Newsdesk Commercial Aviation

Meanwhile, the company has been working closely with a number of airlines to further refine the aircraft’s final design and although no commitments for the aircraft have been forthcoming, McDonnell Doug- las says that it has not yet officially the airlines for orders. A full Update on the MD-12 programme appeared on p74 of our August issue.

Fokker 70 Go Ahead:

Fokker is to proceed with its Fokker 70 jet airliner, with a first flight planned for July 1993.

The Fokker 70 is a shortened 70 seat version of the successful Fokker 100, and becomes the second in a three member jet passenger family, with the larger Fokker 130 following at a later date. The new fam- ily will offer high levels of commonality ranging from flight deck operations to maintenance.

The Fokker 70 will seat 70 pax in a two class arrangement. The aircraft will be powered by two 13,850lb thrust RollsRoyce Tay 620s, and first deliveries are scheduled for the last quarter of 1994. Orders and options for Fokker 100s, on which the Fokker 70 is based, now exceed 350.

Russian Airlines to Buy 11-96M:

Russian Airlines has become the first airline to express serious interest in the westernised I-96M, signing a deal with Ilyushin, Pratt & Whitney and Rockwell Collins for options to buy 20.

Not as yet a definite order, Russian Airlines’ obligation to buy 20 of the type when they become available represents the first commitment for a western engined Russian airliner. The first I1-96M is due to fly next year, while the Tupolev Tu-204 airliner made its first flight with western engines, Rolls-Royce RB211-535s, during August (refer Famborough colour report, p25). Tupolev has announced a unit cost of about $US35-40 million.

Boeing Slows 757 Production:

Boeing will reduce the production rate of its 757 airliner to seven units a month from September next year.

Production rates were raised last January to 8. 5 per month although current orders mean that this rate cannot be sustained beyond September 1993. Boeing has already announced a cutback in 737 production to 14 units a month, down from 21, and will ultimately shed some 8000 workers because of the production cutbacks.

Indonesia Begins N-250 Construction:

Component manufacture of the first commercial aircraft to be wholly designed in Indonesia, the N-250, has begun. The fifty seat regional turboprop is being developed specifically for use within Indonesia by IPTN. The N-250 is expected to be rolled out during 1994 and its first flight is due in early 1995. Already orders and options for 167 aircraft have been placed, these coming from Indonesia’s Sempati, Merpati and Bouraq and a Swedish leasing company FFV.

IPTN has already gained significant. experience in turboprop design, being responsible for 50% of the development and construction of the Casa/IPTN CN-235, (which will be seen at Avalon this month). ITPN is also designing a stretched 70 seat version, designated N-270, a 20-30 seat commuter and a 130 seat jet airliner.

 Tcas Problems:

According to the US National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the traffic alert/collision avoidance systems (TCAS) now installed in 70% of the US airline fleet is seriously threatening safety.

The NATCA has said the systems should only be used in their ‘traffic alert’ warning mode until problems are sorted out, prob lems which include ‘ghost’ targets and dangerously unnecessary deviations commanded by the TCAS which in effect overrule human controllers. Other organisations admit that while TCAS is not with- out its flaws, it is generally satisfactory. More information on this subject can be found in this month’s On The Airbands column on p47.

SAFER BY PLANE: Ever been irritated by people telling you how they feel that airline travel is unsafe? Well this is your chance to fight back with some interesting data courtesy the CAA. Reviewing the two decade period. from 1971 to 1990, it is sadly found that in all forms of transportation that some 62,210 people in Australia lost their lives. Just to prove the theory that the most dangerous thing about aviation is the drive to the airport, 58,936 people died as a result of vehicle accidents whilst trains surprisingly claimed 1403 lives. A further 1871 died as a result of boating accidents whilst aviation accounted for 1212, all but 11 of which were GA related.

In other words, out of 62,210 fatalities, just 11 were in a Regular Public Transport (RPT) aircraft. Now, it doesn’t get much safer than that!

Bae Looks at More Powerful Atp:

British Aerospace is looking at offering a higher powered variant of its ATP 64 seat regional turboprop.

Having already studied the engineering possibilities for such an aircraft, the company is now looking at market possibilities. If the programme proceeds it would. involve installing Pratt & Whitney Canada, PW127 turboprops in place of the original P&WC PW126s, improving hot and high performance. Fokker has recently announced a similarly powered hot and high version of its Fokker 50 propjet. AWA WINS CHINA CONTRACT: Australian electronics firm AWA has been awarded a contract worth nearly $20m to supply ground based air navigation equipment to the People’s Republic of China.

The contract was won against strong international competition and covers distance measuring equipment (DME) and Doppler very high frequency omni range (DVOR) beacons for the China Civil Aviation Authority’s air traffic control programme. AWA air navigation equipment is already operating at several Chinese centres as well as other countries in the Asian region including Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Afghanistan and New Zealand. A recent contract was for a $27m Advanced Traffic Management System in Hong Kong.

Quiet 737-200 Into Service:

The first Boeing 737-200s equipped with Nordam/Pratt & Whitney JT8D hushkits have entered service with German Cargo, a subsidiary of Lufthansa.

The two aircraft began operations in their new, quieter form in early August and as they fly mainly at night, will be far more environmentally friendly’ than before.

Lufthansa has ordered kits for the 35 737-200s in its passenger fleet. The kits bring the 737-200 into compliance with ICAO Stage 3 noise requirements and com- prises an engine ejector/suppressor, inter- nal exhaust mixer and respaced inlet guide vanes. It was jointly developed by Nordam and Pratt & Whitney with technical support from Boeing and locally are being fitted to several 737s of Air New Zealand.