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Aviation History
1982
1982 - 2406.PDF
AVIONICS Computer aids range safety Britain's Royal Aircraft Es tablishment (RAE) is now using a Ferranti computer to improve safety and flexi bility at its missile test range off South Wales. The key to the system is a display which surrounds the missile with a rectangle, showing where debris would land in the event of a break-up. This re duces the area of sea which has to be free from obstruc tion for a test firing to take place. The system, dubbed Bupia for break-up predicted im pact area, was supplied un der a 1978 contract for £3 million. Both Ferranti and the RAE, which initiated the concept, are marketing Bupia overseas. Hitherto, the RAE had to ensure that most of Car digan Bay—an area of up to 1,000 square miles—was com pletely clear of pleasure boats and fishing vessels, and was in danger of being constrained severely by oil and gas exploration plat forms. The poor weather in the region often means that there are only a few short windows of missile-launching time each week at the Aber- porth range, and these are often useless if ships are in the area. With Bupia, a smaller area covering the missile's ex pected track and impact area is kept clear, and a few ves sels can be in the immediate surrounding area during a firing. As the missile pro gresses out into the bay, the Bupia rectangle is adjusted to show the hazardous area. If the missile veers off course due to guidance failure, it does not have to be des troyed unless the rectangle approaches a vessel or leaves the firing range. This gives more opportunity for evalua ting the failure before the missile is destroyed. Destruc tion is radio-controlled and can be performed manually or automatically. The missile is broken into two parts which are tracked and tele metered right up to impact —acting as a useful check on Bupia's accuracy. The RAE uses radars and Kine-theodolites to track its missiles. The FM1600E com puter takes account of mis sile position, direction of travel, altitude, speed, and wind velocity, in calculating the Bupia rectangle, and leaves a margin for tracking errors. The operator can de fine a three - dimensional boundary outside which the missile will automatically be broken up, and break-up will occur if the rectangle is close to a ship. He can call up on his display coasts, buoys, targets, ships, airways, and the range boundaries. The position of the target— often towed behind a Jin- divik drone—is traced out as well as the missile posi tion, replacing manual plot ting. Bupia can cop_e with two simultaneous missile firings. It also can record and play back firings for later investigations. Thomson-CSF will supply an air combat simulator like this to the Centre d'Experimentation Aeriennes. The simulator will reproduce a Mirage Fl or 2000 cockpit, and is due to enter service in 1984. One pilot will be accommodated initially, but a second will later~-allow pilot-to-pilot combat The joint surveillance system (JSS) collates inputs from military radar consoles such as these, to detect unidentified aircraft in VS airspace. Hughes Aircraft has just begun trials of its JSS equipment at Tyndall AFB, Florida TWA first with two-crew 767 simulator CRAWLEY TWA has begun training its pilots in a two-crew 767 simulator, the first airline in the world to do so. Rediffu- sion built the simulator at its Crawley factory, where TWA began using it operationally early last week. The simula tor will remain at Crawley until April "~xt year, when it will be transplanted to TWA's Kansas City base. This unusual arrangement means that TWA can conduct pilot-conversion on the simu lator, allowing the six 767s that are due to be delivered between November and January to go straight into service. Rediffusion com pleted the simulator three months ahead of schedule, and has won FAA Phase Ila approval for it. The simula tor features four-window Novoview SP1 visual displays, and will be upgraded to Phase n after flight-test data is available. TWA expects to convert more than 100 flightcrew dur ing initial training at Craw ley. The simulator will be in use up to 18hr a day. Hughes tests radar net Hughes Aircraft has begun operational tests of a new joint surveillance system (JSS) at Tyndall AFB, Florida. JSS combines inputs from USAF, ATC, and Cana dian radars, allowing auto-., matic detection of aircraft as far out as 200 miles beyond North America's borders. Fighters would be scrambled to check on unidentified air craft shown up by the net work. Tyndall is one of eight JSS centres in the $200 million net. JSS replaces the 1950s vintage sage/Buic, and will be fully operational in 1984. It is expected to save $100 million a year and employ 5,000 fewer people. 2174 Eastern puts 757 to work Eastern Airlines has become the first operator to train pilots on a 757 simulator. The CAB Electronics-buHt machine left Montreal in August, and entered service at Eastern's Miami base early this month. Eastern is due to take delivery of its first Boeing 757 in December. FLIGHT International, 23 October 1982
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