§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland if, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for East Lothian on 27 March, Official Report, column 300, regarding the Fokker F27–200 to be used for fishery surveillance patrols, he will list the owners of the aircraft since 1959 and the type of and location of services for which it was used during that period; what is the estimated remaining life of the aircraft in terms of flying hours in 446W Scottish fishery patrol conditions; what is the anticipated average number of hours per cycle in this service; and to what extent the manufacturer of the aircraft is directly involved in its current overhaul.
§ Mr. John MacKay[pursuant to his reply, Tuesday 5 May 1987]: The F27 was in service as follows:
21 October 1959–31 October 1973 — Trans Australian Airlines.
1 November 1973–14 July 1984—Air Niugini (Air New Guinea) during this period the aircraft was operated and maintained by Trans Australian Airlines.
15 July 1984-to date—Air UK.
Throughout the above periods the aircraft was operated in a public transport passenger carrying role.
The aircraft has about 21,500 cycles remaining in accord with the Fokker maritime structural integrity programme and it is anticipated that the average duration of each cycle on fishery surveillance will be eight hours with up to 400 cycles annually undertaken on fishery patrols, depending on seasonal and other factors.
The manufacturers of the F27 are directly involved in the modifications relating to the enhanced endurance of the aircraft and in providing flight manual amendments. The manufacturers' director of flight testing will be involved in the certification and test flying on completion of the overhaul and modification.
§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the registration index of the Fokker F27 that he is acquiring for fishery surveillance; what will be the cost of changing the registration index; and what the next index will be.
§ Mr. John MacKay[pursuant to his reply, 5 May 1987]: The registration index of the Fokker F27 when the tender acquisition was accepted was G-BLML and will be G-SOFS when acquired by the Secretary of State for Scotland. The cost of the change in registration is £190 and is already contained within the total acquisition price.