A320 Enters Ansett Service

When seeing the lighted flight deck of the A320 for the first time, it is tempting to draw analogies with, say, some of the craft portrayed in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The A320 flight deck truly ushers in the future. It is simple, colourful and elegant. The front panel sports only twelve instruments (with the standby artificial horizon looking slightly anachronistic), yet the advanced cathode ray tube displays provide the pilots with a huge amount of information. In the flight regime this encompasses aircraft attitude, altitude and flight level, speed, vertical speed, aircraft’s position, distance and bearing from a station and from thunderstorms – all in two displays.

Similarly, the two centre panel displays of the electronic centralised aircraft monitor (ECAM) will convey to the pilots all engines and aircraft systems information. During a flight, the pilots are kept constantly updated on systems status by means of symbolized displays and written messages on the (ECAM). Data is displayed on the central display units, automatically accord to flight phase or need or manually, as required. Significant items from the messages are retained for subsequent retrieval from the centralised fault display system (CFDS), which of course, lends itself to an attractive maintenance budget.

What about the fly by wire feature? Many feel that this is a rather unfortunate term for something so advanced; the uninitiated, hearing the term for the first time, often think that it means control wires directly connect the control surfaces to the control column.

Airbus prefers the term ‘computer driven fly by wire controls”, because it conveys the concept of computer involvement better. Basically, the computers are subservient to the pilots’ input so long as that input does not subject the aircraft to an overspeed, overstress or stall condition. The digital flight control computers, through their programming and their data sources, represent a major advance in safety by providing full and automatic flight envelope protection. Put in basic terms, if a pilot tried to go outside the envelope with an insistent control input, a point would be reached where the computers would ignore his command status. This fully integrated system, termed the electronic flight control system (EFCS), is achieved through the five main digital computers that drive the A320. These comprise the three spoiler and elevator computers (SEC) and the two elevator and aileron computers (ELAC). In addition, there are also two flight augmentation computers (FAC), plus separate computers for engine control and the flight management systems. One can already see the number of acronyms that the new aircraft attracts. . . apparently there are pages of them! The A320 also has a windshear protection feature – it will automatically climb at full thrust and maximum lift when the sidestick is pulled fully back, or when shear is sensed at a specified angle of attack. Needless to say, such smart technology requires a high level of redundancy, both in back-up computers and alternative power sources; Airbus Industrie is confident that the A320’s redundancy provisions will never be a point of contention.

It is accurate to say that the A320 is a ‘computer airliner’: it was designed using CAD/CAM, not only to achieve an efficient airframe design, but also to create a cabin layout of unrivalled comfort in terms of space (for example, even the economy seats have 18cm more room than the 727s which they are destined to replace). Much of the production is attained through computer controlled automated machinery.

Ansett intends to have all 8 A320s by May 1989. They will replace the aging 727 fleet-seven of the latter have been sold to the US freight giant, Federal Express. Ansett Chairman, Sir Peter Abeles, believes that any airline must constantly renew its fleet to remain competitive. Cost for each A320 in 1988 prices is US$40m with spares. Ansett is confident that the new airliners will quickly pay for themselves (it is claimed that they burn 37% less fuel per seat kilometre than the 727).

But what about this notion of future pilots being ‘systems managers’? Not so, according to the learned. Applied knowledge in aerodynamics, airframes, engines and systems, navigation, meteorology and most importantly is still a must. Only pilots can acquire such information to the required degree by gaining practical experience in more rudimentary aircraft. It is then they can apply their knowledge safely to an advanced airliner like the A320; and, after all, it takes a pilot to fully appreciate just exactly what the A320 does offer.