Yesteryear

A ceremony was held at Toulouse on May 7 for the formal inauguration of the Airbus A380 final assembly hall.

The first aircraft being assembled is a static test airframe.

Final assembly of the first flying prototype, A380-841 F-WWOW c/n 001, will soon begin with ground tests to follow with a first flight in early 2005.

Orders for the A380 stand at 129 from 11 major customers and the type will enter service in 2006 initially flying with Singapore Airlines.

A Pentagon announcement on May 26 indicated that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has again deferred a decision until at least November regarding the lease-purchase by the USAF of 100 Boeing KC-767 tankers.

This comes after an investigation by the Defense Science Board which suggested alternatives including converting retired DC-10s or second-hand 767s, looking at other tanker designs with manufacturers, or as an interim measure, re-engining older KC-135s.

The maiden flight of the first RAF Sentinel R1 ASTOR (Airborne Stand-Off Radar) aircraft, ZJ690, took place from Major’s Field, Greenville, Texas on May 26.

The aircraft has been modified from a standard Global Express by L-3 Integrated Systems at Greenville.

The new Jetstar livery was revealed on May 10 on the Impulse Airline Boeing 717-231 VH-VQI.

All of Impulse’s 14 717s will be rebranded while 23 Airbus A320s on order will carry the new livery.

Jetstar services commenced on May 25 with flights from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to eight east coast destinations while flights from Avalon will begin on June 1 to Sydney and Brisbane.

25 years ago

British Aerospace gave the go-ahead on May 24 for a £130 million shared risk program for the development of the Jetstream 41, stretched version of the Jetstream 31, to be introduced into service in 1992.

Market surveys have shown a potential sales market for 1,500 aircraft in this category and BAe hopes to capture at least 25 per cent of these.

The Supervisory Board of Airbus Industrie on May 20 authorised the offer of a stretched version of the A320 to potential customers, to be available from 1994.

The A320 Stretch, which is likely to be called the A320-300, will have a 6.

93m (22ft 9in) longer fuselage enabling an increase of 24 per cent in seating and 40 per cent additional hold volume.

In other A320 news, the first example with IAE V2500 engines was delivered to Adria Airways on May 18.

Pan American World Airways has placed an order for two Airbus Industrie A310-300s plus two options.

Pan Am is the current world leader in operating the largest number of the Airbus wide-bodies with a fleet of 31 including 12 A310-300s, seven A310-200s and 12 A300B4s.

McDonnell Douglas has announced that first C-17 deliveries to the USAF will be made in the northern summer of 1991 with initial operating capability scheduled for September 1992.

First flight is expected in early 1991.

The RAF has adopted a new policy for the preservation of historic aircraft.

Spitfire and Hurricane gate guardians will be replaced by fibreglass replicas to permit proper restoration and preservation of the actual aircraft.

This will see Feggans Brown produce nine Spitfire IX and three Hurricane IIC replicas.

The RAF owns 228 historic aircraft with 100 placed as gate guardians, 112 in three museums, 15 on loan to other museums and a Bf 109 being restored to flying condition.

50 years ago

On May 21 the US government requested Boeing and Lockheed to prepare design concept documents for a US SST.

General Electric and Pratt & Whitney were approached about the powerplant.

The first North American XB-70A Valkyrie, 62-0001, was rolled out from the facility at Palmdale, California on May 11.

The aircraft’s structure is composed primarily of brazed stainless steel honeycomb sandwich with power provided by six 31,000lb General Electric XJ-93‑GE3 turbojets.

A USN Lockheed P-3A Orion of Squadron VX-1 returned to NAS Key West, Florida on May 1 after an around-the-world flight covering 26,550nm (49,197km) over 18 days.

During the flight’s over-water sectors, explosive sound signals were dropped from the Orion to assist Naval Ordnance Laboratory scientists studying the sea’s acoustical properties as a medium for sound transmission over long distances.

Important Concorde improvements have been announced by the British Aircraft Corporation and Sud Aviation, made possible by development of greater thrust of the Bristol/Snecma Olympus engine from 32,000lb to 35,000lb.

Changes see length increased from 170ft (51.

8m) to 184ft 2in (56.

1m), span from 77ft (23.

5m) to 83ft 10in (25.

6m), MTOW from 286,000lb (129,730kg) to 326,000lb (147,874kg) and passenger capacity from 100 to 118.

Longer range with larger fuel reserves will be ample for services with the increased payload from London or Paris to New York.

The Minister for Civil Aviation, Senator Shane Paltridge, has said Mascot’s new runway extension into Botany Bay when completed in 1966, will be able to handle aircraft up to an all-up weight of 500,000lb.

The dredging of Botany Bay has started and is in the preliminary stage of a major works program, and in the second stage a new international terminal will be built on Mascot’s western side.