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DOMINATING the outside exhibition at Le Bourget was the enormous Antonov An‐225 with the Buran space shuttle on top. Weighing some 600 tonnes and designed to carry loads of up to 250 tonnes, the An‐225 was part of a very extensive Soviet aircraft presence, both on the ground and in the flying display. The only truly new Western airliner was the ATR 72 but many civil and military fixed and rotating‐wing aircraft were making their first appearance at the Paris Show. A variety of products were featured, either with work currently being undertaken or in project form and these were highlighted by the expected launch of the Airbus A321 (stretched A320) and news of turboprop and turbofan regional airliners of around 50 seats to be produced in the next few years. Large engine participation was emphasised by the recently‐named Rolls‐Royce Trent and General Electric announced the development of entirely new engines for use on large twins in the mid‐1990's. Other manufacturers are striving to produce powerplants specifically tailored for the new commuter aircraft. Avionics systems and materials were characterised by new developments, the latter featuring in particular, metal matrix composites.

As part of the V.10 F programme financed by Service Technique de la Production Aeronautique (STPA), AEROSPATIALE and DASSAULT — BREGUET have joined forces to produce a single Falcon 10 wing entirely made of carbon fibre. This wing has just been sent from the AEROSPATIALE Company's Nantes factory to the Toulouse Aernautic Testing Centre. A second wing will also be built, but this time, by DASSAULT‐BREGUET Biarritz plant. The two wings will be used for static fatigue testing. The programme calls for another pair of wings, one to be made by each of the same firms. They will later be mounted to a Falcon 10 for flight testing.

The paper focuses on the evaluation of a light aircraft spin. The main purpose of this paper is to achieve reliable mathematical models of aircraft motion beyond stall conditions to subsequently predict spin properties based on calculation only. Another vitally significant objective is to verify whether the aerodynamic characteristics determined numerically are coherent with the wind tunnel measurements performed on the dynamically scaled aircraft models.

The analysis was carried out for two certified conventional light aircraft. The first part of the investigation is devoted to the verification of the simplified methods used to identify the aircraft recoverability from spinning steady-state turns and estimate the primary post-stall flight parameters. Then, the spin simulations were executed. The computational results were thereafter compared with the in-flight data recordings.

The study confirms the coincidence between the calculated spinning behaviour and the observed aircraft response during the flight tests. The mathematical models of aircraft spatial motion have been found to be credible for predicting spin properties. The simplified methods are reliable to determine the basic spin performance of light aircraft at the preliminary design stage, whereas the spin simulations enable recognition and comprehensive examination of all spin modes.

The outcomes of conducted calculation and comparisons of computational spin properties with flight test recordings have indicated that the qualitative assessment of spinning motion is enabled at each stage of the designing process.

The paper involves the comparison of the computational results with the recordings of spin in-flight tests and the correlation between calculated and experimentally obtained aerodynamics of light aircraft.

This paper reviews the growth of the Brazilian aircraft industry, and evaluates the strategic choices and government policies that have influenced its development. Brazil's goals of military independence, technological development and improvement of its balance of payments have influenced the development path chosen and the requirements for success. Brazil's attempts to overcome the barriers to achieving technological competence, cost competitiveness, market acceptance and financial sustainability are described. It is argued that the government has played a crucial role in providing financial resources and a protected domestic market, but that it has allowed the key enterprise, Embraer, to maintain an emphasis on commercial viability and international competitiveness. Embraer's emphasis on product niches where it has potential competitive advantages has been a key to its success. It is argued that a clear competitive strategy, based on a thorough analysis to the key success factors in the industry, is a vital link between government goals and support and international competitive success.

Invented and manufactured by the French company AHG (Ateliers de la Haute‐Garonne), the MATT rivet has been specially formulated to prolong the life of riveting in thin sheet metals. The original design allows controlled expansion of the head and shank, and most importantly, the head expands into the countersink to ensure a precise interference fit which does not require additional sealants.

This paper aims to deal with the experimental estimation of both longitudinal- and lateral-directional aerodynamic characteristics of a new twin-engine, 11-seat commuter aircraft.

Wind tunnel tests have been conducted on a 1:8.75 scaled model. A modular model (fuselage, wing, nacelle, winglet and tail planes) has been built to analyze both complete aircraft aerodynamic characteristics and mutual effects among components. The model has been also equipped with trailing edge flaps, elevator and rudder control surfaces.

Longitudinal tests have shown the goodness of the aircraft design in terms of aircraft stability, control and trim capabilities at typical clean, take-off and landing conditions. The effects of fuselage, nacelles and winglets on lift, pitching moment and drag coefficients have been investigated. Lateral-directional stability and control characteristics of the complete aircraft and several aircraft component combinations have been tested to estimate the aircraft components’ interactions.

