Burbank Aeronautical (BAC) has completed flight tests of its Stage 3 Boeing 707 hushkit and expects to receive a supplemental type certificate (STC) by late August. Work has now begun on a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-50/61 kit.
The STC will be obtained by Quiet Skies, a company established by Burbank specifically for the 707 programme. Quiet Skies will then license the STC to BAC II. The STC for the Pratt & Whitney JT3D-powered 707 was originally expected around June 1997, but BAC marketing vice-president Thomas McGuire admits that the programme is "-much bigger when we got into it than we originally anticipated".
As a result of the slippage, the worldwide market of suitable 707 conversions has shrunk by around 40 aircraft and BAC is anxious to make up lost ground and sign up as many operators of the 110 remaining aircraft as it can. Some orders have already been taken for the kit, which costs $3 million per shipset. The first four sets will be delivered this year. BAC aims to install up to three shipsets a month in 1999.
The company expects all of its hushkitted 707s to be capable of operating at maximum gross take-off weights with no payload restrictions. Composite winglets, costing $400,000 per shipset, should be certificated by "early October" according to McGuire.
BAC also plans to begin flight testing a hushkit system for the DC-8-50/61. Work will officially be undertaken by Stage 3 Nacelle (S3N), established in 1998 by Burbank specifically for the DC-8-50/61 market, which is estimated at around 90 aircraft. S3N hopes to maintain "85-90%" parts commonality with the 707 Stage 3 kit, and plans to adapt the winglet.
Initial testing with only the number two engine hushkitted is expected to begin before the end of the year, with full flight tests on all four hushkitted engines scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 1999. An STC is provisionally planned for the second quarter of 1999.
Source: Flight International
