FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1868.PDF
982 FLIGHT, 28 December 1961 SYSTEM SURVEY The Fokker electronics centre recently completed at Schiphol for the testing of F-I04G radar, navigation, attack and flight control systems. In foreground is the radar reflector tower for NASARR Fokker's F-104G Electronics Centre THE F-104G production programme, the largest military ventureFokker have ever undertaken—they make wings, tail, tanks, radome and certain cover panels, and assemble and flight test theaircraft—has involved the building of a nine-storey electronics centre at the Schipol factory. The building was completed in lessthan a year and is now occupied by some 42 Fokker electronics engineers and 13 representatives of electronics suppliers. The numberof representatives will increase in due course to at least J20. The complete F-104G radar, navigation, flight control andweapons systems are prepared and tested in the building, using techniques and equipment which, Fokker say, will keep them in theforefront of electronics technology. There is a standards laboratory for calibrating the extensive semi-automatic test equipment, whichis in turn used to run and prove all the varied components. At a ceremony shortly before Christmas, the Netherlands DefenceMinister formally opened the centre by remote control, observed by closed-circuit television. Also by TV, those present were then shown some of the testoperations in progress. The Litton inertial platform was tilted on a test table mounted on piles sunk 30ft into the ground beneaththe building. Meanwhile the adapter was plugged-in to the test console. Flight control system accelerometers and force-sensingpilot's hand-grip were shown under test. The complete NASARR 15A radar was operated in its eighth-floor laboratory, beingcalibrated against " false echoes" returned by a wooden tower outside the window and fed with all its external inputs from a six-baysimulator. The tower must be at least 25ft above the tallest object in the neighbourhood: it is 100ft high at Schiphol. All radio boxeswere systematically checked. Test equipment was mainly housed in two- and three-bay electronic cabinets. In the factory itself a two-bay, mobile cabinet was being used for checking all the wiring circuits in the aircraft under tape-controlled programme with auto-matic print-out of results. The equipment was made by California Technical Industries of Belmont, Cal. Pre-flight checking and calibration certainly involves a surprisingamount of test equipment of very high accuracy, and it is hard to believe that so much operational equipment can be stowed in theaircraft itself. Belfast Flight Deck FOR the first time, the flight deck layout of a new aircraft—theShort Belfast—has been designed to meet, without modification, the civil ARB and the MoA military requirements for controllayout and equipment. Principal problem was the reconciliation of the different degrees of pilot visibility, and much careful workwas needed to arrange the shape and size of the windows and the relationship of the pilot to them. The final flight deck has now beenincorporated in the mock-up at Belfast and is illustrated here. Smiths Autoland and its associated instruments are included,it being arranged that all related control panels shall be operated by the flight engineer from his jump-seat. They are located on thecentral console for this purpose. By this means, the pilots will be as little as possible distracted from flying. Rank Cintel Peep eye-level presentation is provided for the captain, the tilted glass screen being just above the coaming, with the c.r.t. unit at an angle withinthe coaming. By day, the pattern will be projected in green, but orange can be used at night, together with automatic brightnesscontrol to take account of changing light conditions. "System control" has been applied to the flight engineer'scontrol panels, each different aircraft system being displayed pic- torially on a separate control panel and warning lights beinglocated to give immediate indication of the area which has failed. Noteworthy features marked on the instrument panels of themock-up are a " taximeter," a low-speed a.s.i. for use while taxying; an aileron emergency-disengage handle low on the left wall; aground-run predictor for take-off, the dial being located to the left of the main blind-flying panel; separate Tacan range and bearingdials; VHF nav receiver: transponder; UHF and HF radios; a large Doppler navigation computer; and control-position indicatorsacross the centre of the coaming. The Short Belfast's flight deck is now approved by ARB and the MoA for both civil and mili- tary use—the first occasion of such joint clearance. Fea- tures include Rank Peep screen above the captain's instru- ments, Smiths auto- matic landing flight control and instru- ments, a ground-run predictor for take- off, low-speed a.s.i. for taxying, control- position indicators in the coaming, advanced Doppler, VHF nav and Tacan, search radar and transponder
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
