Newsdesk- Commercial Aviation

Aust Industry Achieves Lucrative Boeing Deal:

Boeing has signed contracts worth $455m with the Australian aerospace industry, Hawker de Havilland (HdH) and Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) being the main beneficiaries (refer Recce).

Under the new deal, Boeing has contracted HdH to sole source manufacture the elevators for the new Boeing 777 widebody the value of the contract being over $A200m. The contract is the largest yet negotiated between Boeing and HdH, which already is responsible for a wide range of Boeing assemblies for the 737, 747 and 757 airliners. The quality and efficiency of this work was a major factor in the awarding of the 777 contract by Boeing, which has now awarded contracts exceeding SA600m to HdH over the last 20 years. A HdH team is already at Seattle working on the design of the 777 elevators, which will be constructed from advanced carbon fibre composite materials, each elevator being 11m long and amongst the largest such structures yet produced; the initial 500 sets will be built up until 2003. HdH are investing $10m to expand its Banks-town facilities to cater for the latest contract.

As well as the HdH contract, Boeing at the same time awarded ASTA the contract to sole source manufacture the 777’s rudder, which at 12. 1m in length will be the largest composite rudder ever built for a Boeing commercial aircraft, and also the largest single aircraft structural assembly ever manufactured from composite materials in Australia. ASTA, Sike HdH, has had a long association with Boeing and over recent years has been able to lift its performance significantly. The company (as its GAF predecessor) initially delivered 1,000 727 horizontal stabilisers, and since the 1970s has been responsible for manufacturing 747 Krueger flaps and 757 rudder systems (of which over 40 have now been delivered) since April 1990.

Thus Australia’s aerospace industry has been able to show that it does not rely solely on the old offsets scheme for such valuable contracts. On its own merits the industry has achieved the contracts, and should therefore be recognised as one of Australia’s premier exporters. The industry currently employs some 3,000 people and was responsible for $150m in exports during 1990/91.

 Japan Facing Pilot Shortage:

The major Japanese carriers are facing a serious shortage of skilled flightcrew, with a substantial number of current captains fast coming up to retirement age.

The Japanese Ministry of Transport has forecast that some 3,200 captains employed by the nation’s eight scheduled carriers will retire by the year 2014, Peak retirements will be in 2007 (254), 2008 (285) and 2009 (276). Currently some 3,760 pilots, including 2,170 captains and 1,590 first officers, are employed by the eight airlines.

 Rolls-Royce Option for Soviet Tu-204:

The Rolls-Royce RB211-535 will be the first non-Soviet engine to be offered for international certification on a Soviet airliner the Tupolev Tu-204.

An agreement for the installation of the state-of-the-art Western engine came after about two years of negotiations between the two companies concerned. An RB211-535 engineering mock-up has already been supplied to Tupolev and both companies are now examining installation details and modifications needed, prior to the RB211-535/Tu-204 fight testing program commencing in 1992. Tupolev anticipates a market for the Rolls-Royce powered Tu-204 both within the Soviet Union and internationally. The aircraft, which is more typically powered by Soloviev PS90A engines of approximately 35,000lb thrust, is designed to carry around 200 passengers and can only benefit from the 43,100lb thrust RB211-535Fs.

The RB211-535 is also being offered for the four engined Ilyushgin -96 four engined widebody, while the RB211-524G, the 58,000lb thrust engine which currently power Boeing 747-400s, is also seen as a possible candidate to eventually power the giant Antonov An-225 Mriya transport.

Fokker Hit Hard by Low Us Dollar:

Despite having struggled out of a near desperate situation during the 1980s to become a prosperous airframe manufacturer, Fokker have again been forced to struggle for increased efficiency to maintain

profits, because of the low US dollar.

From what the president of Fokker’s Board of Management, Mr Marten Kuilman, has described as an “extremely difficult period a few years ago”. Fokker have managed to develop into an efficient and “prosperous” company, its products being in worldwide demand and having developed a substantial order backlog. In fact production is being increased to 101 aircraft per year by 1993. Yet now the company is faced with an external factor which is affecting sales and conse quently production-the low US dollar. Such is its effects that Fokker are again cutting costs and pushing for increased efficiency within its workforce and organisation, in an attempt to counter the effect of the low dollar and to keep profits high