Short-to-Medium Haul
From Caravelle to 737 The elegant rear-engined French twin-jet Caravelle had opened that market to jetliners already in 1959. It was conceived by Pierre Sartre originally with 3 turbojet engines, developed at Rickenbach in the French occupation zone of Germany under designer Hermann Oestrich from BMW. The elegant nose of the Comet was chosen. Finally the triple-engined Boeing 727, introduced in 1964, proved more efficient. The Hawker Siddeley HS.121 “Trident” of 1962, despite its advanced technology, was confined almost entirely to its Commonwealth users - and China. It got the first ones via Pakistan, “almost certainly a straight swop for a squadron of Chinese MiG-19s for the Pakistan Air Force” (R.E.G. Davies: Airlines of Asia). The rear-engined twin DC-9 of 1965 with all the MD derivatives (the last being the MD-95, delivered as Boeing 717) and the twin Boeing 737 of 1968, first introduced by Lufthansa, became standard. Initially intended as a rear-engined design, it was changed to under-wing engine pods, more safe and for passengers less noisy. The twin-jet BAC.111 of 1965, the famous “One-Eleven”, though being a short-to-medium range jetliner, had the quality of an older regional jet. Nevertheless for many airlines outside North America or Europe the One-Eleven meant the start into the jet age. In Romania it was assembled as Rombac 560, employed by Tarom and its subsidiary LAR, showing Ceausescu’s ambitions. The French Mercure 100, designed by Avions Marcel Dassault, famous for the Mirage jet fighters, came too late. It was used by Air Inter only. The bigger Mercure 200, studied by Dassault and McDonnell-Douglas, was never built. World’s most successful jetliners became the steadily upgraded Boeing 737 in all its versions, then characterized by ‘winglets’ (it survived the much newer 757!) and the A320 with its derivatives (see the chapter Airbus). Developing those aircraft “families” became the cornerstone for commercial success. They were adapted even for some trans-oceanic range and they left the full size turboprop airliner without any chance.
Tupolev In the Soviet bloc the Tupolev Tu-134 of 1967, like the DC-9 a rear-engined twin, and then the triple-engined Tu-154, introduced in 1972, became the standard short-to-medium haul jetliners. An enlarged Tu-164 was not realized. Regional Jets RJs had been in the beginning an evolution from small turboprops and therefore initially they were not comparable to Boeing or Douglas jets. Examples are the Fokker 28 of 1967 or the Yakovlev Yak-40, introduced first by Aeroflot in 1968. The German VFW 614 with engines above the wing was very uncommon, acquired in 1974 only by Cimber Air. Completion of the British Aerospace BAe146 or Avro RJ100, shoulder-winged with 4 engines for a short airfield performance, was delayed until 1981. With the Yak-42, the Fokker 100 and the smaller Fokker 70, the Canadair Regional Jet CRJ series and the Embraer EMB series the struggle continued. Development led to more economic larger types, just below the size of standard aircraft – see the chapter New Narrowbodies.
Propfan? A rebirth of the full-size “prop” aircraft in a new layout under the designation propfan had been announced in the 1980s, and McDonnell Douglas as well as Boeing invested a lot of money in these developments. “The killer of the A320” however got no preliminary orders, no carrier wanted to become a “prop airline”. Conventional turboprop technology remained confined to small regional aircraft, infamous for their safety lack during the initial crash series of the ATR-42. The share of turboprops flying for European regional carriers, in 1996 still c.75%, had dropped to 45%. |