Britcraft Jetprop: Whose Sale is it Anyhow? 1

Britcraft Jetprop: Whose Sale is it Anyhow? 1

ON 14 APRIL 1992, BOB Lomas, sales administration manager at Brircrafi Civil Aviation (BOA), received a telephone call from Wing Commander Weir, the air attache for the United Kingdom in a European nation. The wing commander had found out that the national air force (KAF) of the European

Ca­se 20: Britcraft Jetprop • 875

nation (hereafter Country) was looking for an aircraft to replace its ageing freight/transport aircraft for intra­Europcan operations. It required equip­ ment to fit between the large Lockheed Hercules that the air force had already decided to buy and lighter, utility/transport aircraft. The air attache thought the Rritcraft Jetprop was a suitable candidate.

Britcraft Aviation Britcraft Aviation is the largest subsidiary owned by Britcraft Group Ltd, a British company with global engineering interests. Before being bought by Britcraft, the BOA was a differently named independent company founded by an aviation pioneer. It had designed and produced many famous military aircrait in the past. Military and executive aircraft were sold by the Briteraft Aviation (BMA) and Britcraft Executive Aviation (BEA), which were not

based at the same site as the civil division. The Jetprop was RCA's top­selling aircraft, but the company was also a big subcontractor to Airbus Industries and Boeing.

Production of the Jetprop started a few years after that of a similar aircraft made by Fokker, a Dutch company that was Brit craft's main competitor. The Britcraft and Fokker aircraft were similar in many ways and used variants of the same engine. After intensive engineering and market

research the Jetprop was designed as a regional airliner, particularly for developing countries. Unlike the Fokker, the Jctprop was a low­winged

aircraft. Besides giving an unobstructed passenger area, Britcraft also claimed this gave its aircraft aerodynamic, structural and maintenance advantages, A primary design objective was for an aircraft that incurred low maintenance eosts and that allowed high utilization by its operators. To achieve this, all components used on auxiliary services were selected for proven reliability, long overhaul life and ease of provisioning. Several import­ ant components were from aircraft already in service.

The aircraft was fully fail­safe. If there should be a failure of any part of the structure, sufficient members were available to allow redirection of loads. This gave a robust aircraft, where any failure due to fatigue developed sufficiently slowly for it to be detected during routine inspection before it became dangerous. To operate in the Third World, the Jetprop needed short

take­off and landing (STOL) performance from semi­prepared runways. Eventually the Jetprop became well known for its outstanding performance

out of hot and high air strips. The company's sales literature explains: The Jetprop represents no great technological 'breakthrough*. It is

instead a classical example of the application of 'state of the art' technology in achieving highly satisfactory performance, reliability and comfort.

The original design objectives remained the main selling features of the aircraft.

Dy 1992 the Jctprop was one of the United Kingdom's most successful commercial aircraft (see Exhibit 20.1), but several new products were now on the market, including a Japanese aircraft very similar to the Jetprop, although significantly larger. Britcraft worked closely with the Japanese during the project stage of this aircraft, hoping to be awarded a large share of the work associated with this venture, but this never occurred. Less competi­ tive, and aimed at the military market, were Russian and Canadian turbo­ prop aircraft and pure jet aircraft from the Netherlands and Germany.

876 • Chapter 20 Personal Selling tint! Sale.­! Management