Newsdesk – Commercial Aviation

Airbus Industrie has also benefited from a US order with TWA signing a Memorandum of Understanding under which it will place firm orders for 20 twin engined A330-300s with 20 more on option. Included in the deal is the air- line’s night to convert ten of the orders and options to the four engined very long range A340 TWA’s A330s wil seat 301 passengers in three classes and the aircraft will replace Lockheed Tristars and Boeing 747-100s. The order is worth more than $US3 5bn.

The A330/340 programme is now well underway with commitments for 167 aircraft from 13 customers including Lufthansa, which recently confirmed its earlier intentions by contracting for 15 A340s with a further 15 on option. The German flag carrier will use its A340s on the Far East, South American and US routes now operated by DC-10s

Lessons to Be Learned:

The release of the details surrounding two major airline accidents in the United Kingdom has highlighted some thoughts to consider for the future.

The first is the full accident report for the British Airtours Boeing 737-200 which suffered an engine explosion during its takeoff run at Manchester Airport in 1985 Debris from the engine punctured a fuel tank via an access panel which was not as strong as the surrounding skin, causing a fire which destroyed the aircraft on the ground. Of the 137 people on board, 55 died in the conflagration.

The accident report puts the major causes of the fatalities as being passenger incapacitation due to inhalation of the dense toxic smoke within the cabin aggravated by evacuation delays caused by a door malfunction and restricted access to exits. Among the report’s 31 recommendations were a revision of British airworthiness requirements relating 10 ‘unobstructed access to exits in relation to high density seating layouts, independently powe- red public address systems, the fitting of on board water spray/mist fire extinguishing systems at the earliest possible opportunity on all airliners, urgent consideration of the provision of smokehoods or masks to provide protection from toxic fumes and a review of evacuation certification.

UK accident investigators have also called for revised emergency drills for pilots encountering the combination of engine vibration and cockpit fumes reported by the crew of the British Midlands Boeing 737-400 which crashed just short of East Midlands Airport in January this year. Of the 125 people on board, 47 were killed and 74 seriously injured.

In a nutshell, a fan blade on the 737’s port CFM56 engine failed but the crew shut down the good starboard engine. On approach to the airport the damaged port engine lost what power it had remaining. The crew says that there was no indication of problems with the port engine until late in the emergency descent when the captain-too late-ordered the starboard engine restarted. Examination of the air- craft’s systems found that the engine parameters were displayed in the correct left-right sense.

Exactly why both the 737’s pilots incorrectly identified the damaged engine has yet to be determined. It may be some time before the full report is completed. An extensive analysis of the human factors involved will be part of it.

Uhb Faltering?

In a move which might indicate some doubt about the future of the Ultra High Bypass (UHB) unducted proplan powerplant, McDonnell Douglas is considering whether it will offer the IAE V2500 conventional turbofan engine on its MD-90 series of airliners as an alternative to the General Electric GE36 UHB engine which has until now been pro- posed and has been flying as the port engine of a modified MD-80 since 1987.

Customer resistance is given as the reason for MDC’s re-evaluation of the situation, with several major operators informing the company they would be more inclined to order the MD-90 with the V2500 engine. McDonnell Douglas is not intending to offer both powerplants to the airlines and if a decision in favour of the V2500 is made by the end of this year, the first aircraft could be in service by the middle of 1993.

Cathay Select the A330:

Cathay Pacific have ordered 10 A330 twinjets and placed options on a further 10.

All aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce RB211-524L turbofans of up to 70,000lb thrust. Cathay already operate an all RR powered fleet of Lockheed Tristars and Boeing 7478 (refer p. 31 March AA) and will use the new A330s to replace the existing CX Tristar fleet. Deliveries will commence in January of 1995. This is the first time a Rolls-Royce powerplant has been ordered for a member of the growing Airbus Industne family of jetliners. Cathay also has firm orders for 6 747-400s and options on a further 18.

ASTA ON757:

Aerospace Technologies of Australia (ASTA) has won a contract from Boe- ing for the manufacture of composite rudder systems for the 757.

The initial order is for 300 shipsets with deliveries beginning in June 1990 while options could well see the deal extended from there. The potential value of the contract, including options and spares, is approximately $125m ASTA already produces components for Boe- ing aircraft including Krueger flaps for the 747 and in spar nbs for the 757.

Honeywell Tcas for Qantas:

Honeywell’s Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) has been selected by Qantas for its fleet of Boeing 747 and 767 aircraft. In making the selection, Qantas becomes the first international airline based outside the USA to select TCAS equipment.

The $US9m contract includes a Mode S transponder retrofit for the airline’s 747 fleet. Honeywell will provide flat panel displays which combine TCAS traffic and resolution advisories along with vertical speed indication in a single integrated unit as part of the overall system.

