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NASA wasn't taking any chances with their 747mother plane and orbiter flight test aircraft Enterprise when it visited Europe earlier this year for the Thetans Air Show Situated aftofeach of the four engs,ne pylons were dual infrared decoy systems to foil any attempted shooting down of the aircraft by terrorist organisations NASA naturally downplayed their presence but did reveal that the units operate basically by overwhelming the /R seeker with energy pulses of what would be a man-portable SAM-7 type missile. El Aljet airliners for some years carried similar, though smaller, units.
Newsdesk – Commercial
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Qantas Close to Ordering New Twins:
At time of going to press Qantas was close to signing with either Airbus or Boeing for a number of twinjets to service new and current routes not sufficiently large for their all-747 fleet. Qantas is looking closely at the Airbus A310-300 and Boeing’s 767ER, both of which are capable of flying max-passenger payload sectors out to 4000 nautical miles plus. The basic requirement is for four twins while the entire contract will involve the chosen manufacturer to buy back the first six 747s in the Qantas fleet. If Boeing gets the order the deal will certainly also include two or three new 747-300 Extended Upper Deck aircraft, probably Combis in view of Qantas’ successful efforts in boosting its freight operations over the past two years Odd man out will be Rolls Royce who has not yet certificated an engine aboard either the A310 or 767 General Electric and Pratt & Whitney already are standard fit on both types and if Rolls are to protect their position as engine supplier for future Qantas 747 purchases they will also have to examine closely whether this is the time to make the investment towards RB211 certification on the Toulouse and Seattle twinJets Qantas’ six early model 747s have between 30,000 and 40,000 hours on their airframes as against an expected maximum life of 80,000 hours presenting them as readily saleable aircraft once the market rejuvenates.
Twelve per Cent Fuel Savings With Upgrade Dart Engines:
As a result of successful development engine testing Rolls Royce is now able to offer further fuel savings with Dart 551 engines delivered from November 1984 In a typical airline operation the fuel saving provided this latest Dart 551 will be 12 per cent compared current Dart RDA 7 engines. This improvement can also be applied to the engines of more than 1000Dartpowered aircraft in service worldwide, mainly Fokker F27 and British Aerospace 748 airliners. Engineers can be upgraded at overhaul without affecting the proven reliability of the Dart. The main changes in the Dart 551 from the earlier Dart RDA 7 are advanced compressor rotors and diffusers.
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