Newsdesk – Commercial Aviation

Since the beginning of the 1980s Airbus has seen its order book increase six fold, its production rate treble, and the number of operators of its aircraft quadruple. By the end of 1989, firm orders for Airbus products stood at 1,331 aircraft from 87 customers comprising 597 A300/3108, 540 A320/3218 and 194 A330/340s.

 Boeing’s Record Decade:

Boeing closed its record breaking decade of the 1980s with the delivery of the 749th 747 built, a 747-400 Combi for Lufthansa.

A few days earlier the company completed its final domestic delivery of the decade, a 737-400 for USAir. The 737 was the 1,799th to be built since 1967 and was the 146th of its type to be delivered during 1989. Other Boe- ing deliveries during the year included five 7078, 44 7478, 52 7578 and 37 767s for a total of 283 aircraft, some 40 down on estimates due to a seven week machinists’ strike which began in early October. During the course of the 1980s, Boeing delivered the substantial total of 2,370 jet airliners.

 Ansett/Qantas Maintenance Deal:

Following the awarding of an engineering maintenance contract from Qantas, Ansett Airlines has over the past two months been refitting the interiors of seven Boeing 7678 and performing maintenance C checks (carried out every 3,500 flying hours) on two 7678.

The interior refitting involved refurbishing and modification work including installing a video system and upgrading the business class section. Each aircraft required about 700 manhours to complete, while the ‘C’ check takes about five days per aircraft. The ‘C’ check aircraft are also being fitted with a Honeywell Collision Avoidance System while they are in dock. The contract is worth around $500,000.

Pratt & Whitney News:

Two recent milestones at Pratt & Whitney are good news for the engine manufacturer.

The first is the awarding of 120 minute ETOPS certification (extended twin operations) for the PW2000 turbofan when fitted to the Boeing 757 and the other the winning of a contract worth $US225m from Ansett World Aviation Services (AWAS) for PW4000 engines on the six firm orders and six options the leasing company has placed for Airbus A300-600R airliners.

The PW2000 won its 120 minute approval on the 757 in a shorter time than any other all new large turbofan engine, and since it first appeared on Boeing’s ‘praying mantis’ in 1985 it has won more than half the powerplant orders against the Rolls-Royce RB211. 180 minute certification is the next step and that is scheduled to occur later this year once additional operating hours have been accumulated. AWAS’s PW4000 order is the second the company has placed. In 1988 it signed for six Boeing 767s powered by the PW4000.

777 Getting Closer:

The launch of Boeing’s next airliner, the 777, seems to be moving a little closer following the com- pany’s decision to seek launch orders for the type.

Although its exact specification is subject to change, the 777 (formerly 767-X) is a wide body twin engined airliner broadly in the category of the Airbus A330. Compared to the existing 767, the airliner features an all new and thicker wing with winglets and increased fuel capacity, a wider fuselage capable of seating up to 400 passengers in nine abreast all economy configuration, scaled up tail surfaces and fly-by-wire controls.

The 777’s provisional range is stated as being about 4,220nm (7,800km) with typical load with potential for an extended range 5,800nm (10,700km) version. Pratt & Whit- ney, Rolls-Royce and General Electric have all proposed engines for the 777 in the 70- 80,000lb thrust class.

Safety First:

Some interesting statistics support the fact that flying the world’s airlines is by far the safest means of transportation today, despite the huge upturn in traffic over the past decade.

The world’s airlines are now flying more than one billion passengers per annum fifth of the world’s population – at a fatality rate substantially better than any other means of getting from A to B. Since 1959, transport jet accidents have claimed some 16,380 lives at an average of 546 per annum; in a recent eight month period about 24,000 people died on US roads in alcohol related car accidents while nearly 3,000 die annually on our own road network.

Consider this: based on the statistics, if a person was born on a commercial aircraft in the USA at some time during the 1980s and remained on that aircraft in flight 24 hours a day, he would be 2,300 years old before becoming involved in an aviation accident. Even then he would have a 29% chance of survival. From that we can deduce that we have 30 times more chance of dying of old age than in an aircraft accident. . . insurance companies take note!

 V2500 Survives Vulture:

Air India’s new IAE V2500 powered Airbus A320 fleet received an early test of its engines’ strength last year when a potentially disastrous bird-strike was recorded at 3,500 feet over New Delhi.

The villain of the piece was an Indian white backed vulture (gyps ) which it is estimated weighed 12lb (5. 3kg) and had a wing span of about seven feet (2. 13m) or the same as the engine nacelle’s diameter. Six of the engine’s 22 fan blades needed to be replaced and the aircraft was ready for its next scheduled service. According to the latest available figures (1987), 5,069 passenger air- craft were struck by birds in that year, 1,083 of these hitting the engines. 249 precautionary landings, aborted takeoffs or engine shutdowns resulted.

