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Aviation History
1977
1977 - 0110.PDF
FLIGHT International. If January 1977 This reformed P&W JT8D - 209, giving 2,0001b more thrust than the current JT8D-I7, is being installed for initicl flight trials on one pylon of a Douglas YC-15 AMST proto type .4 UK engine controls for Tu-144 ning Committee meeting, and it is felt at Nato that no major modifica tions will now be made. If agreement can be reached, the alliance's defence ministers will ratify the go-ahead deci sion at a special meeting planned for mid-March. It seems that the United States and Britain will bear the brunt up to 1979, with West Germany then assuming a larger role for the second half of the programme. Canada will also make most of its contribution in the last three years. Fuller details will be published in next week's Flight. Paris DG-10 punitive damages may apply LOS ANGELES Federal Court Judge Manuel Real ruled on January 4 that failure by the courts to permit puni tive damages in wrongful death cases was unconstitutional. The ruling effec tively permits the next of kin of vic tims of the Paris THY DC-10 crash on March 3, 1974, to sue the aircraft manufacturer and the airline for punitive damages. Such damages could be awarded if it could be shown that the defendants were guilty of fraud or malice. Judge Real's ruling is significant in that it is the first upset to the California doctrine that punitive damages may be admissible in cases of injury but are not in cases of death. Lawyers for DC-10 manufacturers McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics have opposed the ruling and have asked for Judge Real's per mission to challenge it in the Appeal Court. As we go to press the judge has not given his permission, but it is not likely to be long delayed since the main liability hearing has been set for January 31. Of the 339 claims for compensation which followed the death of 345 pas sengers and crew in the accident, 245 have been settled at a cost (according to the London Sunday Times) of about $50 million. Families representing 55 of the casualties are involved in cur rent claims. The majority are relatives of a number of Japanese passengers, and there is some doubt whether Californian and Japanese law agree on the valuations of family bread winners. Some compensation claims have so far been settled under the terms of an offer from the aircraft manufac turers (General Dynamics, as the major fuselage sub-contractor, is in volved alongside McDonnell Douglas) and the Turkish airline THY not to contest liability. LUCAS AEROSPACE is developing a digital engine-control system for the Kuznetsov NK-144 engine, four of which power the Russian Tu-144 supersonic airliner. The £10 million contract covers design, development and delivery of a prototype system. The deal has come under fire from elsewhere, notably the US, because of fears that the system will be applic able to the Backfire strategic bomber. The NK-144 almost certainly powers the 100 Backfires now in service. The agreement still awaits British Govern ment ratification, and there are signs that pressure to call it off may come from a number of sources. Chief amongst these are expected to be those people who recall that un licensed production of British aero engines was vital to the post-war de velopment of the Soviet aircraft industry. The hydro-mechanical components of the control system remain a Kuz netsov responsibility, with Lucas delivering only digital hardware and computer programs. A British Govern ment source tells Flight that the main computer will be a Thomson-CSF unit, and that the British digital hard ware will mainly comprise systems based on printed circuits. The system will not incorporate components featuring advanced microprocessor technology, but the system logic is likely to be extremely up-to-date. Flight understands that the com puter programs may assume the use of such advanced sensors as optical pyrometers capable of detecting tem perature overshoots. It also appears that the engine-control system is being required to perform a much more de manding role than that fitted to the Olympus 593s of Concorde. Among the requirements is variable reheat control, needed for the Tu-144 because afterburning is used during the cruise but seen by some as being more appropriate to a military application. The agreement was reached after meetings with Kuznetsov in Britain in 1973 and during visits by Kenneth Wilkinson (then technical director of Rolls-Royce) to the USSR. Flight understands that digital engine-con trol systems were discussed later by former Premier Harold Wilson during talks aimed at increasing British trade with Russia. Earlier Lucas Tu-144 contracts have covered electrical generating sets and constant-speed drive units, and the company's automotive divi sion enjoys a good working relation ship with the Soviet car industry. Shuttle 747 flies THE Nasa Boeing 747 which is to carry the Space Shuttle Orbiter aloft for atmospheric drop tests beginning in September this year has now been fitted with tailplane endplate fins and attachment points on the upper fuse lage. The fully modified aircraft made its first flight on December 16 from Boeing Field, Seattle. The 30min flight was curtailed after the appearance of an oil-pressure warning. The aircraft is due for delivery to Nasa this month. Airline accident FOURTEEN passengers and five crew were killed when a Faucett DC-4 crashed after take-off from Trujillo, Peru, on December 30, 1976. The air craft struck the Andes foothills seven minutes after departure on a scheduled flight to Tarapoto. Business-aircraft accident A LEARJET chartered from Jet Avia of Las Vegas struck the summit of a mountain in the San Bernardino range shortly after departing from Palm Springs for Las Vegas on January 9. All four occupants were killed, in cluding the two crew members and the mother of entertainer Frank Sinatra.
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