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Regardless of what constituted the regional jet revolution through the Nineties with low-capacity, twin-engine designs from Canadair, Embraer, and Dornier, the idea had its origins some two and a half many years earlier in France, Russia, and Germany with plane of varied configurations and success.
Yakovlev Yak-40:
Though each want and know-how mixed to provide a industrial plane, the latter, when missing, both impeded or impacted the consequence. But a single design bureau within the USSR, which itself had solely been synonymous with fighters and trainers, succeeded in constructing the primary true regional jet.
“Provision of such an airplane was not at all simple, as is abundantly proven by the failure of western nations to provide an acceptable plane on this class in response to the FAA’s design competitors in the US,” in response to John Stroud in Soviet Transport Plane since 1945 (Putnam, 1968, p. 270).
The requirement that sparked it was then a contradiction: a rugged, dependable, easy, low-capacity design that would substitute Aeroflot’s Ilyushin Il-12, Il-14, and Lisunov Li-2 pistonliners on quick, multi-sector feeder routes within the distant Soviet Union, but serve limited-facility Class 5 grass fields with pure-jet efficiency and velocity. What was primarily wanted was a DC-3 of the jet age.
Whereas half of Aeroflot’s visitors was carried on these native service routes, they had been the final to be addressed, leaving Tupolev to fill the opposite market segments with its Tu-104, Tu-124, and Tu-134 plane.
In 1965, the OKB, or experimental design bureau headed by Aleksandr Yakovlev, was assigned the venture of creating simply such a feeder transport, and, though propeller powerplants had been initially thought-about, the answer lay within the optimum mixture of design features-namely, a straight, high-lift, low wing loading airfoil, three turbofans, and aerodrome-facility autonomy.
The consequence, the Yak-40, and the design bureau’s first industrial plane, fulfilled Aeroflot’s wants and supplied significantly elevated passenger consolation over a piston sort.
“Though western producers similar to Lockheed, de Havilland, and Dassault pioneered and developed the chief jet, it was the Russians who had been the primary within the area with the logical step-up from the biz jet-namely, the really short-haul jet airliner,” in response to Michael Hardy in World Civil Plane since 1945 (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1978, p. 126).
That includes a circular-section, semi-monocoque fuselage, the Yak-40 featuired straight barely tapered wings; three 3,308-thrust-pound, twin-shaft, three-stage Ivchenko AI-25 turbofans; and a single-class cabin configured with three-abreast seats, leading to a 24-passenger capability at a 29.7-inch pitch.
The Yak-40 weights ranged between 5,070 and 6,172 kilos (payload) and 28,990 and 30,203 kilos (most takeoff). Speeds equally different, from a 350-mph cruise to a 435-mph most. Vary at a 342-mph velocity at a 20,000-foot altitude was 323 nautical miles with 3,968 kilos of gas and 45-minute reserves. A most gas uplift elevated this to 890 miles.
Registered SSR-1966 and piloted by Yu. B. Petrov and A. L. Kolosov, the primary of 5 prototypes first flew on October 21, 1966. Manufacturing on the Saratov Aviation Facility the next 12 months led to 1968 certification and repair inauguration on September 30, the sort changing into the workhorse on Aeroflot’s native service route community.
As a result of no different regional jet then existed, Aviaexport, the Soviet state plane advertising and marketing group, made a significant effort to safe gross sales exterior of the communist bloc nations, resulting in the Yak-40EC with Collins avionics that achieved western certification.
Aertirrea of Italy, which ordered three, inaugurated service with them on the finish of 1970, two of which had been later acquired by Avioligure. Basic Air of Germany additionally operated 5 on its third stage routes two years later.
Apart from Aeroflot, the regional jet was operated by Cubana, Balkan Bulgarian, CSA, Slov-Air, Air Guinee, LOT Polish, Malev Hungarian, TAAG-Angola, Bakhtar-Afghan, and Communist air forces and governments. It additionally noticed service in Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Laos, Madagascar, the Philippines, Poland, Syria, Vietnam, Yugoslavia, and Zambia.
Of the 1,011 produced between 1967 and 1981, 130 accounted for export gross sales. Aeroflot operated greater than 750 itself.
Dassault 30:
France’s Avion Dassault, well-known for its Falcon 10, 20 and 50 enterprise jets, tried a regional counterpart, ahead which the Flacon 20 logically served as the inspiration for a bigger, however similarly-configured design aimed toward each the chief and passenger transport market.
