Paris 1987: A Review of the 37th Paris Airshow

EUROPEAN aerospace was well to the fore at the Show, with first appearances of the A320, Fokker 100 and BAe 146–300. Few large US aircraft were present although the executive jet market was well represented with products from both sides of the Atlantic. Potential developments were featured in many areas, all of which should be realised in the next few years. Progress of the flight trials of the Airbus Industrie A320 was detailed with three of the four aircraft in the programme now flying. The first of these is exploring all the critical flight conditions. The normal operating envelope was covered on the first flight; from 80 knots to 381 knots/0.89 M and a cg range up to 46% aft cg. Handling qualities have now been explored over the full flight envelope, with the protection devices working as predicted and buffet limits better than forecast. Major tasks have included stall identification and handling qualities at aft cg as well as flutter tests with and without the load alleviation function. The second A320 has the primary tasks of dealing with the development and checking of the systems, emphasis on the third is placed on flight control and computing and the fourth aircraft will be undertaking performance trials.