Newsdesk — Commercial Aviation

Fairchild plans to improve the market opportunities of the 328 with the help of substantial cost reductions and the introduction of a family concept for the aircraft. Final assembly of the aircraft will remain at Dornier’s Oberpfaffenhofen site at least until the end of 1999. However, the company’s material costs will be substantially reduced, production throughput times shortened, administrative costs reduced and redundant capacities in development, marketing, sales, product support and other functions and processes eliminated.

The result of all this will be a reduction in Dornier’s workforce from the current 2,200 to around 1,200 to 1,400, including those involved in other activities such as the maintenance of military aircraft.

Definition of the stretched 328 is complete and apart from appeasing customers who purchased the original version on the understanding that a higher capacity model would be developed, the 50-seater will give Fairchild a family of regional turboprops ranging from the strong-selling 19-seat Metro through the two 328 variants. One decision Fairchild has to make is whether or not it will continue production of the unpressurised Dornier 228, also a 19-seater.

With the acquisition of Dornier comes some new senior appointments to the company with former Learjet and AlliedSignal Engines boss James Robinson appointed president and Fairchild’s CEO and chairman Carl Albert becoming chairman and managing director of the new company, Fairchild Dornier Luftfahrt Beteiligungs GmbH.

One of the first A300s ever built is now being used to create periods of weightlessness for up to 25 seconds for use by Novespace, French space agency CNES and Sogerma in astronaut training and for preparing equipment for space missions. The A300 is the first widebody aircraft used to recreate weightlessness. (Airbus)

BAeAM in Australia

British Aerospace has established an office for its aircraft leasing and sales arm, BAe Asset Management, in Sydney. BAeAM has been formed to bring BAe’s two previous leasing companies — Asset Management Organisation (which handled the 146 regional jetliner) and JSX Capital (Jetstreams and other turboprops) — under single management control. The local operation will meet the fleet expansion needs of regional airlines in Australia, New Zealand and the southwest Pacific area and will also target special purpose operators such as charter and contract carriers and air ambulance services.

The company has got off to a good start by leasing five 146s (three -100s and two -200s) to regional airlines in the Qantas group and a pair of Jetstream 31s to Australian Jet Charter, one sold and the other leased. One of Australian Jet Charter’s Jetstreams will be used on an oil industry contract flying between Russia and Japan and the other is available for charter in Australia.

The Qantas 146-100s will be operated by Airlink in central and Western Australia and the -200s will fly for Southern Australia Airlines between Launceston, Melbourne and Sydney, taking over from ‘normal’ Qantas services from October this year.

PW150 Runs

Pratt & Whitney Canada has bench tested its new PW150 turboprop engine for the first time, just 12 months after the launch of the program. The PW150 is in the 5,000 shp (3,730 kW) power category and is a growth derivative of the existing PW100 family designed specifically for next generation high speed regional turboprop aircraft.