Predictions Out the Window:

The booming state of commercial aircraft sales Is well illustrated by the release of Boeing’s latest annual ‘Commercial Market Outlook’ report, a document which makes the predictions of only 12 months earlier look severely underestimated. In fact a 15 year jetliner market $US102bn greater than predicted last year is the central point of the report which suggests that 8,417 jetliners of all types and from all manufacturers will be delivered between 1991 and 2005 at a total value of $US516bn. According to the report, some 70% of these new airliners will be require? to accommodate the anticipated (f growth In traffic, with the remainder destined aircraft going out of service. 0 With the subject of old aircraft on many people’s minds at the moment, it’s

note that the report does not suggest that the replacement of older airliners will accelerate because of current concerns and that maintaining current fleets may be a less expensive op- for many airlines A typical operating life of around 25-28 years is expected. In fact Boeing predictedin last year’s report that between 250 and 300 airliners would be retired in 1968 while largely due to massive growth the actual figure was only 60.

Boeing expects the biggest growth in new aircraft sales to be in the 170 to 240 seat area, a segment of the market now covered by the Boeing 757 and 767 and the Airbus A310 while the short to medium range 350-plus seats category is also set to boom owing to worsen- ing airport congestion.

 Stretched A320 Closer:

A decision by Airbus Industrie to launch a stretched A320 is believed to be imminent following an extensive market survey which reveals a market exists for up to 450 aircraft The 7. 84m stretch will allow 185 passengers to be carried in a two class arrangement and compared to the current A320-200 the aircraft will have its gross weight increased from 162,000lb to 178,600lb, double slotted flaps will be introduced along with a strengthened undercarriage. Range will be around 2,500nm and uprated 28,000lb thrust versions of the current CFM56 and IAE V2500 engines will be offered. The stretched A320 could enter service in 1994.

 Upping the Workers:

In an effort to maintain increased production rates for its 747-400, 737 and 757 airliner programmes, Boeing is “borrowing 670 production line workers from Lockheed for its Everett wide- body’ and Renton’narrowbody production lines.

The Lockheed employees are all experienced in production line and related areas and are expected to remain at Boeing for up to six months. The Renton facility is also to have a $US300m upgrade which will include the addition of a third final assembly building and an expansion of the current 737 final assembly building. At the moment Renton turns out 14 737s and five 757s a month, by the middle of next year this will increase to 17 and 7, respectively

More 707s!:

One jet airliner that established Boeing as the major supplier to the world’s airlines is making a comeback, its numbers increasing despite production of the commercial versions having ended in 1977.

A survey recently conducted by Boeing has revealed that 213707s are currently in service, compared with fewer than 200 in 1987. A total of 725 707s were built for commercial customers from 1958 to which must be added 120 military and government orders. In fact the basic airframe is still in modest production in its military E-3 Early Warning and E-6 USN Tacamo form. In addition Boeing built 154 examples of the shorter range Model 720 and 789 externally similar but structurally different KC-135 tanker/transports for the USAF

Concorde Is 20:

It doesn’t seem like it, but March 2 this year marked the 20th anniversary of the first flight of the BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde supersonic airliner, a remarkable aircraft which routinely performs sustained supersonic flight over long ranges, something which even military aircraft cannot match. A technical triumph of the highest order, 20 Concordes were built including 16 production examples for manufacturers’ trials, British Airways and Air France built on production lines at Filton and Toulouse.

The final example was rolled out in 1979. Since entering service in January 1976, Concordes have carried more than 21 million passengers in some 43,000 revenue flights. The fleet has logged some 135,000 flying hours of which two thirds have been at supersonic speeds. British Airways currently has seven Concordes in service and Air France five with the type planned to operate till at least 2005.

 Airbus Internal Battle:

Plans to establish a second Airbus A320 assembly line at MBB’s Hamburg plant in Germany have caused some ruffles within the organisation, the French element preferring to maintain the sole assembly line for all Airbus products at Toulouse. The issue has now become public, with the media in both countries supporting its own national interest. As a result, Bonn and Paris have set up a study group to discuss the issue with a view to improving Airbus productivity. The move suits both sides as for Germany it keeps the issue alive and from the French point of view it provides a way to keep the matter effectively buried for some time.

 Deregulation Safety:

An airline safety study covering the ten years to 1986 conducted in the USA has revealed that although the chances of being killed on a flight in the USA has decreased markedly, it might have improved even more if deregulation had not been introduced.

The death risk per flight on the major US airlines calculated at one in 11,000,000, a ten fold improvement since the 1960s. Although most of the 19 new airlines to begin operations since deregulation have perfect safety records, collectively their death risk averaged one in 870,000, 12 times the risk of the majors. The study was conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Air Force Centre for Studies and Analyses at the Pentagon.

767 Developments:

Boeing is studying several possible developments of its 767 twin under the general designation 767-X.

One of them involves adding an upper deck to the forward fuselage seating an extra 40 to 50 passengers six abreast in a single aisle arrangement. A powerplant in the 60,000 to 70,000lb thrust range would be required and the idea was recently presented to executives of various Japanese airlines.

Meanwhile, Boeing has proposed a series of modifications to the 757’s takeoff configuration warning systems following several incidents where incorrect flap and slat indications have been given when in fact the surfaces were deployed correctly. The problem has been traced to random, intermittent loss of the signals which indicate the position of the flaps and slats.