Newsdesk- Commercial Aviation

Boeing’s share of the order is worth $US3. 6bn for 15 737s (a mix of models plus five options), three 747-400s, 19 757s (five options), ten 767s (five options) and six 777s (two options). Eighteen of the Boeing orders are converted options.

The orders brings ILFC’s total commitment to Airbus to 103 aircraft over the years while Boeing has received a total of 291 orders from the leasing company. The order is seen as a vote of confidence in the future, despite the airline industry’s current woes.

Boeing announced orders for 229 jetliners in 1992 valued at $US16. 7bn and broken down into 106 737s, 28 747s, 38 757s, 21 7678 and 36 777s. Airbus has meanwhile announced a new version of its new long range A340, optimised for short and medium haul routes.

Dubbed the ‘A340 Light’ at the moment, the aircraft features derated engines and reduced maximum weight and promises a 1% reduction in operating costs. Airbus points out that the A340 will not only be flying the very long range stages for which it was designed but also shorter routes. It notes that the Boeing 747-400 (also designed for long ranges) has an average stage length of only 2000nm (3700km).

MD-11 Stretches:

McDonnell Douglas is studying a stretched version of its MD-11 trijet, offering up to 50 additional seats while retaining the range of the current aircraft.

The company had previously been working on a stretched and rewinged MD-11 as part of what turned into the MD-12 project but this design was dropped and the MD-12 became a completely different aircraft. The new proposal features an increased span and area wing of largely new structural de- sign, an increase in maximum weight from the current 283 tonnes (625,500lb) to more than317 tonnes (700,000lb), four (instead of two) wheels on the centre main undercar- riage, engines of about 65,000lb thrust, a fuselage 2. 4-5. 2m (8-17ft) longer and capac- ity for 30-50 additional passengers. The current MD-11 carries 323 passengers in a typical two class layout over a range of 7000nm (12,980km).

More Range for A340:

Airbus is examining ways to extract an extra 3. 5% range from its A340 long range airliner.

The aircraft was initially 5% down on its target range but this has now been reduced to just 1% following aerodynamic cleaning and changes to the slats and rigging.

Drag reduction methods being looked at include the fitting of 3M riblets’ – a thin ribbed plastic film on the aircraft’s upper wing, fuselage and tailplane surfaces as well as the fin and a technique used on some recent racing yachts-which will provide an extra 0. 7%; twistingthe outboard wing(0. 8%); fitting ventral strakes (0. 5%) and adjusting the thrust direction of the outboard engines (0. 4-0. 8%).

Longer Range 777:

Boeing is offering a longer range and heavier variant of its forthcoming 777 widebody twinjet and has asked engine manufacturers to provide adequate thrust growth to meet the needs of the aircraft.

The longest range 777 currently on offer hasa maximum takeoff weight of 268 tonnes (590,800lb) and a range of about 6350nm (11,750km); the proposed new version will fly more than 7300mm (13,000km).

Boeing/Airbus Large Airliner Talks:

Boeing and Airbus Industrie (through Deutsche Aerospace) have been holding preliminary talks to examine the feasibility of jointly developing a large air- liner capable of carrying 600-800 passengers.

No formal agreements have been signed and even if a feasibility study is carried out, this will not necessarily leadto aprogramme go ahead. The talks come from the realisation that the market for such an aircraft is not sufficiently large to justify more than one manufacturer or consortium developing a type to fill it. Development costs are enormous, meaning a partnership is prob- ably the only viable way of tackling such a project.

Inthe meantime, independent studies will continue to be carried out by the manufacturers and both Boeing and Airbus have said they will continue to explore other partnership possibilities.

 Awa Cuts Jobs:

AWA Defence Industries, specialists in electronic warfare equipment and electro-optics, has signalled its intention to cut 120 jobs this year. Its projects include the Nulka hovering decoy rocket and the Barra sonobuoy.

Most of the lost jobs will be those now held by middle management, clerical and support staff and follow more than 200 redundancies within the company last year. The move and accompanying restructure will save the company about $8m per year, a necessity due to defence spending reductions around the world since the easing of Cold War tensions.

The restructuring will include the establishment of an international business development group to boost exports.

Future Fuel:

Environmentally friendly liquid hydrogen is coming closer to being a viable aircraft fuel following a two year joint test programme conducted in Russia by Tupolev, engine manufacturer Kuznetsov and Deutsche Airbus.

Using a Tu-155 trijet (a converted Tu-154 airliner), the tests involved modifying the aircraft’s centre engine to allow it to run on either liquid hydrogen or natural gas. The study showed that the use of liquid hydrogen is technically possible but considerably more development is needed on components such as pumps, valves and heat exchangers. Theoretically, liquid hydrogencan be processed from water, but the procedure is very expensive at the moment.

Us Outlook Gloomy:

The US Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) has released its annual end of year review and forecast and its contents indicate further declines in sales and employment in 1993.

The review notes the loss of 117,000 jobs in the US industry in 1992-a 10% decline-and predicts a further drop of 4% (47,000 people) this year. Sales in 1992 fell by 4% to $US134bn compared with 1991’s record $US139bn, Department of Defence purchases alone dropping from $US56bn in 1991 to $US52bn. On the other hand, export sales increased to a record $US44. 5bn, although the report notes that this translates into a decline in real terms if inflation is taken into account.

The rest of the report is equally gloomy. Although profits for 1993 are expected to be slightly improved, it is noted that over the past two years they have been the lowest in a decade. New orders dropped by a massive 23% to $US97bn in 1992, the jet airliner backlog fell $US8bn to $US108bn, civil heli- copter production was the lowest since 1973 at 337 units (down from 571 in 1991), dom- estic sales dropped to the extent that for- eign sales accounted for 60% of the total and the overall backlog for all programmes dropped by about 11% to $US210bn. In 1993 the AIA predicts sales to drop further to $US126bn, airliner production to decrease from 558 to 456 units and sales to the Department of Defence to go down a further 10% Ona slightly more positive note, civil helicopter production is expected to recover somewhat to 501 units, business with NASA and other US government agen- cies willincrease, as will investment in plant and equipment and export sales perform- ance provides hope for the future.