Step one towards its actuality was the March 25, 1964 settlement between Dassault-Breguet and Germany’s Sebelwerke ATG for a 35-percent share within the manufacturing means of a pure-jet design powered both by Rolls Royce or Basic Electrical engines and accommodating between 32 and 40 passengers. Promise got here with potential orders for its new plane, designated Mystere 30, from Ansett of Australia and Jap Airways of the US, main the way in which to building of a prototype. Nonetheless-born, it was by no means constructed, however led to the October 2, 1967 suggestion of manufacturing each an eight-passenger enterprise jet model and a better capability transport.
Whereas this system equally didn’t proceed past the conceptualization stage, it did result in the definitive Mystere 30 of 1973, which, powered by two Avco Lycoming ALF-502D turbofans, first took to the sky on Could 11 from Merignac.
Not totally suited to the market due to its capability, it served as the inspiration for a 630 nautical mile Mystere 40 to hold 40 four-abreast passengers, however mated to a brand new wing. A decreased, 30-passenger variant would have supplied larger vary, of as much as 950 nautical miles.
Dassault Falcon supplied its nonetheless paper-bound Falcon 30 for $2.4 million per aircraft–$1 million beneath cost-to Denmark-based Cimber Air, offered that it ordered the sort by December 31, 1972, which it didn’t do, sounding the loss of life knell for this system.
“The completion of the Falcon 30 made it attainable to unravel advanced aerodynamic and flight high quality issues arising from the adaption of a small plane with a big fuselage diameter and heavy engines,” in response to the Dassault Aviation web site. “These engines had been comparatively noisy, making them incompatible with the extent of sound consolation passengers had come to anticipate. Though orders had been taken on the 1973 Paris Air Present, this system was deserted in 1975, as a lot as a result of oil disaster as to the monetary circumstances of the businesses concerned.”
Fokker F.28 Fellowship:
Having assessed the regional market with its turboprop F.27 Friendship, Fokker, a reputation synonymous with plane such because the Dr.1 triplane throughout World Conflict I and the early F.VIIA/3m trimotor airliner, introduced the turbojet F.28 Fellowship as each a higher-speed complement to and successor of it on the 1962 Hanover air Present. Supposed for low-capacity, short-range routes, which served limited-facility, typically unprepared fields that acquired no earlier jet operations, it was slated to change into the world’s second purposefully designed regional jet after the Yakovlev Yak-40, however accommodate two to a few instances as many passengers than it in a considerably wider fuselage. As such, it was envisioned as changing into the most important plane in a small airline’s fleet. In dimension, it will carry some 20 few passengers than both the BAC-111 or the DC-9.
“The F.28 twin-turbofan airliner is designed to serve the short- to medium-haul sector of the industrial aviation market,” in response to the Fokker F28 Technical Knowledge publication (Fokker-VFW Worldwide, p. 1). “Inside that space, it serves a twin objective. It brings jet velocity and luxury to areas which beforehand have recognized solely turboprop or piston-engine tools. And it presents the benefit of reasonable capability to carriers working home, regional, and constitution companies principally from well-equipped airports.”
Due to the regional route, airport, and capability realm it was designed for, it needed to adhere to quite a few parameters, together with supply low direct working prices, 500-nautical mile vary capabilities, a 4,500-foot sea stage takeoff area size, unprepared floor operation, optimum dealing with traits to cater to engine loss potentialities, low inside and exterior noise, a rugged airframe to face up to a number of every day sectors spent proportionally larger throughout climb and descent and at decrease, turbulence-associated altitudes, cope with unavoidable crosswinds at single-strip airports, characteristic low stress tires for grass and gravel endurance, and supply excessive levels of reliability and self-sufficiency for restricted and no-facility airfields.
Powered by two aft-mounted Rolls Royce RB.163 Mk 555 Spey Junior turbofans that had been lighter and easier than these employed by the Trident or the BAC-111, it in the end appeared with a 16-degree swept-back wing, a t-tail, and a singular pedal airbrake, which facilitated steep, managed descent profiles with out the necessity for energy modifications, permitted go-arounds with little greater than its retraction, and shortened its deceleration roll.
“The highly effective fuselage-mounted speedbrake, distinctive in industrial plane operation, permits fast and drastic discount in altitude and velocity with out producing buffeting or modifications of trim,” in response to the Fokker F28 Technical Knowledge publication (ibid, p. 3). “This direct drag facility doesn’t have an effect on wing raise, however ensures good glide path management and landing effectivity.”
