Newsdesk — Commercial Aviation

Record Fokker Output:

Fokker manufactured a record 70 airliners during 1990, a record it expects to break again this year with over 100 airliners planned for production.

The final assembly lines turned out 37 Fok. ker 50 propjets and 33 Fokker 100 fanjets. Fokker 50 50 production is expected to remain stable over over the next few years at a rate of 34 per year. Production of the 100 is being progressively stepped up to a level of 67 aircraft per year by 1993. A total of 19 Fokker 50s and 50 Fokker 100s were either ordered or optioned last year. Orders and options for the 50 stand at over 145 and 374 for the 100.

Bangalore Crash Blamed on Pilots:

The official indian judicial report has blamed pilot error on the Indian Airlines A320 Bangalore crash of 14 February 1990. The findings have cleared the aircraft and its fight management system, as well as the airline and its and its flight training system, which had been been highly criticised by an earlier Directorate of the pilot w General of Civil Aviation report. The primary error of the pilot was the mis mis taken selection of of the digits 700 for altitude capture (feet above sea level) instead of rate of descent (feet per minute), and engaging Open Descent Mode instead of Speed Mode. The result was that the aircraft descended rapidly with throttles closed and the pilot, in a vain attempt to reduce the descentrate, raised the nose, which further significantly reduced speed but not the descent rate. The pilots realised their error too late, the inevitable result being that the aircraft crashed 700m short of the runway.

While the A320 and Indian Airlines have been cleared of responsibility, the report does maintain that Indian Airlines’ pilots were not yet ready to fly the new technology aircraft in service.

Pratt & Whitneys Fly Half Billion Hours:

Pratt & Whitney’s current fleet of 18,000 commercial turbofan engines has surpassed the half billion hours mark.

It took 27 years for Pratt’s mainline commercial turbotan engines the JT8D, JT90, PW2000 and PW4000- to reach the unprecedented industry milestone. Since the beginning of the commercial jet age, P&W has sold nearly 27,000 engines (of all mod. els) to some 370 customers worldwide- more than its competitors combined. The company’s current mainline engines power a fleet of 5,250 airliners, or 68% of all jet transports worldwide. It is estimated that every three seconds a P&W powered aircraft takes off somewhere in the world.

Israel’s Soviet Airliner Up. Grades Under Threat:

A lack of available funds and the death of a principal backer is threatening the Israeli plan to upgrade Soviet airliners to westem standards.

The project was initiated last year but has been left in disarray by the recent death of its founder and backer, 92 year old entrepreneur Armand Hammer. The project involved refitting and updating Ilyushin 1-96 and Tupolev Tu-204 airliners with western engines, avionics and interiors to provide Soviet built airliners finished to western standards, but for sale at much lower prices than similar western aircraft. Studies have shown that certification of the project would cost about $US50m with another $US150m needed to actually commence work.

With one of its chiefbackers now dead, the Soviet Union is in no condition to supply the funds, while Israeli Aircraft Industries-which was to undertake the upgrade work on a contract basis – is unwilling to provide funding. This interesting project may unfortunately be destined to go no further than a proverbial paper plane.

 DHC Cuts Staff:

Boeing Canada’s de Havilland division has laid off 300 workers, an action the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union believes is linked to the company’s proposed sale to ATR.

CAW believes the layoffs are the result of demands by ATR to “streamline operations”. and that ATR itself plans to reduce the workforce further by 40% to about 3,150. The union therefore believes that layoffs have begun now so that ATR do not appear the “bad guys”. Engineers and other skilled workers have already been laid off, a move the union claims will effectively eliminate DHC’s research and development capability, so that once Dash 8-100 and -300 sales dry up DHC will “become no more than a parts supplier for the ATR consortium”.

A DHC spokesman, however, has claimed the current round of layoffs are simply a “part of a long term business plan which has been in place for a couple of years”. The production line is now more efficient, aircraft production has stabilised and fewer employees are needed. There has been no comment from ATR about its proposed plans for DHC.

 V-One Markets Updated 7278:

An international consortium has been established to market modified Boeing 727-200RES to airlines worldwide.

The aircraft are on offer on operating leases or on purchase/modify/lease back agreements. Already the consortium has over 50 orders and about 150 options for its modified 727s, these including both airline and executive aircraft. The Valsan modification program involves the replacement of the aircraft’s two outboard engines with P&W JT8D-15 or -17 engines with more powerful and efficient JT8D-217C of -219s, giving a 23% improvement in thrust to weight ratio. The centre engine is retained, but is fitted with a 12 lobe mixer nozzle and a sound absorbent lining in the exhaust nozzle. Fuel savings with the new engines are about 11%, though an additional option of 5ft high wing- lets saves an additional 5%. Other improvements include a 300nm range improvement, up to 50% increased payload, reduced takeoff distance and a 25% faster climb.

With the current dramatic fall in the market value of 727s, the Valsan Stage 3 mods are indeed an option to be well considered by operators. For this reason V-One believe they are on to a real market winner.

Korean Air DC-10 Crash Pilot Jailed:

The pilot responsible for the 1989 Korean Air DC-10 crash near Tripoli Airport was sentenced to two years imprisonment.

The Seoul Criminal Court found that the pilot had acted rashly and should have better analysed meteorological data, but in not doing so was negligent and therefore responsible for the crash which killed 80 people. Of the 181 passengers and 18 crew, 78 were killed, as were six Libyans on the ground when the aircraft crashed 6km from fog shrouded Tripoli Airport.

It was the Court’s view that the aircraft should have diverted, as an Aeroflot aircraft ahead did. The DC-10’s copilot received a suspended 18 month sentence, after having previously been jailed with the pilot by Libyan authorities.

 Tristar Freighters Boost Type’s Life Expectancy:

At least three Lock- heed L. 1011 Tristar operators are negotiating to convert their aircraft to freighters, a move which Lockheed officials believe will extend the 20 year old design’s service life.

The first civil Tristar freighter conversion entered service in December with new start New Zealand carrier, Southern World Transport (SWT) The aircraft is a dry leased example previously operated by a US freight flier, though it has been in storage in Arizona for some time after it was found to be too heavy (the need to strengthen the floor beams in the widebody to enable it to carry freight increases overall weight of the aircraft). SWT is believed to have purchased the L1011 because it could not meet noise regulations with a hushkitted DC-8 to operate three NZ/Los Angeles services per week.

Despite the apparent weight problem, Lockheed plans to convert up to 20 Tristars for at least three customers. Two large air- lines have also reportedly shown strong interest in having their passenger configured aircraft converted to freighters.