Newsdesk – Commercial Aviation

A330 Flight Testcrash:

A test and development Airbus A330 widebody twinjet crashed at Toulouse Airport on June 30, killing all seven on board. Five were Airbus lndustrie personnel and the remainder Alitalia pilots. Thai Airways has been grounding its fleet of McDonnell Douglas MD-11s on a rotational basis while it sorts out problems with what it has found to be much higher than anticipated operating costs. Four 287 seat MD-11s have been in Thai service since last year, and the airline has found that on particularly routes to Australia the aircraft’s operating expenses are 25% more than the manufacturer predicted. Thai is seeking compensation of 25% of its fuel costs on the route, McDonnell Douglas for its part has agreed to pay 1% compensation. (Brain Wilkes) Quiet Nacelle is involved in other hushkitting programmes including those for the F28, Gulfstream II, DC- 8 and BAC One Eleven, the latter in conjunction with British Aerospace. The A330 was engaged in testing of the autopilot under extreme conditions to meet mandatory certification requirements for all weather Category ill landings with the Pratt & Whitney PW4168 powered version of the airliner. The same tests were carried out previously with the GE powered A330 which is already in service. Telemetry equipment provided immediate reasons for the crash, which occurred 60 seconds after takeoff. The A330 was loaded to maximum aft centre of gravity and immediately after liftoff it was taken to a planned 28 degree angle of attack in order to achieve minimum speed. The autopilot was engaged and a simulated failure of the port engine then induced (by cutting it to idle) and the related hydraulic circuit immobilised. This combination of factors resulted in a loss of lateral control, and although control was regained, the aircraft’s altitude of only 1300ft (400m) was insufficient to recover from before hitting the ground. On board were Nick Warner (Airbus Chief Test Pilot), Michel Cais (A330 Standardisation Manager), Keith Hulse (Airbus Market Analysis Manager), Jean-Pierre Petit (Airbus Flight Test Engineer), Philippe Tournoux (Airbus Operations/Training Manager), and the two Alitalia pilots, Alberto Nassetti and Pier Paolo Racchetti. Fifty-one year old Nick Warner served in the RAF between 1962 and 1975, ending his service career as a test pilot. He joined Airbus as an engineering test pilot in 1985 and was copilot on the A340 first flight in October 1992. He was responsible for a large part of the A320 flight test programme.

London To Sydney Nonstop?:

Airbus lndustrie has proposed developing a variant of its longrange A340 capable of flying extreme long range routes such as Europe to Australia. This super long range airliner is one of a number of A340 developments under study and would be a development of a proposed A340-“8000”, an 8000nm (14,825km) range aircraft. The A340-“8000” itself would be a development of the current A340-200, capable of carrying 260 passengers in three classes on routes of up to 17.5 hours flight time, allowing more non stop services between Europe and Asia and the USA. This range would be achieved by increasing the engine thrust and adding auxiliary underfloor fuel tanks. Configured for 140 passengers in a high yield first and business class configuration with a further additional underfloor tank this aircraft could fly 8500nm (15,750km) or 18.5 hours, which would for the first time ever allow non stop airline services between Europe and Australia. Such a long range aircraft could even include underfloor beds for first class passengers in modules that Airbus has had developed for some years. A full update on Airbus future projects is carried elsewhere in this issue.