Aircraft: Catching the Bus

AIRCRAFT Catching the BusFor months two old competitors have been battling with quiet intensity for one of the richest prizes in aviation history: the potential $15 billion market for the air bus, the oversize subsonic transport expected to be the domestic airline workhorse of the ’70s. Lockheed Aircraft Corp. sprang to an early lead over McDonnell Douglas by unwrapping enticing plans last summer for a model (the L-1011) with twice the passenger capacity of jets currently flying short and medium runs. But last week, as teams from both rivals flew into Manhattan to make their final sales pitches, McDonnell Douglas seemed to have won the world’s first airbus order.

Barring last-minute hitches, American Airlines this week expects to sign a $750 million contract for some 30 to 35 McDonnell Douglas tri-jet DC-10s. Like Lockheed’s airbus contender, the Douglas plane was devised to enable the airlines to fly travelers in economy-size flocks. With traffic growing at a steady 14% a year, the carriers consider air buses their best hope of avoiding menacing traffic jams in the skies between major U.S. cities in the ’70s. Though primarily developed for hauls of 250 to 1,000 miles, the DC-10 will be capable of flying nonstop from coast to coast, carrying 250 to 300 passengers at speeds of around 600 m.p.h.

A Tilt Toward Britain. Still unset tled is the question of who will make the powerful fanjet engines for the DC-10. American Airlines engineers lean toward the British Rolls-Royce RB.211, partly because they expect it to be cheaper as well as quieter than any comparable (33,000-40,000 Ibs. thrust) U.S.-built power plant. The potential drain on the U.S. balance of payments may tip the decision in favor of General Electric’s CF6, which was derived from G.E.’s TF39, designed for Lockheed’s far larger C-5A military transport.

Despite Lockheed’s quick start, McDonnell Douglas is grabbing the first—and possibly decisive—foothold in the 1,000-plane airbus market partly because U.S. airlines are still smarting over the performance of Lockheed’s last commercial transport, the turboprop Electra. In 1959, Electras began coming apart in midair; Lockheed spent $25 million strengthening structural weaknesses, and the plane has performed splendidly ever since. With the American order in hand, Douglas may have a bargaining edge, too, with airlines such as United, Eastern and Delta, which are also shopping for an air bus.

European Delays. Ironically, it was the Europeans who thought up the idea of an air bus—only to fumble away their chances to cash in on it first. Technicians from Scandinavian Airlines broached the notion at the 1963 Paris Air Show. It was four years later when France, Britain and West Germany got together to form a manufacturing consortium to build an air bus. Their ef forts have met with one delay after another, and the British have yet to build even a test model of the RollsRoyce engine that is supposed to power the plane. As matters stand, the Douglas DC-10 should be flying first, probably by late 1970 or early 1971. Airline men expect it to go into regular service by 1972 or 1973.