Newsdesk – Commercial Aviation

Following launch in early 1994, Bombardier expects the Dash 8-400 to fly in July 1996 and first deliveries to be made by late ’97. The company sees a market for 1600 aircraft in the Dash 8-400’s class over the next two decades.

Bombardier is also studying a stretched 70 passenger version of its 50 seat Regional Jet. Dubbed the CRJ-X, the new aircraft will be 5. 8m (19ft) longer than the existing RJ and possible powerplants are the GE CF34, Allison GMA3012, GE/Snecma CFM88 and BMW/Rolls-Royce BR710. No launch date has been announced, although interest has been shown by Lufthansa CityLine (the RJ’s European launch customer) and British Midland.

Jaa & FAA Certificate A330:

Airbus Industrie’s A330 achieved simultaneous European and US certification on October 21, the first aircraft ever to do so.

A330 certification (with GECF6 engines) marks the climax of the six year $US3. 5bn A330/A340 development programme, launched in June 1987 – the four engined A340 was certificated in December 1992.

Certification followed an extensive testing programme involving 420 missions and 1100 flying hours. Notable highlights of the programme included rigorous ETOPS testing over the Atlantic, including deliberate engine shut down-and a demanding route proving programme with Air Inter based out of Paris, and Malaysia Airlines, based from Kuala Lumpur.

The A330 certification programme was also aided by work already carried out for the A340. As the aircraft are virtually identical except for engines, many A340 results such as structural tests and systems trials were also applicable for the big twin.

First deliveries of the A330 are due to take place this month to Air Inter while

Commercial

early regional customers, Thai and Malaysian will receive their first A330s in the new year.

Development work on the A330 continues, with testing to achieve certification for Pratt & Whitney PW4168 (end April 94) and Rolls-Royce Trent (December 4) powered versions.

In November the A330 completed a series of demonstration flights in China, including engine out takeoffs from Tibet’s demanding Lhasa airport which is at an altitude of more than 12,000ft. The A330 is now the largest aircraft ever to have operated from Lhasa and it performed a number of takeoffs and landings including deliberate engine failures at the most critical moment during takeoff.

After the simulated engine failure the A330 successfully demonstrated the ability to continue its takeoff and climbout on one engine. Similar tests from Lhasa have previously been performed by a Boeing 767 earlier this year, anda 757in 1991. Other centres visited in China included Shanghai, Chengdu and Guangzhou, with a number of Chinese pilots test flying the aircraft.

Shorter Paris Air Show:

The 1995 Paris airshow will be shortened from Pratt & Whitney Canada is to develop a new family of small turbofan engines, to be known as the PW500family. The new engines will the 3000 to 4000b thrust class, and will be aimed primarily for corporate jets. Superseding the highly successful JT15 (more than 5000 of which were delivered to Cessna), the PW500 family will be of twin spool configuration and take advantage of P&WC’s Integral Bladed Rotor technology (devel- oped for the JT15D) for the single stage fan plus boost stage for more powerful models. (P&WC) the usual ten days to eight, the intention being to reduce the cost of the exercise to exhibitors.

The move comes in the wake of overwhelming opinion that the show is too long and in 1995 will be held from Sunday June 11 to the following Sunday, June 18. Both the Sundays (and Saturday the 17th) are listed as public days, while Monday to Fri- day (June 12-16) are set aside for the trade show. Organisers of the 1994 Farnborough Air Show have already announced a reduction in length of that event from eight to seven days and the show will be held between September 5 and 11 next year. AA Comment: Both Farnborough and Paris definitely needed to be reduced in length while it is refreshing to see that Asian Aerospace next February isn’t being lengthened despite its massive success in recent years.

It is in this lightthat it is a little difficult to see why our own Avalon show has been stretched out to a mind numbing six days when the early trade days seem to be mainly the province of air cadets, show employees and school kids on excursion. When the show format was originally floated it was also to be a four yearly event, so you might ask why is it being rushed through a year and a half before it should be.

The answer is that Airshows Downunder was planning to operate a major airshow (what Avalon would be)in conjunction with the RAAF in 1996 to celebrate the latter’s 75th anniversary. The RAAF has since abandoned this idea to go it alone with two low key airshows ofits own, apparently leaving Airshows Downunder with little choice but to run in ’95.

Fokker’s Flexible Production:

Fokker has introduced what it calls ‘flexible production’ to its Fokker 100 regional jet line in order to reduce the production of ‘white tail’ aircraft. It is also considering introducing the idea to the Fokker 50 turboprop.

The company will now only manufacture Fokker 100 fuselages until the aircraft has a customer, the fuselage representing about 25% of the value of a complete aircraft. The result will be considerable cost savings combined with reasonable delivery times when the aircraft is ordered.

Fokker had 25 white tails in stock earlier this year and all but one or two of these will be placed with customers by the end of 1993. It also expects to have 10 Fokker 50 white tails awaiting customers by the end of the year. In addition, the company has restarted market surveys on two stretched models, the Fokker 130 jet and a civil version of the longer Fokker 60 Utility which is