GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES
Joint venture signals first challenge to Boeing-developed modification programme
A new cargo conversion programme for the Boeing 757-200 is set to get under way later this year with modification of the first aircraft in Arizona.
The project has been developed by Precision Conversions, a joint venture formed last September by Wagner Aeronautical and the Erickson Group. Aviation Management Systems of Goodyear, Arizona, has been recruited to help modify and certificate the first conversion.
The venture plans to design, engineer, manufacture, certificate and install 757 cargo conversions under a multiple use supplemental type certificate. Precision is refining and validating a finite element model to provide a design basis for the conversion. Work on the first aircraft is due to start around October, with flight tests at "about the end of the second quarter of 2003", says Precision vice-president marketing and sales Brian McCarthy.
The programme represents the first competition for the Boeing-developed 757-200 Special Freighter conversion launched for DHL International in 1999, and builds on the growing availability of used aircraft with residual values sufficiently low to make the conversion viable. The recent addition of 33 US Airways 757s for sale or lease has doubled the fleet of conversion candidates, says McCarthy.
Although Precision has yet to secure a launch order, McCarthy says: "We have several proposals in place." By the time the first converted aircraft flies in mid-2003, he adds: "We would expect to have aircraft in work and maybe even one or two follow-on aircraft accomplished by the end of next year."
The conversion will feature a large side cargo-door and 15 main deck cargo positions. Preliminary payload/range specifications include a maximum zero fuel weight of 83,540kg (184,000lb), and a maximum take-off weight of 108,960kg. Range with a payload of up to 30,400kg would be around 4,625km (2,500nm).
Source: Flight International
