Airshow question
This is my last letter on the airshow debate, or else it will drag on and on. Any shrill protester against my opinions can rest assured that any further strident missives directed at me on this topic will go unanswered.
How amusing to learn that some people, having been on a Europe-to-Indonesia Airbus flight, and having read the in-flight magazine while on board, are suddenly experts on aeronautics and the press. Hint: a Mach number is not a flight number and "burden of proof" is not "a proof reader".
Ms. Anne-Marie Tapp (July 17, 1996) believes I can't explain why "a perfectly natural question" from a journalist is anything but that -- perfectly natural. The question involved hypersonic technology.
Hypersonic flight programs are usually manned passenger aircraft flying at Mach 4 to 8 in the upper atmosphere, skirting the edges of outer space. This is the cutting edge of present technology, and research is very expensive. An operable hypersonic aircraft is prohibitively costly for all but the richest nations.
Former President Reagan once called for an "Orient Express" that could fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo in two hours. It is still a dream, even for the U.S., Japan, Russia, and the Europeans. Present research by NASA is still in the wind-tunnel model stage, using a concept called the Waverider, considered an inexpensive way to maintain active research in hypersonics. A planned flight test vehicle will be only seven meters long. No funding decision on a full-sized aircraft has been made.
The main problems are cost and profitability. All leading aircraft makers are concentrating efforts on the subsonic NLA (New Large Aircraft) carrying 600-800 passengers, to replace 747s, instead. Development costs are about US$15 billion. With NASA already committing $13 billion over the next five years to the international space station, where will money for even a second-generation supersonic aircraft, let alone a hypersonic one, come from?
Indonesia, having invested an estimated $1.6-1.8 billion since 1976 in IPTN, still has problems supporting the development of its $650 million N-250 regional turboprop. There have been protests over the fact that funds were diverted from forestry programs. Besides finding the money, we must solve problems of human resource development, overseas competition, foreign certification, and technology in our infant aviation industry. So when a foreign journalist asks: "Will Indonesia venture into hypersonic aircraft?", we surely know that it is not a straight question.
No serious and intelligent aviation writer would ask that. It is not difficult to conclude that the journalist had an ulterior motive. A perfectly normal question? Nonsense.
In closing, I will apologize, Ms. Tapp, for assuming you usually shopped in London. Just out of curiosity, where is it that you actually do your shopping? I do mine in Jakarta and surroundings.
FARID BASKORO
Jakarta