INDUSTRY
What is
maintenance
cost?
TOULOUSE
Airline maintenance costs in
general are now 22 per cent of
total direct operating cost,
having been 12 per cent
before fuel-price inflation ten
years ago. But operating data
must be carefully qualified: as
Peter Ewens of Airbus points
out, one A300 operator with
high labour cost, oldish
aircraft, and short sectors has
a maintenance cost of $886/
hr; this compares with the
$224 of another A300 operator with a youngish aircraft,
a 2 • 6hr average sector, and a
low labour cost. Variations of
six to one are possible, he
says, so "maintenance cost is
meaningless unless you know
what the conditions are".
This is the reason for Iata's
Production
Performance
Measurement (PPM), a standard means of reporting
maintenance costs. It is
supported by the manufacturers, including Boeing
and
McDonnell
Douglas.
According to the P P M , average A300 maintenance cost in
1980 was $450/hr.
New UK
composites
company
STOCKPORT
Europe's
high-performance
composites industry now has
more to offer than the raw
materials, following an agreement between Bridon and RK
Textiles. "The new grouping
offers design, development,
and materials engineering
capability,"
says
Bridon
Composites, a new subsidiary
of the Bridon wire, rope, and
engineering group.
Bridon is strong in steel
metallurgy and plastics technology, with long experience
in
processing
high-performance man-made fibres.
RK Textiles has recently
opened what it claims to be
Europe's
most
advanced
carbonfibre
manufacturing
plant. The new plant is in the
Scottish Highlands, at Muir
FLIGHT International, 4 June 1983
of Ord, near Inverness. RK
group chairman Colin Hill
says: "We are saying to industry, come along with your
ideas and your problems. We
will help in any way we c a n even to the extent of making
suitable materials available
for research and development
projects. Nobody else in the
world has an
oxidation
system such as we have, that
produces the quantity that we
can, to the quality and consistency we can."
The new tie-up
with
Bridon, which has taken a 25
per cent stake in RK Carbon
Fibres, is intended to give the
aerospace industry a supplier
which understands the application as well as processing of
carbonfibre.
• Fothergill & Harvey have
formed Fothergill Rotorway
Composites to offer "a total
composite capability from one
site including design, development, manufacture, and
machining". An extended
factory at Clevedon, Avon, is
now operational.
Which
airworthiness
rule?
LONDON
The Boeing 707, an aircraft
which has been in service for
a quarter-century, has one
tailplane trim-setting for the
UK Civil Aviation Authority
and another for the US
Federal Aviation Administration. This, says Don Smith
of the International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA),
illustrates one of the international airline maintenance
industry's biggest problems—
the disparity in certification
regulations and standards.
These differences are even
used by some countries to
protect their airline-engineering industries.
A leading activist in the
campaign to get common
standards in and nationalism
out, Don Smith of the IFA
says: "Aircraft can remain in
service for 20 years or more,
during which time they may
change ownership and operate under the regulations of
many different nationalities.
There is also a considerable
increase in leasing arrangements, sometimes a very
short duration, which involve
transfer of an aircraft across
international boundaries with
corresponding technical and
airworthiness problems." The
IFA will continue to spread
the good word
towards
achieving greater uniformity
of standards.
Short-time
working at
Aerospatiale
PARIS
~
The Aerospatiale factories at
Meaulte, Nantes, and Saint
Nazaire are working a 38hr
week, with other establishments reduced to 39hr.
The financial effect on
staff, in particular the lowerpaid workers, is to be the
subject of an assistance
contract with the Government. Negotiations with the
unions and the Government
are continuing.
MUST READ
A 295-page analysis of security sensor devices, Military
Intrusion Detection Market,
by Frost & Sullivan, reviews
TV, sonic, magnetic, seismic,
and other sensors.
Also new from Frost &
Sullivan is Military Reconnaissance and Surveillance in
the US, forecasting a $5,100
million expenditure up to
1988 on aircraft, satellites,
and systems devoted to reconnaissance and surveillance.
The Reports are numbered
1042 and 1143, respectively,
and each costs $1,250. European
contract:
Olivia
Rossiter, 104-112 Marylebone
Lane, London W1M 5FU; tel
01-486 8377/8379.
said to be the largest international supplier of body
armour, has supplied "a major
international airline" with
bullet-resistant material to
protect pilot seats and certain
areas of the cabin. The
armour is said to stop bullets
and to prevent ricochet "even
at 45° angles". It is claimed to
be fire-retardant, light, simple
to fit, and invisible, and to
weigh between 8 and 9kg/m 2 .
Contact N. H. Walker,
Hinton House, Daventry,
Northants
NN11
6QG,
England; tel (0327) 61282.
WHA T'S HAPPENIM
A new British company,
Remotely Piloted Vehicles,
has been formed by Dr E. A.
Falkner and Fred To. The
latter is well known for his
Phoenix and solar-powered
aircraft. The company is
producing
fixed-wing
and
rotary-wing pilotless aircraft
for military targets and
surveillance. Civil variants
are being developed for cropspraying as well as for survey.
RPV is at Wolsey Road,
Ashford, Middlesex TW15
2RB, England; tel 07842
53661.
The TR-720 portable Airband
Transceiver covers the 720 channels between 118 and 138Mhz and
200 nav channels from 108 to
H8Mhz. It is 17cm long, weighs
0-54kg, and costs $795. It employs
microprocessor technology, has a
twist-off battery pack, and comes
with a complete set of accessories
(Communications Specialists, 426
W Taft Ave, Orange, Calif. 92665;
tel (800) 854-0547 or (714)
998-3021
a
WHO'S SELLING
British Aerospace Dynamics
Group has sold its night
vision Steadyscope hand-held
stabilised sight to the Royal
New Zealand Air Force and
Navy for duties including
fishery-protection.
Capable of being used in
very low light, the instrument
provides a steady view from
moving vehicles such as
aircraft,
helicopters,
fast
patrol boats, and wheeled or
tracked transport. Steadyscope is in service with 30
countries.
Lightweight
Body
Armour,
1657