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UPDATE

Week ending October 27, 1996

Aérospatiale develops new ramjet missiles +++ Airbus promotes Aircrew Incident Reporting System +++ Dasa tests improvements for Tornado radar +++ Crossair launches two-class system on its jet fleet +++ Hungarian MiGs visit JG 73 at Laage +++ Iljushin Il-76 banned at Maastricht Aachen Airport +++ Luftwaffe gets first new ATC system +++ Five years of successful ERS operation +++ BGS to seek new helicopters +++ News in Brief +++

Aérospatiale develops new ramjet missiles
Neue Lenkwaffen mit Straustrahlantrieb von Aérospatiale

During the Euronavale exhibition in Le Bourget, Aérospatiale has announced a contract form the French DGA covering the pre-development of a new generic supersonic missile powered by a liquid fuelled ramjet engine. The VESTA (Vecteur à Statoréacteur) will form the basis for the future anti-ship missile ANNG (Anti-Navire Nouvelle Génération), "full development of which will be launched in 1998 in accordance with the new French military procurement law for 1997 - 2002", according to the maufacturer.
ANNG is planned to be realised in cooperation with LFK GmbH of Germany (a Dasa company). Feasibility and system design phases amounting to 10 to 20 million DM per country are expected to start this year in the lead up to full development, which is estimated at 300 million DM per country up to 2002. Service entry could be in 2005 for installation on ships like the 123 and 124 class frigates. ANNG is intended as replacement for the MM38 Exocet and Harpoon missiles, with two times the range, three times the speed and three times the penetrating power plus much improoved accuracy.
According to Aérospatiale, a function-oriented worksharing will be implemented with LFK being responsible for navigation, warhead, firing unit and logistics. "VESTA will give a fresh boost to Franco-German cooperation in the defence field around a major programme", the company concludes.

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Airbus promotes Aircrew Incident Reporting System
Anonymes Zwischenfall-Berichtssystem geplant

Airbus Industrie (AI) and British Airways have signed an agreement to provide Airbus customers with a specific software, free of charge, to enable airlines to record and share information on human factors related incidents with Airbus Industrie. The two companies have worked in close coorporation on the dvelopment of a joint human factors project, based on the British Airways Safety Reporting System (BASIS).
With their project, Airbus Industrie and British Airways have paved the way to help airlines expand their safety culture towards integrating human factors expertise in their organisation settings. A specific four-day training course has been developed and will be offered at the AI-Headquarters in Toulouse.
Within the airline, the Aircrew Incident Reporting System (AIRS) working procedures comprise a human factors questionaire at the disposal of the crew in the cockpit, with sufficient guidelines to report and to describe the event. Reports are de-identified to ensure complete confidentiality before they are stored in the data base. Pilots will be encouraged to report incidents of operational misuse alongside their management's commitment to refrain from punitive actions.
In this way, a constantly updated data bank, reflecting the actual operational reality, will be established through an automated decentralised reporting system. It will open the possibility of improving flight safety, through the systematic analysis of human factors reports, by sharing significant findings in an anonymous manner, with only selected personell having access to the system. Finally, AIRS will be used to feed relevant scenarios into Line Oriented Flight Training.

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Dasa tests improvements for Tornado radar
Verbesserungen für Tornado-Radar im Test

The Sensor Systems Division of Dasa has tested improvements to the Tornado nose radar in flights which were staged from Memmingen and Eggebeck military airfields in September and October. According to the company, the successful demonstration concentrated on new high resolution modes:
  • Doppler Beam Sharpening (DBS) to get better details form the ground-mapping antenna.
  • Spot Light SAR (SSAR), a sort of magnifiying glass for a small area. This is especially helpful in finding small, mobile targets from medium altitudes.
  • Inverse SAR, a special mode which not only allows ship detection but vastly improves ship classification capabilities.
Interesting as these performance enhancements are in the light of changed operational scenarios, so far no radar upgrades for Luftwaffe or Marineflieger Tornados are ordered. Much of the development and test efforts have thus been company funded so far.

