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Aviation History
1975
1975 - 0657.PDF
FLIGHT International, 10 April 1975 583 CONCORDE BATTLE GOES ON . . . THE Governor of New York State, Mr Hugh Carey, is planning to veto Concorde operations from Kennedy Air port "even under test procedures, unless environmental questions are resolved." (See Flight last week, page 549, for a report on anti-SST groups in New York.) The Governor has instructed the chairman of the Port of New York Authority to this effect, and the PNYA has said that "the present 112EPNdB limit will be upheld." Although the Governor's statement, in a letter to Con gressman Wolff, was widely interpreted as an outright ban, he has left himself able to permit Concorde operations without too violent a change of policy, if British Airways, Air France and the manufacturers can prove to the public inquiry later this month that Concorde can be operated out of Kennedy within the letter of the law—if necessary by avoiding the PNYA's fixed noise monitor. However, on March 31 Concorde received unlooked-for and influential support from The Wall Street Journal, which in a first leader condemned the anti-SST campaign as resembling "something a particularly xenophobic banana republic would attempt against the superior technology of foreign powers." The success of the campaign would "suggest that the US has acquired an unreasonable fear of technology or has become so lacking in self-confidence as to resent a technological challenge from abroad." ... AS NEW PRECONDITIONS SUGGESTED BRITAIN AND FRANCE should agree to develop a new engine for Concorde as a condition for the granting of landing rights in the United States. This is the opinion of Dr Henry Booker, chairman of the US Climatic Impact Committee set up by the National Academies of Sciences and of Engineering. Speaking at a news conference in Washington last week, which had been called to coincide with the presentation of the report of the committee, members said that the problem of pollution in the stratosphere and damage to the ozone layer is not limited to supersonic aircraft, but also applies to subsonic types which fly at altitudes greater than 40,000ft. A major study should immediately be made of ways to design jet engines with a low level of nitrogen oxides in their exhausts. Members of the committee also noted that oxides of sulphur can be a problem. While this hazard can be reduced by allocating low sulphur fuel to high-flying aircraft, it may take ten years and $100 million to develop low-emission engines. The Climatic Impact Committee's report* "Environ mental Impact of Stratosphere Flight" is based on a study carried out last summer and hearings extending over a two-year period and was prepared as advice for the US Department of Transportation. It says that commercial flying in the stratosphere will increase the risk of skin cancer unless new engines are introduced. A fleet of 300- 400 SSTs of the type proposed by Boeing in 1970 would have caused a ten per cent reduction in ozone over the Northern Hemisphere. This would have permitted enough ultra-violet radiation to reach the surface of the earth to raise the incidence of'skin cancer by 20 per cent or more. Regular services by 100 Concordes and Tu-144s might reduce the ozone in the stratosphere by 7a per cent and increase the incidence of skin cancer by about 1-4 per cent, resulting in three new cases of skin cancer per 100,000 of population. The committee noted, however, that these findings were subject to an uncertainty factor of three and the reduction could be as little as one-third or as much as three times the predicted value. (See also article, page 584.) Dr Booker's report makes ten major recommendations: • National and international regulatory authorities should AIR TRANSPORT be alerted to the dangers of damage to the ozone layer. • The level of research into combustors and other engine components should be increased immediately with a view to reducing the level of nitrogen oxide emissions by a factor of ten. • International regulations should be applied to high flying aircraft to prevent undesirable effects. • Studies should be made of the medical effects of changes in the ultra-violet radiation on living organisms and of the causes of skin cancer. • International organisations concerned with atmospheric, biological, medical and aerospace science should pay in creasing attention to studies of the atmosphere. These would pave the way for international regulations covering flight in the stratosphere. • International organisations should monitor any changes in the stratosphere caused by high-flying aircraft. • Nasa and other organisations should study the physics, chemistry and transport phenomena of the atmosphere and note any inadvertent modification. • The level of sulphur in the fuel supplied for aircraft flying in the stratosphere should be covered by inter national regulation. • Nasa should continue its study of the effect of the Space Shuttle on the ozone layer as a matter of priority. • An immediate quantitative assessment should be made of the effects of stable compounds from aerosol sprays and refrigerants. This assessment should include the strato spheric effect of carbon tetrachloride, methylchloride and analogous bromine compounds. *Puiblished toy ,the National Academy of Solences, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington. DC 20418. DoT TO DISCUSS NORTH ATLANTIC CHARTERS OFFICIALS of the US Department of Transportation are due to meet representatives of the industry and the public in Washington tomorrow to discuss the regulation of North Atlantic charter prices. The Civil Aeronautics Board with drew its charter-price "floor" guidelines earlier this year; the DoT, however, still wants the CAB to suspend and reject "non-compensatory" charter rates. The DoT wants to replace the fixed-price floor, which caused problems when the scheduled airlines said it was too low, with the principle that a charter rate will be rejected if it is below the airline's direct operating expense. An airline will only be allowed to file a non-compensatory rate if it must in order to match another airline. If an airline considers that a competitor is offering a below-cost fare it will have to prove its case to the CAB. It is also hoped to improve the procedure for filing North Atlantic charter costs. The move from the floor principle to the compensatory- rate principle is unlikely to appease the non-scheduled carriers, who have always maintained that it is their lower indirect costs—marketing and organisation, for instance— which have allowed them to undercut scheduled operators. A comparison in terms of direct costs will tend to favour the scheduled airlines and their associates, which make more use of larger, more fuel-efficient aircraft and have larger fleets and consequently lower maintenance costs. 747 FLAP FAILURE INVESTIGATED A FAILURE of a roller mechanism which caused a flap section to break away from a British Airways 747 over Toronto late last month is being investigated by British and Canadian authorities, the airline and Boeing. The 26ft inner slat of the port inboard triple-slotted flap failed to lock in place on retraction. As the flaps and undercarriage were extended for landing the airflow caused the slat to break away in two sections.
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