Newsdesk – Commercial Aviation

Meanwhile, Qantas is due to make a firm decision on whether or not to proceed with acquiring a number of ex PanAm A300B4s (refer p16Mar 94 AA)before the end of March. Either way the airline will be retaining its existing four A300s for some considerable time as its domestic capacity requirements are substantial to say the least. Qantas has recently gained a capacity boost via the return of three 747-300s from JAL though due to the size of these aircraft they are of no practical use domestically.

 Schaap Leaves Qantas:

Long time Qantas and Australian Airlines senior executive John Schaap has resigned from the national carrier.

Mr Schaap, previously managing director of Australian Airlines prior to its merger with Qantas, elected to leave after he felt none of the restructured senior management positions were suitable. Mr Schaap’s former position as General Manager Australia was broken up into two new positions following the recent restructure of senior executive positions.

Mr Schaap first joined Qantas 31 years ago, and also served a period as Chief Executive Officer of Air Pacific while on secondment between 1985 and 1988. He took over as chief executive of Australian Airlines in late 1989.

British Airways Awards Ca- Tering to Qantas:

British Airways has awarded its Australian inflight catering contract to Qantas Flight Catering, for its five Australian destinations. Previously BA’s inflight catering for flights from Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide had been handled by Ansett Inflight Services.

 Skyfox to Be Manufactured in China?

Queensland based Skyfox Aviation has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a major Chinese aircraft manufacturing concern for the manufature of the CA-25 Skyfox GA aircraft in China.

The Memorandum of Understanding follows from a visit to inspect Calair’s facilities and discuss manufacturing under licence in China during February and March. The delegation consisted of Director and Senior Engineer Zhang Shang Dao and Senior Engineers Professor Luo Yu Gui and Wu Zuochang. The Chinese built aircraft would be used in a variety of roles including basic pilot training.

Australiaair to Float:

International airline aspirant, Australia Air, is now planning a stockmarket float in an effort to raise the $55m required by the International Air Services Commission as representing sufficient financial backing to commence, and continue, international airline operations.

The airline has secured the services of Turnbull; Partners and County Natwest as joint advisors and underwriters and hopes to launch the float around May. Australia Air was also recently refused capacity to both Amsterdam and Athens (along with Melbourne based Australia World Airways) by the IASC on the basis that it was unable to show proof that it would be able to provide the services applied for. Australia Air plans to operate a once a week service from Australia to Beijing and was originally planning to have commenced services as far back as last September.

The airline is also due to have its present provisional China route entitlement expire on March 30 and has applied. for a 90 day extension providing there are no objections. It is generally considered that Qantas won’t make the same mistake twice and will counter attack with an in- depth proposal to service the route, something that will make life for Australia Air difficult to say the least.

Dhl Increases Tasman Services:

Freight carrier DHL Worldwide Express has increased the frequency of its Boeing 727 flights between Australia and New Zealand from one to three per day to meet the demand created by faster customs clearances on the other side of the Tasman.

The Fast Freight Accord is a package of reforms governing import clearances for air consignments from Australia to New Zealand. It comes as a result of industry lobbying and means substantial savings in time and cost for Australian companies exporting to New Zealand. High value goods which previously would have undergone a Customs inspection period of up to 48 hours will now be released to approved importers on arrival. This applies to documents or consignments other than packets or parcels with an individual weight of up to 32kg or a single shipment of up to 1400kg and should help boost trans Tasman air freight dramatically.

BA Threatens Usair Investment:

British Airways has indicated it is suspending plans for further investment in its American associate, USAir, unless a substantial restructuring is undertaken. The codesharing arrangement between the is also under threat.

BA owns 24. 6% of USAir, giving the British operator codeshare access to the US domestic market. It has already invested nearly $US400m in USAir and planned spending another $US450m over the next two years. Continuing poor results by USAir have prompted the move. The airline lost $US349m last year and $US601m in 1992.

The US Transportation Department has been under considerable pressure from Delta and American Airlines to end the BA-USAir codesharing arrangement unless US airlines are given greater access to London Heathrow, but this could have serious consequences. It would add to USAir’s financial difficulties and also violate the current bilateral agreement between Britain and the USA, prompting the possibility of retaliation by Britain through the blocking of some existing US flights to Heathrow.

USAir has already announced cost cutting plans, including the retrenchment of a further 2500 employees by the middle of this year.

 Elt Deadline Extended:

The Civil Aviation Authority has extended its deadline for the installation of emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) by 12 months.

The initial July 1 1994 deadline was only introduced in December last year and has proven to be somewhat optimistic as suppliers of ELTs have found it impossible to ship in the quantities required to allow all owners to comply with the regulation. It is not known how many aircraft need to be fitted with ELTs, but it is widely agreed to include the vast majority of Australian registered aircraft.

All aircraft except for gliders, trikes, ultralights, balloons, airships, training aircraft which only fly within 25nm (46km) of their parent airfield or at that airfield’s designated training area, and aircraft being ferried to have an ELT installed or maintained, will need to have an ELT installed by the new deadline. An explanatory article on ELTs appeared on p32 of our March edition.

 Vlct Talks Continue:

Partners in the Boeing led Very Large Commercial Transport study have agreed to extend their joint activities through till mid 1995.

Boeing and Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, CASA and Deutsche Aerospace will now also be joined by Airbus Industrie it- self (whose partners are the four European companies) in an advisory role, utilising experience gained from current Airbus programmes.

Thus far the VLCT study has identified a market for 450 to 500 airframes in the 500 seat class by 2010, more than half of which would be ordered from airlines in the Asia Pacific region.

The continued VLCT studies will decide whether or not the participants should pursue the joint development of such an aircraft, and whether or not to involve other future partners, possibly from Japan and Russia.