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Crossair launches two-class system on its jet fleet
Jet-Flotte der Crossair ab Oktober mit Zwei-Klassen-System

Crossair, one of the largest regional airlines in Europe, is going to introduce the "curtain" on its jet aircraft fleet. Starting on October 27th, the Swiss carrier offers business and economy class services on its Avro RJ85/RJ100 and McDonnell Douglas MD-83 aircraft. As Crossair said, separation of economy class passengers has been demanded by many business class passengers.

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Hungarian MiGs visit JG 73 at Laage
MiG-29 aus Ungarn besuchen Jagdgeschwader 73

October 21 to 25, Luftwaffes Jagdgeschwader 72 hosted the first visit of a Hungarian squadron to Germany. Five pilots and ten technicians of the 59th flying regiment at Kecskemet arrived at Laage for a week of exercises and social events to foster relations bvetween the two air forces. The two Hungarian MiG-29s were used for a series of training flights which were structured to give the former WarPac pilots a better understanding of NATO tactics and procedures - worthwile instruction in view of Hungarian ambitions to join the alliance. Off-airport, sightseeing trips to Rostock and Warnemünde were scheduled. JG 72, the only MiG-29 unit in the Luftwaffe, had been visiting Kecskemet last Juli for simular exercises.

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Iljushin Il-76 banned at Maastricht Aachen Airport
Flughafen Maastricht vertreibt laute Il-76-Frachter

Maastricht Handling Services BV has cancelled all contracts with freight forwarders which use Iljushin Il-76 cargo aircraft. This drastic measure was taken on the urgent wish of the airport management, which felt the need to reduce noise and take a feeling of insecurity from the nearby population. Even before this decision, Il-76s were banned from operating between 8 pm and 8 am. Also, they had to use a new take-off procedure with higher climb rates to avoid excessive noise complaints. This alone had diverted 35 of the 50 or so monthly Il-76 flights to other airports.
The decision of exluding the Il-76 outright from Maasticht Aachen Airport was surely not taken lightly, because turnover takes a hit of around 800 000 Guilders, says the managment. It will try everything possible to find new revenue sources, a statement said.

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Luftwaffe gets first new ATC system
Neues Flugsicherungssystem beim LTG 63 eingeführt

Lufttransportgeschwader 63 is the first user of the new "Kontroll- und Flugabfertigungsausstattung für militärische Flugsicherung (KOFA milFS)". With this new air traffic control system, the airfield at Hohn moves right from the old analog equipment of the 60s to 90s technology. According to current plans, 21 military airfield will be equipped with the KOFA in the next few years at a total cost of 48 million DM. In addition to that, 300 000 DM per installation will be necessary for infrastructure improvements. Another 10 could be bought for SAR-coordination centres and the WTD 61 at Manching.
KOFA milFS is built by the Austrian company FREQUENTIS-Nachrichtentechnik at Vienna. It was tested at JG 74 "Mölders" and AG 51 "Immelman" before the procurement decision was taken. To keep operating costs down, the complete repair and spare part support service will be provided by the manufacturer. KOFA offers better controller stations and better voice communications as well as the possibility to transfer data.

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Five years of successful ERS operation
Fünf Jahre ERS

Since launch of ERS-1 five years ago (July 17th, 1991) the first European Radar Satellite and its brother ERS-2, launched April 21st, 1995, have orbited the Earth more than 36000 times and are operating very successfully. Experts say they will continue to operate until 1999. Design life of the satellites was two to three years. ERS-1 alone has doubled that already. They will be succeeded by the new generation of European radar satellites ENVISAT.
With ERS-1 and -2 large areas are being monitored for changes in vegetation. Especially in oceanic and polar research work the ERS satellites prove to be more than helpful. Correct measuring of water levels, the ice flow was possible with the two European radar satellites.
The ERS data are being used by hundreds of scientists worldwide. In Germany alone 75 institutions with 225 scientists are directly involved in ERS data evaluation with the German Fernerkundungsdatenzentrum at Oberpfaffenhofen playing a major role in processing and ducomentation.
Prime contractor for the ERS satellites was Dornier Satellitensysteme. Main Subcontractors for the sensor systems were Entwicklung INS, Timetech, Kayser-Threde, GFZ and for the GNOME sensor Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz.
Both satellites operated in the unique tandem configuration between October 1995 and June 1996. That mission was very helpful for collecting digital terrain data with very high resolution and precisison (5 to 15 m). Results of this mission are also available in the internet: "http://www.geo.unizh.ch/rsl/fringe96/papers".

