sheer exuberance. In fact the coup de grace of the Russian pilot’s routine, that stunning near vertical climb and virtual wingover, was enough to leave even the most sated spectator in awe. Similarly, the Kamov showed that it was capable of flying sideways almost as fast as in normal forward mode while the nimble Su-26M left no one in doubt as to why it is generally considered the world’s most agile aerobatic aircraft. The reason the Soviets bothered to visit Australia of course was to share in our Bicentennial experience and to help promote closer trading ties. This they did well, except on the Saturday when the entire Ruslan crew decided to simply take the day off without informing the ABAS organisers – the result was around 100,000 disappointed people who had wanted to see the big bird fly. The Russians are no doubt slowly learning that things do happen differently in the West!

Also there in force were the products of British Aerospace. BAe from the start decided to put their all into supporting ABAS and their eventual participation was certainly a credit to them and the RAF, who nowadays get very involved in marketing UK weaponry abroad. How many more British military hardware sales would have been made during the fifties and sixties if such a progressive and logical policy of linking the capabilities of Foreign Affairs, Trade and the Ministry of Defence had been in vogue during those times?

From our forebears came two versions of the strong selling Hawk, a recce modified Hawk100 dual seater and the new single seat dedicated attack Hawk 200. The Hawk is a favourite for the eventual RAAF Macchi supplement which requires something in the order of two dozen aircraft to act principally as lead-in combat trainers for the F-18 squadrons. Also visiting Australia for the first time was the 146STA (Sideloading Tactical Airlifter) which is on offer as a supplement to the C-130 Hercules. Both the dual seat Hawk and the 146STA are in fact the first of type in their respective lines and thus owe BAe little, if they can soldier on to sell a new generation of their basic type, then their further development would be more than justified. Capturing much of the limelight though was the Tornado F. 3, four of which visited ABAS as part of a 66 day circumnavigation of the globe in support of UK technology. Supporting the always impressive Tornados was an RAF Tristar tanker and a stretched C-130 Hercules. Britain was also represented by the unique capabilities of the Sea Harrier while other Royal Navy visitors included Westland Sea King and Lynx helos.

Our nearest neighbours, New Zealand and New Guinea, also sent aircraft. From the former came No75 Squadron’s Kiwi Red aerobatic team flying their A-4K Skyhawks with more than ample backup from a RNZAF Boeing 727-100, Hawker Siddeley Andover, C-130H and an F27 Friendship. From New Guinea came a GAF Nomad Mission Master and an IAI Arava transport. In fact, to the total non-aviation visitor, the unusual looking Arava, along with Transavia’s Skytruck/Skyfarmer were no doubt amongst some of the most intriguing aircraft at Richmond.

One aircraft type that did not make the show although it almost did, and it would certainly have been more than a major attraction, was a Lockheed Constellation in 1950’s Qantas livery.

Project Connie came so near to reality that the full story is almost too sad to narrate. With the dedicated enthusiasm of Qantas staffer, Ron Cuskelly, Project Connie was formed to try and get just such an aircraft to ABAS. It must be remembered that Qantas really does owe a lot to the Constellation – after all, it was the first true long-range intercontinental airliner to carry Qantas colours. Indeed, the jump from war surplus Lancastrians and flying boats into the purpose designed Lockheed product took Qantas into world aviation as a true long haul, high quality operator, able for the first time ever to offer high speed and consistent scheduled services linking Australia with Europe, North America and Asia. To have had a Qantas Connie at ABAS would no doubt have been a public relations coup too good to miss. Unfortunately though, not all at Qantas shared that level of enthusiasm and thus for every step forward in the project, there were to be at least two steps back as commercial infighting between various departments and personalities finally scuttled the project for good. Very sad indeed.

There were actually two Constellations on offer, reports Ron Cuskelly. The first was involved in a regular cargo operation operating between Palau and Nagoya. Unfortunately this opera-

• tion went into insolvency due to the operators underestimating the available cargo payload of the L10498 (N4247K). The aircraft was unable to refuel at Nagoya due to the lack of avgas and consequently was forced to carry fuel in 44 gallon drums for the return journev Hardly the scenario for a successful freight operation. This aircraft, already in long-range overwater trim, was on offer for around $A300,000 which included a modern avionics fit and ferry to Australia.

Unfortunately, insolvency brought with it the spectre of numerous unpaid bills owing to Phillipino authorities, who then naturally placed a lien on the aircraft in lieu of outstanding payments. Thus the aircraft was, like so many classic aircraft of its genre, saddled with a legal entanglement that will probably see it destined to rot away in a remote corner of a Phillipine airport.

Connie II was an L1049F (N515AC) and was being used on freight charters from Texas to as far afield as Canada and South America. The owner of the aircraft, Capt Earl Atkins, agreed to bring a charter to Australia to defray the cost involved and leave the Connie here the project cost was estimated at under $A100,000. This proposal was put to the Qantas policy committee on the 24th August only to be rejected because there were no perceived promotional benefits! This rejection was accompanied by the suggestion that the proposal might be implemented if it were funded by Qantas staff. Clearly there was insufficient time to organise an appeal, so the charter was reluctantly cancelled. On the 26th August, representations were made direct to the Chief Executive of Qantas, John Menadue to have the proposal re-examined. Several days later Project Connie was firmly back on track and an eleventh hour appeal for donations was launched. With success finally in sight, a small band of supporters within Qantas set about planning the operation only to have their hopes dashed by a cruel stroke of misfortune! The Texas Connie was no longer available!

