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Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 2/98 FLA IS READY FOR TAKE-OFF, SAYS INDUSTRY by Karl Schwarz The industry is ready: The start of the so called pre-launch activities "...only depends on the clarification of the financing", the participating companies announced at the end of November during a meeting of the policy group to the potential FLA customers. The question where the necessary $90 million for the pre-launch phase (estimated to last one year) will come from, in the view of the Airbus Military Company (AMC), has to be hammered out in talks between the partner companies and their respective national governments. The discussion in Germany continues, the defence ministry, so far, strictly expecting the industry to work out its offer at its own risk. This means that Dasa would need to use its own funds for the new military transport aircraft. As soon as there is a satisfactory financial agreement, AMC will be founded as an independent company in the form of a Sociéte par Actions Simplifiées. Airbus Industrie itself will be the majority shareholder. The rest of the capital will be shared by Aérospatiale, Alenia, British Aerospace, CASA, Dasa and Turkish Aerospace Industries in relation to the individual prospective orders of the respective countries. FLABEL is earmarked as an associated partner while Portugal is currently not included. As of now, there is a demand for 288 aircraft: 12 for Belgium 75 for Germany 50 for France 45 for Great Britain 44 for Italy 36 for Spain 26 for Turkey. Assuming AMC is formally established at the beginning of 1998, the requests for proposals, which unofficially already exist, could be presented very quickly and officially to the contractors. This optimistic scenario would allow the start of the pre-launch activities as early as February. While some details must still be clarified, the industry has already agreed on the main work shares. The goal of the pre-launch activity phase is to determine the technical definition as far as possible to be able to present concrete offers to the interested parties at the beginning of 1999. The subsequent negotiations about detailed contracts, which would be similar to airliner sales, could be finalized during the remainder of the year. This schedule would make it possible to first fly the FLA in 2003 with first deliveries following in 2005. These dates are approximately one year behind the schedule that was announced in spring of last year. In spite of the experiences with the very slow decision-making process of the governments, Airbus Industrie is confident that this time around the pre-launch activities will have a successful start. "We are in a much better position than ever", was heard from Toulouse at the beginning of December. Furthermore, that even the "...most recent political initiative to combine the FLA and An-70 programs" would not change that. "Currently, this is not very likely due to the differences in the technological and financial goals of the organizations involved", AMC stated. Furthermore: "Some of the FLA nations will continue to watch the progress of the An-70 program. However, this will not affect the FLA's pre-launch activities." From page 51 of FLUG REVUE 2/98 Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 2/98 Copyright 1998 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated January 9, 1998 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany