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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 3261.PDF
STRAIGHT AND LEVEL :'»:. "--*— sj Liii : :• • , . ^____L. What a boring air display crowd . . . (Empire Air Day, Hendon, May 1934, Bristol Bulldogs) CFM International claims to be "world leader in the field of engines for carrier aircraft." The Etendard's Snecma Atar makes short work of Foch's deck, I know, but. . . oh, they mean airliner? The Snecma/GE partner ship has certainly been selling CPM56s like hot cakes for the 737-300 and Super DC-8 and KC-135, but P&W and R-R are still several thousand nozzles ahead. The CFM PRO sets a new trend. The order from Pied mont for CFM56-3s for 39 Boeing 737-300s isn't just worth $450 million but, for French industry, "two years' work for 1,000 persons". The priority art of Western civilisation now is not to make good machines, but how to employ people. • Well done British Airways for adopting the safety brief ing video film. It shows passengers what it's like to go down a slide and put a life- jacket on a child and don an 02 mask. The only problem on my recent 747 departure was that I was head down reading High Life. I didn't realise that the video was on because the WHAT'S NEW SCRUGGS Airmotive has developed what it claims to be the world's first fail safe aircraft undercarriage. Previous undercarriage struts have been designed on safe- life principles—the only component of an aircraft, apart from the pilot, which must be scrapped and renewed on reaching hard time. The new undercarriage will save operators the cost and inconvenience of sudden twangs caused by fatigue cracks which the white-coated inspector with his torch and magnifying glass failed to spot, usually because he became so fed up with management's ignorance of his skills that he took early retirement. A multiple load-path quadruplex mainwheel strut is supported by a multiplex lash- up of old washing lines. Should the system fail for any reason, such as the 10~° probability of the struts and the ropes breaking at the same moment on landing, the aircraft is designed with a flying-boat hull for an emergency alighting on Staines reservoir or the Welsh Harp. (Short Kent beaching gear, Rochester, 1932) . . . Let's liven 'em up a bit.. . (Hawker Hawfinch, George Bulman, Brooklands, 1928) Travel News, November 22 HEADLINE NEWS Miceable eflecl yet on holiday prices. I engines were louder than the PA. By the time I'd got the headphones on the film was nearly over. Pushback check item: PA volume? # The reason why engineers and mechanics have a low status in aviation is their own fault, says airline psychologist Gisele Richardson. "We have found tremendous respect for mechanics, especially among pilots," she says, adding: "The big difference between pilots and engineers is that pilots put their problems 'up front' while engineers just go quiet." Pilot: My knurled flange bracket computer screen is still blank, my good man. Engineer: Uh-uh. Pilot: What do you mean "Uh-uh?" Do you realise that, as captain of this aircraft, I am responsible for the lives of 500 passengers? Engineer: Try switching it on, Buttonpusher. • The investigation of major airliner accidents "requires expert knowledge, sophistica ted facilities, freedom from business interest, and a full publication of all the known facts." Well said G. B. Ratcliffe, president of the UK Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers and Technologists, in a letter to the president of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Icao. Recent accidents, he says, have revealed "an extremely unhealthy nationalistic trend". In short, I think he is saying, that there is too much of "that was our accident— mind your own business". I suppose it's only fair to add that Icao's international accident investigation stan dards are unequalled in any other industry, and the obstruction experienced by investigators is often attri butable to confusion and shock, and to the sudden authority of local officials and police and their laws and customs. An accident inspector has to be a diplomat. In his book Safety is no Accident, Bill Tench, UK chief accidents inspector retired, recalls the foreign magistrate who, according to local law, impounded a crash recorder. Nothing could persuade him to release it until Tench was heard to suggest that if lives were lost in a similar accident tomorrow the magistrate would be entirely responsible. The recorder was on its way to Farnborough the next day. Triumph of graphics over aero dynamics? . . . (Argosy freighter of Elan, Shannon, August 1984) FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 7 December 1985 53
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