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BGS to seek new helicopters
Grenzschutz-Fliegergruppe: Ausschreibung für neue Helikpter

The Bundesinnenministerium (German Ministry of the Interior) is going to issue a call for tenders for new helicopters for the Grenzschutz-Fliegergruppe (Federl Border Guard flying unit) in November. According to sources in the Beschaffungsamt, a very detailed specification is currently drawn up for two separate requirements:
  • Leichter Transporthubschrauber (LTH = light transport helicopter) as a replacement of the Bell UH-1D. Around 20 helicopters are still in use, most of them over 25 years old.
  • Verbindungshubschrauber (VBH = liaison helicopter) as replacement of the SA 318C Alouette II.
Both UH-1D and Alouette II are unable to meet stringent new JAR Ops 3 performance requirements for operations over built-up areas.
Current planning sees an evaluation phase of possible successors in 1997 with contract award in December and deliveries starting in 1998. Procurement figures are not yet fixed and depend on budget constraints.
As this procurement is fully open to all manufacturers, many bids are expected. Bell for example has recently signed an agreement with Dornier Luftfahrt fo offer the Model 412EP. McDonnell Douglas will probably compete with the Explorer, and Eurocopter sees no problems to find some matching products in its wide range of models, like the EC 120.

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NEWS IN BRIEF - KURZMELDUNGEN

Saudi Arabia has officially taken delivery of its first new Panavia Tornado IDS. The aircraft is part of a new batch of 48 Tornados, ordered in 1993 after intense lobbying by UK prime minister John Major. Final assembly takes place at the Warton facilities of British Aerospace, but parts are made by Panavia partners Dasa and Alenia as usual.
+++
Spain has decided to pave the way for Eurofighter 2000 production investment by extending a special credit facility from the industry ministry to companies involved in the four-nation project. The loan of up to 25 billion Pesetas (297 million DM) will be repayable after deliveries start in 2002. In this way, the Madrid Government hopes to circumvent a squeeze in defence spending. Spain plans to procure 87 Eurofighters at an estimated cost of 980 billion Pesetas (11,63 billion DM) up to 2010. Development is budgeted at some 180 billion Pesetas. According to the Government, Eurofighter will provide 22000 direct and indirect jobs in Spain.
+++
The SF Schweizerische Unternehmung für Flugzeuge und Systeme at Emmen has started the flight test programme with the first McDonnell Douglas F/A-18D assembled in Siwtzerland. Aircraft "J-5232" was airborne for approximately an hour on October 3. It will be handed over to the federal Gruppe Rüstung at the beginning of 1997. Two other Hornets destined for the Flugwaffe are tested in the United States. In total 34 Hornets will be introduced, with three squadrons due to be operational by the end of 1999.
+++
Deutsche Flugsicherung (DFS, German air traffic control organization) announced during their customer forum on the 22nd of October, that customer fees will be reduced for 1997. Starting January 1, approach and departure fees will be reduced by 9 percent. Aircraft with a maximum take-off weight up to 2 tonnes will profit from an even larger reduction of 9,9 percent. Airspace users will also benefit from lowered airway fees. These will be reduced by 4,9 percent for the airspace of the Federal Republic of Germany.
+++
Citing the ATC charges reduction in Germany, Tyrolean Airways has complained that Austria will now hold the dubious distinction of having the most expensive user fees in Europe. As an example, the airline quoted the Dash 8-300: take-off and landing at an Austrian airport will cost 2383 Shillings compared to 2127 Shillings in Germany, 1245 Shillings in Switzerland and just 727 Shillings in Italy.
+++
Lufthansa chairman Jürgen Weber has indicated that Lufthansa Cargo will be developed into a global logistics service company with "a unique product guarnateeing short delivery times to all points on Earth". Weber emphasised that LH Cargo does want to be a team player with other transport providers to establish an integrated system smoothing the way of the goods from sender to recipient.
+++
Swissair and the airline works committee have negotiated a new agreement stipulating the reduction of salaries by three per cent and the concurrent extension of the working week by one hour. This way, personnell costs of the company will be reduced five per cent from next year. The agreement has yet to be ratified by the employees.

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Copyright 1996 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved.
Last updated October 26, 1996