Environmentally Friendly Rain Repellent:

Airbus Industrie is testing a new environmentally friendly rain repellent windscreen shield for aircraft which, if successful, will eliminate the need for wipers and existing chemical fluid repellents.

Called ‘Surface Seal’ the American developed repellent is a transparent waterphobic shield which is placed over the windscreen and displaces water. For its evaluations, Airbus has put Surface Seal on one side of an A340’s windscreen. Reactions from flight crews have so far been positive, encouraging Airbus to continue testing in order to determine Surface Seal’s performance on its other aircraft in all types of rain conditions.

MDC Looking Better:

McDonnell Douglas has achieved what it describes as a ‘dramatic corporate turnaround’ in 1983, recording a $US396m net profit despite a substantial 17% drop in sales to $US14. 5bn.

The improvement comes with several worrying aspects, however, and results largely from heavy cost cutting including a reduction of 17,360 people in its workforce, which now stands at about 70,000. Some 3500 of those jobs went with the sale of non core businesses. Lower interest charges and heavy cuts in research and development expenditure also contributed to cost reductions. The company’s debt has now been reduced to $US1. 6bn, the lowest for six years.

MDC’s military aircraft business recorded a strong year and made an operating profit of $US533m ($US391m in 1992) excluding charges for the troubled C-17 transport which lopped $US450m from that figure. The best performing part of MDC was its missiles and space business which returned a record profit of $US338m.

MDC’s commercial aircraft business was its worst performer, showing an operating profit of just $US40m, 60% less than the previous year. Revenue fell by 28% with. MD-80 deliveries to 42 in 1993. MD-11 deliveries fell from 42 in 1992 to 36 last year. Revenue from this sector is not expected to improve till MD-90 deliveries begin to ramp up through next year.

Net orders also fell due to cancellations. Ten MD-80s were ordered in 1983 but 11 were cancelled; the MD-11 received five new orders but suffered seven cancellations. By the end of 1993 the firm order backlog was for 66 MD-808, 77 MD-908 and 60 MD-118.

Air Canada to Perform DC-9X Work:

Air Canada has been selected as the North American modification centre for the McDonnell Douglas DC-9X upgrade project, using kits supplied by the manufacturer. The project is expected to be launched later this year.

The DC-9X designation covers a series of upgrades for the airliner, both for the airframe and powerplants. The specifics for the latter have not yet been settled with several options under study. These range from hushkitting to re-engining with P&W JT8D-218Bs, Rolls-Royce Tay 670s or the new BMW-RR BR 715. Early preferences were or the Tay, but there has been a recent upsurge in interest in the latest JT8D variant because of its commonality with earlier versions, or hushkitting.

Air Canada has already decided to go ahead with an upgrade programme on 35 of its DC-98. Other potential North American customers include Continental (30 aircraft), TWA (40), USAir (70) and Airborne Express (55). Finnair is also considering upgrading some of its 17 DC-98, but has recently expressed a tendency towards buying new aircraft.

 New Aircraft X-Ray Inspection System:

NASA is adopting an existing x-ray system to improve the cost effectiveness of inspecting ageing aircraft.

The system, which combines TV-like scanning by x-ray beams with digital data The Rolls-Royce Trent 700 has been certicated by the European Joint Airworthiness Authorities and is now flying aboard an Airbus A330 development aircraft. Eight Trent 700 development engines were put through a number of tests including multiple birdstrikes, hail and water ingestion, icing tolerance, cold starting in temperatures below -40°C, restarting and handling at simulated attitude, and fan blade containment. The more powerful Trent 800 is scheduled to power the Boeing 777, while the total thrust potential of the Trent is now put at 103,000lb (461. 4kN). (Rolls-Royce) acquisition, was originally intended for medical and industrial purposes. Researchers at NASA’s Langley Research Centre have now devised several aerospace applications for the system.

It will be used for measuring composite materials and for supporting tests to assess how structures behave under. stress. Because the system yields depth information, the technique may also be used to view how fibres mesh in three dimensional composites and to monitor them for internal damage.

Before the techniques can be fully employed in aerospace, the system’s sensors have to be miniaturised so they can be inserted into internal structures for inspection. NASA is also working on methods to ensure the accuracy of the data and to enhance interpretation of the x-ray image.

New Trent Customer and Record:

Rolls-Royce has not only set a world record with its new Trent large turbofan engine but has also won a new customer for it with Hong Kong based Dragonair leasing two Trent 700 powered Airbus A330-300s.

The aircraft will be leased from International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) and will replace two Lockheed L-1011 TriStars currently leased from parent company Cathay Pacific. Dragonair’s first A330 will be delivered in May 1995.

The Trent 700 has recently completed its type certification programme and began flight testing on an A330 during February. Apart from Dragonair, A330/Trent 700 customers to date are Cathay Pacific, Garuda, TWA and ILFC. The more powerful Trent 800 for the Boeing 777 has been ordered by three airlines Thai, Cathay Pacific and Emirates.

The Trent 800 first ran in September last year and recently set a record as the world’s most powerful engine, recording just over 106,000lb (474. 9kN) thrust in testing. The Trent 800 will be initially certificated at 90,000lb (403. 2kN) thrust.

 Avro’s New Spares Deal:

British Aerospace’s regional jet subsidiary, Avro, has announced a range of new services for the supply of spare parts to operators of its RJ Avroliner (ex BAe 146) range of airliners.

A new financial deal called ‘JetSpares will enable the customer to obtain spare parts by paying a fixed amount based on the aircraft’s utilisation. Using a new just in time’ computer ordering and robotic dispatch system, Avro aims to provide a fast and efficient service which will reduce the operator’s spares inventory. Avro has been guaranteeing that its