Commercial Aircraft Sales

Rsaf Plans Expanded Australian Presence

The Rsaf is looking to permanently base a squadron in Australia. The Rsaf already has a training squadron at Raaf Pearce while Singapore Airlines operates a civil flight academy at Jandakot, but under the new proposal is reportedly looking to establish an operational base within the structure of Raaf Amberley. If the proposal goes ahead, a single squadron would fly from Amberley and this would be rotated with Singapore-based units from time to time. The Rsaf would build its own quarters and facilities at Amberley, as it already has at Pearce.

The Crash That Wasn’t

Incredible as it seems, an accident which involved the writing off of a Chinese Boeing 737-300 in a landing accident wasn’t known about until two months after it occurred in July this year. The accident still hadn’t been officially reported by Chinese authorities in October, despite the 737’s operator, government-owned Yunnan Airlines, having made a $Us 40 million insurance claim against the loss of the 18-month-old airliner.

The 737 was lost when it overran the runway at Wujiaba Airport after having touched down 2500 ft (770 m) along the runway at a speed of 170 kt (315 km/h), or 50 knots (93 km/h) too fast. The aircraft apparently hit a fence before coming to rest in deep mud and although it was destroyed, all 144 on board evacuated safely.

Bae Profitable

British Aerospace recorded a pre-tax profit of £90 million (about $190 million) in the first six months of 1994 following a lengthy period of restructuring which included the sale of the Corporate Jets division, Rover cars and the slashing of the workforce. Bae’s Defence division provided about $470 million in profits (and 70% of the turnover) but as has been the case in recent years, these were eroded by losses in the Commercial Aircraft group, although Airbus activities were profitable. The Regional Turboprop division proved to be a heavy loser again with production of the Jetstream 31 now effectively ended pending more orders and the larger Jetstream 41 selling slowly. The Atp/J61 70-seater also struggled.

Il-76 Waterbomber

Of interest to Australia and coming about as a result of the drought in North America and the extensive forest fires which have accompanied it, the Us Forest Service is evaluating the Russian Ilyushin Il-76 transport for use as a waterbomber. Ilyushin has developed a containerised water bombing system for the aircraft called the dischargeable 21,000 litre tubular reservoir in the hold. The water is released through the force of gravity via the aircraft’s rear loading ramp in one or two salvoes, taking a maximum of 10 seconds. It is replenished from a ground supply in 12 minutes. Ilyushin says the system can be installed in less than two hours and has been proven fighting forest and ammunition dump fires in Russia.