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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0076.PDF
• 1 . 1 if \ 1 1 tMHMMM ?60 300 - 280- 260 — ?2D ~r • + FS> jaa - 180- 1 1 i 1000 HP —J , J-. - IflJOO SIOOMI" 1 V 00 1 L * * •&;'' • J Boeing's two Design of the Boeing 747 twenty-odd years ago was little influenced by the airlines. Some were appre hensive about the new monster and how they were going to fly and maintain it. Not so with the 747-400, the latest model of the world's biggest airliner. Boeing claims that 14 airlines have influenced design. At the latest count 17 have ordered 116, bringing the total 747 orderbook to 834 for 72 operators. The first 747-400, powered by Pratt & Whitney, flies in March. It will be joined by the second (General Electric) in April and by the third (Rolls-Royce) in June. Certification and deliveries will follow in the first half of next year. By then the Everett production line should be deliv ering 747s of all models including -300s— still on offer—at a rate of between two and three a month. A new 747-400 customer can expect delivery in mid-1990 at.a basic price approaching $120 million. The new model's winglets distinguish it externally from the similarly stretched- upperdeck 737-300. These 6ft carbon- skinned metal-sparred aerofoils, together with 12ft and 150ft2 increases in main wingspan and wing area, and an improved wing-to-body fairing, reduce fuel con sumption per passenger-mile by 7 per cent compared with the -300. The -100 will carry 400-plus passengers more than 7,000 n.m.—1,000 n.m. further than the -300. Compared with the 747-100 of 20 years ago, the new model flies 40 more passengers a further 2,500 n.m. Next week Boeing throws the first double rollout party—for the "400" debutantes of the 747 and 737. Veteran Flight technical duo John Marsden and J. M. Ramsden got there first for this report from Seattle. The main wing and its moving surfaces are much as designed in the 1960s, though they are made of lighter and stronger aluminium alloys (2000 and 7000 series) as used for 757 and 767 wings, saving 5,0001b. Internally, especially on the flightdeck, the 747-400 is new. Engineered to be flown by a two-pilot crew, eliminating the flight engineer, this is a digital-avionics aero plane. The electromechanical instruments of the earlier 747s are replaced by Efis (electronic flight information system) displays. These are on six 8in x 8in glass screens, 15in2 bigger than Airbus screens and half as big again as those of the 757/767. The flight engineer's panel is moved from the starboard side to over the pilots' heads. Other major differences are carbon brakes; digital electronic engine control or "power by wire"; tailplane fuel; PWC auxiliary power unit; greater rudder travel with stronger actuation; plumbing for up 22 to 26 lavatories; crew bunks behind the flightdeck; and a new cabin crew rest area in an aft loft. Flightdeck: One launch customer, Cathy Pacific, originally wanted the standard electromechanical instruments, to avoid retraining. Boeing's initial approach too was "minimum change", but in 1985 other customers, happy with their Airbus and Boeing glass-panelled Efis twins and two- pilot efficiency, pressed for Efis. They formed a consultative group including British Airways, Cathay, KLM, Luft hansa, Northwest, Qantas, and Singapore. As one airline chief engineer puts it: "For years we had all been saying to Boeing 'you must update this aircraft'. Digital avionics and screens have been with us for 20 years, and everyone is happy that you can run passenger aircraft on digits. We are at least three avionics generations downstream from the early 747." In any case the airlines can no longer afford the watchmaker skills required for electromecahnical instruments. They also want to add the new "goodies" which digi tal avionics are always bringing along, like datalink, collision avoidance, 4D naviga tion, and windshear warning. Boeing first responded with the 757/767 flightdeck, keeping the same autopilot. "Minimum change" was still the watch word. The users' committee became a formal body with chairman and minutes, and the Airbus A320 was now influential. Some of the same airlines were buying this all-digital aircraft with sidestick control FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 16 January 1988
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