Sealant Causes Rudder Loss:

Following an investigation by the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) it has been discovered that the inflight break up of British Airways Concorde G-BOAF’s upper rudder en route between Christchurch and Sydneylast April was caused by the application of inadequate sealing after a modification to the rudder’s trailing edge.

The 1. 8 x 1. 5m section of the rudder was lost over the Tasman Sea on descent through 40,000ft. The lack of proper sealing allowed moisture into the rudder’s structure causing corrosion and delamination of the skin from the aluminium honeycomb structure.

The End of an Era:

The world of aviation publishing has reached a turning point in its history with the announcement that after 34 years of distinguished service, John W R Taylor has retired as Editor in Chief of the “bible’, Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft.

He is succeeded by Mark Lambert, the former editor of Interavia Aerospace Review. Ken Munson continues as Deputy Editor and Michael Taylor (John’s son) as Assistant Editor. The current 1989/90 edition of Jane’s is John’s last, and his influence on, dedication to and meticulous attention to detail in the world’s most authoritative aviation publication will not be forgotten.

John will retain his association with Jane’s through his continuing editing of the book’s Soviet Aircraft Section (its uncanny accuracy a feature of Jane’s over the years) as Editor Emeritus. We wish him well.

New Atc Radar:

British Aerospace Australia has signed a contract with Thomson Radar Australia to manufacture RSM-970 Secondary Surveillance radar equipment as part of the CAA’s upgrade of airways facilities. The radars will be built at BAe’s facility at Salisbury, South Australia and will be delivered from January 1991.

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Rudder Trim Modification:

Following at least a dozen reports of incidents caused by inadvertent operation of Boeing 737-300 and -400 rudder trims, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation which has resulted in Boeing offering a fix for the problem.

One incident resulted in the crash of a USAir 737 on takeoff at New York last year, a second involving another USAir aircraft resulted from a flight attendant accidentally switching the rudder trim to full deflection in flight when she rested her foot on the centre console while talking to the crew. The Boeing lost 12,000 feet and nearly entered a roll as a result.

The 737-300 and -400 have a round, three-position electro-mechanical rudder trim switch of a ‘blade’ type on the rear of the centre console and in the event of an engine failure, the system requires holding the switch in either full left or right position and monitoring a scale. As the switch and scale are below and behind the pilots, the action is uncomfortable and requires one crew member to be “head down’ during its operation. Earlier 7378 had a conventional mechanical rudder trim control which required only a simple twist of the wrist to reset it in the event of an engine failure.

In view of all that, Boeing has announced it will introduce a new rudder trim switch knob for new production aircraft and make it available for retrofitting to existing aircraft. The new switch-which will become standard on all new Boeing jetliners-will be in the form of a round bodied knob with finger grips around it, thus minimising the chance of accidental movement by knocking. In addition, a taller protective shield around the knob will be fit- ted to 7378.

A320 Crash Final Report:

The final report on the well documented crash of an Airbus A320 during an unauthorised low and slow airshow flypast at Habsheim in June 1988 has been released.

As was previously indicated, the investigation found no fault with the aircraft and placed the entire blame on the crew by putting themselves into a situation which was beyond their experience and ability to control fully. The report makes mention of the fact that neither pilot had any display flying experience, go around power from flight idle (at an altitude of 30 feet and a speed of 122 knots!) was applied too late, planned crew task sharing was incomplete and neither pilot had experience of applying go around power from flight idle. The captain’s intention had been to overfly the show at 100 feet but at that height the A320’s rate of descent was still 600 feet/min.

More Airbus Work for Hdh:

Hawker de Havilland has been awarded a new $A50m manufacturing contract by Airbus Industrie to produce wingtips and winglets for the A330/340 under subcontract to British Aerospace. The contract was won against competition from several European, US and Asian manufacturers and follows a $A54. 8m contract from Airbus to produce wing in-spar ribs and body fillet fairings. The first ribs were delivered in August last year. The latest contract involves NC milling and the use of composites and will give HdH its first experience with the new aluminium- lithium alloy.

 MLS Money:

The federal government is to provide $2. 104m for the testing and development of the Australian designed and internationally acclaimed Interscan Microwave Landing System (MLS).

Originally developed by the CSIRO, Interscan will be extensively flight tested at Can- berra airport to validate design, maintenance and calibration techniques with a view to capturing a share of the potentially large international market which will emerge during the course of the decade. MLS will replace the current Instrument Landing System (ILS) worldwide by the turn of the century with 20 other locations around Australia also considered potential sites.

Soviet 7478?:

All this glasnost is getting difficult to keep track of.

Hot on the heels of Aeroflot negotiating with Airbus Industrie for the purchase of up to ten A310-300s, comes news of a group of Soviet businessmen hoping to set up a new airline to compete with Aeroflot by purchas- ing five 7478 and up to 20 7678. The group. called ACDA, wants to use the 7478 on routes to Australia, the USA and South-East Asia, although its plan to begin operations next year means it will have to lease aircraft, as new 7478 will not be available for some time.