ex-fa
ORD watcher
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,905156,00.html
Red Stars at Le Bourget
Monday, Jun. 07, 1971
Aleksandr Yakovlev, a chief Soviet aviation designer, flashed a wide smile and waved his arm at the line-up of Russian commercial aircraft. "You have never seen anything like this," he said. In the cold, professional judgment of Western aviation experts at the Paris Air Show last week, Yakovlev was right. The Russians were stealing the show.
Soviet aerospace exhibits have not gone unnoticed at previous Paris shows. A prime attraction of the 1965 exhibition was the AN-22 turboprop, the world's biggest aircraft at the time. In 1967, the gigantic display of Russian spacecraft dwarfed even the U.S. space exhibit. But this year the Soviets outdid themselves with the most dazzling collection of commercial planes they have ever brought to Paris. Among their showstoppers on the tarmac at Le Bourget Airport:
>The TU-144 supersonic transport, which, after a leisurely subsonic flight from Prague, touched down with its 26 tires threadbare from many high-speed landings. Though the Russian SST made its first test flight more than two years ago, it had not been previously exhibited for Westerners. It quickly became the star of the Paris show.
>The MIL-12 helicopter, a giant thrashing machine capable of lifting more than 44 tons or transporting 200 passengers. During French Premier Pompidou's opening speech, only a few officials on the speakers' platform appeared to be listening. Everyone else was gawking at the MIL-12 as it was towed gently into position next to the droop-nosed Russian SST.
>The fan-jet-engined IL-76, billed as a wide-bodied commercial transport and dressed up in blue-and-white Aeroflot markings, but actually a military support ship.
>A "stretched" model of the familiar IL-62, the jet now used on Aeroflot's Moscow-New York run. In its new lengthened version, the IL-62 could be a hot competitor for the U.S. super DC-8.
With an unprecedented array of salable airpower, four acres of choice display space at Le Bourget and phalanxes of salesmen in attendance, the Soviets were clearly ready for business. That is a departure from their traditional posture at the biennial show, which they have regarded in the past as merely a showcase for their new technology. This year could be different. With the U.S. out of the SST race and having trouble with the Lockheed L-1011 airbus, the Russians may finally be in a position to take advantage of their growing potential in commercial aircraft sales.
Russian commercial planes already fill the skies of East bloc countries, but aircraft sales to the West have been negligible. The government of Colombia was offered five YAK-40s (small, 40-passenger trijets that are modern counterparts of the old DC-3s) at a bargain price of $750,000 each with a ten-year, 3% line of credit. But when the U.S. State Department this spring announced that it would not allow the Federal Aviation Administration to certify the plane as meeting U.S. safety and performance standards, the Colombians backed out of the deal. Several aviation experts suggest that the U.S. may have been motivated more by politics than by considerations of safety; the YAK-40 has proved a reliable performer in the East. "The YAK-40 now flies everywhere in Russia, everywhere—little fields, big fields, concrete or grass, dirt or tundra," Designer Yakovlev told TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin.
Prestige v. Profits. Some aircraft executives at the Paris show doubted that many Soviet SSTs will be sold in the West, even though a number of airlines are closely studying the TU-144's specifications. Aside from the uncertainty of depending on the Russians for parts and service, there is a belief among aeronautical engineers that the Anglo-French Concorde is a more sophisticated machine.
The Concorde was also on display at Le Bourget, after flying 3,220 miles from Dakar to Toulouse in just under 2½ hours, giving the experts a unique opportunity to compare the two transports. Some said that the TU-144 was cleaner and quieter than the Concorde, perhaps even quiet enough to meet stringent new U.S. noise standards. Others who had studied year-old photographs of the TU-144 noted that the Russians had lengthened air inlets on the four giant engines and sharpened edges on the inlets, apparently in an attempt to improve fuel economy. Perhaps even more important than operating costs, however, the real competition between the TU-144 and the Concorde will be in the purchase price. Here the Russians may have an edge. The Concorde is expected to sell for around $25 million. If the Russians decide that prestige outweighs profits, they will almost certainly price the TU-144 low enough to ensure that Russian supersonic aircraft win a place in the commercial air fleets of the West.