The experimental tests have been performed at a Reynolds number of about 0.6e6, whereas the free-flight Reynolds number range should be between 4.5e6 and 9.5e6. Thus, all the measured data suffer from the Reynolds number scaling effect.

The study provides useful aerodynamic database for P2012 Traveller commuter aircraft.

The paper deals with the experimental investigation of a new general aviation 11-seat commuter aircraft being brought to market by Tecnam Aircraft Industries and it brings some material on applied industrial design in the open literature.

SIMPLICITY is the keynote of the Britten‐Norman Ltd. Islander light transport aircraft. Simple in construction and with simple systems, the whole conception of the aircraft was based on the specific needs of the third level or commuter airlines and the air taxi companies for an economical and efficient aircraft with excellent payload capacity over relatively short distances. The fundamental design philosophy behind the Islander was to bring a new low level of operating cost and the potential of a high level of profitability to short haul air transport. For many years the general trend in aircraft manufacture has been to make transport aircraft larger, faster and more complicated; this has applied just as much to small aircraft for the air taxi or feeder‐line operator as to intercontinental airliners, although perhaps not in quite so dramatic a fashion as occurred with the introduction of the Boeing 747 which presented the airlines with an aircraft having double the capacity of its predecessor. The men behind the Islander, Mr John Britten, C.B.E., and Mr Desmond Norman, C.B.E., Joint Managing Directors of Britten‐Norman Ltd., were convinced of the need for a robust utility aeroplane from their early experiences in operating a scheduled service commuter route in the Cameroons. As they saw it, there was a gap in the market for an aircraft designed to have minimum capital cost per saleable passenger scat on short haul sectors. In keeping with this philosophy the airframe structure had to be simple and designed with the fatigue problems of small aircraft very much in mind. Laminations were to be used extensively for spars, inter‐spar stringers and skin‐plating to cut machining costs and to simplify repairs. A high standard of corrosion proofing was needed to give reliability and for operation in all parts of the world. Ancillary equipment that was already proven and in world‐wide use was specified so that the reliability would be of a high order and spares would be easily available. Low wing loading and a high power to weight ratio were necessary to give S.T.O.L. performance without the use of expensive and sophisticated flaps. A large pay‐load capacity together with a cabin that could be quickly adapted for passengers, freight, ambulance, photographic and geophysical survey, agriculture, parachuting and many other roles were also essential requirements.

The main targets of the work are analysis and simulation of flying laboratory performance. In particular, synthesis of control system for handling qualities change and evaluation in flight are taken into consideration.

Modification of handling qualities is obtained by applying indirect flight control system (FBW). The properties of the optimal controller are calculated through the indirect (implicit) model‐following method. In particular, the modified version based on the computer simulations is used.

Calculation and simulation concern the synthesis of desired handling qualities of the general aviation aircraft PZL‐M20 “Mewa” equipped with indirect (FBW) experimental flight control system. Results of the simulation show that the flying laboratory has the same properties as modeled aircraft, and it is possible to say that handling properties concern attitude orientation of the experimental aircraft is similar to modeled commuter aircraft.

The result of research can be implemented on a project of the flying laboratory based on general aviation aircraft PZL M20 “Mewa”.

The paper presents the practical approach for synthesis of the “Simplified total in flight simulator” performance which can be used for analysis of handling qualities of general aviation aircraft equipped with FBW. Research of this type focuses on military and transport airplanes however, there are no published works in the area of small aircraft so far.

Our report on the Paris Air Show takes the form of an introduction, information on highlights and an overall impression of what is thought to be of most interest to our readership.

Product developers continue to be plagued by the high incidence of new product failure. This monograph presents the results of a two‐phase empirical study designed to shed some light on approaches which might improve the process.Phase I focuses on a large sample of such failures and reveals that industrial product firms suffer from an inward orientation. The main reasons for failure were found to be a lack of understanding of customers, competition and the market environment. A review of the many activities involved on the new product process showed that market oriented activities consistently fared the worst when compared to technical, production and financial evaluation. Finally, a lack of marketing research personnel and skills was thought to have contributed more to industrial product failure than any other resource deficiency.Phase II of the research presents three case histories of exceptionally successful and well‐executed industrial new product ventures. They reveal that the development of new products is a sequential and goal‐oriented process, each stage involving information acquisition activity followed by evaluation and decision. Incremental commitment is identified as an effective route to risk reduction. The case histories demonstrate that market orientation in industrial product development is not only feasible but highly desirable.