Accommodating a most of 65 five-abreast passengers, the plane, in its preliminary F.28-1000 model, was adopted by a stretched -2000 variant, whose capability elevated to 79 with a fuselage stretch; -5000 and -6000 counterparts, which launched wingspan will increase and modern slats; and definitive -3000 and -4000 variations, the latter, with two extra overwing emergency exists and inside reconfiguration accommodating as much as 85 passengers.
The daybreak first flight of the preliminary F.28-1000, registered PH-JHS and piloted by Jas Moll, Abe van des Schroof, and Flight Engineer Kees Dik, entailed an 05:19 plunge into crystal morning skies on Could 9, 1967 for what grew to become a profitable, 75-minute maiden mission.
The second protype, PH-WEV, adopted go well with three months later, on August 3, and achieved Mach 0.77 airspeeds and 27,000-foot altitudes on its 90-minute sortie.
The third, PH-MOL, first took to the air on October 20, and the 615-hour flight take a look at program, together with a further 165 hours for certification, led to that milestone on February 24, 1969 by the Dutch airworthiness authority and on March 24 by the FAA. Launch buyer LTU Lufttransport Unternehmen, which had ordered two, amassed 150 airborne hours throughout a 12-day interval for crew coaching and route proving functions.
US market penetration, at all times the aim of international plane producers, was achieved when Empire, which operated a New York State route system much like as soon as BAC-111-200 provider Mohawk, ordered the F.28-4000 to complement its 19-passenger Fairchild Swearingen Metro turboprops on major routes, albeit with jet velocity and quadruple the capability.
Piedmont Airways, one other US operator and ultimately the sort’s largest, acquired progressively larger numbers of them-first 20 F.28-1000s from Garuda, then 17 F.28-4000s when it took over Empire, and eventually a further eight, giving it a 45-strong Fellowship fleet.
Dutch indigenous and Amsterdam Schiphol-based NLM CityHopper acquired 4 F.28-4000s between 1978 and 1979, feeding KLM flights with them.
Though F.28 Fellowship manufacturing was lower than half that of Fokker’s F.27 with 242 plane when it resulted in 1984, and it couldn’t supply the progressively larger capacities of the DC-9, the 737, and the BAe-146, it nonetheless carved a regional route area of interest and was operated by 57 prospects in 37 nations. Unique and secondary airways included AeroPeru, Aerolineas Argentinas, Air Alsace, Air Anglia, Air Botnia, Air Gabon, Air Ontario, Air Nauru, Air Niugini, Altair, Cimber Air, Empire, Ghana Airways, Horizon Air, Linjeflyg, Nigeria Airways, NLM CityHopper, Piedmont, Royal Swazi, TAT Touraine Air Transport, THY Turkish Airways, and Time Air, amongst quite a few others.
Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette:
Small in capability and little-known, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette straddled the road between the enterprise and regional markets.
Its seed was planted when the French authorities, persevering with its technique of re-establishing the nation’s post-war aviation trade begun with piston airliners such because the Breguet Deux Ponts, the Sud-Est Armagnac, and the Sud-Ouest Bretagne, requested that plane producers submit proposals for a compact twin-turbofan liaison/coach. Then-separate Sud-Aviation and Nord-Aviation elected to collectively develop an government jet designated the SN.600 Diplomate in January of 1968 when French indigenous SNECMA designed an acceptable powerplant for it, the M49 Larzac.
Though it first took to the sky in prototype type on July 16, 1970, the prolonged growth of its supposed powerplant necessitated the usage of two 2,200 thrust-pound Pratt and Whitney Canada JT15D-1s as an alternative.
In total configuration, the plane resembled what later grew to become the usual for this market: a slender fuselage with 5 round home windows on both facet; a low, swept wing; two aft-mounted turbofans; and, a minimum of within the Corvette’s case, a semi-t-tail. Lodging was 12, subdivided into six rows of single, facet seats and a central aisle. The crew encompassed two pilots, however the variety of passengers didn’t require an accompanying flight attendant.
Its operators had been few Air Alpes, which took supply of two Corvette 100s in 1974 and one other two in 1975, operated routes by itself behalf from Paris and people, similar to Lyons-Brussels, on Air France’s.
Different Corvette carriers included Air Alsace, Air Champagne, and TAT Touraine Air Transport in France, and Sterling Airways in Denmark. Airbus Industrie used 5 plane as company shuttles between 1981 and 2009.
Stricken by prototype accident; an extended, corrective growth interval; a change in powerplant sort; expensive operation; failure to determine a North American distribution venue; robust competitors; administration ignorance; and capability that proved insufficient, the Aerospatiale SN.601 Corvette nonetheless served for example of one of many three regional jet origins: an all-new design, the conversion of an present turboprop one, or the usage of a enterprise jet platform.
Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke VFW-614:
Many makes an attempt had been made to provide a extra superior DC-3 substitute powered each by piston and turboprop engines. With generators, it took type because the regional jet, of which the Yakovlev Yak-40 and the Flacon 30 had been early examples, though the latter by no means proceeded past the idea stage. Germany grew to become the third nation to enter this fray.
Initially considered as a “Buschflugzeug,” or “bush plane,” the Entwicklungs Nord group, consisting of Focke-Wulf, Hamburger Flugzeugbau (HFB), and Weser, proposed the E.614, a small, easy, rugged, and economical twin-jet with a swing nostril for straight-in cargo loading, passenger lodging of between 36 and 40, two aft-mounted engines, and a t-tail supposed for creating nations. The Lycoming PLF1B-2, then being designed in Connecticut, was the supposed powerplant.
Intentions, as had occurred with different plane ideas, had been compelled to comply with events-in this case, ERNO, the Entwicklungs Nord group, was reorganized into the Bremen-based Vereinigte Flugtechnische Werke (VFW), ensuing within the redesignated VFW-614, for which Rolf Stussel was appointed its venture chief, and iterations caused modifications to the 451-kph velocity and 600-kilometer vary of the plane first displayed in mannequin type on the 1963 Paris Air Present.
Growth of the Lycomiing engine was discontinued, necessitating its substitute with a turbine designed by Rolls Royce, which, due to its later chapter, raised doubts about its personal continuation, and the regional jet was subjected to a radical redesign that resulted in an unconventional configuration with the intention to decrease noise throughout operation from its supposed small, limited-facility, short-field airports.
Lastly, VFW, then Germany’s largest plane producer since World Conflict II, merged with Fokker of Holland in 1969, a method initially envisioned as mutually helpful. The previous would acquire a extra in depth advertising and marketing attain for an plane; projected to promote between 300 and 400 items, and the latter would broaden its product line that might now embody each turboprop and pure-jet plane, seating between 40 and 80 passengers, in its VFW-614, F.27 Friendship, and F.28 Fellowship fashions. Growth, ultimate meeting, and struggle testing would nonetheless stay in Bremen.
Powered by two 7,511 thrust-pound Rolls Royce Bristol SNECMA M45H-01, thrust reverser-devoid turbofans uniquely mounted on above-wing pylons behind the rear spar, the VFW-614 was envisioned as providing quite a few advantages due to it, together with a most diploma of payload configuration flexibility, semi-prepared area takeoffs and landings as a consequence of elimination of international object engine ingestion, high-frequency compressor noise discount throughout approaches, the usage of quick undercarriage struts, a rise in airfoil floor space and therefore raise with the avoidance of flap controls, the low floor entry that eradicated loading and upkeep tools, and inherent fuselage stretchability for higher-capacity variations.
Its different design options had been in any other case typical, encompassing a 16-degree wing sweepback, a normal tail, a tricycle undercarriage, and a 40-passenger cabin configured for ten rows of four-abreast seats.
Supposed to switch its high-wing, twin-turboprop Nord 262s on European routes. Cimber Air, which offered appreciable design enter regarding its M45H engine choice, 1,200-meter runway functionality, and 40- to 44-passenger capability, grew to become its launch buyer, its two plane getting into service on August 2, 1975 and April 1, 1976.
Though TAT Touraine Air Transport additionally ordered the German sort, its contract stipulated its cancellation if the Falcon 30 had proceeded into growth, because it was first obligated to buy a French indigenous product.
Air Alsace additionally operated the sort.
Regardless of the sort’s distinctive options and this system’s excessive hopes for fulfillment, it was formally cancelled in 1977, leaving its industrial operation to stop three years later. A number of causes had been cited for its failure, together with VFW’s allegations that Fokker centered its gross sales efforts by itself merchandise to the exclusion of the VFW-614, the German plane producer’s ten-year later look, the unsuitability of it for Lufthansa’s routes, and its excessive operational prices.
Article Sources:
Dassault Aviation Web site.
Hardy, Michael. World Civil Plane since 1945. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1979.
Morgenstern, Karl, und Simberger, Gert. VFW-614: Die abenteuerliche Geschichte des ersten deutschen Duesenverkehrsflugzeug. Muenchen: Wilhelm Goldman Verlag, 1977.
Stroud, John. Soviet Transport Plane since 1945. London: Putnam and Firm, Ltd., 1968.
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Source by Robert Waldvogel