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Aviation History
1964
1964 - 1422.PDF
ft/'fGriT Internationa/, 7 May 1964 791 MR COPE (BEA) declared forthrightly yes, they did want to employ flight recording if it improved safety or if it improved the economic operation of the airline. To be solvent in the airline business you had to have a reputation for safety and service. He warned, however, that the fitting of a recorder to an aircraft did not make that particular aircraft more safe, in fact it was easy to show that the connection of such a device might make the aircraft less safe. However, he agreed that in the long run it might improve the aircraft and consequently was worth having. Mr Cope continued, "Before anyone waxes eloquent and emotional about safety let us stay sane, simple and sordid. Safety to us is worth all the money in the world and, if maintenance recording can be shown to improve safety, it is certainly worth jevery penny that can be spent on it." On the subject of economic Operation, "Can anyone show us that it improves the economic '^operation of an airline ? There has been more euphemistic fiction Written and spoken about this, by the gentlemen with the order •books in their pockets, than they have ever said about safety. 'Here again, if someone cannot demonstrate to us that it saves Snoney, I can soon write down the figures of what it's going to cost us _io fit and carry this equipment, and this is a very considerable sum ?of money." A number of MoA headquarters staff stated that the Royal Aircraft Establishment was in the process of setting up a working party to study the problem but, although it was obvious that a problem existed and, moreover, that it must be specified before any kind of flight recording system was built, the customers (i.e., the airlines) were the only people who were really able to give this information to the instrument manufacturers. From the tone of the meeting at Cranfield it was obvious that, with one or two exceptions, the instrument industry had perhaps for the first time come to listen to the requirements, rather than to dictate what equipment they thought the airlines ought to have. A significant pointer, perhaps, was the KLM view that flight recording, maintenance and other aspects of operational recording will materialize in the next generation of aircraft. The recorder itself, however, will not assume the significance that it has at the moment; it will be a very small part of a much more complicated system within the aircraft which will consist of computing and self- checking organizations. One thing is clear, however; to be fully integrated with such a system, the recording technique will be digital. M.A.P. The Davall magnetic wire recorder, comprising cassette (fore- ground) and drive unit, provides 200 hours recording time. The cassette measures 6in x 9in x 4in Mr Cope was prepared to believe that the economics might only be true when applied to engines. "We think that if you can forecast a coming engine failure, particularly a turbine engine, and save it before it wrecks itself then you can save an enormous amount of money. But this is only if you can forecast—we don't know that you can. The self-same gentlemen with the bulging pockets have said 'Well now, you never will know until you fit our equipment and produce the evidence for us to show to you it was worth fitting.' Jhis is like saying 'How do you know that you are not going to like jumping off a ten-storey building unless you try?' We are not going |° Jump off a ten-storey building, but we are prepared to jump off a half-storey building." Mr Cope then stressed that simply gathering information was useless. The real problem was digesting the information; the speaker admitted that this was something about which they knew absolutely nothing. The 50-channel system ordered by BEA woulde U3e d for engine analysis, following their belief that you can only save money by saving engines. Saving something like an alternator, ne suggested, was not worth the effort involved. 1 he general discussion produced a number of interesting points, a°rf v wll'cn concerned the simplified approach of recording Go nd No-go conditions. The KLM representatives felt quite strongly lm a>d not reduce the amount of data to be recorded, since it ofa\C?ndit-ions whilst the system was Go that might give indication \ 'o-go in the future; this was the whole object of preventative p irile"ance- Mention was also made of simple engine-life com- v iers being used in this country and the United States as a means educing the amount of recorded data. LECTURE PAPERS Among the papers presented at the main sections of the sympos- ium was Concord—Systems Design and its Effect on Flight Test Instrumentation Requirements by H. Hill of BAC (Filton); this paper was reported extensively in our April 23 issue. Other papers included:— Application of Vector-plotting Technique to Flight Flutter Testing of the Hawker Siddeley Trident by F. P. J. Newton; Flight Flutter Techniques used in France by J. Perrochon; Flight-test Instrument- ation of the VJ 101C-X1 by H. Pornitz-Rumpff; Use of Lasers for Carrier Suitability Testing of Navy Airplanes by R. N. Phillips. Laboratory for Calibrating Fuel Flow Meters for Supersonic Aircraft by D. T. Broadbent; Problems and Uses of Fuel Flow Measurements in Supersonic Aircraft by J. M. Porter; Aerodynamic Requirements for Thrust Measurement in Supersonic Aircraft by D. Williams. Saturn Instrumentation Systems by J. T. Powell; Data Conditioning in the UK-3 Scientific Satellite by G. Herring and D. W. Allen; Free-flight Model Techniques for Aerodynamic Research at Supersonic and Hypersonic Speeds by K. G. Turner; Bioinstrumentation Development at Edwards AFB, 1960-63, by Lt-Col H. R. Bratt; X-15 Flight-test Instrumentation by K. C. Sanderson. Two Decades of Transducer Research by Louis Statham; Differen- tial Pressure Measurement in Sensing Sideslip and Angle of Attack by B. Rogal; Effects of Instumentation Errors on Stability Derivative Measurements by B. R. A. Burns; Flight Test Data Systems by Dr C. H. McKoen; A High-capacity Flight Data Analysis System by S. Allcock. EXHIBITION OF PRODUCTS A comprehensive range of flight test instrumentation equipment was exhibited at the Cranfield meeting by the College of Aero- nautics' and by the following companies: Ampex (Great Britain); Ancillary Developments: B and K Laboratories; Benson-Lehner; British Aircraft Corporation, Filton; Bryans; Colnbrook Instru- ment Development; Bell and Howell; Consolidated Electro- dynamics; S. Davall and Sons: Dobbie Mclnnes (Electronics); Elliott Brothers (London); EMI Electronics; Environmental Equipments; Epsylon Industries; GEC Research Laboratories; Graphic Instruments (Research); Honeywell Controls; King Group; Kodak; Lintronic; Penny and Giles; Research and Engi- neering Controls; Royston Instruments; S. E. Laboratories (Eng); Solartron Electronic Group; Sperry Gyroscope Co; Technical and Research Processes; Teddington Aircraft Controls; and Thermionic Products (Electronics). On show for the first time was the Davall magnetic wire recorder (illustrated on this page) which consists of a fixed drive-unit to which is plugged a replaceable, quick-release cassette. This gives 200hr recording time on high-grade stainless-steel wire; and is claimed to withstand exposure to flames of 800cC for 15min over 50 per cent of its surface, an impact shock at the attachment points of 100g, and a static load of one ton in any direction.
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