Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH
John Wolf, the recently appointed chief operating officer of Fairchild Dornier, has shaken up the company's regional jet programmes with new management appointments and a review of the company's approach to the 728JET project.
Three new programme managers have been appointed - two of them Wolf's former colleagues from McDonnell Douglas - and a new approach is being considered for risk sharing packages on the 728JET fuselage.
The appointments include new 728JETprogramme manager Jack Pelton, joining Fairchild Dornier from AlliedSignal, having previously worked for Douglas Aircraft on twinjet programmes. The 428JETprogramme manager's post has gone to Stan Deal, who has 12 years' experience at Douglas, most recently on the Boeing 717 programme.
Ed Bavaria, who spent 35 years with General Electric and later worked at Douglas, is to work as a part-time sales consultant "on specific campaigns", while the 328JET programme manager's job has now been passed to Steve Marinshaw, who was at Fairchild Dornier when his predecessor Jim Brown was ousted.
With the management team falling into place, the company plans to push ahead with choosing suppliers and risk sharing partners for the 728JET family this month. The aircraft is scheduled to make its first flight in 2000.
The first decision, expected to be announced by 6 August, is the choice of engine supplier, with the GE CF34-8D believed to have beaten the Pratt & Whitney Canada/Snecma SPW14.
Fairchild Dornier president Jim Robinson says the next decision will be on the wing supplier, allowing engine integration work to begin. Offers on the table include one from Taiwan's Aero Industrial Development (AIDC), with technical support from Dornier to make up for the Taiwanese company's lack of wing experience, against a team led by Northrop Grumman and an offering from Lockheed Martin Aircraft Argentina.
AIDC has also received a new request for proposals from Fairchild Dornier on fuselage work, understood to include centre fuselage barrels and the empennage.
Other potential partners include Aermacchi, which has bid for the cockpit; OGMA of Portugal, which wants to build fuselage barrels; and GKN Westland, bidding for the empennage. Robinson says that two offers have also been received for the entire fuselage, but the manufacturer wants to look at whether it is better to divide the fuselage work into three sections.
Wolf says that the company will opt for a conservative approach to the fly-by-wire flight control system, with a conventional cockpit layout. Control surface movements will be commanded by electrical signals, but without Airbus-style envelope protection. Bids for the flight controls are being considered from teams led by Honeywell, Lear Astronics, Liebherr and Lucas. Robinson says he hopes to reveal all risk sharing partners in early September.
He adds that development cost estimates remain at $850 million for the 70-seat 728JET. With additional costs of $150 million each for the 55-seat 528JET and 90-seat 928JET, including working capital, the overall programme cost is likely to approach $1.5 billion.
Source: Flight International