Red Stars at Le Bourget
Monday, Jun. 07, 1971
Aleksandr Yakovlev, a chief Soviet aviation designer, flashed a wide smile and waved his arm at the line-up of Russian commercial aircraft. "You have never seen anything like this," he said. In the cold, professional judgment of Western aviation experts at the Paris Air Show last week, Yakovlev was right. The Russians were stealing the show.
Soviet aerospace exhibits have not gone unnoticed at previous Paris shows. A prime attraction of the 1965 exhibition was the AN-22 turboprop, the world's biggest aircraft at the time. In 1967, the gigantic display of Russian spacecraft dwarfed even the U.S. space exhibit. But this year the Soviets outdid themselves with the most dazzling collection of commercial planes they have ever brought to Paris. Among their showstoppers on the tarmac at Le Bourget Airport:
>The TU-144 supersonic transport, which, after a leisurely subsonic flight from Prague, touched down with its 26 tires threadbare from many high-speed landings. Though the Russian SST made its first test flight more than two years ago, it had not been previously exhibited for Westerners. It quickly became the star of the Paris show.
>The MIL-12 helicopter, a giant thrashing machine capable of lifting more than 44 tons or transporting 200 passengers. During French Premier Pompidou's opening speech, only a few officials on the speakers' platform appeared to be listening. Everyone else was gawking at the MIL-12 as it was towed gently into position next to the droop-nosed Russian SST.
>The fan-jet-engined IL-76, billed as a wide-bodied commercial transport and dressed up in blue-and-white Aeroflot markings, but actually a military support ship.
>A "stretched" model of the familiar IL-62, the jet now used on Aeroflot's Moscow-New York run. In its new lengthened version, the IL-62 could be a hot competitor for the U.S. super DC-8.
With an unprecedented array of salable airpower, four acres of choice display space at Le Bourget and phalanxes of salesmen in attendance, the Soviets were clearly ready for business. That is a departure from their traditional posture at the biennial show, which they have regarded in the past as merely a showcase for their new technology. This year could be different. With the U.S. out of the SST race and having trouble with the Lockheed L-1011 airbus, the Russians may finally be in a position to take advantage of their growing potential in commercial aircraft sales.
Russian commercial planes already fill the skies of East bloc countries, but aircraft sales to the West have been negligible. The government of Colombia was offered five YAK-40s (small, 40-passenger trijets that are modern counterparts of the old DC-3s) at a bargain price of $750,000 each with a ten-year, 3% line of credit. But when the U.S. State Department this spring announced that it would not allow the Federal Aviation Administration to certify the plane as meeting U.S. safety and performance standards, the Colombians backed out of the deal. Several aviation experts suggest that the U.S. may have been motivated more by politics than by considerations of safety; the YAK-40 has proved a reliable performer in the East. "The YAK-40 now flies everywhere in Russia, everywhere—little fields, big fields, concrete or grass, dirt or tundra," Designer Yakovlev told TIME Correspondent Jerry Hannifin.
Prestige v. Profits. Some aircraft executives at the Paris show doubted that many Soviet SSTs will be sold in the West, even though a number of airlines are closely studying the TU-144's specifications. Aside from the uncertainty of depending on the Russians for parts and service, there is a belief among aeronautical engineers that the Anglo-French Concorde is a more sophisticated machine.
The Concorde was also on display at Le Bourget, after flying 3,220 miles from Dakar to Toulouse in just under 2½ hours, giving the experts a unique opportunity to compare the two transports. Some said that the TU-144 was cleaner and quieter than the Concorde, perhaps even quiet enough to meet stringent new U.S. noise standards. Others who had studied year-old photographs of the TU-144 noted that the Russians had lengthened air inlets on the four giant engines and sharpened edges on the inlets, apparently in an attempt to improve fuel economy. Perhaps even more important than operating costs, however, the real competition between the TU-144 and the Concorde will be in the purchase price. Here the Russians may have an edge. The Concorde is expected to sell for around $25 million. If the Russians decide that prestige outweighs profits, they will almost certainly price the TU-144 low enough to ensure that Russian supersonic aircraft win a place in the commercial air fleets of the West.
