The role of market research, as applied to the military side of the aircraft industry, is beset by various difficulties, but before discussing these it is essential to consider the reasons for which it should play an important part among the management tools of the industry. In other words, why market research? Too often the term is applied to desperate attempts to find a market of some sort for an aircraft built for the British Services, at a time when production for home consumption is coming to an end. Too often the answer has been “no good”, generally for one of two reasons. Either the aircraft, as initially conceived for the RAF or Royal Navy, has been too sophisticated and hence too expensive for foreign Air Forces, or else the British re-equipment cycle has been out of phase with the rest of the world. There is a widespread belief among people who should know better, that there is a mystique about selling military aircraft. It is true that it is not easy, but the basic conditions for a sale are similar to those for any product, i.e. that the product should meet the demands of the customer in terms of requirement and timescale.

Students of history or economics would not be in any way surprised to read this quotation, declaring it to be nothing more than a visionary's warning and the often characteristic habit of history repeating itself, since the words seem more fitting to the problems facing the country today than in the grim early 1930s when the whole world was suffering from a serious trade recession. Although increased efficiency, on the lines suggested by Sir Henry, would no doubt have alleviated this country's problems, it is most doubtful whether under such adverse world conditions it would have been sufficient by itself.

The early papers given in this symposium, dealing with Civil and Military Market Research, form the basis for identification of possible new projects. The last paper to be given today, dealing with Value Analysis, deals with the subject of meeting design, manufacturing and quality requirements for a given cost.

The object of this paper is to deal with one important aspect of the process that takes place between completion of recommendations from Market Research and the setting up and control process in Value Analysis. To give some idea of the activities that take place between phases involving Market Research and Value Analysis, the flow chart of Fig. 1 has been prepared showing the interrelation between technical, manufacturing and economic appraisals.

KLM Noordzee Helikopters exists primarily to serve North Sea oil rigs. The service is available on a 24-hr basis without restrictions. The main base of the company is situated at Schiphol Airport.

In the Netherlands helicopters are not permitted to fly VMC at night, while VMC at day is often not possible because the cloudbase over land, except for a few low flying routes, has to be over 1000 ft.

So our company was from the start of operations committed to instrument flying with helicopters as the weather in the Netherlands is usually very bad in the wintertime, which lasts for 6-8 months.