Ironically, an aeroplane which had been on the market without a buyer for some eighteen months, was sold within the space of a few days between the cancellation and resumption of the project. When Ron Cuskelly spoke to Earl Atkins, he expressed his own disappointment at not being able to make the trip to Australia for he had even purchased the necessary charts! After Qantas turned the charter down, someone “made him an offer he couldn’t refuse” and the Connie was sold to interests in South America.

Captain Atkins personally delivered the aeroplane to Santo Domingo on the 4th September where she is expected to join several other Connies operated by Aerochago. Thus Project Connie ground to a halt and with it most probably Australia’s last chance to see one of aviation’s greatest airliners in the colours of our own international carrier.

So much for nostalgia.

There were no really new breakthrough announcements at the Show concerning local industry that really weren’t known beforehand, though a number of them do ably illustrate the positioning of our aerospace industry as an associate partner in many of the world’s major aircraft programmes. Some of these included:

An agreement between Westland and Hawker Pacific to form Westland Pacific, a dedicated company optimised to improving the market penetration of Westland products within the region. A point not generally known regarding Westland is that the English company has a large and diversified technology and manufacturing base which when coupled with the established marketing expertise of Hawker Pacific could certainly lead to some productive liaisons in the years ahead.

Rolls-Royce also has indicated that it intends to broaden its technology transfer base with its Australian affiliates. This might sound bland on the surface but the depth of technology transfer being made available to Australian industry via this programme puts us years ahead in terms of offering a manufacturing capability for such high-tech items as high temperature turbine blades, superplastic forming and diffusion bonding, etc. Australia has already learnt much in this area thanks to the technological impetus of the F-18 programme and this latest offer from RollsRoyce will certainly be timely indeed.

Aerospatiale was granted ‘corporate citizenship’ by the Australian Government, something that now allows it to more easily team with local partners in developing new programmes together. ASTA are already preparing to produce select components for Aerospatiale for the A320 and A330/34 0 programmes (refer p. 4 8July 88M) and have teamed with that company and CATIC of the PRC to produce a new light helo (refer Rotor Torque, March & May 88 M).

BH Pacific have meanwhile performed a new feat in reverse engineering by buying out a US defence contractor. The $10m deal involves the acquisition of Dallas, Texas based Composite Technologies and allows Brisbane based BH Pacific an entree to the vast US defence acquisition system which was previously beyond it. BH Pacific are also nearing rollout on their own privately funded UH-1H Iroquois upgrade that might also be of interest to a number of overseas Huey operators, including the US Army.

Airbus lndustrie has also been given Prequalified Offsets Supplier status with the Australian Government, something that is given only to companies with a satisfactory record of meeting their offset obligations with Australian industry and who have large amounts of work contracted via long term orders.

Local manufacturing giant, Hawker de Havilland also found that it was meeting with a number of potential overseas suppliers of outNardly minor components, such as bearings, etc, that will lead it to further being able to reduce its overheads in future due to lower price sourcing from abroad. HdH also had an unexpected plant visit by the Soviet trade delegation though were keen to point out that press reports of the time blew this situation out of control. For the time being, it ·certainly does not appear that Hawkers will be building components for the next Tupolov airliner, though ten years from now, who knows! More down to earth were visits between senior Swiss Air Force and Pilatus executives who no doubt will now be keen to learn the finer points of assembling their newly purchased F-18 Hornets via the Australian experience. Indeed, the Swiss purchase could have some very viable conclusions for Australian industry in this regard.

The overall impression from those companies representing was that the show had proved a positive experience for them. In addition to formalising contracts on everything from airframes to components, a major air show is also about people getting together to trade knowledge and sell their particular products. On this theme, it was just as productive for our local aerospace industry to meet with its own clients in a relaxed atmosphere as it was with those from abroad. The verdict from the visitors meanwhile seemed to indicate a newfound and indeed healthy respect for the overall capabilities of the total Australian aerospace industry, something that previously most of the large contingent of visiting firms were not really aware of.

On the General Aviation side, results varied enormously from pavilion to pavilion with some smaller companies reporting excellent results and others that they had not met expectations. Indeed, the signposting on some of these areas could have been better.

So, will it ever happen again? The organisers proudly say most certainly, but only in the year 20 88! Some calls have already come forth, led by ASTA’s CEO George Stuart, for the show to be held every five or so years. Some others might agree, though the real common thread in the industry worldwide is towards a lesser number of big time air shows. At present there are, for some companies, up to a dozen air and trade shows that they must be represented at – and everybody concedes that this is too much with almost everybody nowadays agreeing that the present roundabout of Paris, Singapore and Farnborough is more than enough.

Mind you, our guess is that Schofields (providing it remains an airfield, which is a moot possibility!) will never be the same again and will extend its already substantial trade area to accommodate a broader range of aviation companies in future years. This would not be an entirely bad thing.

To the Schofields Flying Club, and in particular their incredibly hard working and forward thinking Ian Honnery, We say a well deserved thank you for your efforts and of the unstinting voluntary efforts of the army of workers who did Australia proud with what must certainly be the most professional and enjoyable

one-off air show for many years. Good one Oz !

ABAS photo coverage by Eric Allen, Bob Finlayson, Mitch Lovett and Jim Thorn.