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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 2350.PDF
McDonnell Douglas starts C-17 assembly McDonnell Douglas has started assembly of the first US Air Force C-17 transport aircraft, seven months after the initial $603-6 million production contract was announced. The first of more than 227,000 airframe pieces to be assembled was a 68ft tie-down rail which will ultimately form part of the aircraft's cargo floor. MDC's Douglas Aircraft division was chosen as prime contractor for the C-17 in August 1981, and has so far been authorised to produce the first two of the planned total procurement of 210 aircraft. A decision on starting low-rate production is expected before the end of the year. Total full-scale development funding now amounts to $2,266 billion, and Douglas has so far completed a total of 5,200hr of windtunnel testing and more than 74 per cent of structural testing. Douglas also says it has identified and analysed more than 98 per cent of the on- aircraft maintenance tasks. The company started cutting metal last November, and the first aircraft is due to fly in autumn 1990. Final assembly will take place in a specially constructed 1 • 1 million-square-feet facility which was completed late last year in Long Beach. Douglas has built a 200,000ft2 subassem bly plant in Macon, Georgia, for the C-l 7's flaps and other major airframe assemblies. More than 50 subcontractors, including Lockheed, Grumman, and Beech, will also contribute to the programme. The C-17's mission is to combine high-payload/long- range capability with Stol performance, giving it the capacity to deliver firepower to areas of potential conflict. Douglas says that the aircraft's externally-blown flap system, which was pioneered on its YC-15 Stol prototypes, will allow low-speed, high-sink-rate landings with near-maximum payload on fields as short as 3,000ft. MSOW moves Confidence in the future of Nato's modular stand-off weapon (Msow) seems to be growing, after the issue of the draft request for proposals (RFP). There were doubts whether the programme would continue after France, and then Canada, dropped out and West Germany was reported to be interested in the alternative French Apache system. The Germans could still back out, but at the moment they are committed, along with the USA, the UK, Italy, and Spain. Teams involved with the contract have another month to respond to the draft RFP with proposals for the project defini tion phase. Germany is still said to be unhappy about the cost of Msow, which is designed to provide Nato with a short-, medium-, and long-range stand off weapon. Since the Germans only need a short-range system for their needs, and most of the programme's costs may well be absorbed by the medium- and long-range systems, there is an obvious incentive for Germany to seek a lower-cost alternative. CASUALTIES On August 2 a Balkan Airlines Yakovlev Yak-40 en route from Sofia to Varna aborted its take-off on rota tion due to an engine failure caused by fire. Despite inter vention by rescue crews, 23 of the 33 passengers and four crew lost their lives, one of them the Soviet consul in Varna. A further five people died later in hospital. A Boeing 707 cargo aircraft owned by Angolan airline TAAG crashed 20km from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, Nigeria, on July 21, killing all six members of the crew. The aircraft, which was on route from Ostend, Belgium, to Luanda, crashed on approach to the Nigerian capital for a refuelling stop. The US Air Force is now thought to have lost three of the 50 F-19 stealth fighters built by Lockheed since 1981: one in October 1987 and two in July 1986. Aircraft are operated by the 4450th Tactical Group. RMP 850 : radio management panel Designed for the Airbus A 320 advanced cockpit, the RMP 850 brings a new concept to frequency management All radio-communication and radio- navigation equipment can be controlled from a single RMP 850 panel. And two or three RMP 850 panels can integrate functions previously performed by up to ten control units in former generation transport aircraft. terospatWk wrosjiafiaW 0QS *?£&& g-oupeoe^spattate B.P. 51 - 93350 Le Bourget - France Tel. : (33/1) 48625195 - Telex :2208 38 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 3 September 1988
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